"Back in the Saddle, again" page 2

 

Dave Dooley, well known Oklahoma City SCCA driver and regional mainstay in the yellow GT6, is probably getting ready to pass that Datsun coming out of the last turn onto the start/finish straight at the Ponca City Grand Prix in the late 70s. The escape road off the long back straight can be seen between Dooley's car and the white TR4 and beyond that Lake Ponca.

 

Dallas International Motor Speedway Pits with Bus

Dallas International Motor Speedway's pits are shown in this early 1970s photo featuring the bus, not the sports racer, which my husband coveted. Note that the Datsun is being pulled by a sedan and to the left is the "typical" tow vehicle of the 60s and 70s era, a useful station wagon. Pickup trucks were not used that much back then, but vans were starting to come into vogue. John 's service roommate, Paul Piper, had an early Chevy van at this time. Don't know what kind of sports racer that is or who owned it. Do you?

Crash Crew at San Marcos Texas

Crash Crew at San Marcos, Texas, in the very early 70s, probably '70 before my husand (future then) got his TR4 down from Oklahoma and started racing again after Vietnam. This is one of the first few turns (turn 3?) of the SCCA National/Regional airport course. The pits were more or less off to the upper right. John worked this corner with a doctor from Wilford Hall Medical Center (USAF) and drove an "ambulance". Formula Fords tangled here during a race and John and the doctor had to transport one of the drivers to the San Marcos hospital after his Ford flipped and landed on its top. John says he had to have been 6'6" tall and, yes, he'd had the car specially built/modified. The driver suffered some nasty road rash of his face when it landed on its top.