Armond Holley - Racing up North
Story as told by Duane DePuy: Story taken from Website InRacing with SuperDave

I first met Armond Holley back in 1973. At that time I was production manager for Lakewood Industries, manufacturing safety racing equipment such as bell housings and traction bars. The boss brought this skinny hill billy into my office and said "Give him something to do." So we put him to work as a tool and die maker. He did a good job for us, except that he had to have Fridays off and would come in late on Monday, cause he was racing! Seems as though Bill Port needed a driver for his 4 wheel drive rear engine supermodified and had called Bill Hite, the builder-engineer. Hite recommended Holley with "This guy will win for you, Bill." And win he did, the first nite in the 55 car, Armand won the feature at Lorain County Speedway.

That was just the start of it as he won a whole bunch more at almost any track that he went to for Port. One night he won the Australian Pursuit Race in three laps. You know what that race is about, they line up the ten fastest qualifiers single file and give them the green. If you get passed ...your out. Well John Lemmo, promoter was so impressed that he asked Port if Armond could do it in two laps. The next week Armond was fastest qualifier again and with a silly grin on his face he did it in one lap. He passed four cars through turns one and two, two more on the back stretch and coming off turn four, he had all four tires smoking as he beat the rest to the flag. He did it with no more than 358 ci when 400 and 458 was commonplace.

Then there was the time at Sandusky when he got the black flag for running under his time...and he was the fastest qualifier. After an argument, he got paid for first.

But this bit is not only about Armonds escapades in the supers but about the experiences I had with him in other venues. First of all Armond was a top notch tool and die maker and he did a fine job for us at Lakewood Industries. We also used him as a test driver for our products. One day we were at the Ohio Department of Transportation Test Center running tests on traction bars. We just about burned the tires off a Mach I Mustang and as we were leaving for the day Armand says "That 7 and a half mile high banked track is calling me, we just got to get on there!" So despite my protests he turns onto the track and puts the pedal to the metal.
Well to run the high part of the track you had to be doing around 140 mph and the Twanger wasn't up to it. But he was determined to do it! So here we are racing around that track wide open and with the tail hanging down.
Scared the hell out of me! But all Armond could do was ##### that the car wasn't fast enough.

Another time, a good buddy and I were going to run a car at sprint car race at Buckeye Speedway. We needed a driver and I asked Armond if he ever drove dirt. "Yeah a couple of years ago" he says. So we haul this brand new untried car down to Buckeye where there were over a hundred tried and true sprinters all ready to go. After practice, he qualifies in the top twenty and makes the feature. Lining up for the feature, the twist-lock safety belt was hanging up and wouldn't release. Armand is getting impatient and itchy because I couldn't get it fixed. "C'mon, c'mon he hollers they're lining up for the feature." I told him gimme some time. He asks "Do you have a pocket knife?" Yeah I told him. "OK if I get in trouble, you come running. Push me off!" Unfortunately he had to drop out due to overheating. No shaker screen, but he had that car right up in the front of the pack after twenty some laps.

Armond loved to race, but he wasn't foolhardy. He also had some of the most picturesque speech you ever heard. He asked me to go with him to a race at Sharon Speedway when it was still pavement. Some guy had bought Ports 4 wheel driver and wanted him to drive it. Well the car just wasn't right for him. After we had worked on it for a while, Armond says "NO, My Momma didn't raise no dummies, this things fixin to hit the fence and I ain't going to be in it. It's as scary as taking a crap off a slanty tin roof backwards". Sure enough the other driver put it hard into the fence.

Unfortunately, Armond never made it to the big time, but if he had, I would have loved to go with him. Because he was that kind of a guy!