I met Doug Marion in about 1976 or so. We always talked about drag racing, his racing days with early '60's Vettes, hs 66 Nova 327/350 horse 4 speed car, and his '62 409. We stayed in touch through the years, bought and swapped parts with each other, and a lot of real good times were had. I have nothing but good to say bout Doug-o. One of the fun facts of life that happened, good friend and Stock Eliminator buddy Tony Janes and Chuck Norton came across a red/black interior 71 Monte Carlo that had been hit in the front.I bought it to fix and drive. It needed a hood, a core support, a grille, front bumper, both plastic inner fenders were broken, and I needed a left front fender. As I was collecting all this stuff, Doug said that he had a fender from his red Monte Carlo, otherwise known as Econo-Performer back in those days, so I went to his house in Simi Valley and got it. It had a rusty spot in the lower corner, the usual A body rust location, so we welded in a patch panel, put it on my car, painted it red again, and we drove that car for about 100,000 miles. The Monte Carlo donated its engine to a 71 El Camino that I had about that time, the Monte Carlo sat at my house parked out of the way for a few years, then Tony wanted to go bracket racing with it. I put in manual steering, manual drum brakes, a set of 5.38's, he brought up a 350 bracket engine and a trans and converter, so I put it together and he raced it a few times, lost interest, put it in storage, then one day, he needed two cars delivered to Overton, Nevada , and told me that if I put those two cars on the trailer, took them to our friend in Nevada, he'd give me the Monte Carlo back. Once I got it, I decided that it could potentially do dual service in Stock Eliminator or Summit Sportsman bracket. I took the car, fixed a few things, had it painted red again, put on a new vinyl top,(never do that again!) and put it back together. It looks identical to Doug's car, since I put a '70 grille, core support, head light buckets and trim, and front bumper. It dawned on me that my car has the original left front fender from Doug's Econo Performer car of the '70's and 80's. Amazing how this stuff travels around and comes home to roost. Doug is the best stand up guy you could ask for. He's been a real friend over the years.
......... going to date myself ........ but by ‘84 I’da been going on 20