I couldn't help but post this link:
http://www.midwestracingarchives.com/2011/11/remembering-red-droste.htmlRed Droste was the 'man' back in the 60's. He was the guy that many of the Iowa hall of fame drivers came into late model racing trying to beat. In case you don't read the whole thing...here is an excerpt that relates to Bob's cool '57 Chevy....
Red wasn’t too proud to scrounge ideas from other people either, especially if it meant more victories under his belt and more money in his pocket. An idea he borrowed from Texas sports car driver, Jimmy Hall, was incorporated in Droste’s 1957 Chevrolet right before the 1966 season.
“We’re going to use an automatic transmission in this car,” he was quoted in the April 3, 1966 edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “It will do several things for me; eliminate much of the weight of a standard gearbox, free myself from having to shift during a race, and make it easier to stop in case of an accident.”
According to Droste, it marked the first time that an automatic transmission was used in a late model or modified stock car in the area.
Droste also took a page out of a local racer’s handbook by mounting the steering wheel towards the center of the car. “It’s very similar to the little Chevrolet coupe that Charlie Moffitt of Stanwood drove several years ago,” Droste said. Droste has also lowered the entire chassis, “so it would handle better.”
When asked why he had made all of the revolutionary changes on his already fast Chevy, his answer was straight to the point, “I had a bad season last year. I only finished second.”
For Droste, though, experimenting with new and innovative creations was often short-lived. “I tried a lot of things over the years but usually they were banned for the next,” he said with a laugh.
'Midwest Racing Archives' November 19,2011
