BillyTKidd
Joined: 5-23-2007
City: Thun, Switzerland
Posts: 1317
My Favorite Dirt Legend Gerald Chamberlain
4/23/2009 8:34 AM
A Great Piece On Reading's 1978 Daniel Boon 200
Here are some excerpts

That evening, we went to the Speedway early to watch the cars and drivers arrive for some hot laps. As the first car arrived, I went into sensory overload! There's the Norcia Bros. 81 that Sammy Beavers drives! Look , there's Lou 'the Monk' Lazarro's #4 from New York! Here comes Frankie Schneider towing his red and white #2 himself !

For those who have never seen a dirt modified circa 1978, they were perhaps the nastiest, bad to the bone race cars ever! Sometimes called a "Heavy", as in heavy sprint car, these were open wheel cars with a cut down Falcon, Mustang, Pinto, Gremlin or other compact car body surrounding the driver.A few still raced '30s coupe bodied mods, but these were the low buck guys. Horsepower and handling, rather than aerodynamics was what counted. The mods were powered by mega horse big block Chevys and Fords with most sporting tall fuel injector tubes. With a huge hand grooved grooved Firestone 500 drag tire on the right rear...

Kenny Brightbill, Glenn Fitzcharles, Buzzie Reutimann, Tommy Hager, Freddy Adam, Frankie Schneider, Lou Lazarro, Will Cagle, Gerald Chamberlain.... These names likely mean nothing to today's racing fans. But back in the days before NASCAR grabbed the nation's interest, these drivers had Rock Star status for many of us as Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr do for some today. Most of the stars had nicknames like The Wily One (Cagle), The Shillington Slingshot (Brightbill) The Monk (Lazarro), Jumpin' Jack Johnson among others. Of course Chamberlain was my driver.

You really should read the entire piece.
Eldora Three
Joined: 8-18-2007
Posts: 3789
My Favorite Dirt Legend Gerald Chamberlain
4/24/2009 10:51 AM
Excellent story.