I'm VERY opinionated and just "calls 'em likes I sees 'em". But that's OK because this is my page. From my mail I am sometimes entertaining and sometimes controversial. I've been called every name under the sun but I'm thick skinned so I don't care. So, if ya want to write me and tell me what you think drop me a line at stooge@fullnet.net. Now here's your basic primer to the "Stooge".
I'm a 45 year old married father of two college age daughters (one at OU and one at OSU, so when they play each other it gets hostile around here). I now live in Oklahoma due to a job transfer for my wife. Before that I lived in Delaware, about 45 minutes from the Dover track. I began following NASCAR racing in the late 60's when I watched Cale Yarborough sail over the wall at Darlington on the Wide World of Sports. A few years later, in 1973, I happened upon a show car at the local mall where they were advertising the upcoming spring race at Dover. I talked some buddies into going and was hooked for life. I didn't miss another race at Dover for the next 44 in a row until I moved to OK.
In 1982 I wrote a "Letter to the Editor" in Grand National Scene (now Winston Cup Scene) in which I wished all the "independents" good luck in '82 (I've always rooted for the underdogs). At the end of the letter they printed my name, city and state. The evening I received my paper in the mail I received a call from a fellow that just happened to live about a 1/2 mile away. He introduced himself, told me he saw my letter in GNS and looked my number up in the phone book. He then went on to tell me he worked as a volunteer for one of the independent owners by the name of Roger Hamby. He said he saw where I was a fan of the independents, gave me Roger's phone number and told me to call him and ask him if he needed an extra set of hands. Thus began my years on a NASCAR pit crew.
From 1982-87 I volunteered my help to Roger and his drivers at every race I could make it to. The first year I worked with Lake Speed and in 1983 I worked with Sterling Marlin as he won Rookie of the Year in the #17 Hesco Muffler Systems car. Over the next few years I also worked with such famous drivers as Phil Parsons, Lennie Pond and Morgan Shepherd and with lesser knowns like Clark Dwyer, Bosco Lowe, Ken Ragan, Doug Heveron and Pancho Carter.
In 1987, Roger and most of the other independents started to struggle to make the field as more money and more financed teams began to take over WC racing. As he began to lose money by not making the races he started to phase out his operation until finally closing the doors in early 1988. Being a family man and not willing to relocate closer to the hub of racing my pit crew days came to an end.
I've attended over 200 races, have kept lap records of the majority of the races since 1980 (missed most of the ones I worked in '82-'87), have an extensive "research library" and have been doing my website for no other reason than the love of the sport.
So there you go. That's the "Stooge". Why "Stooge"? Well I also have a love for The Three Stooges and when I got my first hookup to the internet in early '96 I picked stooge for my ISP sign in name. Plain and simple, like me!
Stooge