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Message: [QUOTE="JoeDaddy, post: 677985, member: 41"] Here's a little story I remember from years ago. When I was a kid I was in AWE of Ronnie Sox. He was the driver for the famed Sox & Martin hemi drag racing team. If you are at all a fan of drag racing, he's up there with likes of Don Garlits, John Force, Tommy Ivo, Warren Johnson and so on. We'd say "I wish I could jam gears like Ronnie Sox!". His legend has almost a mythical tone, he's known as the King of the 4 speed. Here's the story. RONNIE SOX, was my idol... Although the man was short is stature he was a GIANT among the LEGENDS. Back when I ran the NMCA, I hired Ronnie Sox to match race against the fabeled CHRISTINE, 58 Plymouth A/FX Car. Ronnie was driving his 64 A/FX Comet. Ronnie won all 3 match races down the 1/4. I remember giving Ronnie the Suite at the Hotel Headquarters I paid like $250.00/night back in 1990 for it. Ronnie could not believe that someone would do that for him. I told him that he was the most inspiring person to me in my life, from the world of Drag Racing. In 1993 I got Ronnie to race Lou Cervon's VIPER at the Mopar Nationals in Indy, after Ronnie broke his 68 HEMI CUDA. This was the first year that the Viper was available to the public. I was offered a ride in a Viper by Mason Dixon who was a Radio DJ from FL. I was all excited!! But before I got my ride from Mason I ran into Lou and told him that Mason was going to give me a ride and Lou said, "Hell Chuck, I will let you race my Viper not just go for a ride." I was like OMG, really ?? Well before I was going to make my pass down the 1/4 mile I wanted to practice driving the Viper on the street (did not want to embarasse myself or the car). Lou told his son to ride along with me and away we went. NOW before I go to far I should let you know that I was one of the THREE Announcers for the Mopar Nationals which was owned by Jim Belinda. Anyways we go for our ride and come back, park and I go back to the tower. About 10 minutes later is when Ronnie broke the CUDA and this little light came on in my head, "Chuck Green does NOT need to race this VIPER down the 1/4 mile, RONNIE SOX has to do it. So I paged Lou Cervone to the tower and pitched my idea at him. Lou was like a kid in a candy store. Are you sure Ronnie would that for me asked Lou? I said there is only one way to find out, so I paged Ronnie Sox to the tower and laid my idea out to him. He said that he would love to do so but he wanted to test drive the car on the street (sound familiar ??). So off went Ronnie and Lou's son for practice. When they came back Lou's son was as white as a ghost. Well one of the other announcer's (Bryan) and myself plugged what was going to happen about Ronnie racing the Viper. Every Magazine Photographer at the track was there snapping pictures and taking notes to get this into print. Needless to say that Ronnie went faster in his one and only pass down the quarter mile than Lou or his son had ever gone. My IDOL, Ronnie Sox, I will miss you. Chuck Green As I recall there was more to the story. Later I was told by a sponsor that the testing guys at Chrysler had gone like 13.?? Ronnie was in the low 12's. At that time and maybe even now it was the quickest anyone had gone in a dead stock viper of that year. What does this have to do with the discussion? Just one thing. There is NO King of the Automatics. [/QUOTE]