|
|
| This Plymouth Arrow bodied flopper is the last in a long series
of Tennessee Bo-Weevils dating back to the 1950's. This car is proudly
displayed in Ray Godman's current business in operation since 1977, Godman
High Performance. |
Click Pictures for larger view and use back button to return to
this page.
Ray Godman was a successful stock car driver in the
late 1940's tearing up tracks like Fairground Speedway and Riverside
Speedway. A sniper's bullet in the Korean War in 1951 may have slowed Godman
down, but not by much. About that time, drag racing was beginning to take
hold in Tennessee which interested Godman.
He found an ad in HOT ROD magazine placed by Wally Parks, founder of the
NHRA. Wally Parks was looking for 'racing advisors' east of the
Mississippi. Parks was trying to promote the sport of drag racing and the
NHRA nationwide. Ray wrote Parks asking for information.
| The NHRA Safety Safari, an organization appointing regional advisors to find
racing areas, contacted Ray. Back in 1947, the "Memphis Rodders"
organized with Ray Godman as one of it's original members. It was with the
help of these members that the first sanctioned drag race was held at an abandoned
air base in Halls,
Tennessee in 1955. After this event Ray was made an official NHRA
advisor. The Memphis Rodders then pooled their earnings to buy equipment
and a truck. They transported all the equipment, setup and ran meets.
Ray and driver Red Dyer attended the first NHRA Nationals in Great Bend,
Kansas in 1955. They won class running a flat head 27-T Ford roadster.
Ray's cars participated in the Nationals for the next 27 years. Ray Godman
was a partner in the construction of Lake Land Dragway which opened July 4th,
1960. (Lake Land was eventually changed to Lakeland in the '60s)
Godman campaigned cars in T/F, AA/FC & AA/MR with the following
drivers: Jim McCrutchen, Preston Davis, Larry La Due, Sonny Adkins, Bob Gibson
& others. Godman participated in the first NHRA Nationals in 1955 and
had a perfect Indy attendance record through 1970. Sixteen consecutive
years! |
National DRAGSTER
 |
|
