Thread: thinking back, while heading home to a funeral

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this is a post i felt i had to make. i got a phone call october 13th 2013 that changed my life forever. a very dear to my heart friend and hero had passed away. so i am thinking back to who actually got me into cars and racing. who was the guy or guys you very first saw who lit that spark? who kindled the fire in you and made you all wide eyed over a hot rod, or a race car.

here is what i have to say

here are perhaps 6 people who i have to thank for getting me into cars and drag racing. those names are as follows in no particular order.

virgil sellers
chris denison
ron sellers
chris davis
brett hordeman
and of course my dad.

my dad used to race when i was a little kid and i can fondly remember going to the track almost every weekend it seemed like, running around seeing and hearing the sights and sounds of SRP"spokane raceway park" . and i can fondly remember hanging off the fence when the big boys would run, who to me were the above mentioned names. i always wanted to be just like them when i grow up i used to say. now being 26 it might sound kinda childish to some. but these guys were and still are my heroes. as i got older i learned more of the 60's and those drivers who also became some of my idols. but the above mentioned names are the people i remember watching for the 1st time in my life shake the ground deafen me with noise and make my eyes water with obnoxious fumes of various assorted mixed fuels..... but these are the people i remember seeing and they are the ones who lit my spark for drag racing, and folks once its lit it never goes out. so i am sure chris and virg are sitting up there kicking a beer back talking old times. because i know one things for sure, i sure as hell miss them both. dearly.

chris.jpgchris 4.jpg

Sorry to hear about it Scooter, our condolences to you....

Good to hear from you, even if it is about something sad----------

good to hear from yu as well. been working up here in north dakota work hasnt exactly been steady with my outfit. but going to stick it on out. someday ill have that dragster.

That's an appreciative, respectful sentiment you posted. Thanks. My condolences about your friend hero's passing away.

Originally Posted by gassersrule_196

good to hear from yu as well. been working up here in north dakota work hasnt exactly been steady with my outfit. but going to stick it on out. someday ill have that dragster.

Sorry to hear of your loss. It's good that you're looking back and considering those who were important to you, and I encourage you to let each of them know that you appreciated them then, and that you continue to appreciate them now. I can tell you for sure that it means a lot when someone comes back and says, "Hey, just want to let you know that you made a difference in my life." Kinda puts things in perspective, and makes you realize that little things matter.

Is KU totally out of the question for you now?

Your Families are in our Thoughts and Prayers.
We cry because we miss them, we celebrate them with memories and laughter.

roger, yes it appears so. i have a pretty good career going for me. and i have many things to fall back on if need be. heck to tell you the truth id rather be towing cars way more fun! haha.

yes i called sellers up the day i found out about denison, he had no idea how much he actually changed my life and meant to me then, and still to this day. he was almost taken back by the comment. but was highly appreciative of it.

like i said. these were the guys i saw for the 1st time in my life make thunder down a track. davis had a blown alk front engine dragster still has it now also has a nostalgia flopper, sellers had an alk altered now he tunes and wife drives a alk nostalgia flopper, dennison had the dragster pictured above ran TAD then went top dragster. virgil had both a alk dragster and a wheelstander gotta love em, and hordeman had a TAD back when BBC's could still compete! and some of them even used to put a little pop in the tank for our now long extinct ahra "world finals". rinky track great times.

Sorry to hear about your loss! It sounds like you had great guys to look up to!

My story is a little different.

In 1958 a 5th grade classmate named Steve Harris introduced me to car models and hot rod magazines! We both were artistic, and drawing hot rods endlessly! In 1962 he talked his mom into taking us to the Indy Nationals 90 miles away. That was it for me! I was going to be a drag racer!

During high school I rebuilt my first engine, and painted my first car. A friend, Larry Denison, and I started building a street rod in his dad's barn, with the help of another friend Mike Million. During junior college, my dad met a guy named Wayne Danner, who was building a max-wedge powered Austin gasser. He told dad to send me down! I spent a couple years helping him finish the car.

