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

Sam Sessions, DuQuion 1969.

George Robson, Indy 39.

 

I would say his hand is on the tail getting ready to push Rathmann. The air hose connection was behind the left front tire. It was rare that that tire got changed.

5 over the wall one man for each tire and a fueler. Smokey was the fueler.

 

1959 Tony B. wads up the Ansted Rotary Epperly. I believe this was practice before time trials. and I think it was the same car that he drove to 4th in 1958 as the Jones & Maley. While it looks like a severe accident and Tony was taken away on a stretcher, Tony was fit enough to put the Hoover Motor Express Epperly into the field and once again finish 4th.

 

As I recall, Harry Turner bought the wreck and had it ready for qualifying the second weekend.

 

Troy Ruttman, Hoosier 100 1962.

Pit lane, Indy circa 63.

 

Hal Robson, Indy 1946.

"Iron" Mike Nazaruk probably wished he was made of iron this day at the Minn. St. Fair 1953. As bad as it looked he didn't suffer any life threatening injuries though.

 

Dempsey Wilson's Kuzma goes back to the house, 1961.

 

Bob King, Hoosier 100 1966.

Norm Houser, Indy 1947.

 

Mario, Sacto 1970.

Bill Schindler, Indy 1950.

 

Getting back to this "old" post, I just found a picture of Ted Ready, and he is clearly the second person from left in the first row, i.e. the guy next to Johnny Rutherford. Which blows my earlier theory that it's Cy Fairchild. Hm.

So we have now:
Back row - Jerry Blundy, Larry North, Jay Woodside, Buzz Rose, Harv Konkel, Jim McElreath, Dick Carter, Sonny Helms, Al Funderburk
Middle row - Herschel Wagner, Jerry Richert, Hank Rogers, Arnie Knepper, Don Carr, Buzz Barton, Cookie Osterhout, Hal Rettberg, Duane Stoneking, Calvin Gilstrap, Froggie Droz, Pat O'Hara, Dick Hope
Front row - XXX, Ted Ready, Johnny Rutherford, Leroy Neumayer, Harold Leep, Jerry Shumaker, Gordon Woolley, Pete Folse, Eddie Loetscher

XXX (the guy with the cigarette) remains a mystery, but I still think it has to be one of the two additional drivers who competed at Tampa that year, Cy Fairchild or Ed Frese. On that premise, I think it's Ed Frese of Illinois.

 

Bill Vukovich has a disappointing conclusion to his day, 1952.

 

Don Hawley, Ascot circa mid 60s.

George Conner, Indy 1950.

 

Bob Ochtrup photos

 

Rootie - Thank you for the Don Hawley shot.

That is what sprint car racing is all about.

 

George Connor had a long racing career and a reputation for being a solid driver who didn't often crash and would bring your car home in one piece. Maybe that's why Lou Moore put Connor in his "Baby Blue Crown" car.

George is often most remembered for his long slide on the 1st Day of Time Trials (no one even uses the term Time Trials now) in 1952. Connor's car broke the crankshaft at full speed coming down the main straight near the starting line. The rear wheels locked up and the car swapped ends. George calmly turned around in the seat and steered the car backwards all the way into the first turn. The skid marks were measured at 1700 feet which still must be one of the longest slides ever at Indy. And it all happened in front of the full main grandstands and the radio and newspaper people so it was talked about for years afterwards.

 

After spinning Snowberger's car 52.

 

Jack McGrath and Bill Vukovich have a disagreement on who should lead, both in year old KK500C's, 1955. Note McGrath's left front.


It gets better.

 

Bob Ochtrup photos

 

love those inline Rangers

 

28dreyer, I see you have your midget for sale? Will miss seeing that car at the events!

 

Is this the Jack Connor from Seattle? If so it was Desoto hemi powered and was donated to a historical museum in Shoreline Washington.

brasscarguy

 

Jerry Hoyt, Langhorne 1955.
Fred Winnai, Indy 1940.

