Doublehdragstrip.com was on site for the 2009 Apple Classic Auto Show, the 21st edition as staged by the Apple Country Auto Club of Ellijay, Ga. The show was Saturday, Oct. 10, under a constant threat of rain, but about 105 cars were entered and a good time was had by all.
    Lots of folks stopped by the doubleh  booth to look at old racing films and photographs. For some, it was a trip down memory lane, but for many others, it was a look into the days when drag racing was grittier and less structured, and, yes, more dangerous. 
   The preceeding Thursday and Friday were filled with racing-related visits in Ellijay, Blue Ridge and Blairsville, and first-time meetings with several of the folks who are major contributors to this site. After periodic phone calls over a couple of years with Terry Hembree and Ronnie Evans, whose contributions are the foundation of this site, I finally got to meet both of them. Ronnie and his wife, Brenda, graciously welcomed me into their home for the weekend, and Terry, who lives in Idaho, just happened to be in Blue Ridge. I also got to meet Walter Parsons and Roy Smith, two other big contributors to the site, and Larry Davis, mechanic for the Strip Teaser Thunderbolt.
   Here's some of what went on.

Fortified by a great breakfast at Mike's Ellijay Restaurant (and still savoring a teriffic dinner the night before at Charlie's Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria), Ronnie Evans and I took off for Blue Ridge and the auto parts store of Winfred Morris (Morris Auto Parts, 2894 Blue Ridge Drive, 706-492-2788). 
   Winfred (left), raced at the Double H and remains active in racing today with a circle-track car. I had talked with him earlier about his racing, and he said he would lend me some of his old trophies to display at the car show.  At his shop, he said he had forgotten about the trophies, but resolved that in short order.
  He called home and asked his wife to pick out a few nice ones, and one of his customers drove over to the house and picked them up for us. That's true customer service. On the right side of the page are pictures of a couple of the trophies. His "Big Chief" was a '56 Chevy, put on a severe weight-loss program and running a screaming small-block Chevy.

 

 Trophies in hand, we proceeded to the Double H to meet up with Terry Hembree, son of Double H co-founder Bill Hembree. Terry lives in Idaho but still has a place in Blue Ridge, and just happened to be in town at the festival weekend. Terry was about 5 years old when the Double H was in operation, and Ronnie was a teenager who loved drag racing. Terry says he and some of his teenage buddies did a bit of informal racing on  the track after it closed. Terry now races a stock eliminator Camaro in NHRA events out west.  

From the Double H, we went in search of another north Georgia ghost track, Lloyd's Drag Strip in Blairsville. With the help of a nearby real estate agent, we found it. It's now a private drive with some houses on it (see the Lloyd's Drag Strip page for a current look at the track, plus a couple of old racing photos.).
    Heading back to Ellijay, we made another stop in Blue Ridge, at Ted Weaver's Body Shop. Bill Hembree gave Ted all of his newspaper clips about the Double H, and he also has a lot of interesting photos.

 

Sundae! Sundae! Customers at the Dairy Queen in Ellijay got shakes of a different kind thanks to a road test by the Strip Teaser, with an assist by Ellijay police.

In another fortunate bit of timing for this trip, Ted Weaver happened  to mention that Walter Parsons, whose pictures taken at Paradise Drag Strip in Calhoun can be seen on the "Other Pictures 2" page, works for the city of Blue Ridge. However, before we could get directions to his office, Ted spotted Walter driving by and hollered at him  to stop. In talking with Walter about the pictures he took at Paradise that day, he told a great story about  this shot of Pee Wee Wallace. 

 

 This picture had always seemed a bit odd -- Wallace doing a big wheelstand, but where are the spectators? Here's what happened: Walter was in the pits watching Wallace load up for the day, and Wallace asked Walter if he had gotten some good pictures. Walter said he hoped so, but Wallace decided to try to make sure. He told Walter where to stand along the track,  fired up the Virginian and popped this wheelie so Walter could get the picture. That would never happen now.

In several phone calls over  the past couple of years, Larry Davis had shared his remembrances of 1960s racing as the mechanic for Bob Thomas' Strip Teaser Thunderbolt and Falcon (see the Strip Teaser page), so he was someone I was hoping to meet while in Ellijay.
  We dropped in unannounced and spent a couple of hours with Larry. We saw a couple of cars he has built, saw his invention that allows a wheelbarrow to sit level on any terrain, and listened to him fingerpick some country tunes a la Merle Travis and Chet Atkins.
   He showed us the car he also exhibited at the show -- a woodie inspired by the mid-late 1930s Fords. Larry did all the wood and metal work on the body -- and, of course, built the English wheel he used to shape the metal. It all rides on a Toyota chassis and is powered by a 400 ci Chevy. He says it's a great highway cruiser.
  Larry also dug out some old pictures, including three of Don Garlits and two of his own cars -- both G/Gassers. Although Larry tuned the big V-8s, he really had a soft spot for 6-bangers. The early 50s Chevy preceeded the Henry J, which more accurately was an altered because of its extreme engine setback, which had Larry driving from the back seat. The air scoop for the engine can be seen on the roof, just at the leading edge of the windshield.

The members of the Apple Country Auto Club faced a bad weather forecast -- rain, rain, and more rain -- for their 21st annual show. They've never set a rain date or postponed it a week (out of respect to other car clubs in the area that schedule shows in October), and this year had an extra consideration: Candy Clark of "American Graffiti" was flying in from California as a special guest.  After weighing all the pros and cons, the club decided the show was a go and Clark would appear.
    A good call, as the rain stayed away except for one brief shower. The skies looked threatening all day, though, which probably contributed to the car count being about 105; past shows have had more than 300 cars. In the picture above, the fellow above talking on the phone is car club president Roy Smith, who was pretty much moving too fast to be identified for most of the day. (Check out his Double H film on YouTube -- classic.)
   Terry Hembree stopped by, as did Walter Parsons. Here are a few snaps from the show, including Larry Davis with his woodie creation, a Two-Lane Blacktop tribute 55, and Hembree.