Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

The late Steve Bonesteel restored that car some years back. In the early days of this thread he discussed the car quite often. His blog is still up and has a lot of pics and history google: steve bonesteel race glass.

 

..spoke with Patrick,the guy who has the car,and yes it is a Donald Thomas car....

 

The accounts I've read say Daywalt wanted the fenders removed. But wouldn't you think that may have come up before they spent the time and money on the bodywork? Actually it seems to me it was kind of a half-assed, poorly planned venture to begin with. I mean what Einstien thought it would be a good idea to put a driver under a canopy in a uninsulated, front engined race car for 4 hours in Indiana in late May?? Can you spell H-E-A-T S-T-R-O-K-E. ?

 

More BIG ones.

 

Interesting to see the Frankie Cal offy #52 running with the west coast crowd. Car was from New England.

 

Today I saw the almost completed Johnny Anderson sprint car, that he brought to Australia in 1972 and purchased by local legend Gary Rush.. Its history has always been debatable. No matter, as now we will see the car that changed the face of sprint car racing in Australia forever, again motoring around Australian speedways. The cage and wing are ready to bolt on and some minor finishing details to be done. It will make its debut in Sydney next January at the Australian Sprint Car title.

 

The Frankie Cal car was originally from the west coast. It started out as a Kurtis midget #24 in the 40s and was then stretched into a sprint car and was raced on the west coast until it was sold to Cal in 52.

 

Bob if you'd like to see pics of this car racing as a new car in it's first season, just go back to page#823 post#24683 by loudbang. There are several pics of it racing at Ascot Park, car #55 driven by Bob McCoy.

 

I believe this is the 'pre' Frankie Cal stretched sprint car as it was raced in So Cal around 50/51.

 

Today's batch














Some SIDEWAYS action

 

That's the ex-Foyt Dart Kart/Bowes Seal Fast sprint car that won the 1960 USAC Eastern Sprint Car Championship. A.J. Watson was the builder. Foyt's buddy Dean Jeffries and his father-in-law bought the car and ran it in CRA for a few seasons off and on. I'm not sure who is driving in the photo but Buzz Rose had the ride at one point.

 

In post 24707 there is a shot of the car where the driver is not wearing face protection and he looks alot like Gordon Wolley to me.

 

BOOOOOOO this is the last of the BIG ones But plenty of small ones still to go





















Yep same car but different shots but close real close.

 

Did Alex Morales once own that Watson sprint car?

 

No

 

thx

 

As a side story Foyt talked about that car during the run up to this year's 100th 500 Mile Race. He stated that the main reason that he went to Bowes/Bignotti from Dean was that he was never paid anything except his share of any purse when he raced for them. After he won the 1960 National Championship (as well as the Eastern sprint car title) part of his deal for 1961 was that Bowes would pay for his sprint car as well as his expenses racing it for the year. This is from memory but I think the car was bought from Watson for $6,500 with Foyt then becoming the owner.

 

George Snider 1965/66/68

 

Anyone know who the guy is between Shinoda and Hernandez wearing the sunglasses? Thanks

 

Indyrjc,
somewhere in this thread is the story of the Foyt deal for the Watson sprinter. It included an offy engine and 10k to campaign it. Funny thing is he didn't campaign it the full season. The story might be back where the guy who had it, had it for sale. I think it sold for 125 k. It was in Bowes livery.

 

I remember something similar. Someone found a bunch of old Bowes documents that were being discarded and found one of Foyt's contracts. Don't recall what year it was for.

I don't remember all the details but it included five grand for a new offie. Not sure if it was for the sprinter or the champ car.

Wish I could get an offie for that money today.

 

I will try to fill in some the blanks regarding the Offy engines. When my dad and I purchased the Maxson-Jeffries Watson sprint car from Judy Jeffries the original 220 #141 was in a crate next to the car. It was originally purchased by Ray Erickson [Columbus Auto Parts] when the car was first built. There was also #111B 220 based which originally was supercharged. When we disassembled the engine the crank was stamped "Geo Bignotti" and it measured out to be a 1/4" stroker. I still have 220 #111B which is in my 29 Ford-32 frame roadster. There was one more 220 but with no serial number and has poured [babbitt] bearings. I sold that 220 to an individual on the east coast who was restoring the Prommer #1 sprint car. Finally, there was a 270 [serial # unknown] and transmission sold to AJ Watson back in the late 80's. I don't know if Foyt/Bignotti bought the engines or if Maxson/Jeffries did as spares when they ran here on the west coast with the CRA. Finally my dad and I restored it back as the #1 Bowes Seal Special and we ran it with the WRA around the mid 80's to the late 80's with Stephen "Buzz" Gregory driving and he was also a "stooge" [as he called himself] for Foyt back in the late '50's - early 60's. I ended up selling it at RM auctions in Pebble Beach back in August '10 and it now resides in Florida.

