Connections, Connections, the Mary & Larry Reep story

‘Deep in the heart of Texas’, 2014: If you check out the web site of the Outlaw Fuel Altereds, the headline page features two of the very tough Texas circuit cars. The purple car on the left is being driven by Kahoka, Mo. native Mary Murphy-Reep who with her husband and car builder, Larry, live and race out of Austin, Texas.

During the summer of 2013 when everyone was racing, an e-mail reached me from the ‘Media’ a local newspaper now serving Kahoka, Mo. The article and photo were about a lady, Mary Murphy-Reep, raised in Clark County Missouri (Kahoka is the county seat), who now lives in Austin, Texas, and is a Championship drag racer. A couple of days later, the same information was sent to me from the Daily Gate City, the Keokuk, Iowa tabloid. So I checked it out.

Mary Murphy-Reep is from the Murphy family of Clark County and the younger sister of three boys. The boys mostly tried racing when Tri State Dragway was in action at Kahoka. The oldest, Jack, was a constant helper with cars which this writer owned and campaigned. The other two, Mark & Jim, were mainstays at the track too.

Back in 1962, when Larry was serving his country with the U.S. Air Force, he also found time to nurture this pristine full rendered ‘chopped top’ ’32 Ford coup. The workmanship on this car looks intense for ‘back in the day’ and he did what this writer did not do--used the full fenders, running boards, and lights.