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Vintage Racing Photos

• CATEGORIES: Builds, Features, Reader Stories • TAGS: , , This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Ed Bray and his parents raced jeeps for years throughout the West. They built two Fiberglass Bobcat bodied race jeeps. In fact the family was friends with both Paul Parker (Parkette Fiberglass Body manufacturer) and Fred Weis (Bobcat Fiberglass body Manufacturer).

Their first jeep with a bobcat body was built on a military frame and powered by a 327 with 365 HP.  Below is Ed’s mother at the start of a race in Calgary where she won an obstacle race. A year ago Ed spotted this jeep, still powered by the same motor (he recognized the sound), driving in Spanaway, Washington.

My beautiful pictureThe next jeep the family built in 1976 started with a factory ordered CJ-7 frame. They stretched a Bobcat body 13″ and installed a Chevy 350/350 LT1 motor set back 8″ with a B&M Turbo 400 w/reverse manual shifter. They added a Wagoner 44 in the rear and a Scout 44 in the front. They raced the jeep in SCORE events, ran the Mint 400 four times, and tried the BAJA 500 in 1980, but DNF’d.  The first picture below is from Riverside and the second from the Mint 400.

riversite-flattie-ed-bray mint-400-flattie-ed-brayEd’s father Don died in 2001. Ed has been refurbishing the family CJ-3A that started it all.

gray-blue-cj3a-ed

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Josh’s Trip to California Gone Bad

• CATEGORIES: Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

Last week was Camp Delta at Tower Park, the largest annual MV Swamp meet in the West. Josh planned to drive from his home in Boise to California to attend the event and return with a rolling military chassis he bought from Dexter.

Being the detailed oriented guy he is, he made sure to have his truck serviced by the dealer prior to the trip. To make a long frustrating story short, the dealership broke something. He only found that out when the truck engine acted poorly both times he tried to leave Boise. Now the truck is in the shop and he is looking at a possible major overhaul. So, he never made it to California.

To help him out, I thought I’d ask if anyone has plans to drive from Lodi area of California to somewhere near Boise or even near me in the Tri Cities. He’d said he’d be happy to help out with gas if someone happened to be coming his direction and could bring out the chassis.

You can email him at joshua.roach@live.com or add a comment and I can send his phone number.

 

 

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