Bobby Ely
Ely Photos
John Ryan and his 0 car.
Gary Cross points out this car
looks and is painted the same as the one Schooch Schoonmaker drove a few
years earlier. Coincidence? We were lucky enough to have John chime in
on the details;
When I first started out
Schooch drove for me in 62 & 63,in 64 Ray Chapman drove for me. I decided
to drive myself in 65. I drove from 65 to 69. The picture you used was from 68
or 69. I know this is a lot of words to say yes, The Red Zero was a Schoonmaker
ride at one time. If you look at the pictures you have under Schooch's name
you'll see my 66 ride.
The year Johnny Flach ran an
oxygen bottle in his car to gain power, he was high point man that year. There
was a 100 lap race he was running well in but fell off the pace about 77 laps
in, I asked him what happened, he said his bottle ran out. The night they
paid double top five spots, we were second in that one, Ray Chapman and Toby
Goodermote both got credit for the win, they also gave double points. The
night we beat the Yellow X by 1 or 2 feet at the finish line for second place
in a 100 lap double points race, naturally that was when Schooch drove for
me. You have a picture of the night Schooch and Link Petit got rammy in the
warm ups. Schooch and I stayed friends up to his death, in fact he stopped in
at my house just a few weeks before he died, his daughter lived in
Bennington. I didn't learn off his passing until a couple of weeks after.
John Ryan.
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