Family Racing History

[Drache]

First a little factoid. Abb and his brother Gordon both got into racing big time. When they started it was on Dirt Tracks. Back then racing numbers were three digits so they used the CIDs from their vehicles as numbers. Gordon was 333 and Abb was 318. Then racing switched to only allow two numbers so they both dropped the first number, Gordon became 33 and Abb became 18. They both used the same numbers until they ended their racing carriers.

Abb was the "Richard Petty" of his time and location. Everyone knew his name and he was always the person to beat on the track.

The first cars they raced looked like this:


Eventually they changed, but only slightly to this:


Then the new PAVED 3/8 mile oval track was finished so the cars changed again, Abb started driving his Plymouth Fury. This was approx 1972:


Same car just different paint:


Abb raced the Plymouth Fury right up through the '77 Season. Here's a couple articles from the newspaper between 1969 and 1977:












Gordon was a good racer in his own right but not as good as Abb. But sometimes Gordon beat him (which usually only happened if Abb was knocked out of the race):




During '77 he also started racing in NASCAR. This eventually became CASCAR here in Canada. He finished 2nd I believe in 1977 and 1978 if I remember correctly. For some reason he was forced to switch from his Plymouth Fury into a Chevy Nova (which he was not happy about):



The actual picture below was signed by Abb when he got second place in '77 and given to his brother, my Grandpa Jake (dad's dad):


Abb also signed the actual copy of the picture below along with his standings (2nd place) and a picture of the trophy:




This was many years later and wasn't Abb or Gordon. Car 08 was driven by my grandmother's sister:

*Notice the 3rd Gen Charger in the top right?*

[tan top]

   interesting stuff & good pictures , thanks for posting 

[68X426]

Great memories, I love the pics of the old days. Thanks!