As I was remounting my street tires after our auto-x at the local drag strip, Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick comes up to me and asks for a valve stem puller. I thought that was pretty cool. Too bad I couldn't help him out. I saw his 64 GTO sitting out as I left. Okay, it's not Michael Schumaker, John Force or Tony Stewart, but it was a bit of racing history.

That is a piece of racing history. I wasn't sure he was still alive these days. The heros are going away and it's getting hard to keep up.

One day when I worked at Jegs, the guy beside me gets a phone call (this is very close to Christmas) and it's a guy wanting to speak to Jeg and the guys to wish them happy holidays. My friend (who shall remain nameless) talks to the guy and says he'd take a message and send it to them (not knowing who was on the phone). So he takes the message and when he hangs up he says something like this:

"I'm not sure who that was, said he races with the guys and wanted to wish them a happy holiday. Said he drove a yellow dragster called the nuclear bananna or something like that.".

We looked at him and asked "Was his name Eddie Hill?"

"Yea, that sounds right."

"Do you know who that is?"

"No, not really....why?"

"Uh, first top fueler in the 4's and other accomplishments, the yellow Penzoil car...."

"Oh....really? Uh......oh, ok."

Of course my wife got John Force on the phone one day (she was in customer service).... (another story for another time)

But "The Farmer" is one of the original legends. What was he doing out there with/by you guys?

Hey, even I know of Farmer Beswick, and I grew up in the boonies in Switzerland! That guy is an incredible legend.

I do have to ask, though, what's a "valve stem puller"?! How *can* you pull a valve stem when it's presumably still attached to the rest of the valve?

Nik

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Black LT1 twin turbo

I think he meant for tires. You "pop" the valve stems out and replace them with new ones. At least I was thinking "tire tool" when he said that.

Glad to see him getting back into it. IIRC, he was burned in a racing accident that took the last GTO out. The 'new' one is a replica of the old one(s). He has made some public appearances and has hopes of getting back into exhibition racing of that 64 next year.

I think he means a valve core tool - removes just the valve core to quickly deflate the tire, then screw the core back in:
http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P6...amp;dir=catalog

Forgot about that possibility (and I've used them). And, I'm now shocked to see something in the Snap On catalog for under $35, much less $3.25.....

I'm humbled ... and I need to remind myself that there are gearhead tools that are used on things that don't contain any gears (say, the black rubber donut thingies called "tires") ... a strange concept!

Nik

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Black LT1 twin turbo (yeah, it's got tires)