Rockstad was a crewmember of the original “Northwind” dragster. The four other team members were Jim Albrich, Earl Floyd, Jack Coonrod and Ed “Ace“ McCulloch. The car was rebuilt last year. (James Handy photo)

A few years later, as I continued to grow in my passion for cars, I attended the annual Portland Roadster Show. Always a quality event with hot rods and some racecars -- no doubt the best show in the Oregon area. As usual, I would pick up decals and pamphlets from all the vendor booths throughout the show.

As I wound my way around the Coliseum there it was, the Exhaust Specialties booth with Martin's '36 Ford coupe on display. As I entered the booth, I could see that the car had never been changed since that accident happened some time back. My mouth fell open when I saw how many and how large the shrapnel holes really were throughout the entire car. To me it looked like someone threw a bomb inside of that '36 Ford. It was quite obvious that Martin did escape a moment in life that could have easily been his last.

In later years, Dick Martin became a great snow skier with a modified set of skis that had a short strap-on stub for his one leg that he had lost at the drag races. He was not going to let that accident in Shelton slow him down.

That day in 1956 was just one of many opportunities that I had in my over 50 years in and around the sport. As I look back over the years, the opportunities that came along grew my passion bit by bit. I cannot forget the importance of taking opportunities that come along as I went from that day in Shelton, Washington, to 29 years of drag racing management in Portland and Seattle.