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

???? Is the fellow sitting on the RR wheel of the 77 car Jackie Holmes???

 

Yeah, it is. Not sure who's in the seat but Holmes was the driver in 1950 when it was #77. Spun out when it started to rain and tagged the wall breaking his thumb, still managed a 22nd place finish. The other driver in the #28 is Duke Dinsmore 1949.

 

It almost looks like Norm Olson in the seat; maybe a gag shot? And Rootie, notice how the front starter hole in the grill has been added for 1950 when compared to 1949. Like we mentioned earlier by 1950 just about everyone had removed their onboard starters.

 

great I wonder do they list the tracks they ran then I know he ran Winchester and don't know if that was I.M.C.A. or USAC he belong to both he was 46 when he started driving sprints maybe a little late in life just trying to figure hes career out his son has a website that shows some good stuff it's Turn 4 check it out if you like old racing stuff ,thanks again. Jerry

 

Probably because he wasn't on the national scene very long, it doesn't seem you see too many pics of Bobby Ball.

 

Maybe it's just me but looking at the Keck Ferrari above it looks like it's got some weird positive camber on the front wheels. I looked around and it appears the Mercedes Indy cars had the same kind of setup. Must of been some kind of Euro/GP mentality (?)

 

Quote from The Grand Prix Car: Volume Two (1954): "Positive camber is preferred because it allows for a smaller contact patch on straights, and therefore less rolling resistance. Under braking and through corners, the weight transfer allows for more tyre on the track and more grip."

I guess that does make some sense with the tires of the day and their construction. I'm still not 100% convinced, though. And I don't think it made any difference on a big track like Indianapolis where rolling resistance likely wasn't nearly as important as grip in the turns.

And leave it to the Germans to come up with a completely unique 90 degree drive starter setup. I've never seen anything quite like that one.

 

To me it seems like a bandaid to biasing corner weights. On a turn the outer tire will likely start to lose adhesion before the inside tire -the inner tire will then bear a larger percentage of the load than if the front were set up with zero camber. Another side benefit may have been less body roll and the need to control such.

 

I have no experience with tires that skinny on pavement so I have a hard time wrapping my head around the concept that positive camber could be of any advantage. I'm sure if it were a problem though Travers and Coon would have been all over it.

 

Maybe, or maybe not. They had another car that year that was a real world beater in 1952 that was their main focus. I think the Ferrari was Keck's deal and got parked pretty quickly (although I don't know that for sure) when it didn't work out.

 

Rootie, the sprint car #52 you posted,- is that owned by Red Lempelius from Minnesota?

 

No, that's the Blakely Oil Spl. Champ car owned by John McDaniel out of AZ. I believe.

 

A interesting shot of Bobby Ball at San Jose 1951. You can see he is shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun which, in Nov., was directly in the drivers eyes on the front straight. A year later Joe James was killed on a restart in a crash that was blamed on his inability too see due to the sun.

 

I've heard the restart story as well but there seems to be confusion as to just what really happened. Bill Vukovich, driving the Agajanian car, spun out in the 2nd Turn on the 47th lap. According to one version of the story Agajanian crew member Willie Utzman jumped into a pickup and drove out of the pits on his own with the intent of restarting Vukovich. As you stated the sun was already in the driver's eyes on the main straight and it was reportedly terribly dusty as well that day. At any rate the story goes that at least one driver came up fast on Utzman in the dust and made an evasive move that forced James into running over the back of another car which started him flipping. I think it may have been Duane Carter.

 

Yeah, I've read different versions also but I believe he ran over Mike Nazruck's R/R and did about 4 endo's into the 1st turn.

 

1951 seems to have been the last hurrah for the Ross Page Spl. It got a new name -the Bardahl Page Spl.- a new driver - Dick Page - and a new paint scheme but looks to have lost the blower motor. It was only entered at Indy and the two west coast races but was a DNQ at each.

 

Rootie - In one of your early posts in 2008, you included a picture of the Weaver Brothers South Bay Auto Body #33 Midget with, I'm guessing, a young Bobby Unser in the seat. The car is still in the family, and has recently been passed along to Don Weaver's oldest son.



I own its sister car, the South Bay Auto Body #33 Sprinter, which is currently under restoration Porky Rachwitz drove the car at Ascot during the '63 - '64 seasons, after which the car was retired.



I'm looking for period photos of the car. While the family has many pictures of their midgets, they have none of this car. If you run across one, in your collection, please post it on this forum, or PM me.

Thanks!

