THE WELCOME MAT IS OUT

Hey Ray... I finally made it over here to the little chat forum.
1 ? - how do you put an avitar or whatever in next to your name.??

Welcome Chris

To change your avatar (well add it in your case) click Profile on the top, it's in there somewhere lol.

OH OK
IC Now
Thanks
Off to bed I'll do it tomorrow

I'm am guessing this will be a fun place to chat.

Welcome M5

Thanks...
As I go along it surprises to find out how FEW people actually KNOW what an M5 is... Actually it surprises me even more to know that folks never heard of a Studebaker
DO folks know they actually raced (and WON) in the NASCAR CUP series..??

Thanks for the welcome to the group.
Ray and Jordan will tell you. I have a TON of NASCAR knowledge and for the real NASCAR JUNKIES I have a site with lots of history, driver bios, pics and videos from 1949 through this year.
Love to have you check it out. So far it's been two years in the making and I'm still expanding.

It's not near as a professional looking site as Jordan has here,.. but It's my little piece of the internet and I'm proud of it.

We're glad to have you here, M5. Welcome!

Welcome M5, I think you'll like it here. Lots of friendly chatter on a variety of topics, good people is all you will find here.

Hey M5,I'm not one of the good people F&B was talking about,but I do love NASCAR,and the friendly(sic) banter these boards allow(most of the time),and I'm old enough to know what a Studebaker is...As a matter of fact,a little hobby of mine is taking pictures of old classis cars..I'll have to see if I have any in my collection...All that said,welcome to the world of FRO!..

I am re-doing my M5 Pickup into a street rod.
Link is here if you (or anyone) is interested
http://fantasynascarracin.yolasite.com/

M5-Studebaker wrote:

I am re-doing my M5 Pickup into a street rod.
Link is here if you (or anyone) is interested
[url=http://fantasynascarracin.yolasite.com/

http://fantasynascarracin.yolasite.com/[/quote[/url]]
Hey M5,Nice site,I'll put it on my list for next racing season..All out of dough for this season...I esp. like all of the driver info.

You can "pay as you go" if you like. It's $20 per segment (just an FYI)
Next segment starts with Race #9 of this year. (Richmond)

I been working two years on the site. Adding driver bio's, Try to post each drivers "first and last"
First start; first win; last start; last win; their birthday etc.
I've had people send me pics of agree to let me share them and I have TONS I haven't got to posting yet.

As you can see I am only up to "S" on the driver bios,.. but I get a few done here and there.
I try to supply LOTS of good little known info for folks.
Like... 12 "women" have competed in a CUP race... however ONE of them was a MAN at the time, and later had a sex change to be a woman. (I'm not so sure I'd count that one in my "list of women competitors " if they wasn't a woman at the time) Anyway, that's just a sample of stuff I try to throw out.

Over 250 videos also... but most come from YouTube, and several get taken down. So it's hard to keep up with that.
I'll have to see how much space these type videos take up and see if I can just download them and save them permanently on my site..??
Anyway,.. being involved or around NASCAR since I was 10 I have developed a passion for it,... and saw a lot go on.


OH crap.. I just noticed. I talked about my Street Rod,.. then posted a link to my NASCAR site.. dduuhhh
My bad... (Both are "Yola" hosted sites and I wasn't paying attention.)

Here is the link to my Street Rod Project
http://studebakerproject.yolasite.com/

Impressive! That is the best way to describe M5-Studebaker's two sites he has posted above..Just Very impressive!..Everyone on this site should take the time to go through both of them..Totally Impressive!..

Thanks man..
I appreciate it...
You can TOTALLY tell I grew up around racing, and old cars... LOL
My little sites are a labor of love

M5-Studebaker wrote:

Thanks man..
I appreciate it...
You can TOTALLY tell I grew up around racing, and old cars... LOL
My little sites are a labor of love

I also noticed you are in an area of Georgia where I have two brothers,a niece,and nephew located not too far from you....Lawerenceville,and Dawsonville......
I also noticed you lost your dog not too long ago,sorry about that man,I know how that is,tough to get over..Keep working on those sites,your doing great....

Dawsonville huh..??
Dad and Mom grew up in Dawsonville.
GrandDad grew corn and made moonshine for the local boys to run to Atlanta....
If you know someone in Dawsonville. I can just about guarantee they know at LEAST one of my relatives.
Ask them if they know of anyone named "Townley"

(FYI, the story gets better... I am related to Bill & Chase Elliott (cousins), and John Wes Townley is also a cousin of mine.... I think you can see where all the racing interest came at such an early age... hahahaha)

Welcome M5!

Ah, that kinda takes me back to the day when cars were, well... shitboxes.

NASCAR

Georgia drivers, car owners, mechanics, and speedways have long played an important role in the establishment, development, and growing popularity of the National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) sport.
Many observers consider Dawsonville one of the birthplaces of NASCAR. Indeed,

several of the most popular and influential individuals in the early history of southern stock car racing came from this north Georgia town. Although he seldom drove in races, Raymond Parks, a native of Dawson County and a prominent Atlanta liquor-store owner, financed operations for a number of the most important early racers. In 1938 Parks's moonshine-running cousins Roy Hall (memorialized in the Jim Croce song "Rapid Roy, That Stock Car Boy") and Lloyd Seay, both from Dawson County, persuaded Parks to bankroll their fledgling racing careers. Parks provided his cousins with top-notch cars prepared by the Atlanta garage owner and mechanic Red Vogt.


