The image above is scanned off a T-shirt from the 3rd Annual Lane County Cruise In, an annual car show in our tiny community.

Blue Bayou Motorsports was one of the sponsors (we were located directly below the Budweiser sponsorship in the middle of the shirt -- couldn't ask for a better spot!!!!).

The 23 and 69 cars are located on the Demo Derby page.

The other three numbers are detailed here:

The upside down 4L is my first car.   The number was placed upside down by the other members of Blue Bayou.  I happened to roll the car in an unfortunate accident.  Here are some photos of what the car looked like at the beginning of the first partial season that I ran.

This is what the car looked like before I raced it the first time.   My Uncle Joe had ran the car the season before and actually won the track championship in the Hobby Stock class at Norton's Elmwood Park Speedway (no web site that I could find).  As you can see, the car was far from being a "virgin" dent-free car.  Once I assumed ownership, the body suffered horribly.

These are the pretty numbers that I purchased for the car.

This pretty much sums up my opinion of Chevrolet.

This is a picture of me screaming through turn 3 at Norton's Elmwood Park Speedway.

This is a picture of me in heavy traffic at the Wakeeney Speedway (again, no website found).  Again, this is a picture of the car in turn 3.

These are the "after" photos showing what's left of the car after I rolled it on the backstretch at Wakeeney.

This car was an absolute blast to drive.  I managed to finish in 2nd once and 4th twice in the car.  Every one of my good finishes took place at Elmwood Park Speedway in Norton.  That's a 1/2 mile track that really let the old girl pick up her skirt and take "the big steps."  At the end of the straights I was turning 6200 rpm in my big block 440 (given tire size, gear ratio, and rpm equates to just a hair under 90 mph).  We had all of about $225 in the motor and it would run door handle to door handle with the $3,000 Chevy motors.  I still needed to work on my Finesse some.  Dad told me that he wasn't planning on me getting into the corners as hot as I was, which caused me to ask, "So you're saying I need a little more finesse?"  Lingg was walking by and stopped in midstride.  He turned to me and asked, "More????    MORE????  ANY finesse would be nice!!!!!"  So I'm looking to get Finesse Haircare Products to sponsor my next car.

That wasn't the end of the badgering either.  My Uncle Joe came up to Wakeeney one night to watch the races.  He and my dad talked me into running down the straightaway, "burping" the throttle long enough to pitch the car into the corner, and then get right back on the throttle.  I tried it in "hot laps" and thought it felt comfortable.  I luckily started on the pole in my heat and tried it on the first lap.  I went through one and two faster than I'd ever done before.   But I got my doors blown off going down the backstretch by a couple of high dollar "chebbies."  I finished rather well in my heat (can't remember exactly) and for some unknown reason got the pole in the feature also.  This was after another couple of Hobby Stock heat races, a couple of Stock car heat races, and a couple of Modified heat races.  The track had gotten "dry slick" by this time.  They dropped the green flag and I went barreling down the front stretch, burped the throttle, pitched it into the corner, and got back on the gas.  The car slid right off the top of the track and out into the wheat field off the backstretch.  This brings me to my second hope for a sponsor.  CropQuest.  Except for the "race car blight" at the edge of the field, I'm guessing it was about 60 to 65 bushel wheat.  Mind you, I was still clipping along at a pretty good pace and didn't have time to stop, get out, and thoroughly analyze it, but I think that's a pretty close estimate.

The 4 is my nephew Brant's first car.   Before you say anything about it being a "Chebbie," you have to hear the whole story.  He bought the car complete for an unbelievably low price, complete with seat (and cover), fuel cell, new motor, and spare tires and rims.  It had Bonneville Saltflat gears which forced him to run in first gear, but he did amazingly well, considering what he had to work with (and the fact that it was his first year).  He and dad are FEVERISHLY working (that means one or two days out of the month, for a couple of hours each day) on his car for next year.....You guessed it.....A DODGE!!!!!

This is a picture of my nephew.  He finished 6th in points at the Jetmore Motorplex in his first season out.   He gets his racing skills from his Uncle James!!!

This is a picture of his POS (Piece Of Shit).  It actually doesn't look bad here.....This was taken before his first race.  I'll take my camera over and take some "current" photos of the car and put them up.  Believe it or not, that isn't a picture of Buddha eating a cheeseburger behind the car.  That's actually my dad, trying to keep from laughing at the car.  By the way.....Buddha has a smaller stomach.

I found a couple of pictures of the car in amidst all of my other crap.   The picture on the right is one of Brant posing in front of his war-torn car.   The bunny ears above his head were provided by yours truly.  The picture on the right shows his better half (girlfriend), Kelsi.

This is a picture of Brant smoking around the Jetmore track.....Literally......Smoking.....Not sure if the car is on fire here or what.....

I can say a lot of things about my nephew, but the best part about his racing operation is that he has the cutest Pit Bunny at the track.  This is a picture of Jordynn, daughter of Brant's fiance, Kelsi.

