Jerry Lee
07-21-2009, 04:48 PM
I stumbled across this bit of tape at the end of another interview I had somehow recorded over this one. Are you with me so far?
I remember talking to Roy Jackson about his '76 Late Model championship at Englewood among other things in 1997, but that portion of the tape is now lost to history. What did survive was this short bit about Roy's start in a Figure 8 at, strangely enough, Lakeside Speedway.
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JL: "So you said you had humble beginnings driving a Figure 8?"
RJ: "Yeah, at Lakeside, that's how I started. The Figure 8's were going real wild at Englewood, and Elmer Sauer the president at the time decided to try it. That's the first time I ever drove anything out there."
JL: "Really?"
RJ: "Yeah, I had an old '49 Ford, they were just old Late Models, and I brought it out to race and they changed it to this 8 thing. I'd never seen a Figure 8 race before and I drove it!"
JL: "What was that like on that little 1/5 mile bullring?"
RJ: "(laughs) Oh, it was a lot of fun! Whatever you could imagine! We went through the dirt, there was no asphalt on the X. It seemed like we had run four or five races on the oval that year, and four or five on the 8. That dirt infield kicked up a lot of dust! (laughs)"
JL: "Did you ever get drilled in the X?"
RJ: "Oh.....a few times. Not real hard y'know, we couldn't get up that much speed."
JL: "So what became of the 8's at Lakeside?"
RJ: "We just ran 'em that one year because it was tearing the track up. The cars were digging out the dirt at the end of the track about a foot and a half every time we raced! You couldn't hit the curves. Plus, there was so much dirt flying around that nobody could see!"
JL: "And then you ran coupes out there as well."
RJ: "Yeah, we ran Modifieds at Lakeside. Arnold Wallace built 'em. We started out in the B class, but eventually we were running with the A class cars."
JL: "You guys really went through some cars to get that Late Model championship in '76."
RJ: "Oh yeah, we were wiping 'em out, blowing motors. I think even our personal cars all broke down that year! (laughs)"
JL: "Sounds like you really sacrificed a lot that season."
RJ: "(laughs) We sure did."
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I remember talking to Roy Jackson about his '76 Late Model championship at Englewood among other things in 1997, but that portion of the tape is now lost to history. What did survive was this short bit about Roy's start in a Figure 8 at, strangely enough, Lakeside Speedway.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
JL: "So you said you had humble beginnings driving a Figure 8?"
RJ: "Yeah, at Lakeside, that's how I started. The Figure 8's were going real wild at Englewood, and Elmer Sauer the president at the time decided to try it. That's the first time I ever drove anything out there."
JL: "Really?"
RJ: "Yeah, I had an old '49 Ford, they were just old Late Models, and I brought it out to race and they changed it to this 8 thing. I'd never seen a Figure 8 race before and I drove it!"
JL: "What was that like on that little 1/5 mile bullring?"
RJ: "(laughs) Oh, it was a lot of fun! Whatever you could imagine! We went through the dirt, there was no asphalt on the X. It seemed like we had run four or five races on the oval that year, and four or five on the 8. That dirt infield kicked up a lot of dust! (laughs)"
JL: "Did you ever get drilled in the X?"
RJ: "Oh.....a few times. Not real hard y'know, we couldn't get up that much speed."
JL: "So what became of the 8's at Lakeside?"
RJ: "We just ran 'em that one year because it was tearing the track up. The cars were digging out the dirt at the end of the track about a foot and a half every time we raced! You couldn't hit the curves. Plus, there was so much dirt flying around that nobody could see!"
JL: "And then you ran coupes out there as well."
RJ: "Yeah, we ran Modifieds at Lakeside. Arnold Wallace built 'em. We started out in the B class, but eventually we were running with the A class cars."
JL: "You guys really went through some cars to get that Late Model championship in '76."
RJ: "Oh yeah, we were wiping 'em out, blowing motors. I think even our personal cars all broke down that year! (laughs)"
JL: "Sounds like you really sacrificed a lot that season."
RJ: "(laughs) We sure did."
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