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Remembering TNN American Sports Cavalcade (1 Viewer)

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BaldyLochs

Nitro Member
I don't know about you, but I sure do miss those great Sunday afternoons on TNN.... WAY before the internet, before NHRA 2day... sandwiched between Bill Dance & the PBR Bull Riding with Donnie Gay was ASC... and you never knew just what you were going to see until you tuned in ..... would it be the Winston Drag Racing Supernationals with John Force, Joe Amato, Al Hoffman & Jack Ostrander? Swamp Buggy Racing from Florida? Monster trucks? Tractor pulls? NHRA Sportsman racing from Baton Rouge? AMA Super bikes? Hydroplanes?
No matter what was on you always knew Steve Evans, Bob Frey & Dave McLelland were going to be there.

And those classic yet cheesy commercials for Castrol Syntec & Autolite!!!! Good memories, man!
 
And whatever showed we watched!! Evans could make trimming toenails a classic!!

Hey, but I did get to see NHRA qualifying Sat night immediately followed by PBR (real good bull ridin)..which Paul Page also handled...:eek:

Sorry for the derail Chris..I absolutely remember those days and it really doesn't get any better than that.

Steve E..Mac-Man & Frey made up the epitome of racing sports announcers..bar none. In my opinion anyway.

I remember Steve on the back of the water truck during the Knoxville Nationals..(I helped him in it..hehe)..giving the fans a birds eye view as to what it took to put the show on..1000's of gallons of water to keep the best dirt track in the world ready for 4 solid days of racing!!

I miss Steve..and I would rather see nothing else than Dave Mac and Mike Dunn in the booth for our broadcasts.

What do ya say D-Mac?? Always loved your voice over the PA..would really love it for the TV deal..don't just tease us with the US Nats!!!
 
Yeah, the original NHRA 2day was great.... nice memories. BEFORE Evans shaved is mostache! I remember when Blaine Johnson passed, the show went on - and you could just feel thier emotion through the TV. Around that same time they first experimented with live coverage; but nobody thought of oil downs! I also remember that's when we first heard about "the Force girls". Jim Epler was chasing John Force.... and Evans was pitting Epler's girls against the Force girls; all of whom I think were in diapers.
Another show that sticks out for me is when John Andretti drove the Taco Bell top fueler. Evans was pumped for that one.
 
Got more Diamond P Videos than my wife wants to think about... but we all sat as a family and watch Cavalcade together ever week....

Anyone one want to join me at the sippy hole? :D
 
I have several of the old ASC shows and NHRA Today shows on tape. It is neat to pull them out every once in a while and watch. Actually those shows werent too bad. They were usually informative and managed to squeeze in the major highlights in 90 minutes. I think some of the ESPN2 shows are a little too long. They spend to much time replaying the first round highlights 2 or 3 times during a 3 hour show IMO.
 
I NEVER missed ASC! Watched it faithfully every week, didn't matter what was on. And I miss the old TNN too, for that matter. Spike is OK some of the times, but I miss the Hee Haw re-runs. :D
 
Registered member said:
...I miss the Hee Haw re-runs. :D
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HEE HAW!!!:p
Don't mean to de-rail, but I think I've seen every episode, unless they still make the show. It seems like that was the only thing ever on my Grandmothers television, the only thing I remember atleast.:p

ASC, boy you guys bring back memories. Hey Karl don't let anyone know you got some of 'em recorded.... I might try to hit ya up for a few copies.:D

DMac in the booth with Dunn and Frey would be sooooo coool.
 
Registered member said:
No matter what was on you always knew Steve Evans, Bob Frey & Dave McLelland were going to be there.

And those classic yet cheesy commercials for Castrol Syntec & Autolite!!!! Good memories, man!
Click to expand...

How about Steve Evans, Brock Yates, and the Tenessee cowboy Ed Bruce! That goes back to '84 anyways... Thats the first year I have on tape..
84 gators (Amato, KB 260) 84 Springs (Doug Kerhulas crash) 84 Cajuns (Ace and John Collins crash) and 84 Us Nats (Big Daddy retuns, Amato clinches first championship)


Favorite Autolite Commercial?? The 8 guys standing in the motor pretending to be spark plugs....(there were several commercials like that with different themes) They simulate making a pass, and winning, and during the celebration one guys like "wait the chute!!!!!" another guy chimes in "The chute???" then they all yell "THE PARACHUTE!!!!!!!" and it shows the parachute blossom with Autolite wrtitten across it.....

good stuff.... much better then...."Hey nice Harley...... " we see 10 times every show......
 
Registered member said:
I don't know about you, but I sure do miss those great Sunday afternoons on TNN.... WAY before the internet, before NHRA 2day... sandwiched between Bill Dance & the PBR Bull Riding with Donnie Gay was ASC... and you never knew just what you were going to see until you tuned in ..... would it be the Winston Drag Racing Supernationals with John Force, Joe Amato, Al Hoffman & Jack Ostrander? Swamp Buggy Racing from Florida? Monster trucks? Tractor pulls? NHRA Sportsman racing from Baton Rouge? AMA Super bikes? Hydroplanes?
No matter what was on you always knew Steve Evans, Bob Frey & Dave McLelland were going to be there.

And those classic yet cheesy commercials for Castrol Syntec & Autolite!!!! Good memories, man!
Click to expand...

Man I hear ya......I miss those days.....
 
While I miss Steve Evans and Dave McClelland, I don`t miss watching NHRA drag racing a week (sometimes it was longer) after the event was run. I`ll take the same day, tape delayed programs ESPN2 is doing now any day over the old ASC shows. That was like living in the dark ages.
 
do not remember Ed Bruce, but do remember Brock Yates - my old tapes
start around 87 or 88, haven't watched them in years.
donated vcr to museum:p
i did manage to attend the 35th US Nats. in '89 and
that's one cavalcade race i know i have on tape. I should have them
dubbed to dvd.
and the old commercials - they were great.
i always remember some ad for the dodge dakota pickup and a bunch
of guys in woods getting chased by bigfoot - they all escaped because
the truck was a four door...... or something like that:D
 
Registered member said:
While I miss Steve Evans and Dave McClelland, I don`t miss watching NHRA drag racing a week (sometimes it was longer) after the event was run. I`ll take the same day, tape delayed programs ESPN2 is doing now any day over the old ASC shows. That was like living in the dark ages.
Click to expand...

True, but back in the late 80's and early 90's there weren't INSTANT RESULTS (more or less) available on the internet. The best you could hope for was results printed in the paper on the back page of the Sports Section. So in some cases, even with the week (or more) delay, the winners were new NEWS to most of us that watched ASC on TNN. We are so spoiled now. I still recall waiting months for a 15 min segment on drag racing on ABC's Wide World of Sports...and if I happened to miss that 15 min segement, boy was I pissed! Now those were the Dark Ages of drag racing, except they were also the best years too.
 
ASC, boy you guys bring back memories. Hey Karl don't let anyone know you got some of 'em recorded.... I might try to hit ya up for a few copies.


If you ever go to a Super Chevy Show there is an outfit that travels the circuit that has every movie every TV tape and a lot of Diamond P , Cavalcade of Stars, you name it.
If you are a collector with limited funds you should leave checkbook , credit cards , children at home before entering the kiosks.
I only got out of there light cause I promised myself I would come back with a dufflebag the next day and it was time for the Fuel Coupes to run.
Of course I lied to myself [ Old Soft touch ] as I had to go to work out of town the next day.
Now this year the show doesn't visit Ennis but moved show to San Antonio Raceway due to slow attendance.
It would help maybe if Billy or the shows promoters would advertise.
 
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