 

Dempsey Wilson in a mystery (to me) car, 1951. Looks to be a sprint car that got stretched into a champ car.

 

Rootie, Wallen's book doesn't have Wilson in a race until the end of 1952, but that car was#5 and sponsored by Wilson cams. In 1951 a 66 was driven by Frank Luptow. No cars listed 1950-1953 have a Belond sponsor in the Harm's data base.

The rear nerf bar looks more sprinter than champ car and no starter shaft hole in the grill.

The ultimate racing site has next to nothing on him until 1956. Some west coast sprint car races is all.

Or the top picture is a different car than the lower two.

jim

 

Thanks Jim, yeah I haven't come up with much either. You can see where they moved the rear axle back and added a filler piece to the tail and extended the rear radius rods which would have been a cheaper and easier way to get to champ car specs.. I suspect it may have been Wilsons own sprint car and was a 'one and done' deal that Belond threw some sponsorship $$ at.

 

This could be tough. This car may have been part of the kerosene circuit, it was based out of Milroy IN from about 1935 to 1940. It's owner was Marion Daubenspeck, and he may or may not have been the driver. We have no info or pics of this car at a race. If anyone has some ideas or has seen this car in a pic it sure would be great.

 

Here is the only other pic we have. Believe Marion is in the seat in this pic and not the other.

 

This is San Jose in 1951; Phil Harms has the car erroneously as #55. The first picture is a major surprise to me, as it shows two cars which I thought were identical! On the left is the (Bruce & Everett) Johnston/Offenhauser sprint car, apparently a stretched Kurtis-Kraft midget. I have seen several versions of the owner's name, Johnson/Johnston/Johnstone, and first name Bruce, Everett, Bob, Ed and Jigger.

The midget was apparently originally owned by one Moreland Visel, then by Len Faas and finally the Johnstons in late 1947, changing the number from #16 to #66. It was mostly driven by Mack Hellings, but also Troy Ruttman, Joe Garson and probably many others. Garson drove it at Gilmore Stadium on January 1 in 1950, and two weeks later it ran as a sprint at Oakland, still with the 105 engine. Cal Niday finished 5th that day, then took a fourth and a second at Carrell in March and another fourth at Oakland in April which helped him finish second in the Pacific Coast Championship that year.

Dempsey Wilson ran the car at Clovis in October, finishing third - he was also third in the Pacific Coast Championship. He ran the machine again in early '51, at Carrell and Pomona, but retired both times. At Carrell in March, it seems Mack Hellings was back in the car, but did not qualify. Hellings also drove at Pikes Peak in September, finishing 9th, but it seems that would have been the bigger car then. Johnny Mantz ran the car at Pikes Peak the following year, finishing 11th.

Johnny Pouelsen then purchased the stretch job, and campaigned it in IMCA, URA, CRA and ARA until 1955. According to Jim Chini, he sold the car less engine to Harry Ross in 1957, who put a Chevy in it and sold it on to Harry Kern and Bill MacDonald, to eventually become the 1962 Knoxville winner with Jerry Richert, but I'm not sure - I think this mixes up two different Pouelsen cars. In any case, I don't know anything about the larger car, other than it was obviously not the streched midget, stretched once again!!

 

Found some great pictures from 1961-1964 on this site

his page on SmugMug.com

 

Thanks Michael, good stuff. I came up with this and it does indeed look like the Wilson's stretched champ car. I also noticed in 53 Joe Garson drove a #66 at Pikes Peak, but under the name of Golden Eng. Spl. with a Buick engine . Maybe a owner/engine change (?) I'll see if I can come up with more.

 

As usual, thanks Michael, for the great info. And thank you, Rootie, for the very interesting photos.

If you take a good look at the third photo you can see the battery cart and starter for the car alongside somewhat in the shadows. And you will also notice the signboard sticking up with what looks like the start of "Hellings" painted on it. As it turns out Mack Hellings drove this car at Pikes Peak earlier in 1951 where he finished 9th. The car is listed as a Stevens chassis. Now I don't know if the car was originally built by Myron Stevens or he was the one that did the stretching when it was turned into a Championship car. Stevens did have a history of making his cars look different than anyone else and the nose on the Johnston car in your photos is somewhat unique. The Pikes Peak run by Hellings was also the very first time that Sandy Belond sponsored a Champ car. And who knows, maybe Hellings name was on the signboard because he was originally supposed to drive the car at San Jose and Dempsey ended up getting the ride at the last moment. Through his hot rodding and engine tuning Wilson knew quite a few people in all types of racing. BTW, I've been able to speak to Dempsey Wilson's son several times over the last few years and he's a very interesting guy himself. He owns and operates (with his sons) Racing Optics which is world's largest manufacturer of racing (and military) tearoffs for helmets, goggles, and windshields. Everytime you see a crew member taking a tearoff from a windshield on a NASCAR pit stop its a Racing Optics tearoff. Here's the link to the Wilson company.