By the time I was in my early twenties, I was still working on my own Chevy and Vette street cars, but hadn't gotten to a full-time race car. I did however have a friend Jim Cline, who had seen my drawings, and asked me to start painting bikes he was "chopping" then selling. I loved it! Soon another friend, John Russell, saw the bike paint and talked me into custom painting my first customer car... his '56 Vette.

Soon I had a steady part-time business painting, and loved it so much that I changed my "dream" to full time custom painting. I achieved that in 1986!

From there I should start telling you about the people who helped propel me into my art, and then a pro painting career that has lasted over 40 years so far..... but I will stick to the part that hot rods and drag racing played for me.

Steve Harris, Jim Cline, John Russell, and Wayne Danner are all gone now...
and also a few more of my car buddies who helped feed my passion... like my buddies Mike Nance, Dave Howe, and Terry Nourie. They are also gone, and many left way too soon!

How can I only be 65, and have lost so many close friends already? Many never made it to 40! I guess there are no guarantees in life!

God bless 'em all for sharing this crazy passion with me! I hope it enriched their time here too!

What a great thread – thanks for sharing Scooter. Some wonderful follow on posting, i.e., “We cry because we miss them, we celebrate them with memories and laughter.” And, “How can I only be 65, and have lost so many close friends already? Many never made it to 40! I guess there are no guarantees in life! God bless 'em all for sharing this crazy passion with me! I hope it enriched their time here too!”

We’ve all been touched by someone somewhere who pointed us toward cars be it hotrods, paint, building engines, “technical-inspections-of all things-that-go-fast”, etc.

By default, my father fixed nearly everything in our home growing up. When I was a kid I always thought it was just because he was brilliant beyond belief and now I realize that dollars were often times hard to come by. But such was my early exposure to tools and all things mechanical. Dad would often tell me to, “Listen real close and the engine will tell you what’s wrong.” He often used a broomstick and later a stethoscope as an initial diagnostic tool. Dad died in 1995 and there’s not a day goes by I don’t miss him, but I know he’s hanging around a workshop in heaven waiting for me to join him as we’ve still got a lot of stuff to do together.

The loss of a loved one causes us to reflect (as well it should) but hopefully it encourages us to love those we love and perhaps reach out to those we’ve not talked to for a while. We lost Joanie’s mom this past February – day after Joanie and my 40th anniversary. Joanie was with her when she died and there was nothing left unsaid, but we will miss her sorely as she was such a wonderful woman and a real encourager to us. Joanie turned 63 this past Wednesday and as I’ve read this post I have to admit I'm not getting any younger. We need to pursue our passion and not wait too long to do those things we long for as none of us knows when our last breath will be.

I really do enjoy this site – I met few of you face-to-face, but feel close to a great many and plan to meet a few more of you on some road trip coming up real soon!

Regards All,
Glenn

Sorry for your loss. Memories are a great thing, and you can go there anytime you wish.

This is one of the friends that I lost. John Russell This is my house in Illinois about 1974... and the gal is his wife "with child". :-)

I met him when I worked at a Chevy dealership in '67-'69. He was a wrench there.

He saw my paintwork on chopped bikes, and encouraged me to start doing cars by INSISTING I do his '56 Vette.

It had typical graphics for the time... and he left it to me when he passed at age 32 from Diabetes. I eventually painted it the factory red, and actually sold it to his sister when I was struggling financially. I was glad to see it stay in their family.

RIP "Little John" ...and thanks for the great times!

these were some of my words today.

the bond which drag racers, and racers in general experience with one another is not a typical friend-friend bond. its a family bond. we are not "friends" we are family. we share a bond with each other that is so special words cannot describe it. because we race we know the risks and we can appreciate how fragile life really is and i believe this is why we are a much closer group of people then the ordinary. Today was probably one of if not the hardest day of my life. i paid my respects to a brother, a mentor, and a hero. the amount of people who showed up (400) at the memorial service is a testament to the kind of person Chris was, and how many lives he touched. words cannot describe how great a person we have lost. Watching Austin Denison do his first big car fireup was a great moment, his father would have been all smiles and very proud.

i say this with a hole in my heart and a tear in my eye.....

Godspeed, Chris Denison