Comment:

My dad was a large part of the #81 and has been hanging around and knows artie and georgie fillbrun, kenny reebe, the laurenos, georgie schron, johnny norcia and others since the early 50's!   When he was just 11 years old, they all took him under there wing until he got older and was able to play a larger role, especially in the hey days of the 81, all thru the 70's and a good part of the early 80's.

When the team started to go in different directions, bo lander use to build the engines and my dad and georgie schron would fine tune them.  My dad also did a lot of welding and everything else in between. ( Maybe he was one of the ones that welded the car together, that held together when stan ploski flipped and destroyed the mustang 81- that crash was horrific!!)

It was a special time being a kid and being in on that team when he would take me and my brothers ( 4 of us).  I can still see billy O, and sammy throwing that car sideways at over a hundred miles an hour thru the turns at flemington, and then growing up around roger laureno, and ronnie schron. We use to beat up on roger and ronnie driving them crazy, tormenting them because we really liked them and they would play with us!! Johnny norcia and georgie schron, gave ronnie and roger there first car! (The old fast modified coupe, that billy drove.)  I think he won over 20 features in 72, turned sportsman car.) My dad always new roger was going to be a great driver.   He just had it.  (Ronnie was a little crazy.)

My dad and georgie schron got into a big pissing contest with johnny norcia because they wanted to see roger keep driving the car and let him come up thru the experience to pilot the car.  But johnny said no. Still the team stayed together because they were all FRIENDS.  (Some thing that you would see break up most teams today.)  They had the ability to disagree and get the job done.  When they won we would all go to the chimney rock inn for pizza and a soda.

I still remember the smell of methanol and how it burned my eye's but when they would fire that car up and hear the 427, and 454 roar with the Hillborn injection man that was something!!

That team was very special because you had all the right people there: uncle tony with the tires, fingers auto radiator, georgie schron who many people would not know that he was an unbelievable smart man who was an engineer for the bendix corp. and a mathematical genius.  (He was figuring out flow and CFM and all kinds of things using mathematics applied to the engines and how to make them run faster and was instrumental in perfecting the BLACK BOX), Johnny with the money and shop for all of the fabrication, my dad who could test the car from time to time in the back of norcia's personal track, and he could weld and burn and fabricate, and do just about anything they needed, besides eat them out of house and home, lol, bo lander building the basic engines they needed.  They had it all!!

That’s why AREA AUTO RACING NEWS, also recognized them for there main slogan " THE BEST DAMN CREW IN TOWN" and thru it all they remained pretty humble doing there talking on the track.

Billy O would have stayed longer but him and johnny norcia had a falling out over money.  My dad always said billy was right.  He wanted a little more money after all look at all of the races he was winning.

The years with billy and sammy where my favorite, and many people don't know that it was that crew who gave billy pauch the nick name the KID.  He also graced the wheel of the 81, for a short time but I think once again johnny didn’t feel he had enough under his belt. Me and my brothers also liked stan the man ploski a lot too, and him and my dad got on pretty good too.

My dad was one of those guys who pretty much got a long real good with most anyone, because he is a man’s man.

Maybe you can use some of this info for future knowledge, it was actually known that my dad could drive real good too, johnny and georgie use to let him test the cars when he was a kid and in his 20's and 30's but they thought he was too crazy behind the wheel and were afraid to let him drive, lol.  (I can attest to that he would do things on public streets that most of the drivers wouldn't have done! he liked the speed a little to much, if you know what I mean, lol, so they figured he would be more help in the pits helping and lifting the rear of the car off the ground when they couldn't find the jack! - no joke - ask jackie laureno and the others about him.  He and tom hager always reminded me of each other.  Me and my brothers liked him too. 

If you know of any one with any crew photos of the 81 I would appreciate it

My dad seemed happiest during those times, and for some reason thinking to much about it even now after all those years it is starting to give me a lump in my throat and it hurts a lot, those times were very special even thou I don't still fully understand why?

Races and the drivers don't interest me anymore, its a joke, the cars look like blocks of wood, and everything is too high tech instead of keeping the pureness of the sport and the cleverness of the people who built them, and some of these drivers when they talk you want to just stuff a sock in there mouth, how can a person compare them with tasnady, osmun, beavers, reutimann, fitzcharles, hager, chamberlin, frankie schnieder (the old man) schiebel, balough, voorhees, and many others, and tex enright starting the races, and ace lane shooting the wonderful pictures he took!! Thank God roger and billy the kid are still out there but for how much longer?

I guess all I can say is I witnessed and was a part of a very special time. I was at FLEMINGTON, EAST WINDSOR, NAZERETH, FONDA, MIDDLETOWN, WALL STADIUM. I just missed langhorne. Oh well maybe thats what it is after all.

I was a part of racing dirt history that we will never see again and only a handful of those who were able to witness it. What I wouldn't give to see all of those guys out there again, going into the first turn for the big FLEMINGTON FAIR RACE! and a couple of new comers called laureno, pouch, hearn, and others. Sorry for going on maybe you enjoyed it, maybe you didn't, maybe you can use some of it for future stories, but it really happened , I was there, and I won't and can't forget it,

Sincerely Paul E Stolpinski (little paulie) (damn that KUHL for not trying harder, he killed a little bit of all of us when he let this happen.)