Short Track and NASCAR modeling

It's a vague memory but I do remember my dad taking me to the Winston at Charlotte in 1990. I wasn't quite 3 years old yet so I don't remember most of it but the two things I do are seeing Richard Petty's blue and red STP Pontiac and Rusty Wallace's black and gold 27 Miller Pontiac. I wish I could remember more like the fact that Dick Trickle won the open, which was the only thing he ever won in a Cup car, but I didn't find that out until several years later.

Around that same time my dad took me to a car show where they had one of those simulator rides (the ones that look like the GM APVs) and Bill Elliott did the intro for the video.

Quote from: jh63fan on June 12, 2025, 04:25:44 PMBelieve it was 1991. Busch race at Orange County Speedway, Jimmy Hensley was in an unsponsored car running second to Robert Presley. They were the only two on the lead lap, bumper to bumper, with less than 20 to go, when a caution came out. On the restart, Jeff Burton, who was not on the lead lap, jumped up between them and Robert pulled away. Jimmy finally got around him and caught up as the race ended. I seen Jimmy in the infield right afterwards, told him that I would go get a few hits on Burton before his crew would get to me. He declined my offer, but his wife heard me, invited me to their home sometime, and we've been friends ever since.

That's a great story! Always liked Jimmy Hensley, seemed like a real humble, down to earth guy.

Way back in the late 80's I had moved up to running a limited late model. This was before LLM's were running aftermarket bodies, stubbed chassis or offset tube chassis's. We were racing real cars. Anyway, my first season was Bobby Hamilton's last in a LLM. He was actually racing an LLM and a LM. I was not getting the hang of the wedge bolt, racing shock deal and he helped get me close. Actually got to go out on the track and follow him for a few laps to get the line. He knew that I was never going to be a threat to him and his car owners budget. Anyway, super nice guy. RIP Bobby Hamilton

Drinking free Coors Light and eating free bbq sandwiches in the pits of the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway after qualifying night for the All American 400 with Dick Trickle at his hauler. Got pictures of that night! What a great guy! RIP Dick Trickle

Believe it was 1991. Busch race at Orange County Speedway, Jimmy Hensley was in an unsponsored car running second to Robert Presley. They were the only two on the lead lap, bumper to bumper, with less than 20 to go, when a caution came out. On the restart, Jeff Burton, who was not on the lead lap, jumped up between them and Robert pulled away. Jimmy finally got around him and caught up as the race ended. I seen Jimmy in the infield right afterwards, told him that I would go get a few hits on Burton before his crew would get to me. He declined my offer, but his wife heard me, invited me to their home sometime, and we've been friends ever since.

be it on tv or in person... a race, meeting a driver, pit/garage experience, and so on.

here's mine...

so, i do love me some open wheel dirt racing.  the USAC Silver Crown cars (affectionately nicknamed "fat bottomed girls" , due to their tail tanks being over twice the fuel capacity of a standard sprint car, due to the long distances that they typically run) run in Springfield, IL every August during the state fair, the Bettenhausen 100 has been on the schedule for a very long time now.  Springfield is about an hour and 45 minutes from where i live, and the race is typically held on or around my birthday, so that would be a no-brainer right? wrong.  for those of you who have been to central Illinois you know it can be oppressively hot and humid.  i have been to 2 Bettenhausen 100s in my life, and it has always been when it gets rained out, or for 2020 the fair got cancelled due to COVID.  whenever they can't run the race in August, it gets rescheduled for October, which, while chilly, is much better to attend than August.

in 2020 i had the pleasure of seeing Kyle Larson put a beating on the field while he was suspended from NASCAR, wasn't sure if that could be topped. 

fast forward to 2022, rain out... and my mind sure was changed about the 2020 race being the best i had seen there.  thanks to Kaylee Bryson, the entire place was entertained.
 
picture it, Springfield, 10/15/2022...

she was 21 at the time, a young lady from Oklahoma who was in her maiden season (part time that year) in Silver Crown.  she started 2nd that day and led 74 of 100 laps, ultimately finishing 5th. she led laps 1-22, 24-33, and 35-74.  there was a caution thrown on lap 71 and she lost the lead and faded a bit on the restart.  not sure if her momentum was lost or she had an issue with her tires or whatever, but she made a ton of fans that day.  a Kaylee Bryson Silver Crown shirt hangs in my closet because of what she did that day.

what was so special about how she ran that day?  see below...

she is the lone car up top


yeah, all the "experienced" guys were running low in the turns and she was ripping the lip, riding that cushion and spitting up rooster tails of dirt.  not a common thing at a dirt mile.

she eventually became the first female winner in the Silver Crown series at Belleville, KS i do believe the next year.  she is still running Silver Crown while getting her feet wet in other forms of racing.  lately she has run a 360 sprint car at Knoxville a few weekends.

you hate to see them move on to pavement and such (see Corey Day) but you gotta wish the best for them.

Quote from: john2 on June 10, 2025, 06:11:59 PM     WELL, MY GOODNESS.

