@Slipster17 What did the Gaylord's think about this (Scott or Donna) car/sim/project etc?
Never actually spoke with Scott. I got in touch with Tripp (his son) initially and he mentioned his father having a bunch of old photo boxes in the attic. He put me in touch with Donna (his mother) and after showing her what I had and what I needed it took about a week for her to go through their stuff and get back to the me with the photos I posted yesterday.
I did not have a single negative reaction from the Winston West guys or their families and crew. Larry Gunselman, John, Kinder, Sean Woodside, Jeff Davis..... everyone was 100% willing to answer any questions I had for them. They all thought this was a cool project. A few of them shared stories about how they got involved with the exhibition races and what they did over in Japan. Jeff seemed to have a lot of fun taking pictures with the Suzuka Track Girls (lol) and even has pictures of himself with a Japanese fan who won the rear bumper of his #14 car that year (after it got ripped off in like, the first lap accident). Larry said his son currently does iRacing and that he'd point him our way if he needed another racing sim to get involved in.
Honestly, I just think they were all absolutely
ecstatic that someone was interested and was shining a spotlight on a pretty awesome time in their respective careers. I can't imagine a scenario in which I could, like, message Rusty Wallace or Ricky Craven or Mark Martin on Facebook and engage them
directly with questions about a specific race they drove in. It just wouldn't happen. This project would not have been possible without their input.
The only cars in this set I am not 100% sure on are the #23 and #29. I feel like I'm missing a logo of some sort off the deck lid of the #23 and there is a single associate I can't make out on the #29. I did try and reach out to the two Japanese drivers of those cars (they both appear to still be racing in Japan and/or running driving schools). I received what seemed like a canned 'I will get back to you in time' message from one of them - but I'm not too worried about what's missing off those paint schemes. I have all of the major stuff.