http://www.racingoptics.com/

As for Bruce Johnston it's likely he was also involved in other forms of racing as well. I haven't been able to confirm this yet but a driver of the same name was killed in a 1998 SCTA crash at Rogers Dry Lake (originally Muroc) at age 76. Here's the account from the Land Speed Racers Memorial page:

Bruce Johnston
Born: February 26, 1922
Died: June 27, 1998
Buried:
Age: 76
Full Name: Bruce B. Johnston
Nickname:
Location: Rogers (formerly Muroc) Dry Lake, California
Event: SCTA "Return to Muroc Reunion"
Accident Date: June 27, 1998
Vehicle: lakester
Biographical: In 1996, the SCTA returned to Rogers Dry Lake for speed trials. Races hadn't taken place there since 1941, at which time it was called Muroc Dry Lake. Johnston was one of the first to run on Saturday morning in his lakester. He was trying to reach a speed of 200 MPH when the car veered to one side and catapulted into the air. The car overturned several times in the air before hitting the ground. He was transported to Edwards Air Force Base hospital where he was pronounced dead of massive head and chest injuries. He was survived by his widow, Sarah Helen Johnston. They lived in Burbank, California. He was a veteran racer on the dry lakes.
Sources
"76-year-old race car driver from Burbank killed in crash," Los Angeles Daily News, June 29, 1998
California Birth Index (Bruce B. Johnston, born Feb. 26, 1922, in LA Co., mother’s maiden name was Sandefer)
1930 U.S. Census (Bruce B. Johnston, age 8, born in Calif., son of Everett E. and Orma S. Johnston, living in Burbank)
U.S. World War II Enlistment Records (Bruce B. Johnston, born 1922 in LA Co., Cal., enlisted in LA, Cal. On Oct. 10, 1942, in Army Air Corps, civil occupation was airplane mechanic, single)
Social Security Death Index (Bruce B. Johnston, born Feb. 26, 1922, died June 27, 1998, SS# issued in Cal. Before 1951, last residence was Burbank, area code 91506)
http://www.lsrdeaths.webs.com/199099.htm

As stated I can't confirm that this Bruce Johnston is the same one that owned the #66 Championship car in the photo. But the age is certainly about right and racers never really quit. And Sandy Belond was a record setting lakes racer himself before WWII (and a WTA officer) so it makes sense that his first Championship car sponsorship might be with a fellow dry laker like Johnston. Maybe someone with ties to SCTA can provide more information.

 

Rootie, it also seems to have shown up as late as 1955 at Sacramento once again as #64 with an Offy engine. The driver is listed as Chuck Fink and he must have at least made a Qualification attempt because the records for the car show "DNS, too slow".

 

Sprint Car Hall of Fame member Don Shepherd has passed away in Indiana.

Donald M. Shepherd 80, Brownsburg, passed away Feb. 13, 2015. He had been a sprint car owner and mechanic for many years and was inducted into the Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2010. He owned and operated S&S Concessions for 27 years. He is survived by his wife, Mary Shepherd; children, Lisa Howard and Paul (Lisa) Carr, Kenneth, Don, Lori Ellen, Donna Jo, Kimberly; grandchildren, Anna Claire Howard, Sam Carr and several other grandchildren. He was preceded in death by son-in-law, Steve Howard. Visitation will be from 10-11 a.m. Sat. Feb. 21 at Matthews Mortuary, Brownsburg, with memorial services at 11 a.m. Online guestbook at http://www.matthewsmortuary.com - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/in...pid=174156969&fhid=14562#sthash.GsrAOe7u.dpuf

 

Don Shepherd was great friends with the Hurtubise Bros. and had a big technical influence on their #56 Sterling Plumbing USAC sprint car in the early 60s.... I remember him best as the mechanic on the #3 KEY Chevy USAC sprint car driven by Bobby Unser.
I first knew Don when operated a Marathon station at the NW corner of 16th & Tibbs near IMS.
He was a great racer and a great guy. He had so much historical and technical knowledge of the greatest era of sprint car racing.
As with many of the great racers we have lost in the last few years, I wish I had been able to talk to him more....

godspeed, racer .....

mac miller in INDY

 

And brother of former Indy car driver AJ Shepherd.