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

Just bought this Ray Kuns K8 design from Monaco in France. It came from the US and was owned by Paul O'Malley (AARA).
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh265/russgaylordfontana/raczakrt.jpg
(not sure if I've worked out how to add photo's)
If anyone's got any history on this car I'd appreciate it
Thanks

 

Thanks Mr Lowe for sharing those memories. My dad had a body shop and occasionally would hammer out a midget body for local racers. He built a TQ when I was eleven but sold it before I ever got a chance to wheel it. I wish I knew if it still existed. I would pay a pretty penny to have it back.

 

this is a great thread and I still check out its progress when I get a chance..I have a complete collection of Open Wheel mags from the first 6 years and love the old photos and stories.
I posted a few pics somewhere around the beginning of this showing me in Pete Casella's Sprinter around 1966..my Grandfather always told me stories of his brothers who raced Sprint cars around the Ohio/Midwest area back in the 40's and 50's.
he had one brother who eventually moved to Florida and convinced the city of St.Petersburg to sponsor his attempt at Indy,story went that he got the car done then failed in his attempt at making the race.
our family's last name is "Rich"..they were known as the "Flying Rich Brothers" and supposedly were banned from racing in Ohio at one point due to thier craziness on the track.
would anyone happen to have any info or even remember anything about them?
I know its a longshot but any help would be much appreciated..thanks!

 

Nice car.. I can give you some recent history.. "Zakira's Garage" in Cincinnati Ohio got it in running order, and then sent it to my shop for some minor paint repair.. (normal upkeep) While at my shop I measured every inch of the chassis on this car, and thought... I could build one of these. Two months later I had the Shaw Spl. and the rest is going to be history..


Neat car. I drove it easy around our shop.. Actually.. It was the first Vintage sprinter I ever got to drive. Just putted around smiling from ear to ear!!

Last I heard it was in a container to France..

Enjoy it!

I'll see what I can find out about it.

Joshua Shaw

 

I don't want this to become a weekly update on recent racing.. (Indiana Open Wheel.com is too good!)

But... A BIG DEAL happened tonight at the Bloomington USAC show that NO ONE knew about except my ol' man and I..

Goofy and wierd, but interesting..

My dad grew up next door to the Hoffmans.. (one of there biggest fans) His dad took him to sprint car races from the begining, then he took me.. In all the years he has been watching Sprint car races.. Nearly 40 years.. He had NEVER seen Hoffman win a race. It was a running joke, (known to very few), That Richard Hoffman would be money ahead to PAY dad to stay away! He saw them set fast times, win heats and B's but never a feature... Always.. something went wrong.

Tonight was no different.. Hoffman LAPPED UP TO 9th PLACE last night on the tour.. they came in as one of the favorites, till their heat race went Green.. Coons jumps the cusion going into turn one on the first lap, went out of the place and FLIPPED twice! Poor dad was heart broken.

In true Open wheel racer form, the Hoffmans went to work fixing the crashed car.. (they had a spare but didn't pull it) Dad and I went to the pits just as they were finishing the car up. Jerry Coons was strapping in, Rob was on the four wheeler ready to push and Dan was at the front of the car that was still up on a jack. Dan rotated both front wheels in the air to check straightness,, The left front was slightly bent. Rob said "I don't know about that" and as Dan twisted the jack handle he comanded, "RUN IT!" ..at which time Coons gave the "forward shove!" motion with his hand.. "Lets go!"

They started mid pack in the "B" and ran a "safe" second.. They were in the show with there 3rd fast qualifying time back. They started the feature behind a front row of Clawson, and Clayton and next to Brad Sweet in the Mopar team car.. Tough company.

Coons held his own in third untill the restart at Half way, for a caution. At that point, The Hoffman 69 found the Cushion up top and checked out!! As the laps counted down, I couldn't help to find myself asking.. "Okay, whats going to happen to them"

Then the checkerd fell... and a littlie bit of usless History was made.

Dan Shaw at 58 years old, FINALLY saw the Hoffman 69 win a feature..

Pretty damn neat.. and no one had a clue! (He was jumping up and down, and yelling.. so I think they knew something.. Or just thought he was Drunk!)


J Shaw

 

Thats too damn cool Josh!

Tell your pop I said Hi!

 

Congrats to all.. I went to the MSA super modified show at Toledo last night and there was one hell of a crash in the first heat involving 4 cars and Terry Gibson was life flighted out of the track. Bad deal they cut the cage off the car to get him out. I just checked this morning and no word on his condition.. They then just ran a wicked fast feature later on in the evening a great but sad race.
Dave

 

Hoffmans Rule!!!

 

Put in the Bottom code.. The Img code I think..

Just copy/past it in there

JD

 

See this link :
http://www.midwestsupers.com/main/index.php

 

I understand the Hoffman car won won the night before at Kamp but no one could see the race because of the dust.

 

To bad Tris State is so far away from me, tonight's ISW finally will spectacular. Go 69!

 

One of the nicest guys, and coolest roadsters ever.

 

terry passed away at the track and i kinda figured that.. Its a sad day.. They guy i used to wrench pavement sprint for was here today and we raced with terry's dad years ago when the sprints ans supers raced together.
RIP.

Dave

 

Dad's car was assigned # 93 for the 48 season by the URA. In the fall of 48 he took the car on a tour through the mid west where he grew up. The first two pics were at Council Bluffs, Iowa. In the first pic he's looking up ahead to the right, because Marcel Prier, of Dallas Texas, was in the process of spinning his Offy while leading the feature. Notice Der Merkley in the 38, and Red Iverson in the 37 both grabbing a hand full of brake to avoid the wreck that didn't happen! The next pic shows dad got around, and went on for the win. When I drove 1/4 midgets, dad always preached "a good race driver always looks up ahead to spot trouble as soon as possible".