 

I actually got to meet Freddy Winnai in the mid 70's at the indoor TQ races at Atlantic City. He was a really neat guy. I wasn't familiar with him before then, but after speaking with him several times and reading about his Indy races I learned that he was a pretty hot driver in his day, and cracked the top 5 at Indy in a Duesenberg with a neat looking intercooler sticking out of the left side. I didn't realize he was still racing in the 40's, as his Indy career spanned the 20's and 30's. I haven't been able to find out very much about him, though.

 

He lived very near where my mother grew up in Philadelphia. She was aware of his racing.

 

Bob, it seems Freddie Winnai grew up not far from your own neighbourhood, in Upper Darby. He started racing as a 19-year-old, in 1924, and was soon a frontrunner with the National Motor Racing Association (an independent club covering Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland), running against the likes of future Indy winner Ray Keech, Russ Snowberger and Jimmy Gleason. By 1926, he was a regular winner on the circuit, including the historic first main event at the then new Langhorne Speedway. Winnai would go on to become the winningest driver in the history of the 'Big O', with seven main event wins in exactly 35 months, a fact sadly neglected by Spencer Riggs's otherwise excellent Langhorne book "No Man's Land".

Unfortunately, 1926 also saw him arrested following a traffic accident that killed an 8-year-old girl, but he was soon racing again, and the charges apparently dropped. Winnai's career was gaining momentum the next year, when he made his Indy debut as a relief driver for the Duesenberg factory team, and later finished fourth in the New York State Fair 100-miler at Syracuse. In 1928, he won a 100-miler at the Atlantic City board track, and the following year he was 5th in his first Indy 500 start, initiating a series that saw him finish in the top seven in all five National Championship races that year. He was even flagged the winner at Syracuse, but a review of the scoring tapes relegated him to third place, his best ever finish in a Championship race, which he repeated at the 1930 season opener at Langhorne.

Somehow, it was all downhill from here on: despite finishing 8th in points the year before, he was again only a relief driver at Indy, but at least he did a few laps in the fifth-placed car. Then, only a fortnight later, he was seriously burned when a fuel line snapped at Altoona Speedway, and an infection saw him lingering at the brink of death for several days. He took almost a year to recover, was scarred for life and destined to never fulfill his early promise. His career ran on, mostly in "class B" cars and second-tier events, for six or seven more years, winning the occasional heat race or consy, but no more features, besides a couple more Indy finishes, an 8th and an 11th place, respectively. The low point came in 1936, with a request by rival drivers to ban Winnai from Midget races in Philadelphia's Municipal Stadium after a few incidents, and then another traffic accident in the fall which resulted in painful injuries and "sheet time".

The above picture shows him in 1940, trying a comeback after almost four years of virtual retirement, and quite typically it was in a car that wasn't really suited to Indy, the (Walt) Woestman/McDowell, originally built in 1937 for the Pikes Peak hill climb, where it was quite successful (runner-up in 1938, '40 and '41). A couple months later, he tried his hand at stock car racing, with a 13th place finish at Langhorne's 200-mile All-American Championship, and finally in 1946 he made one more attempt at Indy, a last-ditch effort in another no-hoper car that died on him during the run. At 41, he was done with driving, but kept in touch with the sport until his death in 1977.

 

Check out the shirt on the guy with the outstretched arm(in black pants).
RIP Jan Opperman.

 

This is the sprinter that Jerry Hoyt was killed in at Oklahoma city. this car started its life as the Lee Elkins McNamara 73 in 1952, it then became bob Swekierts team car, then became the John Wills car, Hoover Motor express ,then sold to Bud Sherk as the Sherk Offy, then sold to Oscar Ridlon up Boston way, then to Art Rousseau who ran it as a super modified on Ridlon's speedways. this car is now restored as the McNamara car and resides in Manchester, N.H. Some of the great drivers of this historic car include, Joe James, Mike Nasaruk, Bob Swekiert, Jerry Hoyt, A.J. Foyt, Jud Larson among others.

 

Don Brown, Ascot 61.

Harry McQuinn, Indy 46.

 

Rootie et al,
Isn't that Don Brown #54 the car Don Davis was fatally injured in at New Bremen 1962?