PHOTO: VAN ABERNETHY |
North Carolina’ s Kenny Floyd lives the dream
By Van Abernethy
Whenever Kenny Floyd catches a glimpse of something that hooks his attention, it’ s usually not just a passing faze. For example, there was that time he went out on a blind date with a pretty gal named Linda back in 1975. After a brief courtship, the two were married. Forty-two years later they’ re still happily together and loving life. While the longevity of their relationship is indeed compelling, Kenny and his beloved 1958 Corvette have actually been together even longer.“ When it’ s right you know it,” he insists. It’ s clear he speaks with parallel examples when describing objects of his affection. As for the latter, he still remembers the first time he ever laid eyes on the sexy curves of this American classic two-seater while still a teenager. The‘ Vette was a local car that belonged to a paint and body shop owner who lived in Floyd’ s hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Floyd knew he must own this car,
|
and even though he was a young man still in high school, he was a hard-working lad who had also made some mighty good car trades early in life, even before the Corvette came into the picture.
It all started with a 1955 Chevy Nomad he bought from his parents for $ 500 when he was 16 years old. A short time later he and a guy swapped even: The Nomad for a 1961 Impala, equipped with a 348 Tri-power engine. He then took the Impala and traded even yet again, this time for the beautiful 1958 Corvette that he still owns nearly 50 years later! Perhaps the only trade that even comes close to that one was the time he swapped a. 45 caliber Colt pistol for a 1955 Chevrolet. Back in those days it wasn’ t uncommon to barter a pistol for a car, especially in the“ Don’ t Tread on Me” culture of the South, where owning guns ranks as high in importance as eating!
Well, upon taking delivery of the Corvette, Floyd immediately started driving the car to high school. It was truly the stuff dreams are made of, and all these years later he looks back fondly on the experience. The blind date with his eventual wife, Linda, would happen shortly thereafter and Kenny’ s lifelong drag racing adventures would soon become part of the young couple’ s life together
|
.“ I don’ t know if Linda immediately fell in love with drag racing, but she’ s been tolerating it for quite a while now,” he laughs.
For Kenny, though, the car culture and racing life instantly struck a chord with him as early as age 12. In fact, after school would let out, Kenny would walk up the block to Dick Behling’ s service station and sit in his front engine dragster parked out front and pretend to race.“ Then when I was probably 14 years old I started going to Shuffletown Dragway with my older brother, Terry, just as spectators,” recalls Floyd.
Spectator status would change, though, right after he acquired the Nomad from his parents, and pretty soon he had the car screaming down Shuffletown’ s eighth-mile, just as he did the Impala and eventually the Corvette.“ I also used to race at the old Concord Dragway when it was still open, and it’ s actually where I won my very first race. The year was maybe 1970 and Concord had just switched to AHRA sanction. They had some sort of gas class for sports cars and that’ s where they put me to race my Corvette. It had a real soft index and I was able to cover it and win. Best I remember, I won something like $ 10 and a trophy,” he remembers fondly.
|
June 2017 |
DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 61 |