Roy Hall dominated the stock-car racing scene in the Southeast and Midwest in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Unfortunately, despite playing such a foundational role, neither was able to take advantage of the growth of the sport after World War II (1941-45). In 1941 Seay, arguing with his cousin Woodrow Anderson about a shipment of sugar, was fatally shot. Hall was too old to duplicate his prewar success in the postwar era.
Parks and Vogt, however, continued to play key roles in NASCAR's early success. Both participated in the 1947 organizational meetings at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, that created the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

Vogt came up with the name for the organization. Parks-owned and Vogt-prepared cars dominated NASCAR's early years and launched the careers of such legends as Red Byron (1949 NASCAR Grand National Champion), Bob and Fonty Flock, Jack Smith, and Dawsonville native Gober Sosebee. Parks retired as a car owner in 1950, but Vogt continued to prepare championship cars well into the mid-1950s.
Although in later years Georgia drivers, owners, and mechanics would not play such a prominent role in NASCAR history, Georgians have continued to contribute in important ways. The most significant contributions since those early days have come from another Dawsonville native, Bill Elliott. In 1976 Elliott left north Georgia with his brothers Ernie (as engine builder and crew chief) and Dan (as transmission builder) to try his luck on the Winston Cup (later Sprint Cup) circuit.

Nice historical post...
(sorry this post is SO long but I got started and just never found a good spot to stop... LOL) I'd be happy to post some pics I made if anyone would like to see them.

Indeed Dawsonville has been a place not many folks considered racers came from until Bill Elliott made it famous.
Parks was indeed a car owner (kind of the Rick Hendrick of his day) He owned multiple cars at once, and as you mentioned owned the car Red Byron won the first CUP championship with.

Dawsonville built a museum several years back called "Thunder Road". It is the home of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.
They started looking for donations for the museum and I was happy to supply a whole back seat (of a car) full of stuff. Dan Elliott was put in charge of the organization of the museum. He is now the General Manager of the newly remodeled Grasham's Motorsports Park in Jefferson GA. (It used to be called Georgia International speedway, and then later on was called Peach State Speedway - This track did host two CUP races back in the late 60's)

Anyway, since I am related to the Elliott's I was glad to donate all this stuff I had been saving since High School to the museum. I had gotten Speed Sport News, Grand National Scene, etc for decades. Also I had newspapers from the race weekends of all the CUP races I ever attended. Literally boxes and boxes of stuff. I also donated a life-size standup cutout of Bill Elliott with Junior, Johnson when Bill drove the #11 Budweiser car.

Dan looked through some of the stuff and tears almost came to his eyes and he said "Chris you have stuff here I never even thought still existed. This is stuff we will will love to display". The museum is awesome, a link is here:
http://www.thunderroadusa.com/

Dan sent me an invitation to the inaugural Georgia Hall of Fame induction ceremony held there at Thunder Road. (It was 2002)
I had met Ray Parks several times before as dad knew him growing up (along with most of the guys you mentioned) at the Dawsonville annual Moonshine festivals. Also saw Louise Smith at the festival a couple times. Louise was the second lady to ever race at the CUP level.

The inductees at the first ceremony were: Bill Elliott, Ray Parks, Lloyd Seay, Red Byron, Tim Flock, Gober Sosebee, Roy Hall and Red Vogt. I sat and had dinner with Red, and he sure had some interesting stories to tell. I didn't know at the time what a piece of history I was sitting with.

Since the first induction ceremony some of the other notable people inducted are: Bob Flock, Jack Smith, Frank Mundy, Rex White, Sara Christian, Fonty Flock, Jody Ridley, Linda Vaughn, Ernie Elliott, George Elliott, Harold Kite, and Pete Hamilton.

If you are in the area you should stop in to the museum. It's only $4.

Can't wait to see the finished product on the M5. Classic lines.... are you doing a extended cab and are you using the factory bed. It looks like a fun build with lots of hours involved. I've seen several pictures of other M5's but don't remember any extended cabs.

I would have loved to had the chance to meet Ray Parks and Red Vogt. Both big players from the very early days of NASCAR. If you haven't read it you need to get a copy of "Driving with the Devil" and read it! It tells the story NASCAR doesn't want to tell, but it's very good. I used to write to Louise Smith and have several letters from her from back when I used to collect autographs. She didn't care much for NASCAR or at least the management...lol. I would have loved to have a chance to actually meet her. I remember when Thunder road opened.... and if i remember right they had some financial problems in the beginning. I didn't know they were still open.... glad they are.

Thunder Road has been "partly" converted into some of the City offices to help support it and help it stay open. I'm not sure what all is in there now, but I know City Hall is housed there, and conducts all it's business there.

As far as my M5. I don't know whether to call it a M5 or an M15. (M5 was a 1/2 ton pickup, and an M15 was a one ton)
I guess since I built it on the one ton chassis "technically" it's be a M15.
Anywho,.. yeah I did the extended cab myself. You know back in those days there wasn't much leg room... so I extended the cab and put in bucket seats to make it more comfortable to drive.
I decide to use the one ton chassis so I could have a "proportional" look. I extended the cab 18"... so I went from a 6 foot bed and made a 7 foot bed.
It'll definitely be "different" when I get it done...
(Thats why I need to sweep this game - so I can have some extra money to spend on the truck... so can you guys just lay down and make "bad" picks and "throw" it so I win.... ROFLMAO

Hey I'm on your side M5, I'm trying my best not to win,and I'm doing it without even trying...
Thanks to you and Speedbump for all of the neat early NASCAR info..I hope everyone is picking up on all these cool stories..and all of you should go on both of M5's sites...

Hey M5,I don't know if you would be interested or not,but I might have a couple of classic pickup pictures that you may enjoy...Really clean jobs on finishing the beds..contact me at grandaddyjohn@comcast.net and I'll send you the pictures...

email sent

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