60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

We have a V2 up this way too. It was owned/driven by Dennis Frandsen from Rush City, MN in the late 60's. It now belongs to Russ Wanzuk, a collector from Thunder Bay, Ontario who restored it.

To see Russ' cars do a search for "Russ Racing Relics"....he has quite a collection.

 

Here's a few more pictures....these give a little bit more of an overall view of what was typical at the stock car races back a few years:

 

Cool shit,man you guys know your modifieds and history!I made it to Flemington a few times from the heart of Ohio sprint car country and really dug it!Got to see the Gerald Chamberlin falcon along with other coupes and coaches,right around the beginning of the Gremlin era.We had a series here in Ohio (The Ohio State 500)five nights at fve different tracks,super mods mostly,but we saw "Dynamite"Ollie Silva,Tim Richmond,Californias Mike Sargent,Butch Harris and many others.Those were the days.A cool Super site is www.retrorockets.org

 

Although the coupes were most popular, many coaches raced too. Then the 60's compacts started to become more common. Falcon and Mustang were plentiful, but there were a few others including Corvair, Valiant, Barracuda, Chevy II, Camaro, etc....

Here's C.D.Coville's Chevy II:


Don Kreitz's Valiant:


A Barracuda:


And Tigh Scott's Studebaker (I think):


I also remember some Crosley and Nash Metropolitan bodies.

 

[The later years of the Supers appear to be almost a Sprint with a body. Did the Supers fade away in favor of Sprints?

John, the Supers eventually evolved into the sprints....once the wings went on and the wheelbase was shortened the supers died out....officially the reason given was to more or less "standardize" the specs to open up the racing......exactly the opposite happened in this area;the car count dropped and has remained relatively low;hell we used to have "D" features at the Hutch Nationals in the Super era...hard pressed to fill a field of Sprints now.

 

It's not hard to see why the Supers were so popular with both the spectators and the participants. They are very appealing little machines. I guess when the Sprints got cages and the Sprint technology crept into the Supers, the speeds and costs were probably about the same...but the promoters often under estimate the sentimental value of seperate classes.





I think one of these for the street might be pretty cool....although you wouldn't be able to have any passengers!

 

hope this pics work,check out the detail.richie evens, bugs,leo cleary flemkie,all the north east cars.this is why we cant find cars.they cut them all up.but who new.watched these guys as a kid.

 

I can't resist...I gotta put up a picture of Kenny Brightbill's #19 Pinto. I remember him winning the Eastern States 200 with this car in 1980:



Notice that Kenny sat a little to the left in this car..which was rare by the late 70's early 80's era. I remember Charlie Rudolph #72 and Mike McLaughlin #craZ8 sitting on the left too, but they had originally raced on asphalt.


Lots of Reading Fairground pictures here:
http://www.rfrhs.com/gallery.htm

 

I still cry about the paving (1)and (2) the closing of Flemington Speedway.If you never seen dirt Flemington you can't say you seen it all.

 

Not a modified, but they are from the 60's.
Pops had a thing for wagons...

 

Here's some pics from the Retro Rockets- Calif. Supers album.
About 1975 or so we took our LMS out to No. Calif. for a open comp show that shared the card with these cars. Fast as stink but, amazingly, still using antiquated (even for 1975) chassis and suspensions. Rect. tube frames, cross leaf front and rear (yes, high arch model A springs) and 3/4 ton axle tube Q/Cs. For the the lack of a better description: 1960s T-buckets on steroids. Or to put it another way: Traditional HAMB approved supermodifieds.

 

Alvin the Chipmunk!

 

Sadly, I missed out on the dirt years at Flemington. The local track in Middletown ran the same night, so we never made it down there until around 92 or 93 when it was a lightning fast blacktop track.

I've raced my street stock and my vintage Modified there a few times.

Street Stock 1965 Oldsmobile F-85:


Vintage 70's style dirt Modified 1937 Chevy:

 

Yeah, my dads Alvin the Chipmunk.
Thanks to my mom...I was almost an Alvin Jr.

Ouch.

 

Born and raised just blocks away from the Oswego Speedway, and went to super DIRT week almost every year up until the mid 90's. Great to see some pics from my old "stomping grounds".

 

car owner in cowboy hat is Lavern Nance famous race builder/speed shop owner and driver Roy Bryant both from Wichita Ks. Both now deceased.

 

Awesome thread! I'd give it 5 stars if I knew how.

 

John, now you are really hitting close to home....the #8 was owned by Evart Isaac out of Dodge City Ks...looks like Herb Copeland was in it for this round... the rules at that time allowed 2- 2's or a single four barrel...I believe the cubic inch rule was still 305 at that time ...most ran 4.030 x 3.00... later increased to around 310 to allow .060 over....the 04 car is familiar but the memory is fading; the pic was shot at the Hutch 1/2 mile by the concrete fence in the background.

 

I've run oswego a few times. fun track. I've heard rumors of it being torn down to make way for a lowes or some such conglomerate over the last few years.

 

The upper midwest should not be left out of this conversation. Here are a couple pics of mods that ran at Escanaba when I was a kid. Sorry the other pic was too large. Anyway this is Jerry Richer around '66 or '67.

 

I'm a Reading Fairgrounds guy, and I could reminice(sp) all day long about modifieds. Here is a illustration I did of Richie Evans.

 

Speaking of Richie Evans, A guy in Lockport was selling this :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=ADME%3AL%3ARTQ%3AUS%3A1&viewitem=&item=230112850283&rd=1

 

Here's the art work I painted on the trunk lid of my #65 Modified coupe. It depicts the two original cars that were salvaged to build this one. The body came from #20 anfd the frame from #FL-1. There wasn't enough left of either car to do a "restoration" of one or the other:


NVDMRC is the Northeast Vintage Dirt Modified Racing Club

 

WOW....street legal big-block asphalt modified! Looks like a 37-38 Plymouth or Dodge body. I'm surprised it bid to only less than $10,000....wonder what the reserve was?

 

Those Mods up there sure had a unique look to them. I think I've seen quite a few of them restored in the Vintage Oval Racing magazine.

 

Great photos and info! Thanks to all who have posted!!!!!

 

As far as I know, this was built as a "trubute" car and not one from Richie's Stable. I know a local racer, Ronny Williams, did the chassis or re-worked the chassis for the build.

 

Someone posted this link on my "Short Track" model car forum, and I thought I'd check you all out. I live in the Nashville Tennessee area and my main interests are Short Track racing and modeling those types of vehicles. I have a resin business where I manufacture model parts to be able to build a replica of old jalopies, modifieds, and older late models. Now, I guess I'll go and check out some more of these great refernce photos. I might find something new I need to mold.