Just as the ramp trucks themselves passed into history, to be replaced by enclosed trailers, then fifth-wheel trailers, and ultimately 18-wheelers, so too must end (for now) the history of ramp trucks here. Oh sure, I could (and probably will) continue to receive images until trailers no longer have tires but float along on cushions of air on highways in the sky, but I thought I’d give this popular thread a massive send-off today.

It has been tremendous fun, and I've received tons and tons of thank-yous from the Insider Nation for looking back at this great period in our sport's history. As always, the plaudits really go to my readers, who supplied an unending stream of photos and stories from their personal archives, allowing many of us to see things we'd never dreamed of in images perhaps never before published.

In the gallery at right and in the many scroll-downs below, you'll find way too many photos, and your Web page probably won’t finish loading until 2013, but, hey, that's the price we pay for the history of the sport we love, right?

My quick count shows about 57 truck photos … damn, would have liked to have had 64. Wait … 64 ramp trucks! This Tuesday night at DRAGSTER Insider Raceway. Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday!

OK, on with the show. Let's get to truckin'.

Wow, here's a great shot. Clinton Snead sent this photo of the ex-Richard Petty 43 JR. Barracuda, which by then had been purchased by Eddie Ratliff. "Maybe it's not a famous crew, but it is a famous car," wrote Snead. "The reason I have these pictures is because my dad, Larry Snead, actually drove this car for Eddie Ratliff a few times, and he is on the far left in this picture. One quick and interesting story about this truck: When Eddie acquired the car, he, of course, had to paint the truck to match. From what I have been told, they actually made a pattern from the '43 JR.' on the side of the race car and used that as a stencil to paint it on the door of the truck. No vinyl wraps in those days!  And yes, I know this is more of a flatbed truck, but I still thought it would go with the theme."

Longtime Texas fuel racer Bobby Rex, who has just completed a new version of the Mexican Revolution Vega on which he wrenched for Johnny Valdez, sent this photo and tale of woe from their touring days. "Johnny and I were booked in at a Funny Car show in Odessa, Texas," he wrote. "I think about 1973. We were in the staging lanes, about the third back. It was cold and cloudy. The pair that had run before us came to the staging lanes and told us that it was snowing in the traps. We all laughed and didn't pay any attention. Within five minutes, we were all trying to load our cars on the trucks in a light snow. Before we could get out of the gates, it was snowing. The temperature dropped 20 degrees in about 30 minutes. This picture was taken at the motel. We all drove home in the snow." If you look close enough, you can see the snow whipping past the car at a 45-degree angle. Cool! I mean, cold!

Wow, talk about good timing. Bobby Starks sent this photo, which shows "Big Mike" Burkhart's fuel-burning Chevy II. You probably can’t read it on the rear quarter, but the name there is Harry Schmidt ... yes, THAT Harry Schmidt. Before he created the Blue Max, Schmidt teamed with Burkhart in 1966-67 on this car. I know this only because I have penned a Blue Max history story for this week's Pure Nostalgia column in National DRAGSTER. A week ago, I might not have known that.

Last fall when Dale Adams was hunting for a ramp truck, he found a couple of interesting ones, including this gold Dodge that was for sale in Portland, Ore., but was originally from the Midwest. It had been restored yet still retained interesting decals on the windows, including class-winner stickers from Lions Drag Strip, York U.S. 30, Capitol Raceway, and Eldora Raceway and other period stickers.

Brad Barrie sent the above photo of the truck that he now owns when it was the property of the guy who also owned the '55 on its back and wanted to know if anyone knew of its roots. James Riola, who works for Kalitta Motorsports on Dave Grubnic's Top Fueler, is originally from California and believes that the truck and car belonged to a friend of his from the Canoga Park area. "His name is Guy Binko, and this car and truck were one of the staples of the bracket racing scene in Bakersfield from the '80s to the '90s," he wrote. I forwarded James' e-mail to Brad so they could figure it out.

