Garlits does NOT have Thorn Hill's old clocks.

I remember some of the older guys talking about Garlits coming through when he was really young and racing a few times on the Hill. I was told by a few different people that Garlits ended up with the old clocks from Thorn Hill for his Garlits Racing Museum. I was even told later that when the trees didn't come in when they were suppose to that Garlits gave the clocks back for a half a season so they could race and untill they could get the trees put in. A few of us have been talking about Thorn Hill and the clocks and I even though about driving down to FL for a mini vacation so I could stop in there with the boys to show them the clocks and get pics. Last night I sent this email. I guess the clocks are long gone or shoved in a barn some place.

----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Stewart
To: garlits@mfi.net
Sent: Monday, August 09, 2010 11:15 PM
Subject: Thorn Hill Drag Strip Clocks?


Hi Don
The reason I'm writing you is to inquire about an old set of clocks they used to have at Thorn Hill Drag Strip in Northern Kentucky. Few of the guys were sitting around talking about when we first started racing. It was the first place most of the guys in the club raced when we were teenagers. I haven't been there in years and I heard that they ended up buying a set of trees and rumor has it that you ended up with the old starting clocks. I was just hoping to confirm this so I can tell the guys. If so do you have them in the museum or put up ? Either way I know they are in good hands if you have them.

Steve Stewart
Scroungers CC


Re: Thorn Hill Drag Strip Clocks?Tuesday, August 10, 2010 12:41 PMFrom: "Garlits" <garlits@mfi.net>Add sender to ContactsTo: "Steve Stewart" <scroungers_cc@yahoo.com>

I don't have those clocks, but I remember them.
dg

I have heard that for years also. I was always skeptical and after all these years no reliable source has ever verified that they are there so I just assumed that they were not. I guess we know now.

cool little story i found....

According to drag racing historian Bret Kepner, this former airfield had a colorful history.
Through information from locals & the track's employees during a visit around 1985,
he learned that "the airfield was built by alcohol bootleggers during Prohibition.
The airstrip was created deep in the woods where it was virtually undetectable from the ground.
The moonshine, brewed in the nearby Kentucky hills,
was smuggled on night flights to nearby Cincinnati, OH.
Near the end of Prohibition, the operations at the Kenton airstrip were sacked by Treasury agents,
resulting in a large number of arrests.
The Feds eventually bequeathed the seized land to the town of Kenton,
whose mayor apparently assisted in the bust.
The airstrip sat, unused, until the hot rodding craze of the 1950s
resulted in the local arrest of a young street racer...the mayor's son!
The mayor agreed to allow the kid to turn the abandoned airfield into a drag strip
if it would keep his son's racing activities off the street.

Thus was born Thorn Hill Drag Strip!"

It was not listed among active civil airfields in the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory.
According to Steve Trutschel, “Ralf Payne owned & operated that property until his passing in the mid-1990s.
I used to fly my Cub in there all the time & if they were racing I would enter the pattern
and the guy lining up the cars at the starting line would hold them in place & motion me to land.
I flew in & watched the races many Saturday evenings as Thornhill is only about 5 miles from the private airstrip where I live.
I also flew ultralights into there years before I owned my Cub.”
Steve continued, “My father raced there when he was a kid in the mid-1950s
and it was a dirt drag strip when he started racing there.
Everyone would use snow tires for traction.
He remembers how great it was the day Ralf blacktopped the first 100 or 150 feet of the strip for traction for them.
When I was a kid in the mid-1960s there were at least 3 airplanes kept there.
I ended up buying a worn-out 1946 Stinson 108-3, that ironically, was one of the 3 planes that used to be kept there.
It is still very much country out there & I know of no ordinances that would prevent aircraft operations there.
Our nickname for the dragstrip was, and still is, Ralf's Palace.”
Steve continued, “Over the years I would have several friends fly into the dragstrip
and I would pick them up because my strip is very short & a Cub is one of the few planes that can go in there.
One day I met a couple of friends at the dragstrip & they were flying a completely restored Beech T-34,
complete with all the Navy military markings.
Ralf ALWAYS drove out & met you at the plane.
I assume it was Ralfs wife with him as he met the T-34.
My buddy slid the canopy back, stood up in the seat, looked around & said,
"I don't know, this doesn't look like Kansas to me!"
Ralfs wife stood there looking at the military plane in total disbelief
and said, "Oh my God, you guys are no where near Kansas!"”
Steve continued, “I quit flying the Cub in there because I tore it down to restore it.
Sadly Ralf passed away before it was finished & he never got to see it again.
I know several people that still race there every Saturday in the summer.
In this day & age there are more & more houses being built, and more & more complainers.
Most of the complainers are on the other side of the river & that is a different county so it is complicated.
But I enjoy the races & I can hear them at my house, It's just part of that area.
I know several people that race there & one of them has even asked the new owner if I could fly in there again.
His response to them was, "As long as I get an airplane ride." We'll see.”
No airfield was depicted at the location on the 1969 USGS topo map.
It was not listed among active civil airfields in the 1982 AOPA Airport Directory.
The 1983 USGS topo map depicted the single former runway but did not label it at all.
The former runway was labeled "drag strip" on the 1984 USGS topo map.

Be nice if Wethington jumped in here but he seems shy. lol.. Jim was around back then and he told me that at one time the goverment had control over the strip in case there was a bombing at the near by airport. A secondary landing strip in case the other were bombed.

Since putting this up I've been swamped with info. I guess people are really into this history stuff as much as I am.
Next clue to where the clocks are seems to be???
FLOYD GARRETT'S MUSCLE CAR MUSEUM IN SEVIERVILLE, TN
I'm having trouble finding an email address on them so if I don't find anything in a few days I may just call them.

There is a "Contact us" link on their website where you can ask questions. http://musclecarmuseum.com/contact.shtml

TurboPinto wrote:There is a "Contact us" link on their website where you can ask questions. http://musclecarmuseum.com/contact.shtml

It doesn't work. I already tried it and just tried it again. When you push submit it comes back as this.
Not Found
The requested URL /cgi-sys/FormMail.cgi was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

I been talking on another forum. Rumors of where the clocks went are starting to get strange. Still haven't been able to get a good email to the place in TN. I may call down there today. Here some post from another forum.
=BestRacing;195994]Thats weird because when I talked to Don Gartlett at the US Nationals he said he bought one of the clocks. :thinking:

I know a guy named John (don't remember his last name) actually has one of the spare clocks in his garage in Latonia.[/QUOTE]

RebStew wrote:I know a guy named John (don't remember his last name) actually has one of the spare clocks in his garage in Latonia.

if i remember correctly his name is john feldman. he used to race a red late 70's-early 80's corvette. but i thought he had both clocks.

if it helps your search, go knock on his door


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=latonia&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=&hnear=Latonia,+Kenton,+Kentucky&ll=39.047895,-84.500566&spn=0.000754,0.001206&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=39.047979,-84.500564&panoid=TApbuc82AS1cCquR3LDnHw&cbp=12,123.44,,0,4.2

lol Thanks Nick