Question for Don Schumacher

[.]

Oh yeah, Happy Birthday Shoe! I'm so glad you and your teams are around. Looking forward to many more years of awesomeness.

 

[Huge]

I asked Snake (in 2003) if he would consider writing a book about his life's experiences.
He said he didn't have an immediate plans, but who knows. Maybe in the future. That would be a great book.

Like I told one of the guys in Vegas this past weekend, the best stories in drag racing cannot be made public or printed.

Paul you hit that nail right on the head.

 

[afx421]

i hope don tells more, i cant get enough of the old stories, 1961-1975 was the best era in drag racing!

 

[big guy]

Thanks for the reply Don.Happy birthday

 

[Mooseman]

Im really glad this thread hit it off . Looking forward to more posts .

 

[force fan]

Happy Birthday, Shoe!!!!!!!!! I get alot of questions when I wear my hat you signed for me, you signed it "The Shoe" and my non drag racing friends wonder why we call you Shoe. Took them a while to catch on!!!!!

 

[Student of the sport]

Happy Birthday Mr. Schumacher!!

"If the pits could talk"

I sure do miss all the fun at the County, Irwindale, OMS, etc.
Fox hunts, PDA, Wednesday and Friday at OCIR, 64 Funny Cars!!

 

[Fast Al]

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but Traci Hrudka and others have put together a movement called "Project 1320-Pioneers of the Quarter Mile". They are interviewing and documenting the originators of the sport, before they are all gone. They will be at the SEMA show, if you have anything to contribute to their efforts (vintage footage, articles etc.) let them know. Google project 1320, for more info.

 

[yoda]

Thats great stuff Don! Paper cups to mark the parts......makes me feel better about my son's use of sticky notes while doing some "motor work"

Camera phones, Mel.... 21st Century version of sticky notes


Happy Birthday, Shoe

 

[JHOLE]

Not sure if this has been mentioned before, but Traci Hrudka and others have put together a movement called "Project 1320-Pioneers of the Quarter Mile". They are interviewing and documenting the originators of the sport, before they are all gone. They will be at the SEMA show, if you have anything to contribute to their efforts (vintage footage, articles etc.) let them know. Google project 1320, for more info.

Thanks for the heads up. I googled it like you said and found it initially professional and well layed out, - too tired to dig in to the meat of it tonight.

We need to dig out those photos and ask about them. I started last year.

My Mom dropped off a bunch of championship jackets and memorobilia for me to build showcases for. I had to ask her where it all came from... - " it's all in that closet"-- WTF.... Started digging out a bunch of old pics and stuff from a closet I found full of stuff from '55 through '80 - really opened my eyes.

When I started to track down the facts and background it got interesting.

There is soooo much out there that isn't known. Open up guys, We'd love to hear it...

 

[None]

Lets see if Don will tell some of the stories of how both his mom and dad played in the early days. Can you say "battery chargers for all" or how about another seat at the kitchen table or how Don's mom would stuff a couple of extra dollars in Dons packed clothes so he would not go hungry on the road.

Don rented a part of Fiberglass Ltd for his early racing endeavors and all the touring racers stooped by for midweek repairs. Romeo Palamides also rented part of the shop and ran his jet s out of there. Romeo was building cars for others and one car that comes in mind was a Ford Cobra that they took apart to put a jet engine in it only years later to realize that it was one of those special Cobra's that was worth a lot of money,

and the story goes on.


Pellegrini

 

[JF]

Lets see if Don will tell some of the stories of how both his mom and dad played in the early days. Can you say "battery chargers for all" or how about another seat at the kitchen table or how Don's mom would stuff a couple of extra dollars in Dons packed clothes so he would not go hungry on the road.

Don rented a part of Fiberglass Ltd for his early racing endeavors and all the touring racers stooped by for midweek repairs. Romeo Palamides also rented part of the shop and ran his jet s out of there. Romeo was building cars for others and one car that comes in mind was a Ford Cobra that they took apart to put a jet engine in it only years later to realize that it was one of those special Cobra's that was worth a lot of money,

and the story goes on.


