Thanks Mike, I really appreciate the interest! The picture of the '69 (gold W31) is at Capital Raceway. I had the car re-lettered to appear as it did then. The car is in AMAZING condition and still is pretty much all original. When I figure out how to scan and then post photos I will. See you in July at the York U.S. 30 Reunion-until then I'll stay tuned here. Thanks again, Dave.
Dave are you a member of the Old Club of America? Their National event is in Seven Springs, PA this year. Would be a great thing to show off that Olds at the show!! http://www.oldsclub.org/NationalMeets/OCA_Nats2009/nats09_info.htm
A picture Im sure Carroll would just as soon forget. Backing into Grumpys 69 at the NHRA '71 Winternats
How unfortunate! I bet Bill really lived up to his 'nickname' that day. I understand Buster had them exchange insurance info until the Pomona Traffic Police came to take accident-scene measurements! Steve
A long while back a buddy from Jersey handed me a set of Duffy's pistons for a 287,you know the deal,.043 top ring,gas ports,short skirts, light as popcorn and I always wondered where they had been. I wish I knew. I kept them just because...........
My friend Bill Niedercadaus bought the 283/283 'Terrible Tangerine' (or maybe it was named the 'Orange Crate' by then) injected '57 wagon from Joe (Doc) Dougherty 'sometime' 'back then' ... we swapped the 'dubious' cam and (after getting lost in the 'wilds' of northern VA) ... took it to the first (Suffock, Va) Little Guy Nationals in 71(?). Alas (no lie), we placed 33 in a 32 car qualifying field ... we really shudda retained that 'borderline' cam! Anyway ... I'll get to the point. A few weeks later Bill lost a piston at Englishtown. Turns out the very-trick (Truppi - Kling) short block had (tapered) wrist pins about as thick as soda straws and one let loose during a run at about 6800 RPM. I still smoked back then and I kept the 'remains' of that(.043 top ringed, 'mini' skirted, Teflon buttoned) piston for an ashtray till I quit smoking in 1996!
No, (although that *name 'rings a bell') it was Bill 'Billy' Niedercadaus(sp?), a very active late-60s 1970s, Glen Burnie, MD-based racer ... really a nice guy! Another one of those guys that I wonder if they are 'still' ... 'normally aspirated.'
Love the "33 in a 32 car field" comment. Try this one. I worked on a C/MP Camaro in the mid 70's trying to learn something. We thrashed for weeks to get ready for Indy. I went 3 weeks straight with 2 hours sleep each night. We finally got it ready and loaded it on the open trailer hooked to a pickup. For whatever reason we held it on the trailer by 1 cable comealong mounted in the center of the acid dipped front crossmember and nothing else to secure it. We stopped for gas on the Pa. turnpike and the last thing the owners did was put 1 more click on the comealong before we hit the Turnpike again. At 75 mph the truck suddenly slowed to about 50 mph instantly. When we got pulled over we found the comealong cable broke and let the car slide back far enough to let the new 14 32's hit the road . The Dana 60 had a new 6:50 gear and the Nash 5 speed was in first gear when we loaded it . At Indy it had a dead hole when they leaked it down and it ran 10:05 on 7 cylinders."Welcome to sportsman racing" I think I was told............
Steve, here's a preview of the DVD I'm putting together of our last event. Don't worry, the finished disc will be about 35-40 minutes long, and have a bunch more Stock and Super Stock footage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsW1N1rDy5Q&feature=channel_page
I didn't know Joe bought the Tangerine from Ralph and Tommy. I never saw him in it. I remember his sedan delivery, then the next I saw he had purchased Clayton Wright's Max Wedge SS'er when Clayton got the 70 Hemicuda for SS/DA. Joe painted it bright yellow and named it "Tight Nuts".
OK...I was wondering. Bernie was also from Glen Burnie, Md. and raced at Capitol a lot. It was an orange 57 4 door wagon with F.I..
would this be the same JOE DOUGHERTY that bought a 55 chev. handyman 4dr s/w 3sp.in about 1965 from my good friend JACK WORRELL ? jack and his dad had the boulevard esso gas station in phila. JAKE
The late Tom Simone bought the Tangerine from Ralph after that I'm not sure what happen to it. True story: Tommy buys the Tangerine and flats towes it home, he unhooks the tow bar to drive it into his garage. He starts it up puts it in gear and it won't move, nothing. After a few tries with no luck he call Ralph and tells him the car won't move. At this point Ralph tells he he has to that off the tires and remove the tow hubs.
Hey Mike, I do belong to the Ods Club Of America and I am seiously considering attending the Nats. I don't have any concrete plans made yet but I am working on it. Are you going to be at the York Reunion? If so, make sure to stop and say Hi. Thanks, Dave
I'm sorry to say that Billy Niedergesas died a couple years ago. I am not positive but I think he had a heart attack.
It's sad for me to learn that, but thank you for sharing. Last time I saw him was about 20 years ago. He had stopped by my house to visit and to show me his most-recent acquisition of a '1970 something' 454-powered short-bed Chevy pickup. That was around 1988, and even then we (with some melancholy) reminisced about the 'old days.' Rest in peace Bill!
Thanks Steve. I had so much fun with those guys and that car.Many more stories of it came to mind ,many amusing ones.When it was happening it was cool but I really didn't get the entire drift of just how cool those days were until now. After it all passed by.
The May 2009 Hemmings Muscle Machines has a couple page article about Junior Stocks at the 1967 Indy Nationals starting on page 36. Wait'll they see this thread...............
I hope that article was researched better than the last ones of a couple years ago. Those articles were fraught with errors. Wrong engine, wrong class, wrong et's. Lucky if the picture was correct. No wonder there is so much disinformation spread amongst the younger guys. A major magazine shouldn't ever put out that kinda stuff. I woulda edited it for free. I know I could have done alot better job. I know most of those guys from the old CSK Pub. days I didn't renew my 'script after that.
Are you talkiing about the 2 part series (West coast ,East Coast) Ro McGonegal wrote several years back or did I miss some other arrticle about the Stockers??
Actually, it was pretty much Super Stockers. About 2-3 years ago Alot of Englishtown. Maybe written by the photog. Might explain it Wasn't Ro's work.
The book Larry Davis wrote called SUPER STOCK Drag Racing the Family Sedan is full of mistakes also. I offered to proof it when I was at the PRI show a few years ago but they were not interested.
I just read the article and there isnt much to it. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the best I would give it a 1 or 2. This site is WAY much better.
Terry ,you're right about that. I was going to bring that up next. It's too bad when someone is out of their league, and doesn't even know it.
Really an unbelivable amount of knowledge! Still need, cam(or specs for) headers carbs (could use some #s for these) working on engine goodies now. Cleaned up the bumpers and grille yesterday gonna need a grille and will replace bumpers on an as can afford basis.really not to bad. will also be looking for rear end stuff too but i "THINK" i can obtain that.
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