Vintage

One Friday night I was set up at Albany-Saratoga Speedway with my OLD SPEEDWAYS photos and movies. It was a beautiful late summer evening, and I was there promoting Nostalgia along with displaying the rich history of... THE ASPHALT YEARS AT ALBANY-SARATOGA SPEEDWAY... My tent was crowded all night to see the movies I had of the pavement track as well as my photo collection. The buzz got going around in the pits and I had several people coming over from the pits throughout the night.

One person that came to my display, watched my OLD SPEEDWAY DVD for quite sometime. She finally asked me if I had any footage of Pine Bowl Speedway. I told her I did, and as I was fast-fowarding the dvd, she mentioned her dad raced there and won 1 race. She also said he died several years ago when she was a young girl. The only thing she had of her dad was a trophy and 1 photo. The car was numbered X-47, and after her telling me that I got all excited, because I told her I have footage of her dad racing. When I showed her quite alot of footage of her dad, she began to get real emotional and choked up. Well that got me all choked up, Christine got all choked up and we were standing in front of the TV all blubbering together......Its funny how fate has a way of happening because back in March I located a car that raced at Pine Bowl. I took photos of the car and went on my merry way. This car was the x-47 car driven by Eddie Van Hoesen.

So on her way over to my booth, coming from the pits, did Marietta ever think what she was about to find? Movies and photos of her dad racing, plus knowing where the car is, and photos of it current condition. I did offer her dads car to her, as it was offered to me................THIS IS WHY I DO THE RESEARCH

I can't believe what continues to happen on this project. Not only what Sunday brought to us, but this story continues into Monday as well.

But first I must tell you my side of Sundays story. I may get a little long winded here, but I want to give you the same exact feeling of what we all had yesterday.

Gregs Towing , myself and Christine showed up at the same time. It was a bright sunny day, and you could smell fall in the air. As other DTD people arrived, some were meeting for the first time,and others were talking racing. The atmosphere in the parking lot was like opening day at your favorite race track, seeing all your friends again from the winter break. We all waited around until we figured this was everyone who will be showing up. We all shoved off and headed to the project site. Once we got to the site, we unloaded our equipment and went to back of fastjacks house, and off into the woods. I noticed from the last time I visited the site, that fastjacks has already cleared a path to the car that was before high-stepping knee deep. (THANKS CHRIS) As everyone started digging out out the car, MH37 found the hood over there, a rim over there, and parts over there. We put them in a pile just outside of the wooded area and continue digging. At this point, I am up behind the house doing an interview with fastjack (Landowner) while Gregs Towing is masterminding the game plan to get the car out. The car was down a good size hill, deep in the woods. But Greg had the perfect plan. "We can dig the car loose, pull it to the edge of the trees, then lift it out and set it on the trailer. The plan worked perfectly, everything went much easier than anticipated. Bob Miller and PS were in the woods filming every detail. John was on the hill with the interview camera. All the cameras were on the car as it left the woods and seen sunshine for the first time in years. Around the house we went, and into the driveway heading to the trailer. Placing it on the trailer was some what tricky, but Greg was a master of setting it dead center of the trailer. After we tied the car down, we all had a chance to relax, and gave Gasketcase the mic. With all of the smiles and giggles he created, it made to be a enjoyable rest, and a sence of a job well done.

Just before we going to leave, PS informed us that he needed to get some gas, so we all busted his butt, and road him pretty hard for not getting gas before hand. THIS ACT CHANGED THE WHOLE PROJECT.
Everyone followed me to the Hess Station on 9-20 in Schodack. I was all set with fuel so I parked right out front next to the road, also trying to stay out of the way of other customers. As the restrooms were being used, PS getting his gas, Bob pulled in right behind me. I went back to ask him if everything looked secure on the trailer on the ride. After speaking with him, I walked out to the trailer and rechecked the straps. Out of the corner of my eye, a Black truck came sorta flying into the station, and a man jumps out of the truck and approaches me...........
The man came up to me with a concerned voice saying "What are you doing with this car"? I didnt know him so to brief it up into one sentence, I told him we are restoring it. He must not have caught the idea of what we were doing yet as he replied " You guys arent going to the scrap yard with this are you, because I will pay you what ever you want for this car. "This is my dads car. In all the confusion here, I asked him if you are Mariettas brother......He replied no, and went on to start telling about his dad and Mariettas dad. We are all scrambling to get cameras set up, and catch all of this on tape. The gentleman we were speaking to is Loyal Burl. He goes on to tell us that Loyals dad (Art) and Marriettas dad (Eddie) were best of friends and both drove the car. Loyal has all of the history, and tons of photos. When we got set up to interview, I explained the whole story to him on what was going on. When he went to answer, he was so overwelmed, that it made him speechless. Well that put a tear to everyone standing watching this unfold. Loyal was coming back from Home Depot looking for windows, they didnt have what he wanted, so he decied to go to Grossmans, and just happen to take the same route, at the same time as we did with the car.

Im telling you there is some kind of magic here to have Marrietta meet me at a show, then have Loyal driving by a gas station at the same exact time we are there with the car (5 minute window)

On Monday speaking to Loyal , he has the very same helmet that Eddie used to race with that is his dads. I know where the original flag is from Pine Bowl........ so how cool is this

Just before leaving the gas station, Christine noticed Loyal reaching inside the drivers window and touching the steering wheel, like he was saying Hi to his dad