Ray Halberstadt suited up in his primitive fire suit in 1964. The blown Pontiac (are you listening Steve Barcak) won more Top Eliminator titles than most, ‘back in the day’!

Our trip continued east and the ‘RUN’ drifted from my mind completely. After crossing the Great Smoky Mountains, we needed to stop at the outskirts of Greenville, South Carolina. Terry Riffle, who as a young man worked for me at both Tri State Dragway and the KAS, gave us a phone number of Gary Smith who ran the auto supply counter and drove a Buick Gran Sport at the local drag races.

We called the number and within minutes a knock on our Hotel door signaled Gary was there. Later that evening we were relaxing at the Golden Corral when Gary querried, “I don’t imagine anyone remembers driving around Kahoka, Missouri, in Jack Briggs’ Hemi Plymouth do they?” Gary also said the fifth rider that night was machinist Clifford Couch, whom we had talked to during the ‘Rust Revival’ in Wayland, Mo.