Jackson International Speedway

[ford6man27]

Hey 34 Flathead, I run a 31 model A sedan with a 300 ford six. I race in the sportsman [flathead and six cyl. class] in vintage races around the country. Are there any vintage racing going on around your area? I know Bobby Varnon from Huntsville Alabama,he runs a sure nuff BAD flathead.I don't know how far that is from you. If you know of anything going on down there, let me know.
Andy

[Bama]

Welcome to the board ford6man27!! Nice to have you, thanks for sharing.
Cool picture ;D

[34flathead]

Welcome ford6man27,
We rebuilt our car just as it came off the track in 1962. It meets none of the safety requirements for Vintage racing. It has one working brake and an expanded metal floor. We rebuilt it to show the drivers today what the crazy men drove back when.

[Mike in Louisiana]

Flathead - were you at Jackson International in the late 60's when the trees off the back straight at JIS were still pretty small - the hobby car went off turn 2 into the tops of the trees, you could see the tree tops bend and the car settled down in the trees. After the race they had to use a saw to cut some trees and the guy drove the car out, back to the pits.

[34flathead]

No Mike, I wasn't there but I've heard the story before. You never know what you might see at the track. This weekend I met the Flagman at JIS. He told me that he fell out of the flagstand one night while waving the yellow flag. Hurt him pretty bad. He said he was very lucky not to get run over.

[Bama]

I am so glad he wasn't hurt bad, but that is funny #icon_lol#
That is something I can imagine bentrim or ratherb doing!! #icon_lol#

[bentrim]

ME NEVER FELL BUT I HAVE DROPED A FEW FLAGS

[Bama]

Have you dropped the flag for real?
What did you have to do, turn the light on, stop the cars and get it?
That is something I have never thought about but it seems likely that it would be cases where the flagman could drop it.
Better the flag than the flagman falling and getting hurt, that could have been a really bad situation.

[gearhead15]

34flathead said:

Ok, I emailed my racing buddy Jack Brown about Lake Speed and here 's what he had to say:

"He did race at JIS. Both he and his brother Joe ran Clinton for a couple of years. When Lake first started NASCAR it was a limited schedule and he ran here on off weekends. He won a 200 lap All-Pro sanctioned here once running Nicky Prejean's car. This was a Camaro usually driven by Rusty Wallace, but Nicky got Lake to drive it that week to drw a big crowd. Nicky was from Gonzales, La and he, Lake and I all raced go karts together both here and in Gonzales. Nicky owned Southland Fire extinguisher Co. and make a bunch of money from La oil Co. business when to "oil patch" was booming in south La. Lake also won a couple of features in his own late model stock. He also drove a dirt car a couple of times in Meridian and even ran Larry Ritter's (another ol go kart buddy) dirt car at Byram and D'Lo on weekend a couple of years ago.. I called him up one night last summer just to visit and he was telling me about how he was racing "vintage go karts" now. He was going to Indiana to race a McCulloch powered Kart for some old friend. He called back later and said he'd won. I told him we were fooling around with vintage stock cars and he said he'd come look at them next time he came to Jackson."

I guess you could say JIS was Lake Speed's "Home Track"

You're right, Lake didn't start racing short track cars until after he had already gone Grand National racing. I think the first time he ever raced at Jackson was at the first All-Pro race that was held there, in November of '80 IIRC. I was crewing for a buddy from Mobile and the promoter had lined up a ride for Lake in an ex-Bobby Allison dirt track car. Lake did pretty well for his first time out in those cars, he qualified (and for all of you who remember, the original All-Pro series had a tough qualifying procedure) and I think he held on for a top-5.

After that race he got his own car together with his brother, they raced it whenever it didn't conflict with his Grand National schedule.

[ah55]

Armond Holley was from Columbus, and he did graduate from New Hope, class of '51, I believe. Theres a picture of him up by the office at the school. I don't think him and Ival went to school with one another, as I beleive Ival was a bit older and possibly from Jackson, but I'm not sure. The two of them were very good friends and I remember how heartsick dad was when Ival got killed. Dad always told me he was one of the best there ever was.
Dad started racing somewhere in Memphis, I believe. It seems like it was at some fairgrounds, But I'm not positive. He was 15 years old and absolutely forbidden to race, no matter how he begged. He decided he was gonna sneak off and do it anyway, as someone had already hired him to drive. He would leave the house and tell my Grandparents that he was going to the drive in in memphis. Well, this went on for sometime and dad thought he had em fooled. He'd come home and my Grandfather would ask him "how was the movie?" He'd just shrug or something. My grandfather would say ", ya sure do get dirty at the movies", Dad would just get to his room asap. Well, as it turns out, Dad won a feature there, got out of the car, and there was my grandfather, sitting in front of the flagstand. Dad said " I liked to died right then and there". It turns out one of the teachers from new hope had told on him and my Grand father had been there every night. He wasn't mad, he just told him it can't interfere with education. It diddn't, Dad Kept racing, graduated from new hope and hit the road when he was 17.
Armond Holley Jr.
p.s. Great site.

[34flathead]

Armond,
This is a wonderful story about your Dad. Do you mind if I add it to the Miss Chicken Website "Racing Stories and Memories" section ??

Tobby Taylor

[Bama]

Truely a great story, humorous too
Nice to have you join us Armond, welcome!

[ah55]

Bama- Thanks for the welcome ;D You guys got a real neat site here.
Tobby- I'd be honored if ya put that story on there. I meant to write ya that story on Dad's career, but our cars been giving us absolute fits this year, we're on our third motor I saw that writeup that Gentleman wrote and I couldn't have said it better myself ;D

[Bama]

Thanks glad you like it ;D
What class car you drive and where?

[ah55]

I run an IMCA modified in Michigan, Orleans and crystal speedways. Hope to do a little traveling next year if money permits.

[Bama]

One of my favorite classes the Modifieds!! ;D
Good luck to you the rest of this season!
Do you have a picture of your car? we would love to see it!
If you need any help posting it I will be glad to help!

[34flathead]

Armond, I added your story to the site last night. Thanks, I just love to hear those stories. I'm like Bama now... We'd like to see a picture of your car.

[gearhead15]

34flathead said:

No Mike, I wasn't there but I've heard the story before. You never know what you might see at the track. This weekend I met the Flagman at JIS. He told me that he fell out of the flagstand one night while waving the yellow flag. Hurt him pretty bad. He said he was very lucky not to get run over.

You know, I was there the night the flagman fell out of the flag stand at JIS. Ellis Palasini pitched in to finish flagging the races, his car was already out. I seem to recall him not being a very good flagman, he was watching the racing instead of flagging.

[34flathead]

I enjoy watching too !! I wouldn't last too long as a flagman. The flagstand is the best seat in the house !!

[34flathead]

Hay AH55,
I found out that Ival Cooper graduated from school in Tyro Arkansas. The article said that it's a small town near Star City. The article also said that Ival started racing in 1951 shortly after he moved to Jackson MS.