In case anyone is interested, I have been looking at Len's pictures, and on ACME 2012, and I find 3 of my cars.  Page 3, numbers 49, 50, and 51. The Buzzie Rutimann 00, and Ellis Palasini 8V are likenesses, and the 8 is fictional.

And the 8 made the Contest Cars magazine for 2013. 

I'll be going through the rest of his pictures, and if you like, I'll call attention to them. 

My what memories. 

Glad to help reliving the past Raymond.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

See what i did there?

hey y'all, hopping on here to share my 2 current WiPs with everyone.  i truly hate doing more than one build at a time, but when one is 90% completed...

so the first one is going to be a mystery, anyone have a guess as to what it is gonna be based on the color of the hood and the car?  it technically should be a 2005 edition Monte and i bought a 2001 edition before i really thought about it.  there IS a difference... i sized this one up with a completed 2005 era body.



any guesses?  i know it's not much to go off of.


this other one, the story isn't so simple.  back before i moved in 2021 i used to have to paint models in a shed.  so i couldn't exactly paint bodies during the winter months, so i would work on chassis and such and paint the bodies when the weather got nicer.  this was one such build.






i pulled it out the other day to resume... and i remember why i stalled out.  it was supposed to be this car



but... the Powerslide decals were sized to a resin body that Mike sold before the kits came out.  i built it on a Chase Elliott SS kit.  needless to day, after fiddling with the huge side panel decals (snipping, cutting, angling, etc) i realized that it wasn't going to work, no matter how much massaging i did.

so now it's going to be this




the decals should be here this weekend.  had to do a lot of work, don't know what was going on when i first started this but the white paint is crappy/orange peeled.  also, i had some gouges in the side body slits so i filled them in.  and the hood had some gouges in it that were pretty deep, i assume from not taking care when i removed the molded hood pins.  sanded and sanded, couldn't get rid of them.  ended up filling with putty.  the second coat on the hood is drying now.  should turn out looking ok.

i chose this particular Dale Jr. build because i was REALLY happy with the stance of the car (not sure what i did with the front but the rear has some 3D printed springs from Brandon Miller that are functional, along with some functional shocks i fabbed out of aluminum tube) plus i had already marked the tires and wheels for #88.  so i kinda had to stick with it.  i had done some decal work, the hood, roof, tv panel that all had to be peeled off.  thinking about trying to salvage the black paint on the tv panel. i had painted a 3D printed superspeedway splitter (again from Brandon Miller) bright red for this, and instead of using it for one of my Ryan Blaney Menards builds that used a red splitter and just grabbing a new one from my stash, i primed it grey, then white, they painted it florescent yellow.  gonna represent the car in the photo above, a Talladega win, since i already filled in the jack points in the body (seemed that was done often for superspeedways by this team, see both photos above).  also chose that Nationwide scheme because it seemed like the decals would fit, even on the wrong style body.

NEW 3 AMIGOS DECALS RELEASE!

#22 PENNZOIL/SHELL 2025 MUSTANG (DAYTONA)

https://www.printitdecals.com/collections/3adecals/products/3-amigos-decals-22-pennzoil-shell-2025-mustang-daytona-decal-set-1-24

Joey Logano drove this cool looking car at Daytona.

We used the 1:24 Salvinos Darkhorse model kit to create the decals.

Build your own replica of this awesome car!

https://www.printitdecals.com/collections/3adecals/products/3-amigos-decals-22-pennzoil-shell-2025-mustang-daytona-decal-set-1-24

      WELL, MY GOODNESS.

In case anyone is interested, I have been looking at Len's pictures, and on ACME 2012, and I find 3 of my cars.  Page 3, numbers 49, 50, and 51. The Buzzie Rutimann 00, and Ellis Palasini 8V are likenesses, and the 8 is fictional.

And the 8 made the Contest Cars magazine for 2013. 

I'll be going through the rest of his pictures, and if you like, I'll call attention to them. 

My what memories. 

NEW 3 AMIGOS DECALS RELEASE!

#21 MOTORCRAFT 2025 MUSTANG (LAS VEGAS WINNER)

https://www.printitdecals.com/collections/3adecals/products/3-amigos-decals-21-motorcraft-2025-mustang-las-vegas-winner-decal-set-1-24

Josh Berry drove the cool car to victory at Las Vegas!

We used the Salvinos Darkhorse Mustang model kit to create the decals. This set includes Gold foil decals. Please apply the gold foil decals over the black side numbers.

Build your own replica of this awesome car!

https://www.printitdecals.com/collections/3adecals/products/3-amigos-decals-21-motorcraft-2025-mustang-las-vegas-winner-decal-set-1-24

NEW 3 AMIGOS DECALS RELEASE!

#21 MOTORCRAFT 2025 MUSTANG (MICHIGAN)

https://www.printitdecals.com/collections/3adecals/products/3ad503

Josh Berry drove this gorgeous car at Michigan.

We used the Salvinos 1:24 Darkhorse Mustang model kit to create the decals. This set includes Gold foil decals. Please apply first the black side numbers and then the gold foil numbers.

Build your own replica of this awesome car!

https://www.printitdecals.com/collections/3adecals/products/3ad503



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