Originally Posted by
Mojo31
What type of pit crew - dragster?
Rick Carelli.
Early 80's. I drove the hauler and changed rear tires on pit stop races. This was the heyday of Late Model racing, to be honest. West coast, we ran Open Competition, which is run what ya brung type stuff. Big blocks, small blocks, whatever. We ran a Fischer Engineering 388 ci, but others ran 440 and 426 small blocks, etc. All weight break and carb size. One year in Phoenix, Joe Ruttman would have qualified 23rd in the Indy Car race, based on time. They were fast. Back east we ran ASA, Artgo and All Pro. Those used to be the races the Cup guys would run on their off weekends, and that was treat to jaw with those guys. That was before the Sportsman/Busch series took off.
Rick then took off to the Trucks and Cup, and he spots for Eric Jones nowadays. He did well in the trucks, won a few, and contended a lot. He tried to kill himself in Memphis when he hit the wall. He had the same injury as Earnhardt, but for some reason, it happened where it did, and the Elvis Presley Memorial Hospital happened to be a Level 1 Trauma as well as having some of the best spinal guys in the world there, at the time. He got lucky, and he knows it.
It was fun.