40StudeDude
03-18-2005, 07:36 PM
Is TECH WEEK over?
I've been itching for the last two weeks to get this one up for you all....any of you remember THIS???
McColloch…TIMES TWO!
The dual-engined McColloch kart literally screamed, the high pitched whiiiiinnnnng of those MC-10’s floated in the humid Iowa summer air …dirt kicked up off the treaded rear tires as I aimed it for the first banked turn on the trak…going into it about 90 I felt a hard power slide coming up…being only 16 and indestructible, lifting for a mere corner wasn’t happening. The kart was so low to the ground flipping it over wasn’t a worry either…stomp the go-pedal, crank the wheel to the right and lean…why the track was set up to go clock-wise I’ll never know…but…this was Iowa…summer of 1960…and I was flat out, as fast as that twin engined kart would move…trying to set the course record (never mind that we didn’t have a previous course record)…in actuality, probably screaming toward the banked corner about 40 mph at the end of the newly created 100-150 yard straightaway dirt trak. It had been scraped out of good old Iowa blak dirt…good old slick Iowa blak dirt when it got packed. The trak had been gouged out of a pasture…on a near-flat portion of the small rolling hills covering the semi-flat former cow pasture, exactly six blox from my house on the south side of town, south of the railroad trax…Larry’s Father, Lyle, had heard about Go-Karts and decided it could be a money maker for our small Iowa town of 4500…It was! Besides, he’d quit grazing cows on those 10 acres, ground squirrels had taken it over and the grass wasn’t doing anyone any good.
Lyle partnered with a friend, Verne, and bought six of the new karts…I’d like to remember they were purchased from Western Auto or Gambles or Montgomery Ward…
Ahhh yes, Montgomery Ward…they were running West Bend engines.
Go-Karting had started in southern California…the original cart was built by an airman -Art Ingles, way back in 1956. He was pals with a couple of guys that owned “GP Muffler” and after seeing Ingles contraption, they decided to build a couple more carts simply for fun. Bill Rowles, a salesman of surplus materials in the L.A. area, was a frequent visitor at the GP Muffler shop in Monrovia and located a source of inexpensive engines from a failed West Bend rotary lawn mower venture for them, so they pooled some money and became Go-Kart Mfg. of Los Angeles.
“Karting” took hold, thanx to Rod & Custom Magazine…and for a time in 1957, unorganized races happened in the Rose Bowl parking lot… in 1958, an organizing body was founded and.regular organized races were held in a Covina, CA, parking lot.
Lynn Wineland, a commercial artist coined the name Go-Kart after doing some ads for GP Mfg. and GP enjoyed being the only kart manufacturer for a while…after R & C ran several articles, the popularity of karting transcended the entire US in a matter of months…and from 1959, on into 1962, there arose no less than thirty go kart manufacturers…suffice to say, GP Muffler failed to take the competition seriously or even into consideration. The other kart manufacturers were improving frames, steering, engines and brakes…GP succumbed to history with a bankruptcy filing sometime in 1962.
I was 16, going on seventeen that coming November, and graduation in 1961…”karting” was a wild summer of dirt on the face, in the nose/ears and hair, greasy hands, dirty fingernails, oily Levis, smelly T-shirts and getting completely covered in dirt every night of the week, and so much business on Friday and Saturday nites, we couldn’t handle the crowds. No one paid to park in Lyle’s pasture to simply watch everyone else get crazy on the karts...it was cheap entertainment. I “worked” at the track…not sure I ever got paid, but sure got in my share of the latest craze: go-karting. I think the per-ride cost was about fifty cents for 5 minutes of adrenaline pumping real-time “racing”…and as fast as we would get one group off six karts we put another group on…it was non-stop. Weekday afternoons, toward evening, when no one stopped by the track...or evenings there were only a couple of people riding…me and my pal, Bob, rode with the few customers we had…kinda like giving them a “real race” for their money!
