THIS DRAG RACER PROVES NO AGE LIMIT ON CHASING A DREAM

by Bobby Bennett, Photos by Roger Richards    Tue, 2020-11-24 15:51

If there's an age limit when it comes to chasing your dream, someone forgot to tell Ron Allison.

Allison, 76, and from Sparta, Tenn., never envisioned he'd get a crack at racing Super Stock, but there he was in Holt, Fla., on Saturday killing it.

Allison's dream was delayed 53 years from the day he dreamed of racing a Super Stock car. He was in his 20s when he decided to take the plunge into Super Stock racing. Allison built a car, but before he could get the car up to full speed, life got in the way.

Allison put the racing on pause as he developed a new business, and when he returned, his vision of Super Stock had changed. It was no longer a king of the hill division, and effectively as he saw it had turned into a bracket racing version of class racing.

Exactly, when one has put a dream on the shelf for five decades, do they start in preparation for living a dream? For Allison, watching his friend have fun provided the impetus for acting on the long-delayed impulse.

"Well, a friend of mine, Charlie Lane, [which his son drives] Charlie Lane Jr., they're running C/Gas car, and he's from Sparta, and I knew Charlie. I've known him a long time and found out he was fixing a gasser, and I just got talking to him about it. Sounded like the old days. I'm retired, basically, or now I'm retired. I still own the business. My daughter runs it. He got me interested in it, and I went to a race, and I thought Super Stock's where I want to start at so give it a try. So went to hunting a car."

 

 

 

Allison located a basket case 1966 Chevy II, and immediately commissioned Don McDonald to handle the fab work and the challenge of making the classic Chevrolet for the Southeast Gassers Association's rigid period-correct standards. Longtime NHRA class racer had Larry Pritchett build an engine, and had Charlie Lee apply the Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins-inspired paint scheme.

However, in the Holt, Florida event, Allison ran a 25-year old engine with used engine parts, including a 25-year old camshaft.

The engine in Allison's car speaks volumes of Allison's need to compete, even in his retirement years. He's raced in the Legends Series as well as Jet Ski drag racing. In fact, Allison still commands the Pro Stock Ski record at 92.8 miles per hour.

Allison's message to those who are contemplating chasing a dream in their golden years is to no longer let the opportunity pass them by.

"Go for it if you feel like it," Allison said. "If you quit everything, then at my age you're, gone. I've always liked speed for some reason."

Allison needed only 12 runs to become acclimated the Chevy II, and on Saturday was the seventh quickest at the SGA's Emerald Coast Dragway event, reaching the quarter-finals where he lost to eventual champion Robert Pelfrey. 

 

 
Categories: 
:::::: News ::::::