The old #87 race car that marked the spot for Walker’s Auto and Truck Repair on Business Highway 6 in Gallatin came down Saturday. The business operated in Gallatin from 1981 to 2005.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
David and Teresa Walker are in the process of selling the building now, and they have moved the race car to their residence between Excelsior Springs and Kearney. The car belonged to David’s brother Jim, who passed away in 1992. Built on the frame of a 1972 Ford LTD, #87 is the car Jim was racing when he got sick. Jim raced the car for about three years, mostly at the Jamesport Speedway. David then raced #87 for a few years after Jim died.
“Selling the shop is bittersweet,” says Teresa. “Our kids spent more time there than at home when they were growing up. We raced and we worked. It’s harder to get rid of this property than our house.”
The car was originally placed on top of the older business building by Joe Griffin. Then later, when the Walkers completed a facelift of the building and added a new office, the car was placed atop a sturdy pole by Bridgeman’s Wrecker Service of Altamont. At that time, the business name was changed to 87 Pit Stop.
The Walkers are happy to say that the next owner of the building plans to open an automotive repair shop.
The Walkers are Gallatin natives who left in 2005 to do storm cleanup. They did cleanup after the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now, when they’re not “storming,” they are hauling walnut logs.
David plans to redo #87 to make it completely street legal, with turn signals, and will transform it into a dune buggy type vehicle. But that is a further-down-the-road project. “It will probably sit in our yard for a while,” says Teresa.
David’s parents, Harold and Virginia Walker, are gone now. Teresa’s dad, Delmond Lowe, still lives on the farm at Gallatin, and her mother Bonnie lives in Florida.
David and Teresa have two daughters. Their daughter Kathy and her husband live at Kearney, with their 7-year-old daughter and infant son. Their daughter Pam and her husband live in California with their 9-year-old son and infant daughter. Their older grandkids have now begun junior dragster racing, carrying the racing “gene” into the next generation.
Tonya Sloan, who is the daughter of the late Jim and Sonna Walker, lives in Gallatin with her husband Ira and two kids.