Back then, with karting being so new, none of the karts had “safety equipment”…no bumpers, no roll-bar or driver collision avoidance safety bars on the side, no engine shut-off, no governor and no one wore helmets or gloves, shorts and a t-shirt was de rigueur…we’d run the trak as fast as those karts could go…and not think anything about safety issues…or being sued by a rider as a result of an accident!
A high school pal, Russ, used to come out and hang with Bob and I…he’d hit us up for a free ride…and since we “worked” there, rides were on us!!! That was always good for a few laffs most days…and we went thru a lot of gas in those karts…Russ liked to power-slide his kart. I’d been riding for a while, “tuning” them, ya know, and needed a break…I was thirsty. I parked my kart and waited. I killed off one Pepsi, grabbed another and held one for Russ…he came screaming down the straight-away, full power, cranked the wheel and power slid the corner into the pit…straight at me…I had no where to go to get out of the way…I jumped, straight up…the Pepsi’s went higher. Russ rocketed under me. The kart’s engine hit my ankle while I was in the air and I got dumped on my head…but the Pepsi’s came back down, right on Russ’ head…I got a sprained ankle out of that little escapade…but he got soaked in sticky Pepsi and left angry!!! One day, one of us, don’t remember which, probably all for the best, got the bright idea to chase ground squirrels on the karts…so Russ and I went screaming all over the pasture on those karts. It was great fun until Russ started popping off 22. pistol shots at the ground squirrels…that was it for me…I figured I didn’t need to get shot!
One evening, Jack brought out his twin-engined McColloch…it was a mean machine…claimed 60 mph on the streets…I got to take it for a test drive and it wailed. I was about to start the third trip around the track, heading down the straightaway full bore, power slide around the corner, eyes watering from the cool evening breeze… I think I see a couple of karts going into the banked corner…can’t be…who allowed them out here? No one else is supposed to be on the trak with me…this kart is too vicious for ordinary karts. Too late, I overtook the slower karts…two guys and two women riding them…cut around one guy, lift off the gas pedal and tap the brake…still too fast, slide sideways and I’m in the middle of the four karts…two women ahead of me…quik cut to the right, attempt a pass…back to the left, the gal in the first position misses the corner, climbs up onto the bank and back down in front of the second gal. She’s fighting the wheel and almost does a 360…I weave left, then right, slam on the brakes and turn my kart near sideways in the middle of the trak…as I’m sliding, I slam into the second gal, now braking to avoid hitting the first gal…my front “axle” climbs her rear tire…launches the front of the kart I’m riding into the air…I haul the wheel to the left trying to avoid her, futile effort… and my tire bounces off the kart’s engine and pitches me higher…I knew it was going to be a bad crash…I’m trying to see thru all the dirt & dust flying around and brace myself for the coming-back-down-from-airborne impact. What I didn’t see was the gal I hit punch the accelerator… instead of the brake. She panicked and shot ahead…my kart came back down, bounced off her engine…I’m again sideways in the air, going backward, kart almost standing on end. The front wheel catches the ground, forcing the back end down… I felt a soft bump, the kart hits the ground, did a 180 and headed for the edge of the course…I corrected, got it going the right direction and pulled up behind the gal I almost shot over the top of. Across her shoulders, just below the collar of her white blouse, was a definite very dirty knobby tire trak, from shoulder to shoulder…looked like it had been silk-screened on. I followed her into the pit…when she stopped, she was all smiles and laughing and chatting with her gal friend about their lack of driving know-how…I asked if she was OK…she looked at me blankly and said “yes, why?” I didn’t bother to explain to her that becuz of her friend not knowing how to drive a kart, I almost took her head off with my kart…I smiled, apologized and turned and walked away. She didn’t even know she was nearly in an accident…I kinda figured sooner or later someone would ask her how she got that dirty go-kart tire track across the shoulders on the back of her blouse!
Copyright 03-'05 R. A. Jetter/Aden Rush
Did you like this story? If so, there’s 26 similar stories about the 1960’s in my book: “Bangin’ Gears & Bustin’ Heads” -- available, autographed & personalized from my website -- www.RAJetter.com (http://www.rajetter.com/)
I've been itching for the last two weeks to get this one up for you all....any of you remember THIS???
