TVR: Of all of your competitors, who were your closest friends?
Ray Lee: This guy sitting right here (Bobbie Adamson), although I only saw him once or twice a year… Bobbie Adamson was such a tough competitor, such a clean driver… For some reason he took a liking to me, told me where to go eat… things I shouldn’t do, things I should do… <both laugh>

You know, I have no hard feelings from my career.  I really and truly don’t.  Anybody that I raced against I can walk up to, shake their hand, give ‘em a wink and call ‘em a friend. 

TVR: Bobbie, what’s you favorite Ray Lee story?
Bobbie:  Umm… I suppose Selinsgrove.  Ray Lee came here with Jay Woodside and they were like blood brothers.  They worked hard to race here in the east.  Now this… When you raced up at Selinsgrove, when you first come here, you had to start at the back.  After you got a few points, same way that Lincoln Speedway (PA) use to do it, then you could start in the front until you got your place in the ranks.  You know what I’m saying? 

So, they start up front this particular night.  They worked for it.  They were about broke, right?  So there was Ray and I… and somebody else, maybe Mitch (Smith).  Now I don’t remember which one of them it was that made this statement, it was too many years ago… But after the race, it was either him or Jay, that said he was going to win this race.  Right?

There he is, the second lap… he’s leading.  He goes down in the first turn and burped it for the corner and he said that just like that he was fourth.  He said, “All three of you guys went by me on the outside in one corner!  I just went right around and put my car on the trailer and we went for home!”

Ray Lee: Yeah, that would have been Woodside because he… I came up here with Bill Holback at one time.  By the way, he (Bobbie) is being very kind.  We weren’t very competitive. 

Bobbie:  Oh yes you were!  It’s just that you weren’t use to these tracks… yet.  These drivers… you have to get accustomed to the people and the tracks.  They weren’t use to that yet.  It wouldn’t have taken a lot. 

You guys were good out there and probably equally as good here with a little more time here. 

Ray Lee: Yeah, well…

Bobbie:  I always had fun with you guys… Florida… that was fun.

Ray Lee: Yeah, that was fun… Florida was like… The only thing they had down there besides the racers coming to town… there was no TV… same with Reading, PA.  They didn’t have a TV station. 

But anyway, Tampa, Florida… they turned the town over to us.  Didn’t they?

Bobbie:  Oh yeah!

Ray Lee: This was before professional football… the Cincinnati Reds would come into town after we would leave.  They would go there for spring training.  So, I’m telling you, whatever you asked for, if you needed a car… they come to help you.

Bobbie:  Yeah… they wanted to help you… they wanted to be on the pit crew… they’d take you to their shop… they’d do anything for you.  If you needed help, you got it. 

Ray Lee: Isn’t that the truth?  I had the largest Chrysler dealer in the state of Florida sponsor Al Hamilton’s car.  Al Hamilton did not need a sponsor.  But… if I got a sponsor, he got half of it.  You’d be hell trying to drive a race car holding a sign in your hand.  You know what I’m saying? 

So, when we went to Florida he’d say, “What do you want?”  I’d ask for a certain amount and a couple of cars to drive… One time, I had 6 of his salesmen on foot because I’d given his cars away.  I’d say I needed one more car.  He’d say here’s one more, but that’s all you can have now. <laughs.  The guy was a football player who owned the dealership… Brooks Massey Dodge.

Well, anyway… the only other story about that car was Lee Kunzman… that ran USAC… got burnt so bad out at I-70… He had one of the cars from Brooks Massey.  Now this is two weeks later… I get home and the guy calls me at home and says, “Goodwin? I betcha I could sell that Dodge Dart… if I could find it.”

I asked, “Which one was it?”

He said, “The one Kunzman’s got.”

So I called Kunzman over in Duckburg, Iowa.  He said he left it at Honolulu Village, which was a joint right outside of Brooks Massey.  When he went back on Sunday the Dodge dealer was closed. 

So I called and asked Brooks, “Can you look over at the Honolulu Village across the road there?”

He said yes… I told him, “That’s your car parked in the parking lot over there!”  <laughs> Everything was good.  No money changed hands and no cars were stolen.    

Bobbie:  You know… talking about how towns took care of you…. Phoenix was similar. 

Ray Lee: Yes!

Bobbie:  Keith Hall was a terrific, terrific promoter.  I go out there… and I’ve got fast time.  Of course, I’d just won Ascot, so maybe they were a little more forward… but there was a truck that was going to be given away at the race.  Whoever won the race was going to get this truck.  It was a small truck… it wasn’t much of a truck, but it was brand new.  So Keith tells me, “You drive that while you’re out here.” 

Now, there weren’t no license plates on it.  He said that didn’t matter.  He said, “You just go anywhere you want to go and if a cop stops you… just tell them to call me.”

Nobody bothered me!  I drove that truck for 3 or 4 days out there with no license plate on it and I never got stopped.  But its like he was saying, these towns really liked the race car drivers.  It was fun, a lot of fun.  I wouldn’t trade them years for nothing. 

Ray Lee:  I’ll tell you what… he (Bobbie) looked like a piano player, or a basketball player… he was one hell of a race driver.  <looks at Bobbie> 

Editor’s Note: I’ve lost control of this interview… and I'm loving every minute of it!

Bobbie:  Is that thing still on?  <talking about the tape recorder>

TVR: That’s quite all right!  You guys go ahead.

