Mark Artis
 |
Was introduced to racing by being the official gopher for my dad and his cronies. They ran my legs off fetching their “sippin’ whiskey” at the local dirt track. Tried my hand at some roundy round stuff for a while and knocked down ever wall in 3 states. During a stint in the Air Force, while stationed in Valdosta,Ga, I worked for the Jon Thorne Racing organization. Started out with them running the Speed Shop and working in the race shop. This was some great times and we were not only drag racing everything from 63 liteweight Galaxies, a 63 Z-11 Chevrolet A/FX, an altered w/b injected Plymouth, to just about every type of car known at the time. It was not unusual to jump in a Cobra or a Shelby Mustang and go to lunch. Jon also owned #2 of the 6 built of the 63 Grand Sport Vettes. Nothing like a midnite run down a back road of south Georgia with that Traco big block wailing. Went NASCAR racing with a 66 Charger, driven by LeeRoy Yarbrough and we managed to set the track record at all major speedways and win one in Charlotte. The following year, after alienating the “powers that be at Chrysler” we switched to a 67 Fairlane and it carried newcomer Donnie Allison to “Rookie of the Year” honors. Spent many years as a displaced West Virginian in South Georgia as a firefighter and running my speed and custom shop. Later on was in Orlando, Florida when my long time friend, Dan Bell called and said…”Hey, you wanna’ come to Texas and build and race an old ’63 Galaxie in Nostalgia Super Stock?”…..after a short deliberation in which I decided that I may have worn my welcome out in Florida…had my bags packed and sitting on the curb when Dan showed up with truck and trailer. Came to the Dallas area and we built the 63 that all know as “TEXAS THUNDER”, Nothing better than all of the good friends that we have made with the NSCA, NMCA and PRO. With the addition of Damon Kuhn as a partner in Texas Thunder Performance and Dan as partner in Texas Thunder Racing, life is good. Looking forward to the next step with our new group of NSS and NMC racers, the “Texas Outsiders, Nostalgia Super Stocks”. If you ask me if I would do anything different to change my life…maybe, maybe not…..will I quit? HELL NO. |
|---|