In the third pic dad picked up a rut while qualifying on the fairgrounds track in Sidney, Nebraska. I love the look in his eyes! I'm sure there were some skids in his drawers after that ride.

 

I am assuming he was Todd'd son? and Gene Lee's brother?????

 

Yes.. he was.. hell of a racer too..
Dave

 

Here's the cover of the magazine I bought off ebay recently ... all four shots were taken at the long shuttered Morristown Speedway in NJ. The car was owned by Lyle Scott and driven by Tony Bonadias(sp?). The DeSoto power was built by Bonadias and the story inside essentially is a Bonadias bio along with the story of this test and Bonadias' Indy hopes. The car was an ex-NASCAR Speedway division car.
Joel
www.JFNStudios.net

 

I know Josh didnt want to make this a what happened and where will you be thread but 4 of us are headed to Millstream speedway near Findlay Ohio in a while .. 2 hr drive..Reopening,,, been closed for almost a decade the web site says and they are running the All Stars and a couple other sprint classes so no junk or bull shit cars tonite... I like stuff like this and may call into work tomorrow if i get home too late> We got rained out last night at Butler Speedway so I expect a good field and a racy one... If your interested ill report tomorrow on the track and the results.........
Dave

 

Hey guys I know this should be in the classifieds but I thinks it needs to be here! Have a friend here in Tulsa that own's the O,Day Offy Big Car, it was driven some by J. Chitwood, Jack wants to sell it, if anyone is looking PM me for telephone number
"Doc"

 

I scored some midget parts today from a long time midget owner/driver Eddie Griffin in Indy. Super nice guy. The parts are piling up, hopefully they will become a midget soon.

 

The first pic is my dad in his midget. It was the fall of 1948 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and this was the day he sold the car to another "Lincoln Boy", Lloyd Van Winkle". This would be the last time he sat in this Kurtis.......................for 39 years. This pic has hung on the wall in our shop office for 53 years. Dad would sit and stare at it, and say " I wish I could take just one more ride in it". An unbelieveable series of events that I'll go into later, allowed him to take many more rides in old 93.

The second picture is Jay Booth in the car in 1949 at the Tulare Thunderbowl. jay was Lloyd's driver, and he had brought the car west to run some California tracks.

 

Nice stash of parts, looks like its coming along... I'm gonna have to take you up on the offer to come over and check this thing out... Ryan

 

Just a quick update from last night at Millstream.. They havent raced there since 99 and the last all star race was 98 i believe.. The track was great and they had 43 all star sprints and i think about 35 305/350's.. They said one more all star and they would have run a c main .. Was a wild nite with crashes galore . These guys have seen a lot of rain outs so they were ready to race.. Dale blaney won the a main..
Dave

 

Dale Blaney is such a great guy. Glad to hear he won.

My daughter is named Blaney after Dave. Dave the sprint car driver, not Dave the Taxi cab driver.

 

In my last post I mentioned that dad was sitting the car for the last time, for 39 years. In 1987 he got his # 93 back. The letter is from Frank Kurtis, and it was attached to a newspaper clipping from his sister in law. I don't have a copy of the clipping that will reproduce, but it shows a picture of # 93 at a car show in Oklahoma. The car was restored, and owned by Ron Williams of Davenport, Iowa. After 4 years of calls, dad had learned the history of the car after he sold it, and contacted Ron. Ron was skeptical that dad was the original owner, but on the trip home from the Williams Grove Old Timers Reunion in 87, dad stopped in at Ron's engine building shop. When he showed dad the car, dad showed Ron the "Buzz Lowe" stamped on the front motor plate in 1947. Ron said "son of a bitch, you really did build this car"! " I wouldn't sell it to anyone else, but you built it, you should have it". A deal was made, and old 93 came back to So Cal for the first time in 40 years. Dad ran it in WRA vintage shows from 87 to 95. When he passed in 2000, we put the car in the Justice Bros. museum. It will be in the family as long as I'm above ground.

 

Ok, these are not race car pics, but they are so damn cool, I think some guys on this thread will appreciate them. The first one is the 1947 invoice from Kurtis Kraft for dads 93 midget. The second are the invoices from Clay Smith for the V8-60 he built for dad in 47. Who here wouldn't like to have a brand new KK midget roller for less than 1400 bucks, or a fresh Clay Smith 60 for a little over 500 bucks?!!!! I thought it was so damn cool when dad got his midget back after 40 years, but when mom produced these invoices, I was speech less! But the coolest part is, not only is the car 100% original, the same Clay Smith engine is still in it! Ron did a class A rebuild on it, and it runs as hard as ever.

Sorry there are no pics on this post, but I think this paperwork is cool enough to be here.

 

So do you think we could have them build one for that today???? Sign me up.

 

It's interesting that Chet Wilson's name would come up in this thread, a friend of mine owns Chet Wilson's midget, which is purported to be the first one Chet built. The car was last raced in 1962, with a 180 degree V8-60, by my friends father. The car still exists, and was last run in about 1998. Matter of fact, my friend has it in her office right now, ready to fire!

 

Yup, Maxwell cars were pretty popular around Lincoln for sure. Even though it's a little too new for this thread, I own, and am in the process of restoring the last sprint car Don Maxwell raced in 1985... And if anyone knew Max, they knew he was always trying new ways of doing things! My car came with most of the parts to make a coil-over car, a single bar car, and combinations of both... all on the same car! The last time the car was run it had a wedge body on it which came up to about the bottom of the drivers helmet. Matter of fact, the body even had a little flip down door to help entry and exit. I often wondered if that was to poke fun at the stock car guys!