Written by AMA Staff (05/1955); Transcribed and Reformatted by JS (12/2012)
‘Zoom Zoom’ Is His Name
We found a very interesting story in the April 13 [1955] edition of the Washington, D.C., Evening Star newspaper.
Seems that early in life Charlie Clark discovered a fascination for horses. It was only natural, then that he should take up race-riding and the life of a jockey.
But C.M. Clark, as he is always listed on race programs, also found that he had a powerful fascination for model airplanes. While he was in high school he spent so many hours building rubber models that his old man had to haul him out of the attic by the ear and lead him back to the books! His interest in models was still strong when he began riding.
“I’d come home from the races at Charles Town,” Charlie said, “start working on those things and go right on until 4 or o’clock in the morning. Didn’t bother with supper – just a sandwich and a pot of coffee to keep me awake.”
Sleep Becomes a Problem
So much time was spent on the models that sleep became a major, costly problem. He would be scheduled to ride eight races but he would oversleep and fail to report on time, causing the cancellation of all his mounts. It cost him $25 a couple of times and he was almost suspended. At Bowie they called Charlie “Zoom Zoom” because of his addiction to control line models.
At one time he thought about buying and flying his own airplane but this urge left him one day when he saw a bad plane accident. He decided to stick to building and flying models. Right now he’s working on a radio-controlled job that should be real slick, but he can’t spend all his time on it, or as much as he’d like, because Trainer Jim Arthur insists that Charlie be at the track early in the morning to gallop horses.
“I like horses,” Clark explains. “You’ve got to like ‘em to be in this business, but there’s no security around the race track for an old rider. But, now, that hobby shop. I like that idea, and I could keep right on building model planes.”
This page is a text transcription of the original document, made automatically and may contain errors. .