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Les got into auto racing at the
age of 10 attending the local dirt track stock car races with his family.
At the age of 13 he picked up his
first Hot Rod Magazine and was hooked. Drag racing became a family affair with
Dad helping with the building and tuning, Mom fixed the lunch for the day at the
strip, and while there she recorded the time trials of the cars in their class.
Thatcher
drove his first drag racing event at the age of fifteen (one year before he
could legally drive on the streets of his native Cincinnati) and carried home
his first winners trophy in that same season. From that 1955 beginning until he
hung up his crash helmet in 1966 because of wrestling commitments this family
racing team amassed 125 trophies for various class, and eliminator wins. He
worked for a brief period as an area advisor for the NHRA (National Hot Rod
Association), was involved in the forming of a local club (Satan's Angels) and
the building of a local drag strip and was vice president of the timing
association that ran it, SOTA (Southern Ohio Timing Association) He raced at
several NHRA National meets at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and at a half dozen
NHRA sanctioned tracks in the tri-state area. Les also enjoyed custom autos, and
everything to do with the hot rodding experience. For a short period of time he
and his father, Sam had a Gulf service station near their home where they fine
tuned their "Rassler Racing Enterprises" rides and those of local
customers. Today, Les is still very much into "Street Machines" and
"Drag Machines", as he watches many of the shows featuring hot rods,
and customs on television, along with NHRA televised events.
Here
is some background on the photos you see on this page.
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TOP
ROW: from left
This
is a decal given class winners at the National Trailways Raceway outside
Columbus, Ohio where Thatcher won the NHRA Division 3 B-Stock Title with
his 1964 Pontiac GTO.
Photo
on the right is of that trophy winning GTO with many of the trophies
picked up during it's campaign.
The photo is shot in front of the home that Les and his wife Alice
reside in today in Milford, Ohio
2ND
ROW: from left
Les
checks the air in the drag slicks (racing tires) of the 64 GTO.
Read
the saying on the trunk of that GTO. If you were on the losing end of a
Thatcher race you could read "You Have Just Been Rasslerized !"
as he stormed by you at the finish. The "Goat" ran low 13 second
elapsed times at about 107 MPH
3RD
ROW: from left
This
photo was taken in front of that Gulf station mentioned earlier. The
vehicle sitting there began life as a 1956 Chevrolet Nomad Station Wagon,
and was radically customized into a pick-up truck, which competed in the
radical custom truck division at car shows. The grill was from a Mercury,
the headlights from a Buick, and the floor of the truck bed was varnished
hardwood. On the right is Les with truck and trophy. The trophy was first
place in class at a Cincinnati Rod & Custom Show. By the way, the
truck was named "Nomad No More "
4TH
ROW: from left
Another
one of Les' racecars was this 1963 Plymouth factory hot rod. Powered by a
426 Stage III wedge head motor, dual 4 barrels, and tri-y headers straight
from the factory. All sound deadner, heater, radio, window cranks, etc
were left off to keep the weight down for racing. The ride ran AA-Stock
and hauled the quarter mile in the mid-eleven second range at
around 112 mph.
Here
is a 1934 Ford 3-window coupe, which has been chopped 4 inches (4 inches
cut from the height of the roof) and has a Chevy 265 cube engine under the
hood. This was an all-metal car as opposed to many fiberglass replicas out
there today. The sign in the background was a little race prep shop owned
by Les and a fellow racer in Cincinnati. J & L Speed Shop. |
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Pictured in this shot
taken in Charlotte in the summer of 1967, at the Orvin Inn Motel near
downtown where many of the wrestlers stayed.
From left to right:
Dennis Hall, Roger Kirby, Sam Malady (Les' Dad) and Les. The car was
Sam's new "67" Pontiac GTO, and the t-shirt hanging from the
window was a Sig Erson Racing Cams shirt with the Rassler Racing Ent.
logo on the back. The three "Cousins" were wrestling for Jim
Crockett Promotions, and Les' parents were in on vacation.
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More
to Come |
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