Friday, May 29, 2026
there's a bullet hole in his coffee cup which he was drinking from when someone shot at his rig when he was on the interstate near Lucedale, Mississippi, Feb 1974
The shot went through the side window of Harold Jentzen's truck and through the cup.
He was not hurt, and did not stop to report the incident until he was 200 miles away five hours later in Lafayette, La.
Anecdotal evidence is that teamsters union was on strike, and shooting at the truckers rolling along on the US72, US78, and Interstate 55
Thursday, May 28, 2026
Carroll Shelby’s 1954 South American Racing — La Carrera Panamericana, Shelby entered the race driving this Austin-Healey 100S for the factory team Shelby Racing.
This 1954 edition was the last, it was discontinued due to safety concerns. At the 175-kilometer marker north of Oaxaca, Shelby T-bones a large rock and flips his Austin-Healey four times.
I just love this part of a bigger photo... I had to slice off the water marked area. Then I learned how important the car in the watermarked area was... a Super Duty 421 Tempest at the Daytona 2nd Continental Race, a 250-miler.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=26555912034081287&set=gm.1751308582811627&idorvanity=226675368608297
The Chevy 427 big-block—the first of its breed, was out to punch the automotive world in the proverbial nose— but there was this Pontiac to get around.
And the Pontiac was hustling around the track and lapping everyone, including one poor Ferrari eight times.
And the Pontiac was hustling around the track and lapping everyone, including one poor Ferrari eight times.
Others were lapped multiple times, too. Even the second place finisher, the legendary A.J. Foyt would succumb, he was 2 laps down
Instead of Chevy introducing the world to a victory with the Mystery Motor, the best they could do this day was to come in second.
But then... the SD Tempest disappeared.
The Pontiac was sent back to the shop in Indiana and sat for a short time before reportedly being purchased by Mercedes-Benz, who promptly shipped it back to Germany and completely disassembled every nut and bolt for a “competitive” inspection. The car has never been seen again and is listed by most hard-core SD experts as “destroyed.”
In 1963, Pontiac built 12 lightweight Super Duty Tempests, six station wagons, and six LeMans coupes to assault the 'strips—which they all did, with the exception of one coupe.
It was plucked for the first ever NASCAR Challenge Cup (above race)
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
One day in 1951, A.J. Watson put down his tools at the Lockheed aircraft assembly line in Glendale, California. He walked past his coworkers, past the time clock, he didn't punch out. He just left, and he never came back.
After seeing his first race at Bonelli Stadium in Saugus in 1947, he built a track roadster and arrived at Indianapolis in 1948 as a mechanic. By 1950, at 26 years old, he'd built his own car for the Indy 500 — but the cost of running it for driver Dick Rathmann drove him back to Lockheed. Back to the assembly line. Back to the steady paycheck.
For one year. Then the 1951 race approached. And Watson walked away from Lockheed. Without a word. Without punching out. Because Indianapolis was calling, and a time clock was not going to answer.
What followed was the most dominant chassis-building career in the history of the Indy 500.
Within a year, he was asked to join an Indy crew.
After a succession of drivers and owners, Watson built a car for Bob Sweikert in 1955 that claimed his first Indy 500 win.
The next year, with the track repaved, Watson knew the speeds would go up causing more tire wear. He built a much lighter, slimmer car for Pat Flaherty, who won the race.
In 1959 Watson teamed with Rodger Ward and team owner Bob Wilkie to form the potent Triple W team. Ward and Jim Rathmann finished 1-2 in Watson’s cars, then swapped positions in 1960 to give Watson his second consecutive 1-2 finish.
Ward won again in 1962, leading a parade of six Watsons in the top eight.
In all, Watson built some 23 roadsters, including the last Indy 500 victory for a front engine in 1964, driven by A.J. Foyt.
https://www.motorsportshalloffame.com/inductees/aj-watson/
I know a guy who builds race cars this well... Jason. His idea of wiggle room is about 0.001"
I know a guy who builds race cars this well... Jason. His idea of wiggle room is about 0.001"
I built machinery with him at Production Assembly Systems in Poway, that place made some big complex machinery, and had half a warehouse just for the fully equipped machine shop, they made everything in house that didn't need to be welded
the Northern Pacific train wreck on the "S" trestle 7 miles above Mullan, Idaho, on February 10, 1903.
An avalanche had taken out a sizable section of the trestle just hours after the train with a rotary snow plow stopped partly on the trestle so the crew could rest. Ironically, they had stopped on the end of the trestle to avoid the train being buried in an avalanche. A helper locomotive with tender and a caboose on the back of the train on the trestle were hurled over 75 feet into the gulch below, while a passenger car hung precariously over the chasm. Amazingly, nobody was killed. The injured NP personnel were hauled to the hospital in Wallace by hand sleigh. NP engine no. 396, a Baldwin manufactured E-Class 4-6-0, it's tender, and the caboose were a total loss.
Michigan Central Station, before and after the rennovation (thank you Marc!)
but here's something Marc let me know about... they preserved some walls that were covered in graffiti, to show the real history of the place, that it wasn't all glamour, it was also in and of the real world.
thank you Marc!
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