My passion for racing started around 1952. I rode in the back of an ambulance to Flying Saucer Speedway, a small quarter-mile dirt track in Fort Smith, Arkansas. “Hopped-up” flathead Fords were dominant, with an occasional 270 six-cylinder Jimmy engine in the mix.
My first car was a 1930 Ford Model A with a V-8 flathead engine. A V-8 engine in a Model A with mechanical brakes was a recipe for disaster. There was very little hot-rodding in Arkansas back then. Most information was gleaned from Hot Rod Magazine. Honest Charley Speed Shop was one of the very few sources for speed parts.
I was a “street outlaw” when I was 14 years old. Instead of a flathead, I managed to shoehorn a 1949 Cadillac engine into an old 1947 Ford. There was a small income to be made from racing soldiers from the local Army Base, Fort Chaffee. However, this turned out to be slightly dangerous. We learned not to pick on anyone with alcohol on their breath. From there, I had a couple of lightweight Ford coupes with small block Chevy engines. I managed to buy the first used, salvaged small block Chevy to come to Fort Smith. I also purchased the first set of “300 horse” heads in Fort Smith. The dealer did not even have a part number so I educated them that they were coming. Thus, began my first love affair with cylinder heads.
In the 1960s a drag strip opened in Fort Smith, and it replaced most of the street racing. I raced lightweight coupes and eventually built one of the first lightweight Anglias to come to Arkansas. I discovered that if you didn’t have a big budget to build better horsepower, weight loss was good.
Eventually, I married the boss’s daughter, moved to Mena, Arkansas, and replaced drag racing with circle track racing. I began circle track racing in 1972. We could race three nights a week if we could make it happen. There were three small tight quarter-mile dirt tracks and a half-mile asphalt track (that eventually was converted to a dirt track) in our area. We raced late models and what we called hobby stocks. There wasn’t a lot of rules; it was rough and tumble, but it was a lot of fun. I quit racing in the late 1980s until 1990, and then raced dirt cars for another four years. I raced oval tracks for 18 years and enjoyed every minute!
I have been fortunate to live long enough to see the evolution of hot rodding from the flathead Ford and the small and big block Chevy to the direct injected, computer-controlled, turbocharged, supercharged engines available today. Today’s incredible technology gives good fuel economy while cruising and also makes awesome horsepower with great reliability while being environmentally acceptable. I have seen horsepower increased over 1000 hp with one carburetor. The evolution and growth of marketing and sales in the automotive industry has been amazing. In the 1950s, there were only a few speed shops and Honest Charley’s mail order to buy parts. My first set of racing slicks in 1961 came from California by railway express. It took two weeks to get them, but they only cost $45. Now there are giant outlets with thousands of items available overnight.
Along with all this, I have managed to make a good living doing what I love to do. Today, BRODIX® has a full line of great products and is managed by my children, Jeff, Greg, and Jennifer, and a wonderful group of long-time employees.