Bruce;
Thanks for the details on Red's car. I think you are right about Lyle
Fisher. I'll ask him about it if he's at lunch this Thursday.
We have a small, informal group of "Car Guyz" who meet every Thursday
for lunch and Red joins us when he can. I'm trying to convince Jon
Lundberg (retired "Voice of Drag Racing", one of our group) to write a
book about the early days of drag racing and all the personal anecdotes
he knows. One of these days all of this knowledge will fade away and be
gone unless someone writes it down! Another of our group, John Horsman,
has just published a great book about his days with Aston- Martin, Ford
Advanced Vehicles, and John Wyer Racing. Its title is "Racing in the
Rain". Now if Jon would just sit down and write, it would be a great
insiders' view of professional drag racing.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: FastmetalBDF@aol.com [mailto:FastmetalBDF@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 3:12 PM
To: Albaugh, Neil; b.a.savage@wildblue.net; ed@vetteracing.com
Cc: gmc6power@earthlink.net; wmtsmith@landracing.com;
land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Nish Motor / Exhaust Tunes ~
Neil, I talked at length with Red Greth at the Bakersfield Hot Rod
reunion a few years back ...... he had a great clone of the Speed Sport
Roadster there, steel body and all, but it was re-done as a copy of the
earlier Speed Sport I, which had the smaller, unblown 354" hemi w/carbs
in it. When Speed Sport II ran back there in Maine it was driven by
Lyle Fisher, not Red. Red told me that Lyle had dropped out of racing
and gone on to other things. I believe Speed Sport Automotive was
originally run by Joe Bush out in Blue Island, Illinois, before moving
to the Tucson area. One of the items Joe used to sell was Stromberg
carbs that had been reworked to flow nitro. I think that earlier Speed
Sport crew used to pal around and race with Chris Karamesines, and the
late 'Big Don' Maynard, and their ChiZler dragster, which had some
sponsorship or help from Al's Speed Shop in Aurora, Illinois.
When Red made an exhibition run at the Famosa strip it sounded
healthy, but nothing at all like the bigger blown Chrysler that was in
the roadster in the sixties.
All in all, this unique drag racer made its' mark in drag racing
history, and has always been one of my top three drag cars. Last that
I knew the original was in Big Daddy's museum, where I photographed it
some years ago. Bruce
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