Bob Snyder sent another boatload of his ramp-truck photos, which you can see below, but the above photo caught my eye as I was pretty sure that the Armstrong-Hoover-Larsen 'Cuda was one of Dale Armstrong's earliest cars. I dropped "Double A Dale" an e-mail asking for confirmation and identification of his partners. Although the first name of Mr. Larsen escaped Armstrong's memory ("He was a short-term partner for about a year or less."), Woody Hoover, who died four or five years ago, was a longtime Armstrong friend and partner who owned a drywall business.

"We built this car to run on the Southern California injected alcohol circuit," he reported. "It had a 511-cubic-inch big-block Chevy. About a month before the last race at Lions and just before they created Pro Comp, we put a blower on it and lowered the compression, and it ran under the NHRA classification of BB F/C. At the last Lions race, we ran in Comp eliminator, qualifying No. 2 by running .15-seconds under the existing NHRA BB F/C record."

I mentioned in a previous column that we thought we had a lead to find Armstrong's ramp truck, but the trail went cold. "Apparently, the fellow who had it sold it about five years ago and has no record of the sale. If you hear anything about a 1969 Chevy ramp truck with a Cadillac engine in it, please let me know. If we could find a photo that shows a license plate number, it would expedite the process."

OK, Insiders, you have your homework assignment! Now on to to the newest Snyder gallery: (Shameless plug: You can buy these and other photos from Snyder's collection on www.vintagedragclub.com).

Alan Phillips' Baltimore Bandit	"Flash Gordon" Mineo
Malcolm Durham's Strip Blazer	Tommy Grove's Mustang
The famous Hawaiian	"Big John" Mazmanian's 'Cuda
Jim Barillaro's unique Cammer Jammer SOHC Torino	Fritz Callier's famed CKC Chevy II
Shirl Greer's Tension Charger	Frank Huff's Super Vega
Jake Crimmins' Raceway Speed Center Maverick	Roger Lindamood's Color Me Gone Charger
"Pee Wee" Wallace's Virginian Barracuda	Butch Kernodle's All-American Camaro
Tony Wahlay's Warlord Camaro (note front fender damage)	"Jungle Jim": ramp truck as service bay

And from our good pal in the Midwest and longtime National DRAGSTER contributor Tom Schiltz, here's this mini gallery.

The Tignanelli Bros. B/A Charger	More Ramchargers
More Malcolm Durham	More Connie Kalitta
Rare shot of Jack Chrisman's Mustang	Tom McEwen's 'Cuda
Coleman/Taylor Super Ford Torino	Don Schumacher
Jess Tyree	"Fast Eddie" Schartman's Air Lift Rattler Cougar
Bill Jenkins	Don Grotheer
"Dyno Don" Nicholson	Dick Loehr's Ford Drag Team
Fred Goeske's Road Runner	Goeske's 'Cuda

The last pic of Goeske's ramp truck leads me to the final (again, for now) ramp-truck story, which was sent by Herman Marchetti, known better to some of you as Herman Hermanator.

"Reading about the ramp trucks has been a real treat for us old-time drag race fans," he wrote. "One truck that stands out for me is Fred Goeske's, thanks to a friend. The first two Instamatic photos of the Road Runner were taken by Dana Winters at Irwindale Raceway in the fall of 1969. Dana was always a fan of Fred and used to hang out in his pit area. Fred even offered to take 12-year-old Dana on tour with him one year. All it would cost was $300 for room and board, but his parents could not come up with the cash, and he missed out on a real adventure.

"Dana now has Fred's original 1966 rear-engine Hemi 'Cuda Funny Car sitting in his garage awaiting parts to get her back up and cackling soon. We went to Pomona for 'Mousie' Marcellus' 75th birthday party in 2005, and on our way out of California, Dana Winters, O.J. Stephens, and I stopped by Fred's business in Thousand Oaks. Fred still has his ramp truck.

"The interior was restored and the outside repainted; it looked almost new. I believe he said over 300,000 miles on the odometer. This truck hauled the Hemi 'Cuda II, Road Runner, the Speed Sport 'Cuda, two Vega Funny Cars, two Duster Funny Cars, his last rocket Funny Car, and probably a few more in between. It was a real treat to see it and take a few photos of it. "

OK, gang, that's all for today ... whew. That was a lot of ramp trucks.
 

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