Alone With Your Dream

This Senior Moment is a result of taking some time as the Holiday Season arrives, to look at the only album out of a 100 plus collection, that is in "shambles". Naturally it has to be my own personal collection of photos and articles of stuff that I've been involved with over the past 50 years.

This photo was taken in my garage in 1970 as I was building a sportsman coupe. I don't think chassis builders of today, or even then maybe, would have used all the high tech skills and engineering that are pictured. I should add that the project basically was my work alone and completed by yours truly!

Close inspection shows that expensive jack stands aren't really necessary when you can find some old unused 8" weigh-lite foundation building blocks around!

 Starting with the frame (provided by who else but Harry Fleming), I see some discoloration of the rails above the rear. Gosh, I couldn't have Z'd the rails, that wasn't legal back then! I think I established the frame height next. Note the use of the push broom handle as a brace while the main roll bar height was established.

The seat height was just "perfect" at 2 blocks and a brake drum high! I can't see it but I think the transmission was one block and a 2 X 4 high. Sorry, I can't remember or see the exact setting for the engine block for those taking notes! LOL

It took a year to build my "dream machine" working mostly late at night into the morning hours, by myself. Finally with the car finished, Phil Gemenden did a super job of painting it orange. Phil even hauled the car to Atlantic City Speedway for the last race of the year for me. They wouldn't let me race the car since this was a special event and I had not raced at Atlantic City during the regular season. In retrospect, I think they thought Phil was going to drive the car, not me, worrying an "outsider" was coming in with a new car and was going to take the "Big Pay-off". They did allow me to take the car out for two warm-up periods.

The "proud father" feeling was over whelming as I pulled onto the track for the first time ever behind the wheel of a race car, not only a race car, but one I had built! Creeping down the back straight, I stayed low to keep out of every ones way ready to put the pedal down when I came out of the 4th turn! 

That's when the "air came out of my sail" as my "perfect" new race car began to shake like "No Tomorrow". Talk about a perfect 10 on the embarrassment scale, I scored it! I remember sitting in the grandstand at Vineland and seeing the NuCity 32, driven by George Pendergas, do the exact same thing. I remembered how I wondered what was going on to cause that to happen. I hit the brake and had to bring the car to almost a complete stop before it quit shaking.

Fortunately, as I said earlier, Phil Gemenden used his trailer to take me to Atlantic City and was there to "sooth my nerves". He asked me about my front end settings and told me to get the tape measure and change the toe-in to toe out! (I'm pretty sure now 40 years later that what I recall) Anyway, it solved the problem in the next warm-up period! That was my total career as a race car driver! However, the experience brought an awareness of that of which a "real" driver must contend when driving his car.

I sold the car over the winter and the Spring found me working at Harmony Speedway which led to my career working and officiating at several New Jersey speedways in every capacity there was.

As usual, thanks for listening to a special moment for me. Have a happy holiday.
Senior Moment By: Russ Dodge

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