 

Buzz Gregory was about as cool a dude as you could ever meet. He drove my Dad's V8-60 Kurtis a couple of times with the WRA. He told of being a stooge for Foyt as a teenager. Buzz left way too soon.

 

Amen to that, Dean.

Buzz drove the car I was stooging in 1968 and it was impossible to an open wheel racer in Indy and not know him.

He was defintely one of a kind.

 

While on the subject of Buzz Gregory. Maybe some of you guys who's knowledge goes back farther than mine can help me out on this.

With Foyt's well-known aversion to becoming too close to other drivers, why did he treat Buzzy like a little brother? When Buzz was driving for us it was not uncommon for the shop phone to go off and have Foyt on the other end inquiring about Buzzy's welfare. Just seemed out of character for a guy with Foyt's reputation. If I am out of place in my assumptions I will apologize and admit to only having met Foyt face to face one time and he wasn't in a talking mood that day.

Also Buzz actually had some seat time at the Speedway which must have been difficult to make happen since I don't think Buzz ever had a champ car license.

 

Speedwrench, great question! When I first met Buzz at Ascot around '85 he sat all night on the left or right rear tire when my dad and I brought out the restored Foyt/Watson sprint car and "held court" [as he would say] to whoever was around. I just stood there and listened him talk. He talked to Leroy "Birdman" Payne who worked for Watson for hours. He invited me over to his house afterwards [he lived about 1 mile from me] and showed me all of his Indy pics, books, and anything else sprint and Indy car related.
I went back to the Speedway with him in '89 and took me straight to Foyt's garage. They talked like they were old friends and Foyt signed a photo for me and also let me sit in his #14. We also went to the AJ Foyt fan club party and Buzz talked for at least an hour of old times driving and sleeping in the station wagon towing the Watson dolly trailer with the sprint car traveling the east coast and midwest and brawling with chief mechanic Brawner [I don't know if that incident was true or not but Buzz would talk about fighting for Foyt on more than one occasion].
Buzz also knew all the "old timers" and we went to trailer and he talked for a time with Duke Nalon and Lloyd Ruby. One thing to add was that we were carrying around a white full face helmet and got all of the drivers plus mechanics and others to sign it. It was raffled off at the Gilmore party hosted by Gordon and Carmen for disablied drivers.
Finally we met up with George Bignotti and Sonny Meyer and they talked to Buzz like he was one of the family. I would say he had a charisma about him and made connections with anyone who was Indy and dirt track related. He even was given a mic and talked for a while at the Hoosier Hundred and also at Anderson before the Little 500 which he won in '69.
Hopefully I related some of what I experienced with Buzz and some of the things he told me. I would think that Foyt treated Buzz as a younger brother and what I can gather Buzz stuck up for Foyt on many occasions - Buzz even told me he was involved in a brawl at the White Front bar but whether it involved Foyt I do not know. Hopefully others like Bob Easter can bring out more info about Buzz and his Foyt relations. I will say I have never met a "character" like Stephen [as his mom called him] and I highly doubt there will be another like him!

 

It's too bad most of the old timers have gone to the big race track in the sky and took their stories about the White Front with them. You could probably put a book together that would look like an unabridged dictionary if all those stories were printed.

Despite what the IMS PR types would have us believe, the White Front was the real racing capitol of the world.

 

I saw Buzz drive in the Trenton champ car race in 1964. He was in Walt Flynn's car.

By the way AJ also was very close to Leroy Neumyer.

 

I worked at a speed shop selling oval track parts in the early seventies. The shop was directly opposite Wally Meskowski's shop across sixteenth street in Indy.

The neighbors finally had enough of Wally and went to court and got an injunction to stop him from building race cars there. Wally being Wally tried to think of a way to get back at them. As I heard the story, he said " At first I thought about moving ( ) in there. then I had a better idea and decided to move a bunch of racers in". The property also included a house. So in moves Don Brown, Leroy Neumyer, and Jim Bob Lubbert and if those guys even came close to living up to their reputations for partying, I'll bet the neighbors were wishing they had Wally back.

 

Foyt was also close to Jackson Hagameyer. He was a wheel guy on his first Indy win. Jackson tho was killed at Terra Haute in a sprint car soon after.