Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Tonight, I was feeling a little down because today I said goodbye to one of my very best friends here in China. He is going back home to teach geometry to students in Kansas. Lucky kids, because he is an amazing teacher and will do amazing things with these kids.

I got home in a funk, and opened my work e-mail to see if there was anything I needed to address this weekend, since we're turning in grades. I see this cryptic note from my friend and fellow photographer Billy Suratt. He sent me a series of images that were various newspaper pages from 1985 to 1997 that had my photos in them. I was floored. I had no idea that any of these were available. One is a photo that was shot for the Philadelphia Inquirer that was part of a Inquirer Sunday Magazine article that I shot the photos for dealing with sharecropping in Alabama. Anyway, I realize that these are "photos of photos", but hope the mods here will let this slide. Thanks for looking!

Stephan G

Old photos don't necessarily get lost or fade away. They come back to haunt us!!!

Thanks for sharing.

Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Boy, did you hit that nail on the head!

A story about the Clifford Allison photo. He is the other son of NASCAR legend Bobby Allison and brother to NASCAR driver Davey Allison. Clifford was still paying his dues in the ARCA series when I met him and his entire family and we became friends. In fact, I was even invited to go hunting with them a few times as well. One day, I had car trouble and called him (He owned a repair shop in Hueytown, which was about an hour from where I lived). He was driving back from a race in Charlotte and dropped his car off at the shop and then drove the hour to look at my car. About 11 p.m., he decided to tow it back to Hueytown and work on it there. So, from midnight until the next morning, he worked on my car and fixed the problem, so that I could go to work the next day. This is the kind of guy Clifford was, and so when he asked me to shoot photos for his team promotionals, I did and never charged him. He had been so good to me, I was happy to do this for him. When he died in a wreck at Michigan Speedway, I was devastated. I had covered his brother Davey's funeral and now his. A very personal thing for me.


The week of the funeral, I was working nights and didn't finish up until about 4 a.m.. I get home and am sleeping when the phone rings about 8:30 in the morning. Half asleep, I answer it and this Jeff Spacoli sounding guy says "Hey, uhhhh… Like, is this Mark Lent?". I grunt an acknowledgement and he continues "Like, this is Axel from Sports Illustrated, and I understand you have the shot of Clifford Allison...". I am fully awake now, thinking this is one of my friends playing a very bad joke on me. I reply "Who is this? Actually, doesn't matter... whoever it is better quit ^*&^*^ING around." and I hung up the phone. About two minutes later, the phone rings again and the guy on the other end says "Dude, this is Axel and I really am from Sports Illustrated. Don't hang up, OK?" It turns out they really did want a photo of Clifford and I had many. So, I sent them the negatives and they chose a few to have for archives and to run with their story about him. Turned out that he died because of a faulty bolt holding his seat in place. It broke when he hit the wall and the seat came loose and Clifford suffered massive injuries because he bounced around inside of the car at impact. Very sad and such a senseless death. I sent the negatives with a note and requested that any amount paid be given to the fund set up for his children. Some things transcend money and to me, this was one of those moments. He was a good guy and this was such a loss on many levels. Very sad, even today.

Stephan G

Appreciate the situation very much.

Yet, this is exactly what propels us forward. We strive to learn from those around us. In many ways.

Again, thank you for sharing.

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

I shot many of races at the old Langhorne Speedway. Its no longer there, It morfed into a shopping mall. I believe it was the only track that had no straightaways. I remember the year Sam Hanks won the Indy 500 and the next week he raced a 250 at Langhorne. They had trouble getting his fingers from around the steering wheel. It was a dirt track mostly clay and would get torn up very bad and some places it would be single file would be the only to get through. I think when they opened the track in long pond it was the end of Langhorne.

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

Some old shots from Langhorne.

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Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Now, that's REAL racing! Many don't know this, but Talladega Superspeedway also has a dirt track and on the far side of town, a pretty nice motorcycle track as well. To me, the dirt track guys are the most fun to watch. They are the guys (and girls) who get out there because they love to race and want to prove they are the best, even if there's (comparatively) no money involved. Nice shots here, too. Are these yours? What year were they made? My guess would be late 50's or early 60's.

franksfun Loc: Bucks County PA

I went to many races at Langhorne, always came home covered in dirt, it was great! My first event was in 1959 and I’ll never forget meeting Jim Hurtibise. I think Levittown killed Langhorne. As the homes were built around the “Back Strech” the complaints rolled in. Then the restrictions hit. The operating costs just became too high. With all the development in the area the value of the property soared. USAC then moved to the high speed ovals that were paved. Trenton and Nazareth were always able to get the events. Langhorne was paved too late to be able to compete for events in the area.