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  • A little piece of DRTC history....

    I was saving this for a future release date but here is what I have been doing since its all about me, maybe this will give me .01 credibility instead of zero

    http://blackdakrt.dakotart.com/index2.html

    The story:

    Most of you noobs wont even know who or what I am talking about but for the real OGs in this club here is a little piece of our history. Back in 1999 I was using ICQ (a messenger program) and found a guy named Jack Yates who had a 99 R/T. I spent hours/weeks on ICQ with him as well as on the phone. He would email me pics and basically talked me out of a lightning into an R/T. Over the years we became decent friends and Jack confided a lot of stuff in me just to talk to someone, he had some demons in life he could never shake. I used to go to Socal quite often and hung out with Jack at his house a number of times, he was just a cool cat.

    That said, back in the early R/T days as the club was forming Jack had a site called blackdakrt.com - it was literally the only site back then showcasing a bunch of different R/T's as well as mods for them, sound clips, etc.....it was the go to site. I think every R/T guy on the net spent endless hours on his site looking at the same shit over and over and over again, just waiting for him to do an update !! It is also because of Jack Yates that you guys have hotchkis club cab kits, innovation tonneau covers, spintech exhaust. He was the first to use them all and really he set the bar for what we all consider the go to mods even 15 years later. He truly was the innovator of these trucks and also a founding member of the DRTC.

    Recently on Facebook someone started a group for OG R/Ters - you have to be part of the original group to get in. Lots of pics have been posted of old meets, old faces, old trucks. It has truly been a nostalgic thing for us guys who have been here since the start. In the process of that group going off with tons of posts and trying to find all these old school guys I read that Jack Yates is dead. He died in June of 2012. I read this and my heart sank a little, he was only 37 years old. SO while I never had a chance to say "goodbye" I had been gathering stuff to preserve his site before I found out of his death. I decided to finish up the project and dedicate it to his memory. I would like to do a memorial wall on the home page of this site that honors fallen R/Ters over the years as well as capture all the history of the club and host it in one spot to never be lost again. For now here is a link to Jack's memorial site and I am donating all my hours on this to the club so we all have this media to look back on if you ever need a pick me up on a bad day and look back at the good ole days.

    http://blackdakrt.dakotart.com/index2.html
    This article was originally published in forum thread: A little piece of DRTC history.... started by WhiteRT View original post
    Comments 1 Comment
    1. dakcub's Avatar
      dakcub -
      I knew and met Jack at his house to attend a Mopar meet at a dealership way back in the day. I will agree he was a very cool guy to chat with and hang out with. I so remember when he wrecked his white truck. He jumped right back in. I was surprised my 99 FR CC never made it on his site, probably cause it was a buyback, (boy did that stir things up back then. RIP Jack
      Robert Miller AKA dakcub
      Bakersfield, CA