Ed and Skip have been friends since, longer than Ed will admit!  We were both stationed in Idaho at the Navy's Nuclear Training Facility in Idaho Falls, ID.  Ed was the best welder in our group and parlayed that knowledge and skill into a great career with General Electric as a welding engineer and nuclear under vessel specialist.  Skip was the leading electrician in the nuclear division of the hand picked group of specialist in the Maintenance Training Group in Idaho. 

Ed helped Skip get into Drag Racing, and also helped him purchase his first real race car, a $350.00, 1962 2Dr Chevrolet Biscayne, with a 283 V8 engine and a 2 bl. carb.  The car ran in P/S class, and I won a many trophies with that old car.  That was also the first SBC engine that I ever rebuilt. 

Ed had a brand new blue 1967 Camaro with a 350 engine.  He competed it C/S class.  Ed had to run against Kathy Straight, of Pocatello, ID, one of the best stock class racers in the area, who had a 1967 Olds Cutlass that also ran in C/S.  Kathy's husband also ran an identical car in C/SA class.  Kathy's husband was the service manager at the local Olds dealership, so they had sponsorship, much to Ed's disadvantage.  Every two weeks Ed and Kathy would pair off and it was a toss-up as to who would win.  Ed got every bit of horsepower, that the rules would allow, out of that 350 , and then some!  Ed let me drive that Camaro once, and I always wanted one every since then.  That's probably why I have owned two 67's and a 1969 Z-28 Rally Sport. 

Ed is married to his beautiful wife, Joy Stuart, who is also a drag race driver.  Joy has competed, and won, here at No Problem Raceway in the past.  She has driven a S/C Roadster and they have both driven S/C dragsters.  Ed has owned a variety of cars over his racing career and has competed in NHRA National Events all over the country.  He even had a VW SuperBee at one time.  The current 2004 Cavalier is his second Top Sportsman car. 

Skip Holbert and Ed had the pleasure of working together again in the mid-80's and early 90's at River Bend Station in St. Francisville, LA.  That was where Ed met Joy.  They got married after he found out that she loved cars as much as he does!  She has insisted on driving too, which  she learned as a little girl growing up on a farm in Alabama.  I really don't know which one of them loves drag racing the most!  Ed is now retired from GE, and Joy is a full time General Electric Project Manager, conducting refuel operations.

 Congratulations to my friend Ed Stuart on his Jegs.com Cajun Nationals win!