Anyone remember Benny Norris?  I think he went to Palm Beach High School.  Don't know if he dropped out or what but he was Jeanie Thorne's Bad Boy, long haired way before that was in and lanky.  She was every guy's dream. 

Benny had a rep that preceeded him.  I remember some kind of confrontation in the parking lot of the Casino across from the beach in Lake Worth between Benny and Marty Houldworth, with Marty's friends and me from RBHS standing around - all talk but had a dangerous edge to it.

I was friends with Jeanie's brother Paul.  He had an early Corvair.  Paul thought of Benny like the Happy Days crowd thought of Fonzie, in awe of him though this was a later era.

In 1966 more than a year after graduation, Paul hitch hiked into town and worked for my father for a day or so with me digging footings for a house under construction in NPB.  I remember taking a shovel full of dirt and dropping it on his bare back and down his pants.  My mother washed his clothes that evening and he headed out never to be seen again.

Morgan Waters and Les Finney had Covair Spyders.  Morgan and I drove up to Harbor Springs, Michigan right after graduation to work in a resort.  I had been drag racing down Park Avenue the day before in my parents' Mustang against Bill Frey in his hot 58 Dodge and some Lake Park resident blocked the road screaming at us that we were gong to jail.  Bill and I backed up Park Ave. almost a full block and took off.

I loaned Morgan all my money when we got to Michigan to get his car fixed.  He had over tightened the fan belt and damaged a pulley.  Never liked those cars.  Turns out he had more than enough to do it with out me.

Went up north to the Valkerie drag strip with Les Finney in 63 where he won his class beating a 55 Chevy.  his car was fast for that time.  It had been ported and had the exhaust wrapped with insulation to increse the heat and pressure to the turbo charger.  Not exactly legal for "stock" racing.  Saw Nicky Smith, Bev Smith's son race the Georgia Shaker there.  Nicky had his red 63 light weight 427 Galaxie fastback.  The Georgia Shaker was a 63 Impala running Chevy's mystery 427 V8 that Nascar had banned.  It later became the standard Chevy big block with the porcupine heads first appearing in their model line as a 396.  Nicky was always a car length behind the Impala at the Valkerie races that day.

Man Bill I remember Benny Norris what a trip back in time that name is! I also remember Les Finney's Corvair Spyder it was fast as hell! One year against my parents wishes I went to the Winter Nationals in Miami with Les and watched Don Gartlets set a record in his dragster at 198 mph in the quarter mile. On the way home Les and I stopped to get something to eat at a little restaurant on US1 in Lauderdale, I ordered what I could afford to pay for myself, Les ordered and we had a nice lunch. We were the only people in the restaurant at the time along with one waitress and the cook, Les says to me I don't have any money, I told him I didn't have enough for both of our meals, so he said I'm going to get up like I'm going to the bathroom and when I hit the back door you better be right behind me! Needless to say when he hit the door I was right on his heels,we jumped in that Spyder and flew out of that restaurant like a bat out of hell!! True story. Joe G.

Walter Perine wrote:

Danny Lanes had a Chevy with a 327 that had really been worked, as I recall it was a '62, the first year for the 327.  It would beat cras with much bigger engines.

You're absolutely right about Lanes' 62 Chevy being reworked. It was a Bel Air, and if my memory serves me correctly most of the interior was ripped out to lessen the car's weight. The paint job was kind of a grey primer, and there were numerous dents on the underside of the hood caused by clutch hardware and various parts exiting the bell housing. I heard a clutch plate once went up through the dash board.

Danny had access to a lot of cash, so his car was always down at Ollie Olsens shop in WPB getting the latest and greatest equipment installed. The rumor was that Chevy had about "Ten Grand" worth of running gear in it.  

I saw Danny beat all contenders one night out at NPB Heights. He was running a 513 rear end gear set at the time, which made the car extremely fast off the line. The sound from the open exhaust system was deafening. A bunch of us used to stand a few feet off of the strip where Lanes would hit 2nd gear. Thank God he never lost control, because if he did, we would have been dead. Oh the joys and stupidity of youth.

I think Lanes eventually went on to a Corvette, but it didn't have as much success as that 62 Chevy did.