Reminiscing... 70's & 80's Late Model Wizards

[Jerry Lee]

Originally Posted by Mike511

Jerry, Thanks for the picture of Hershel, do you know where it was at? Looks like either a Speedway Engineering or Stock Car Products chassis.

Mike, that pic of Hershel was taken at Colorado National Speedway in 1974.

McGriff was in town to run the "Denver Invitational 150" at Englewood Speedway at the time. During that race Hershel worked his way through the field to battle with leader Wayne Stallworth, who was driving the Ralph Young owned '73 Mustang. Lap after lap the two battled side-by-side with Stallsworth keeping a slight lead. Suddenly, on lap 96 the transformer at the speedway blew up and caught fire causing the track lights to dim to near darkness. The race was called after a lengthy delay and Stallsworth declared the winner. I later heard that Stallsworth's motor was about to go out anyway. What a wild night of racing that was!

Here's a pic of Stallsworth and McGriff during the battle just before the place went dark.....


(Stallsworth collection)

[kiplin1988]

Some classic stuff these are. I'm almost frightened to say I remember some of it!!

[superstroke]

I am told that Hershel McGriff is still racing the Winston West (or whatever it is referred to today) division.

[Quick Time]

Yes, I just googled him and he is 84, plus still driving. Last June at Sonoma they ran the old Winston West now called Nascar K&N Pro Series West and he started. My hats off to him!!!


Chuck

[Mike511]

Gotta love Hershel, man doing anything at 84, let alone still racing my hats off!!!! Jerry lee thanks for info and picture, great stuff! I vividly remember Ralph's #4, he sold it to Frank Thompson in CO Spr and he put among others Vaugh Ager and Ronney McDowell in it and was very successful, quite a car.

[Mike511]

Here's a couple pictures of Tom Reffner #88 at one of the CSIS open comps late 70's. Think he won it but the local guys gave him a run for his money. Think his car was a Bemco (think that's correct) chassis if I remember correctly, pretty radical chassis for that era. 96 Rudy Gish (I think), 711 Dick Hiekes, 89 Bob Howard, 80 Ray Daniels 119 Ronny McDowell and that might be Fritz Wilson without the hood on the outside? Anyone got any additional pictures of any of these open comp races at CSIS/Saugas/Bakersfield/Craig Road, which was a nice series that ran late 70's and drew many of the top late models of the day?

[nitro4dave]

regarding the 88. wasn't there a group of the asa guys in this time frame running the "knight" theme? i "thought" i remembered mike eddy as the 88 car, i "think" bob senneker as the 99 and one other that ran the double digit and that they all had colors to go along with their monikers. i.e. the black, blue or whatever color ........knight???? correct me if i'm wrong, my memory ain't what it used to be, but i can still go toe to toe with superstroke keeping our great nation free of the risk of a beer going past its expiration date!!

[Mike511]

Good point Nitro, All were sponsored by Super America I think, Reffner, 88 was the Blue Knight, Trickle, 99 was the White knight and there was a Black Knight, need some help here can't remember his name and number, he wasn't as popular.

[superstroke]

I Googled it and the 3rd driver name was Johnny Boegeman. I remember seeing Reffner and Trickle at CSIS, but not this guy. Those races were held in October if I am not mistaken and were called the Fall Classic. It got really cold and myself, Jim Brown and a few other Lakeside cats would go down for that race. Sometimes we took Jim Browns late model down...sometimes not. We always slept in sleeping bags. Before bedding down,we would drink Coors until the last remaining brain cell surrendered. There were some 55 gallon drums in the parking lot and we would find wood or anything else that would burn to stay warm. This included dismatling a make-do bridge that the track had built. I remember when Larry Detjens was killed and they ran one lap of the trophy dash with the bubble car empty.....that made the hair stand up on my neck. Another weird day at CSIS was when a car left the track and collided with a wrecker in the north turn. From what I remember, some guy was on the back of the wrecker watching the races and the car hit the front of the wrecker and continued toward the rear of the wrecker. The guy panicked and tried to jump off the back, but ended up landing either on the car or under it.

[83x]

The Black Knight was Johnny Boegemann #61. He never had the success Reffner and Trickle had. Here's a pic in front of Bemco's shop.