Pellegrini

Ok, this is going to make me feel old. But as a former crew guy I can remember staying in a house in Justice, Ill (I think that was it) around 1974-75 that was shared by Schumacher and Chi-town crew and drivers.

 

[CH3NO2JAY]

I hope Don picks up on this, but I know that he is very busy. Don came into Fiberglass Ltd when we first started with misc sheet metal he wanted copied in fiberglass to build an Oldsmobile 442 funny car.. I was VERY busy and did not make the pieces as I knew sales would not be good. I had a business arrangement with R & B automotive ( Rollian & Buttera) to build complete funny cars through Automotive Research & Engineering (ARE) a company I had just started. I talked Don into Buying a Dodge Charger and that with a order from Don Gay for a Pontiac and Bobby Woods for a Chevy 2 were the first three cars that we built.

And the story goes on from here.


Don has a birthday tomorrow. I think its number 39, but I do not remember how may times he has pasted this level.

Ron Pellegrini

Ron, was this one of the first???

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/CH3NO2JAY/Stardust66.jpg

Photo courtesy of ????

I saved it A WHILE BACK, sorry for the no credit, I have no idea...

My favorite Schumacher FC look wise was:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/CH3NO2JAY/schumacher_2.jpg
Photo courtesy of ????

I saved it A WHILE BACK, sorry for the no credit, I have no idea...

 

[Nick Name]

Do;
We want to hear some Marco Polo stories

 

[n/a]

Ron, was this one of the first???

Those were the days when Funny Car was exciting.

 

[Mooseman]

Ok, this is going to make me feel old. But as a former crew guy I can remember staying in a house in Justice, Ill (I think that was it) around 1974-75 that was shared by Schumacher and Chi-town crew and drivers.

Cool aparently just saying cool is too short of a post so once again ....... cool

 

[Nick Name]

Those were the days when Funny Car was exciting.

The excitement level back then was off the chart. I remember the first 7 second funnycar pass I ever saw was an injected car like that. We had just pushed our TF car up on the rollers at Lions, and they made us wait while they ran some funnys.

Up came Butch Leal in his new injected Cuda. Got a great view from directly behind him as he ran a 7.98 or something like that. I remember how shocked I was to think I had just seen a car with a full body make a seven second pass.

 

[Butch]

Ron; Before I worked for Seaport Automotive/Titsworth. I worked for Tim Arnold on a T/F car out of Coldwater, MI He used to send me into Chi-town for Nitro. It was on Archer ave. I don't remember the name of the place, it wasn't Romeo Palamides . But I do remember the RATS in the alley were as big as cats. I would bring the 6-8 drums of nitro back in the P/U truck and then he would sell off a couple to Dick LaHaie. Dick would send his wife and Kim down to the shop in a stationwagon to get the nitro. Back then Kim was about 10-12?

Jeff; If you find any cool pics with me in them I would really appreciate a copy.

 

[JHOLE]

Jeff; If you find any cool pics with me in them I would really appreciate a copy.[/QUOTE]

I keep looking for cool pics with you in them ---- But you keep killing the cool...

Just kidding. I've got a care package to send to you. I just gotta get the details right.

Back to the topic; Mr P. , with all due respect, eluding to a story doesn't tell it... We're all ears. I'll even say please...with all due respect...

Here's one for you...

 

[Mooseman]

This thread is going to be great . I might have to do something similer to this for other old time racers . Any old time crew chiefs here? ones from back in the day before data loggers when tuning a engine was more then buying the latest part out of a catalogue I hope I don't sound like a dick saying that I mean I dont have any racing experiance yet but I would just love to talk to some old time tuners or engine builders from back in the day just to talk mechanics and engines . Can wait for more input from the shoe on this thread .