A little trip from the present and down memory lane ... Let me explain. Speedway racing has been around forever right, Just about everyone must have been to the dirt track at least once in their lifetime, I can just remember far enough back to when my father had a speedway car sitting in our narrow driveway, It was a light blue FJ Holden here in Australia and I had to squeeze past each day going to and coming home from school or perhaps preschool, I might have been 5 or 6 years old, I remember it had a picture of Donald Duck painted on it and the number 77, I seem to remember my father painted it there, But I am not 100% sure. Mother said he only raced once or twice and had a crash and being a young father it was time to hang up his helmet and think of his family, I still remember seeing him driving the water truck at interval at the speedway and sometimes he would ride on the back of the water truck and turn the water on and off. Thinking back now it was only a small speedway club and all those people who helped run the race meetings did it because of their love for the sport, The man at the front gate was so old, He must have been a racer in his day and now he was still giving his time freely to help the club, Everyone that worked at the race meeting did so for free, The ladies in the canteen were all grandmothers, mothers, wives, girlfriends or daughters of one of the drivers in the club, The drivers themselves shared the duties on the day that were needed to run a successful race meeting, The grader driver was also a Hot-rod driver and even bought his own grader to the track to help prepare the track for racing, Everyone pitched in to help. My favourite class of car was the "A" Grade hot-rods, They were basically a sprint car with a old style Hot-rod body bolted on, You had a choice of Ford or Chev and even the old flat head Ford V8 was used with great success, They were loud and fast and ran in the opposite direction to the rest of the cars, They ran clockwise on the track, The numbers of cars in the field were smaller than the other classes, But It did not matter, They were spectacular, In later years as the dads got older it was the sons that took over the race cars and it was a new generation that continued the rivalry that had raged for years before, I think they are now known as Thunder Rods. I wonder how my life would have turned out if my father had not sold the Hot-rod and instead continued racing, I would have loved the chance to race on the speedway, I can still see his white cotton overalls that Mother stitched his name and race number on the front of, So thin and not fireproof in anyway and his helmet did not offer much in the way of protection either and the big googles that were also worn and no gloves, How times have changed. This is my tribute to my Father and all others who have raced or watched speedway cars over the years, It was a great way to be with family and friends on a Sunday afternoon. Thanking you for viewing and I will get back to the 1934 Ford Hot-rod project now, This was just a idea that popped into my head last night and I had to do it. I will do another picture or two of this car and show you what is lurking under the engine cover.