McColloch…TIMES TWO!
The dual-engined McColloch kart literally screamed, the high pitched whiiiiinnnnng of those MC-10’s floated in the humid Iowa summer air …dirt kicked up off the treaded rear tires as I aimed it for the first banked turn on the trak…going into it about 90 I felt a hard power slide coming up…being only 16 and indestructible, lifting for a mere corner wasn’t happening. The kart was so low to the ground flipping it over wasn’t a worry either…stomp the go-pedal, crank the wheel to the right and lean…why the track was set up to go clock-wise I’ll never know…but…this was Iowa…summer of 1960…and I was flat out, as fast as that twin engined kart would move…trying to set the course record (never mind that we didn’t have a previous course record)…in actuality, probably screaming toward the banked corner about 40 mph at the end of the newly created 100-150 yard straightaway dirt trak. It had been scraped out of good old Iowa blak dirt…good old slick Iowa blak dirt when it got packed. The trak had been gouged out of a pasture…on a near-flat portion of the small rolling hills covering the semi-flat former cow pasture, exactly six blox from my house on the south side of town, south of the railroad trax…Larry’s Father, Lyle, had heard about Go-Karts and decided it could be a money maker for our small Iowa town of 4500…It was! Besides, he’d quit grazing cows on those 10 acres, ground squirrels had taken it over and the grass wasn’t doing anyone any good.
Lyle partnered with a friend, Verne, and bought six of the new karts…I’d like to remember they were purchased from Western Auto or Gambles or Montgomery Ward…
Ahhh yes, Montgomery Ward…they were running West Bend engines.
Go-Karting had started in southern California…the original cart was built by an airman -Art Ingles, way back in 1956. He was pals with a couple of guys that owned “GP Muffler” and after seeing Ingles contraption, they decided to build a couple more carts simply for fun. Bill Rowles, a salesman of surplus materials in the L.A. area, was a frequent visitor at the GP Muffler shop in Monrovia and located a source of inexpensive engines from a failed West Bend rotary lawn mower venture for them, so they pooled some money and became Go-Kart Mfg. of Los Angeles.
“Karting” took hold, thanx to Rod & Custom Magazine…and for a time in 1957, unorganized races happened in the Rose Bowl parking lot… in 1958, an organizing body was founded and.regular organized races were held in a Covina, CA, parking lot.
Lynn Wineland, a commercial artist coined the name Go-Kart after doing some ads for GP Mfg. and GP enjoyed being the only kart manufacturer for a while…after R & C ran several articles, the popularity of karting transcended the entire US in a matter of months…and from 1959, on into 1962, there arose no less than thirty go kart manufacturers…suffice to say, GP Muffler failed to take the competition seriously or even into consideration. The other kart manufacturers were improving frames, steering, engines and brakes…GP succumbed to history with a bankruptcy filing sometime in 1962.
I was 16, going on seventeen that coming November, and graduation in 1961…”karting” was a wild summer of dirt on the face, in the nose/ears and hair, greasy hands, dirty fingernails, oily Levis, smelly T-shirts and getting completely covered in dirt every night of the week, and so much business on Friday and Saturday nites, we couldn’t handle the crowds. No one paid to park in Lyle’s pasture to simply watch everyone else get crazy on the karts...it was cheap entertainment. I “worked” at the track…not sure I ever got paid, but sure got in my share of the latest craze: go-karting. I think the per-ride cost was about fifty cents for 5 minutes of adrenaline pumping real-time “racing”…and as fast as we would get one group off six karts we put another group on…it was non-stop. Weekday afternoons, toward evening, when no one stopped by the track...or evenings there were only a couple of people riding…me and my pal, Bob, rode with the few customers we had…kinda like giving them a “real race” for their money!
