It's good to be THE KING

STL Mark

STL Mark

Member #001
Honorary Member
Location
Pacific, MO
First Name
Mark
Last Name
Earls
How about a few picture from my most recent travels.
It started out at Parks Airport on the East side at Helicopters, Inc.
This is where the build and outfite news choppers for stations all over the country.
Here is the original Bommarito Automotive Sky Fox.

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Here is new Bommarito Sky Fox. The shop was impressive. About 10 or 15 aircraft in various stages of re-build.

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Then we hopped aboard this - and headed to North Carolina.

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We lifted out to a cruising altitude of 30K feet and 1.5 hours later landed outside of Charlotte, NC.

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After a very nice dinner at Ruth's Chris and good nights sleep, we arrived here this morning.

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The reason for travel is to shoot new TV spots for the brand new Bommarito Ford - featuring The King - Mr. Richard Petty. Here's the clients arrival.

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We were warmly welcomed by the staff and given a free roaming tour of the race shop.

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Rubbin is Racin - here a shot of a a tire rub at 180 MPH - fresh from Daytona - the Marcus Ambrose car.

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If you watched the race Sunday, you noticed the 2 car drafts. Well, those rear bumpers are really solid, and as sticky as Velcro.

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I know some of you guys have some cool gun racks in your home. How about a exhaust rack? Pretty cool.

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Rear End shop:

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We were not allowed to shoot pictures of the Roush/Yates Engines. These were heading back to Roush Yates after their Daytona runs. Notice the very high intake manifolds. I also noticed they run Holley Carbs.

I offered to help them get their valve covers to match - they declined.:D

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Then we headed outside to check out the transports. They had 3. Chrome everywhere.

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Then, they started loading up for their trip to Phoenix.

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Back inside, we met Marcus Ambrose. Really nice guy. I gotta start that diet. Geez.

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Now time to start the shoot with the Bommarito's, the #43 Ford Fusion, and The King.

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A brief planning session.

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The shoot went great. The guy is a pro.
Mr. Petty is pretty tall, but weight about 85 lbs. soaking wet.

That's a wrap - Mr. Petty !

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While the shoot was going on, one of the clients (a real race fan) went dumpster diving outside the shop and pulled out a piece of the #9 car cut off during the Daytona race last weekend. Then he got Richard Petty to autograph it.

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He also retrieved for me this thing - which looks like a steering shaft. What do you think? Can you identify it?

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With the shoot in the can, they fed us a catered lunch. I took the opportunity to take some shots in the lobby of a few trophies.

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Now, when you are The King - you can park your hot rod Lincoln anywhere you want.
Notice the blacked out windows. How does he see out of that. I was also informed the the engine is "highly" modified. But again, engines are secret in Charlotte.

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They gave us all a goody bag including a RPM book bag, 2 shirts, faux belt buckle, pen, and a Ford racing hat - which The King happily autographed.

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Eventually, back to the plane and headed home.

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Awesome commercials coming soon.

It's good to be THE KING !

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Well I for one am freakin' jealous. One of my "heroes", Richard Petty. Looks like an awesome trip. I'm sure most of the goody bag stuff will be promptly confiscated by Madison :D Keep track of that hat though. I'm sure you understand who you met, part of americana, part of history and a great person. Thanks for sharing.
 
Still on cloud 9 - awesome day. They were all so nice to us. They're office is open to the public. While we were there, some tourists stopped by the lobby. Mr. Petty came out and took some pictures with them and signed some autographs. Just a daily part of being The King.

During the shoot, as the techs were working on the various builds - I had to walk around and ask - quiet on the set - and the shop came to a halt. They we all very courteous to us all day long. The floors were clean enough to eat off of.

Not sure what I saw - but I noticed 2 stacks of race tires that were not slicks. They had 3 straight grooves around them. I didn't get a picture of them, but I have to wonder.

I asked about the engines too. They exchange about 5 engines a week. They go back to Roush for tear down and rebuild. They had a section of the shop with about 20 or so engines, all with notes attached - like wind tunnel set-up, or Talledega #43, etc.

I explained that they are the new Ford engines and are the strongest motors on the track right now. Prove it - Ford took the top 3 positions at Daytona.

The car that Marcus Ambrose wrecked on Sunday was completely stripped by this morning. Only the shell remained. The dumpster was filled with sheet metal and air ducts and vents. You could build a couple of F5Rs out of what was in their dumpster. Seriously, they have been forced to increase police patrols in the office park because of all of the dumpster diving.

The office park was next to the airport we used. Across the parking lot from RPM was the Roush facility - where today they were doing pit rehersals all day long. They have a dedicated pit lane adjacent to their parking lot. A race car circles the lot, pulls into the lane and they practice pit stops.

Charlotte was a beautiful city. Their downtown was stunning, vibrant and clean. I would have liked to spend more time there. We drove right past the new NASCAR Museum. It was a really neat trip.
 
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Looks like a cool trip Mark.

About 17 years ago I was a flight instructor out of the hangar next to Helicopters Inc. I interviewed with them for a flight position but they did not hire me. Glad to see they are still doing well.
 
If you are still on the market - you may want to contact them again. They seemed rather busy.
 
What a great opportunity Mark. Last weekend, my son and I, along with a neighbor and his son, made the trip to Daytona for the race. We got ther Friday so we're able to see both the Nationwide on Saturday and the 500 on Sunday. It was an incredible experience; one of those bucket list things. Really cool to see a kid who barely has a drivers license win the race.
 
Mark Looks like a great time wish I could do that. Those tires are X racing tires with groove so the teams can not use for testing. Kerry's right input shaft. Next time if you need someone to carry tour luggage I'm your guy.
 
What a job you have Mark!!!! Most of us would take out home equity loan to do what you get paid for.


ENVEY!!!
Glad to see Petty doing the FoMoCo thing....
Input shaft is correct...but what model trans does it fit?
As for the carb's...Willies Carberator in Mt Carmel, Il does a lot of Holly's for NASCAR. I think they use a 350cfm set up. Amazing that they can pull that kinda HP from a small cfm carb.
 
WOW Mark,
That's great! That's like being a kid in a candy shop. It would be cool to be able to spend everyday in that kind of shop, but not with all the pressure.

And yes, that's an input shaft for one of their transmissions. Next time I see you I'll tell you what they have done to make them less prone to breakage on road courses..
That may be one of them as some have elected to run them on ovals as well. If I saw the inside of the out put end.. I could tell you.

Real cool day you had... I'm jealous.

Skip
 
?

Did they know they were in the presence of a Cobra owner and president of the Gateway Cobra Club?

Are you under contract for valve cover work?


Paul
 
Hey Mark, Now that you know them, could you set up a build party my kit their shop. I think we could finish in a week. That would be one fine ride with one of those motors in it.

Rick:rolleyes::D:eek:
 
Count me among the extremely jealous Mark, what a cool day. I've got a hat autographed by an old Chicken Farmer that I'll trade you for that Petty hat.
 
Like everyone has said Mark, I'm jealous. What a great day! Thanks for the pictures. Can't wait for the commercial. I'm really glad he's as nice as he always seemed to be and not fake like some. That's what I expected. Too Cool!
 
I for one am not a bit jealous. I am sitting north of Detroit in 16 inches of snow after locking horns with one of my labor unions all day. This is much more fun than rubbing elbows with racing legends....but then again, I like posion ivy and jock itch!!! Looked liked a great time...and I lied, I am jealous!!:D:D
 
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