Dick Trickle's 1969 Mustang & Mark Martin's Camaro at Historic Auto Attractions Museum!

I didn't mention money, nothing. I will buy it. So how did you get this Dick Trickle Mustang? Oh, Dick Trickle's Mustang. He was my close friend. He was my buddy and I respected him a lot because when I was competing, he was the first person I asked any questions about. This person always helped me. He wanted to help newbies so I could ride better and not crash into him. So, somehow, Dick had this car for many years. He also has Kenny Schroeder. They found her in Lebanon, Missouri. Dick Trickle won a 300-lap race there on I70. Well, after the race and the season were over, a guy there approached him. He wanted this car. He bought a car from Dick. Dick built another new car for the '73 season. Well, that guy was driving her around a bit there. She ended up in the mud in the backyard, almost in a hole. Just in terrible condition. We have a picture of her here somewhere. This is the car with me and Dick the day I picked it up . It was in Kenny Schroeder's workshop when we arrived. Good. I convinced him, convinced him, and convinced him. He didn't want to sell it because he said they were going to restore it, but he and Kenny never did. And one day he probably got tired of my persuasion. So he says, "Okay, I'll sell it to you." He says, "I'll buy it." I didn't mention money, nothing. I will buy it. And he says, "Here's what I want. I want exactly what I put into it, and pay Schroeder what he put into it, and it's yours." Yes, I want this car. Oh, that was in 2012 or 2013 . When he passed away. Yes. But anyway, I wanted so badly, when I finished working on this car, to invite him here to be a guest speaker at our hall of fame and see this car. Oh, that meant a lot to me . But that never happened. And it knocked the ground out from under my feet, because I so wanted him to see this car that he won all those races in, for what it was. I restored it down to the engine. Everything is as it was. Everything in it works. He could go out and race it if he wanted to. Yes. Because of things like this, I regret that I'm not 10 years older, because so many people are no longer with us, with whom we didn't have time to talk. And perhaps the second best time to plant a tree is right now. So that's what we do, and that's why we do it. You know, Dick Trickle, he enjoyed life to the fullest. Well, he had heart surgery, and when they intervened, something happened to his nerves and he was in a lot of pain. He tried to get rid of it. He was prescribed a bunch of medications. And later it turned out that one of the drugs he was prescribed caused a tendency to changes in consciousness. And I think that's why he passed away. He was not suicidal. He enjoyed life to the fullest. I'm telling you, that's how I feel. Is the bulkhead recessed to move the engine back? Yes, the bulkhead is recessed to move the engine back for weight, and the bottom of the vent is removed for convenience. Mhm. Yes, that's cool. It significantly increases the engine bay, and you know, the lack of mudguards or a front support panel really makes a big difference. See how small that wheel is compared to the others? Yes. He always put a very small wheel on the left front, which automatically helped him turn left. Mhm. Is this built on a frame from another car? This is a 1967 Ford frame , and the Mustang is a unibody. Yes. So he opened up the sills, took the frame of the '67 , cut it off in front of the rear wheels, put it in the sills, and then put it all together. And the '67 Ford frame weighed only 67 pounds at the time. The full-size Chevy and others weighed over 100. So Dick was a little ahead of the rest when building this car. He built it with one thing in mind—light weight. He had a theory: if you build a heavy machine, the damage will be greater when it hits a wall. And if the car is light, it will just bounce off it. Yes. But in any case, this car was built with weight in mind. And he came out and just crushed everyone. You know, 67 wins in one year. But let's take our hats off to another gentleman, his name is Tom Recker. Tom Recker tied him with 67 wins . Tom Recker worked hard before he passed away. All about Dick Tickle, he helped build that memorial. He did so much for Dick's in that regard, but doesn't get enough recognition for his 67th. And I think he deserves respect for that. And maybe this could be a topic for a future video. We will do some research on this. He deserves full respect for this. Would I like to have one of his old Javelins? I even asked him about it . He says he ended up in California. Maybe he's still there. Someone might have it. I always thought Daryl looked like an astronaut in that fireproof suit. Now, I had no idea that one of these Mark Martin cars still existed. And I really want to know how she got to you . I was in Daytona, Florida, and every year during the Daytona 500 race, they had a flea market where people would bring all kinds of racing stuff and stuff. Then there