Back then, with karting being so new, none of the karts had “safety equipment”…no bumpers, no roll-bar or driver collision avoidance safety bars on the side, no engine shut-off, no governor and no one wore helmets or gloves, shorts and a t-shirt was de rigueur…we’d run the trak as fast as those karts could go…and not think anything about safety issues…or being sued by a rider as a result of an accident!
A high school pal, Russ, used to come out and hang with Bob and I…he’d hit us up for a free ride…and since we “worked” there, rides were on us!!! That was always good for a few laffs most days…and we went thru a lot of gas in those karts…Russ liked to power-slide his kart. I’d been riding for a while, “tuning” them, ya know, and needed a break…I was thirsty. I parked my kart and waited. I killed off one Pepsi, grabbed another and held one for Russ…he came screaming down the straight-away, full power, cranked the wheel and power slid the corner into the pit…straight at me…I had no where to go to get out of the way…I jumped, straight up…the Pepsi’s went higher. Russ rocketed under me. The kart’s engine hit my ankle while I was in the air and I got dumped on my head…but the Pepsi’s came back down, right on Russ’ head…I got a sprained ankle out of that little escapade…but he got soaked in sticky Pepsi and left angry!!! One day, one of us, don’t remember which, probably all for the best, got the bright idea to chase ground squirrels on the karts…so Russ and I went screaming all over the pasture on those karts. It was great fun until Russ started popping off 22. pistol shots at the ground squirrels…that was it for me…I figured I didn’t need to get shot!
One evening, Jack brought out his twin-engined McColloch…it was a mean machine…claimed 60 mph on the streets…I got to take it for a test drive and it wailed. I was about to start the third trip around the track, heading down the straightaway full bore, power slide around the corner, eyes watering from the cool evening breeze… I think I see a couple of karts going into the banked corner…can’t be…who allowed them out here? No one else is supposed to be on the trak with me…this kart is too vicious for ordinary karts. Too late, I overtook the slower karts…two guys and two women riding them…cut around one guy, lift off the gas pedal and tap the brake…still too fast, slide sideways and I’m in the middle of the four karts…two women ahead of me…quik cut to the right, attempt a pass…back to the left, the gal in the first position misses the corner, climbs up onto the bank and back down in front of the second gal. She’s fighting the wheel and almost does a 360…I weave left, then right, slam on the brakes and turn my kart near sideways in the middle of the trak…as I’m sliding, I slam into the second gal, now braking to avoid hitting the first gal…my front “axle” climbs her rear tire…launches the front of the kart I’m riding into the air…I haul the wheel to the left trying to avoid her, futile effort… and my tire bounces off the kart’s engine and pitches me higher…I knew it was going to be a bad crash…I’m trying to see thru all the dirt & dust flying around and brace myself for the coming-back-down-from-airborne impact. What I didn’t see was the gal I hit punch the accelerator… instead of the brake. She panicked and shot ahead…my kart came back down, bounced off her engine…I’m again sideways in the air, going backward, kart almost standing on end. The front wheel catches the ground, forcing the back end down… I felt a soft bump, the kart hits the ground, did a 180 and headed for the edge of the course…I corrected, got it going the right direction and pulled up behind the gal I almost shot over the top of. Across her shoulders, just below the collar of her white blouse, was a definite very dirty knobby tire trak, from shoulder to shoulder…looked like it had been silk-screened on. I followed her into the pit…when she stopped, she was all smiles and laughing and chatting with her gal friend about their lack of driving know-how…I asked if she was OK…she looked at me blankly and said “yes, why?” I didn’t bother to explain to her that becuz of her friend not knowing how to drive a kart, I almost took her head off with my kart…I smiled, apologized and turned and walked away. She didn’t even know she was nearly in an accident…I kinda figured sooner or later someone would ask her how she got that dirty go-kart tire track across the shoulders on the back of her blouse!
Copyright 03-'05 R. A. Jetter/Aden Rush
Did you like this story? If so, there’s 26 similar stories about the 1960’s in my book: “Bangin’ Gears & Bustin’ Heads” -- available, autographed & personalized from my website -- www.RAJetter.com (http://www.rajetter.com/)