Coming to a Highway Patrol near you!!!!

The 6L started out as dad's car.   He spent a couple of years building the car, then raced it for 2 years before Father Time caught up with him.  He was having trouble getting in and out of the car, so I inherited it.  It's a '70 Dart with a 454 cubic inch motor (IT'S NOT A CHEBBIE MOTOR!!!!!).  It's a .050 over 400 block with a 440 crank (4.390 x 3.750).   The pistons are JE's weighing 524 grams instead of the stock 440 piston weighing 870 grams.  The tires are actually from NASCAR Winston Cup cars (they hadn't switched to NEXTEL cup yet) that have been retreaded for dirt.  With four of those monsters on the car, you have slightly less contact surface than a dead elephant.

This shows both sides of the motor, showing off dad's one-of-a-kind "cow-gut headers."  He thought it looked like someone slung a pile of cow guts on the side of the motor when he finished.  The "hemi-orange 200 mph tape" vents air from under the plastic Intrepid nosepiece to the cool-air box housing the air filter.  Again, with tire size, gear ratio, and RPM, the car will run just under 100 mph at 6500.

She's definitely a fearsome looking monster.

Once again, showing our superiority to the Bowties and the Blue Ovals.

The first night I ran the car, I was a little intimidated (a nominee for "The Understatement of the Year!" award).  I had a lucky draw and started outside front row, starting beside a Camero.  They dropped the green and down the frontstretch we charged.  The guy beside me pitched it into the corner.  I had to turn to the outside to keep from getting hit.  I lost traction and was passed by three or four other cars.  Fortunately for me, someone had spun and the did a complete restart.  This time, I kept my foot on the floor until the Camero disappeared behind me before lifting to start the corner.  I actually led the first lap and three quarters before being passed almost simultaneously by two other cars.   Despite another caution, those were the only two cars I saw or even heard for the rest of the 8 lap race.  I finished third in the heat and had a hard time getting the helmet off my head once I got to my pit.  My levity was short lived when dad checked the oil and there wasn't any on the dipstick.  We pushed the car on the trailer and hauled it home, not getting any points for the night.  Our main concern was the motor.  We pulled the oil filter off and cut it open looking for metal shavings.   Having found none, we began searching for the oil leak.  Dad put a remote filter kit (the filter sits directly behind the drivers seat) along with an oil coiler (which can be seen in the picture directly above this paragraph, along with the tranny cooler) just below the rear window.  One of the lines had been rubbing against the frame and punctured it.  We fixed the leak, filled it with oil and went on our merry little way!!!

A couple of weeks later, I was hit in the right rear coming out of 2.   It put a huge dent in the car (plus the fact that I put a great big tire donut on the passenger side door number), causing my dad to burst into tears.  "I raced it for two seasons and never put a scratch on it!!!!" he cried.  I seem to remember him gathering up a spun car coming out of 4 the first night he ran it.  He ruined both tires and both rims on the passenger side of the car, along with doing more than putting a "small scratch" in it.  He said something about the guy wasn't supposed to be parking in the "fast lane" of traffic.

The last night of racing was interesting.  I narrowly missed a guy spinning in front of me, which brought out a caution.  On the very next lap, the car in front of me spun in exactly the same spot, except I didn't dodge him.  The above image is the damage done to the car.  I only ran five of the nineteen nights at Jetmore (one of those I didn't get any points because I didn't start the feature) and finished 11th out of 32 cars.

Here is the racing portion of Blue Bayou Motorsports.  Hold the applause, just throw money.

This is my first try at copying VHS tapes to my computer.   The video is a little choppy, but when I get it figured out, I'll put better footage up.

It is a 2.3 meg file and will take a while to download (especially on 56k modems or less).

This is the video for the "near miss" I described above.   You can left click on the photo, but it works better if you right click on the image and then left click on "Save Target as..." (for Internet Explorer users).  If this video isn't 8 seconds long, you didn't get the whole thing and will need to try the right click thing.

It is a 2.45 meg file and will take a while to download (especially on 56k modems or less).

This is the video for the first lap after they threw the green (the next lap that counted).  As you can see.....I couldn't quite DODGE him, and the RAMifications were pretty consequential.  The guy came over to our pits and apologized to me for the incident.  He and dad were old friends.....Dad had run into him a couple of weeks prior when he ran the car while I was moving Neeter's daughter back to college.  He probably thought he was getting even with dad!!!!  If the video you watch isn't 9 seconds, you'll need to try the right click method talked about above.

It is a 1.92 meg file and will take a while to download (especially on 56k modems or less).

This is the footage of Brant running over someone's 10 bolt GM axle with the tire still attached.  I'm fairly certain he did it on purpose and was just "grandstanding" (no pun intended).  For those interested, we have room to put your sponsorship on the underside of the car.  It will be shown to the grandstands as much as any other part of the car, and it has a lesser chance of getting wrinkled.  If the video you watch isn't 7 seconds, you'll need to try the right click method talked about above.