was one road racer there, I think from Texas or Arizona. He bought this car and tried to use it for road racing, even though he wasn't even a racer. Well, he didn't do anything to her. I was there. I contacted you. You made a deal, and I brought it home and restored it exactly as it was when you received it. Did she still look like that in that livery or did he repaint her? I repainted it all . I mean, the body was in bad shape, and that's why it wasn't rebuilt. Did it have a different livery when you got it? That was right. That was true, but much of it was in very poor condition. It just needed a restoration, and I wanted to restore it to look like Martin's car. Do you have any pictures of what it was like when you got it? No. A. How long ago was that? I probably bought it, uh , I'll give you 15-20 years ago. Oho. So, Mark sold this car to that guy , and that guy just kept it, and then you got it from that guy. Yes. Craig sold it. This guy got it. He wanted to do road racing for a reason. It was a left-turn car. Yes. And he wasn't even a racer and did n't do anything with it. And when I met him at that market, I said, "Well, I would definitely like to own it." Did he put it up for sale there? No, he just had a small photo of the car at the time. A. Then he had other things, and of course they became interested in this car. Yes, I thought that if one of these things still existed, Mark would have it. But I mean, what exactly did he have ? Maybe two of these. Not that big. Not so much. This is a photo of him with Trickle. So this was early in Mark's career , before he started using Dylan's stuff, right? Oh, no. No, he was related to Dylan . A. Whereas he used to have a workshop right there, near one of the garages, I think, in Billings. Yes, I had. Yes. But, no, I think it was, I think it was later. I can't say for sure because you can see Trickle's car there . This, uh...this is probably 19... Probably 79th or 80th. I would assume you could see... because '81 was his best year, I think, when he was with Dylan and won a bunch of things , and '81 is when he kind of tried his hand at the Cup series. So anyway, as far as short track cars go, this one was good too. Oh yes. Yes. This is... Yes. There are plenty of short track cars out there, even ones that have had drivers make it to NASCAR like Kiki and others, but they just don't fall into the category of Mark and Mr. Dick Trickle. M-hm. I mean, Mark Martin was n't around then, but I did a lot of research, listened to and read a lot about that era and those people, and it's a big deal. I know. No, I built Joe Shear's cars, and lots of them. Joe Shear was very...he competed right up there with those guys and won his share of races, and he won a lot of races before he passed away in '98. And his heart...his whole life, even though he was 56 when he died, he still loved racing and wanted to compete. But I built all these cars for him, and I don't have any left . Do you know where at least one is, do you keep your finger on the pulse? None. Interesting. Well, maybe this video... someday someone will call me and say they have one. If at any point during this video someone or you think of something you don't have but want— tell me, and someone watching might have it. Well, I like famous short track cars. A couple of months ago, Gary Belalu called me . He wanted to sell me his Batmobile. Oh, yes. Yes, we did it. M-hm. Does Mark know it's yours? Yes. I'm just surprised he doesn't have it . Mark tried to buy it from you? Well, I don't know what words to choose, but yes, he called me. This was when he was racing Cup cars and wanted to trade it for one of his Cup cars. M-hm. I wasn't interested in it , because again, it's a modern car, and I love vintage. And that's one of the reasons why I no longer have Bobby Ellison's car and some of the others. I just love this Dick Trickle helmet, for example . M-hm. Tom Ruffner held an auction in memory of Dick Trickle, and I won the helmet in that auction. Tom Ripner handed it to me at the finish line at Dells Raceway Park when I won. You see, I also have a lot of respect for Tom Refnner. They competed side by side , and I'm sure that after the races they sometimes sorted things out if there were any conflicts. It happens to everyone, but you know, I drove away and forgot. But they were close friends. They once worked on their cars side by side in the same garage. Really? Was it in Dick's workshop, which was originally a service station or something? I do n't know for sure, but I know it was somewhere in Rapids. But anyway, Dick is in our Hall of Fame. We are now in the Illinois Hall of Fame. The reason Dick Trickle is in the Hall of Fame here in Illinois is because he won the first Rockford Speedway Short Track Championship in 1966. And this is a significant milestone. So he was honored. His sisters arrived and presented him with the award. Wow, that's cool. That is, to win a track championship while living in Wisconsin Rapids. It's not even close, well, I mean, the