Bobbie:  I’m talking to somebody every once in a while on the computer.  I don’t know if its you or Jay?  I don’t know which one it is.

Ray Lee:  Well, it had to be Jay, but we buried Jay Christmas day (2004).  It must have been his wife, Pat, in Wichita, Kansas. 

Bobbie:  That’s right… His son has something to do with a race car. 

Ray Lee:  Yes, he’s racing them 360’s out there. 

Bobbie:  I didn’t know which one it was, but every once in awhile… I don’t know who put me in touch with them…  Oh!  It was the guy from Maryland… yeah… the guy who owns the old (Hamilton) #78.

Ray Lee:  Oh, yeah… Rick Mandelson. 

Bobbie:  Rick saw Jay somewhere and gave me his e-mail address and told me I should write him… which I did. But I haven’t for quite a while. 

Ray Lee:  I’ll tell you what… I don’t have any computers or anything.  We farm down there and I tell everybody my Sunday paper  doesn’t get there till Wednesday.  I mean we’re out in the sticks!  <laughs>

TVR: A couple of quick questions and I’ll get out of your hair so you guys can catch up.   What advice would you offer to a young racer just starting their career?

Ray Lee:  Don’t do it!  <laughs>

Bobbie:  I ditto that! <grins>  I just can’t imagine what they go through trying to live up to…

Ray Lee:  To what you have to today.  I would say, that as a professional fisherman, the worst you can do is fall out of the boat.  You know…   I would say if you have the desire to race, and you have… You have to have total concentration… you can’t do 2 or 3 things. 

I worked all of my life and raced on weekends, 3 or 4 nights a week.  I was back home and went to work.  I would say these gentleman today… I don’t think they even tow a car.  You’d have to have the backing of a large firm, that has a lot of patience.  It’s very tough. 

He said, “Gohn Jewelers’’ driver was late and they asked me if I’d warm it up… just warm it up” He said when that car started… that was the end of that! <laughs>  He said he sold everything. 

Hawthorne ought to tell you the story about him… One time I was late getting to the race track… Now he always said the drivers get all the women… So he was going to warm this car up.  I don’t know where it was anymore… probably one of the Groves. 

So, he gets in it, the push truck fires him off… he said, “My God the throttle’s stuck!”  He said he was down trying to pull the throttle back and it won’t slow down.  Then all of a sudden, he looks around and the push truck is still pushing him.  He decided that was it… He’ll never get in another one. 

That is an amazing feeling to be in there when it first fires off. It’s unbelievable!  You haven’t even pushed the throttle yet and you’ve got a lot of fear… let me tell you!

First time I ever drove a race car, I couldn’t keep my foot on the throttle.  I was shaking so bad… 

Ray Lee:  Yep! <laughs>

Bobbie: I’ve heard other guys say the same thing. Once they dropped the green flag, then I was alright, but boy, up until that point… that whup, whup, whup, whup… you know you don’t really want to mess with it.  

Ray Lee:  Yo!  You know that you’ve got a throttle! 

My oldest son raced for 3, 4, 5 years and then he quit.  Then he came back.  I had a helmet bag, a hundred goggle lenses and a very damn small pocketbook.  When he went racing… <to Bobbie> Sit down here.  I’m not going to let you get away.  I haven’t seen him in 40 years. 

Anyway, my son went to the races with two 410 engines and a helmet bag, and a covered trailer, and a tow rig… to drive for somebody.   He absolutely ended up driving for my boss over in Lincoln, Nebraska, for two or three years.  He is a professional person… works for the government… I think it just burnt out.  

You just can’t do anything else… when you sit down in a race car you can’t think about what happened at home… what happened coming to the races… you focus yourself on the race track and about 3 or 4 cars ahead of you. 

Because… People are a creature of habit.  When you come up on a car… the first thing, if he’s getting tired, you’ll see his head bobble, or his neck will lean over.  If he’s beat physically, it won’t be long that mentally he’ll be down and you can go by him. 

I drove 2 or 3 races where I’d look across, on a half-mile and you’d pick out what they were going to do.  If they go in low and slide high… whatever their characteristics are at that time, you have to mentally mark that down if you can ever catch them.

But these kids… I saw ‘em over here at Williams Grove last night… Hell!  If they’d of hooked a rut, a parachute wouldn’t have got them out of the sky!  Its… they come out of the pits… put the throttle down and stab and steer.

Bobbie:  That’s it… that’s what they do now. 

Ray Lee:  Stab and steer…

Bobbie:  I can remember the qualifying times we use to get at the Grove… like Williams Grove.  I remember it was a daytime race.  But when we qualified I turned a 21.606.  It was the fastest time and I was going as hard as I could go.  I didn’t figure that… nobody could beat that.  You turn them laps once in a while.  Hell, they got 5 seconds off of that time now! Unbelievable!   

Ray Lee:  Yep… that’s right.  He’s telling you the truth. 

TVR:  One last question.  When future generations find your name in the history books of racing, what is it about your career you’d most like to be remembered for?

Ray Lee:  I would like to be remembered… as, umm… I’ve said this many times.  If my wife was here, she could tell you better than I could.  I liked that guy in Oklahoma who never met a man he didn’t like.  I would like to say to the public, and to all the grandstands… and everybody that’s helped me in racing… All you owe me is your friendship… and God bless you.

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