My High school shop teacher was a guy Named Gary Densham..... I think he
races funny cars now.....
Not that I don't remember polishing aluminum on his car in auto shop and
going to the next class with the smells of Nitro.... and yes that was an
impetus to racing for a young kid.
This thread is exactly what I was trying to start with my constant harassing
folks to do the Intro's... wanted to hear how we all got into cars in the
first place.... for some reason I enjoy hearing the tales.... Keith
----- Original Message -----
From: dahlgren <dahlgren@uconect.net>
To: DOUG ODOM <popms@thegrid.net>
Cc: <Land-speed@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2000 5:23 AM
Subject: Re: Youngsters
> Real nice thought even if they never race a car in their life..Kinda
> what is all about in the big picture..I remember working on Nascar
> Modifieds as a very young boy and will never forget the 'chances' to get
> a ride while they pulled it up on the trailer.. My neighbor had one that
> Carl 'Buggsy' Stevens drove before he was famous. An injected SBC, at 12
> I could do the air density stuff and come up with the right pill size
> while my buddies were struggling with their 'hill buggies' LOL.. Those
> sounds and smells are what got me in the racing business for life. All
> started at the tender age of 8. Later in high school as a senior we had
> a substitute auto shop teacher that claimed to drive a TF car. He had
> pics and brought in the fire suit and we talked a lot about racing and
> safety but all thought he was BS'ing us all. He finally brought it in
> and fired it and did a short couple of burnouts in the parking lot. I
> got the honor of priming the blower with alky to fire it while two
> buddies wrestled with the starter.. A real hoot if there ever was one. I
> thought we were going to break every window in the building.. Oh well
> sorry to ramble but this thread reminded me of some nice days gone by
> now..
>
> Dave Dahlgren
>
> DOUG ODOM wrote:
> >
> > Dick, Your message about your crew member in school made me think. I
> > take our car down to the local high school auto shop once a year. The
> > shop teacher makes arrangements with the other shops and even the math
> > teachers to have a small assembly. The kids ask a lot of questions and
> > are interested. We try and explain how much math and calculations it
> > takes to run fast or for a record. The fact that an attractive woman on
> > the team drives the car with the E motor in it and is in the 200mph club
> > brings extra interest from the girls. At lunch time the word has spread
> > and a lot of non shop kids come down and take a look also. I think if we
> > can get some of the younger people interested more people will enjoy the
> > sport.
> > The shop teacher will have one or two kids that are the top of
his
> > class and I'll let them come over to the shop on a weekend and help with
> > some little thing on the car. I'm no teacher, but if you show some kid
> > how to make a fender brace with the shrinker - stretcher and you put the
> > part on the car that he made, you will see their eyes light up.
> > Just a thought, Doug
>
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