populated parts of Wisconsin are pretty close from here. Wisconsin Rapids—no. It's like coming here every week. Well, and also, you know, when these guys competed, they rode as a whole group. In other words, together they performed on different tracks every night. They could be in Wausau, Golden Sands, La Crosse, The Dells, Capital. They competed every night except Monday. And those guys, they had to take care of the same car, and they had to show a lot of respect for each other's driving— major league drivers. That's why I said Dick Trickle would go and help a guy who was just starting out because he didn't want him to get screwed. So, anyway , they had another agreement: one tire a week , because when you're just starting out, none of them—I mean, financially it was hard to compete. So they put one tire on. Now, my God, they put on four new tires, go out for practice, put on four more, then some more for the race itself. I mean, it got pretty expensive. Yes. But back then, these guys competed to the best of their ability and everyone supported each other. I guess their new tire always went on the front right wheel and they moved the old one somewhere else , or I wonder how they... They just swapped them around. This rotation was probably interesting, because the tires were much harder back then. Not very soft, you know. So they lived, they served for a long time. I'm going on a trip. I'll bring in some T-shirts while the old Vanrew DVR is working. So, we have a kind of "camera within a camera" here . It has front and rear cameras. And another camera that can be mounted on the rear window, with a cable running directly to it from the main unit. It plugs directly into the cigarette lighter in your car. Every car has one. And the coolest thing is that you can set up motion or activity zones in the field of view. So if your car is parked and just standing there, someone walks by or touches it, it will record it. So, it is a safety device not only for driving, but also for protecting your car while it is stationary or parked somewhere. You see, this is HD quality. Good quality, very easy to set up. I simply stuck some tape on the windshield, secured it, plugged it in—and it was up and running in less than 5 minutes. You can start and stop it from your phone, but it's not necessary. There are real buttons here. If you have big fingers, this will be no problem . This is a great Christmas gift for yourself or someone else. Mostly for myself. I would take one like that . I have wanted a DVR for a long time . Now I have it. Follow the link in the description to find this on Amazon and use the promo code to get a special discount. I'm glad you brought this up because I wanted to learn more and talk about your story. Yes. Yes. My son gave this to me for Father's Day from Souper Avenue, where I used to live . I moved out of there, and this was my garage door, and we painted it with a character from "Wile E. Coyote ," because if you win the kids over, you win the adults over . And I could attract the children's attention because they loved cartoon characters, so I always drew them on my car. In short, my son went to the person who owned the place three years after we moved out and said to the current owner, "We'll give you a new door if we can take this one." " I want to give them to my father for Father's Day." And he agreed, and man, I almost cried. This is incredible. So, this handle right here, many famous racers held onto it when entering that garage. So this is also special in its own way. Do you understand what I mean? Did you build the chassis? For me, these old doors, I don't even know...They hold a very important place for me. This is very touching. Yes, I love seeing things that come from such buildings, because cars end up in museums and become exhibits, and buildings where stories were created and born simply live their own lives and are forgotten about, because you can't just take a garage and put it in a museum. He just becomes something else. Yes. Well, in our career building race cars, “Left-Hander,” we’ve built almost 3,000 cars, which is a lot. Yes. And I worked a lot of the time while I was doing this. So I myself was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a chassis developer. What workshop are these doors from? I see. Here. You will see this door in the workshop. The second photo is from the back. Good. Yes. This is that door. And this door stood there with all those drawings from '86 until a few years ago . Yes. This is incredible. This is simply incredible. Yes. Well, you see, they're a little old now. But, uh, they built a lot of race cars in that garage, but now our workshop is across the street. But near that workshop there was a steep hill that I had to drive up to get the car. And in the winter it was a real workout. This is my very first racing car that I ever owned. Um, I didn't have , I couldn't scrape together a hundred dollars. I went to the dump. Do you see the safety cage? Aha. These are drive shafts. We