Much thanks to Roger Rickards for hosting a memorable BBQ at his place with our typical "Lunch Bunch" group and three very special guests.
...left to right - Louis (Bobcat) Tocheri (The Scrapper), Glen Kettering (The Doctor), and Merv Dove (The Gentleman). As Roger mentioned in his Facebook post...Merv later went on to be the flagman at Riverview Raceways.
They are holding models of the cars they raced at the old Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track that I built about 40 some years ago. I didn't have one for Glen's car so he his holding a model of his brother Barry's famous #47 (Bud's Thing)....(RIP Barry)
It was such a pleasure to have these living legends with us on June 24th this past Friday, sharing their memories and escapades.
The following photos are of the real cars featured above.
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| Barry and his #47 |
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| Merv's Maple Leaf Service Car.... |
Below, you can see that we did this once before with Merv and Louis at a Canada Day BBQ at Ron Limbrick's place 13 years ago almost to the day. The suggestion for the boys holding the models was my friend Alan Yahn's......and the funny part is that Louis Tocheri wore the same "Alaska" ball cap 13 years ago...my son Jay had noticed this....Louis must love Alaska...how cool is that.
The following photo is Louis and his #19 typically causing some controversy in front of the old CLE grandstand noticeably filled to overflowing with facing fans.
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| Louis would say that the racing promoters would encourage a scrap or two in front of the grandstand, and once told me that it was all orchestrated until Tony Massaro accidentally poked him in the nose ...then the real altercations began....which lead to the best entertainment ever.....thousands of fans would pack the grandstand every Wednesday night. Great memories. |
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| Our host Roger Rickards with Jerry McKenzie |
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| Yours truly with the living legends... |
Click on all the photos for enlargements...
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| Two of Glen's Cars |
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| Glen with foot on Barry's cut down '34 Ford |
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| Merv looking a little disappointed here.... |
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| Merv's Maple Leaf Service Car...... |
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| Merv's pit Crew....his brother Reg on the right (RIP) and I worked together at Shell Oil on the Island in the day. |
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Louis Tocheri and a very talented young mechanic Lorne Hay...Louis said he
was one of the smartest mechanics he ever had. Lorne went on to be Lyn
McIntosh's mechanic, and assisted many other stock car jockeys of the day.
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| Louis' BOB-CAT.... |
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| Merv and Bob |
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| Dave and Glen |
It was such a beautiful day on Friday that we brought our old cars out. I picked up Louis at his home in my hot rod....he loved the ride over and said it reminded of the old racing days.
We all enjoyed ourselves very much, and "the Boys of Summer" did also...thanks once more Roger for hosting this special event.
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