sawed them off and an old guy in Belvidere arc-welded them . If I had taken a hammer, I'm sure I could have broken them off. I've heard of frames made from water pipes or exhaust pipes, but I've never heard of a frame made from drive shafts. This is something new. Aha. Arc-welded drive shafts. So what chassis did you build? Were these late models? I noticed it's a metric drive. Did you give that street name? Me, I don't. But, uh, "Left-hander. " I chose this word because we are turning left. Oh, I'm left-handed, but that's not the point . This is a left turn. So, in that regard, um, we have a pretty big workshop there now. And, uh, my son is really set on helping with e- commerce. These are modern technologies. We are sending. We are sending. And, uh, because we sell all over the country, we've created a network of dealers, and that helps us a lot, like this museum—it's a business for the soul, not for the money. Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to ask. So, this entire collection was born thanks to your chassis manufacturing company. To a large extent, yes. And we also have a warehouse right behind us. And it's a year-round activity, because it's rented all year round. But, uh, it gets really quiet in the "Left-hander" in the winter . Completely quiet. But I'm not firing anyone. It's not in my rules. They need a salary. I will not send them on unemployment benefits. So we do a lot of things in the winter, and, um, I close everything down here at the end of December until April 1st. It's too cold here. You pay for heating. Aha. Oho. Aha. I always love hearing stories about guys who...well, there are a lot of successful people in racing, but a lot of them had other businesses and racing was just a hobby. But no... well, depending on how you look at it: there are many, but not that many who have achieved everything thanks to racing alone, having gone from nothing to success. Well, I definitely started from scratch when it came to building a car from scrap metal. Yes. And the other man, that car right behind me, Mr. Dick Trickle, he didn't have any rich sponsors. He drove and built everything himself. And you know, he had to do a bunch of supporting work, and maybe he could have accomplished more if he had a little better equipment. And that kind of story applies to many of them, including Tom Ruffner and many others during that period. Even in NASCAR, if you look back, they were driving those old rusty troughs. Mhm. I mean, it all started from the very bottom, without large corporations like it is now. This is the true American dream. It's not entirely impossible, but it's a lot harder for someone to compete now the way the guys did back then. And even the simplest kind of racing is so expensive that, hell, I don't even know. I don't want this to disappear. Once upon a time, uh, in the past, you were hired for your talent. Now you are hired for the money you bring in. Teeth are not required. There may be no nose. Just bring me the money. then. They needed an attractive guy with talent so they could somehow promote him. I wish we could go back to that someday. I think it's possible, but it will take time. Things are bad. You know, I used to love Cale Yarborough, Dave Pearson , Richard Petty, Bobby Isaac, and the list goes on. These were n't 16-year-old kids. They were men. They were grown men. Their brains were already That's exactly what I'm saying. And who will sell the product better? Someone who is a real man, someone the average working man can look at on TV and say, "I want to be like him." I respect this guy. How would an average working man perceive a 21-year-old teenager who plays video games? Why should I listen to him? Why can't I identify with this? But they can identify themselves with a real man. That's it. I mean, isn't it hard to watch TV and see these young guys who don't have the popularity they used to after a long race? Well, you know, like the Elliots or the Verados, there are a lot of them that we just don't recognize, I don't want to name names. I don't care . Yes. I think everyone can remember them on their own, and everyone can choose someone else, and everyone will be right, because there are so many of them. Yes. But anyway , here I am, in my museum—the Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame. The main idea is to preserve the memory of them forever. You don't get into the Hall of Fame just because I decide to put you in there. This is a council of people who become members of the community. They vote on who they want to accept, it could be a group of, say, 10-12 people, and then they vote on them. But I have nothing to do with this . None of us on the council have anything to do with this. It all depends on the people, the majority, and popularity. Interesting. So, in that corner there's a whole display case with small artifacts. Is there anything interesting there? This is probably an obvious question, but yes, it means I want to see it, I guess that's what I should have said . I found…