As to some of the details on the #71 car and Bobby Isaac at Bonneville, the following is from www.freewebs.com/danno34/kkd, which chronicles the history of the K&K Insurance racing team... "A break in the NASCAR schedule during the month of September offered the team an opportunity set even more speed records, this time at the legendary Bonneville Salt Flats. From September 13-16, the team took the old Daytona, modified only slightly from it's NASCAR specifications, and set 28 different land speed records. Many of the milestones set that day still stand. Among the team's accomplishments was a 182.174 MPH average over the 10-mile oval course, and a 217.368 MPH top speed in the Flying Kilometer. A wonderful article about their week on the salt, and a complete list of all the speed records set at Bonneville are available at Aerowarriors.com."
I just read this at the LongIslandJam.com and thought some of the members here would like to know this information. Will post more when I have it. Just want to take a moment and let everyone know my father, Henry 'Hank' Brown lost his battle with Leukemia this morning in his home in Putnam, CT. Hank was a fixture in the New England racing scene for well over 30 years as a tech inspector for the once new Pro Stock division at Riverside Park Speedway, and later also worked as tech inspector at the Thompson Speedway. He also gave unlimited amounts of advice to fellow racers concerning chassis setup, while also building some of the strongest Chevrolet Mini Stock motors ever to run at Thompson. Hank is survived by his wife Jane, sister Carol Gray, and 2 sons Alex and Charles. Charles is a staff member at Mod Series Scene and also a member of the Whelen Southern Modified Tour community. Funeral plans are not finished at this time, but the family wishes to publicly thank the Thompson International Speedway for letting us fulfill Hank's last wishes.
This is the car that Fred Lorenzen drove for Jr Johnson. in the 1966 atlanta 500 fred led the first 139 laps before blowing a tire and hitting the wall. Jr sold the car to Bob Adams of Richmon Va. Then 2 ga men retired civil service employees J.W Brown and Jake Davis Bought the car. It had been retrofitted with a 66 Ford body. Charlie Burnett was now the driver. At Daytona they made the 500 but dropped a valve on lap 5 and finished in the top 25. At Rockingham the snow seemed more important they blew a head gasket before they could qualify. The final stop for this crew was Atlanta again mechinical gremlins caused a DNF lost the clutch. Charlie retired after this and the car went to a Ga pasture. This info came from the historian of the Ga auto racing hall of fame Mike Bell in a artical about Mr. Burnette...............
Jon, The hornet was a unibody car The Javelin was on a 57 Ford frame. Spent a night down there when I built my Hornet, Jim Hill
Wait a minute! Jim Hill, as in the guy who displayed the OHC Hemi at the drag show one year? Nice hearing from you.
Anyone heard of Amber green raceway? I guess its in Wisconsin, was thought to be raced there. It was an ugly reddish orange 41 willys with a olds rocket hilbourne injected.
Stash Kullman Raceway Park Blue Island, IL Probably 1960 had new body car every year. He was a wild and crazy guy. Passed on a couple years ago. He helped in my early days. Jim Hill tbirdguy
Fellas, tbirdguy can tell some real stories about O'Hare and Blue Island. We've traded a few old stories from time to time.
Walter Zoomie posted this photo from Legendsofnascar.com on the Trackforum Nostalgia board, along with a story written by his father in the Indianapolis Times prior to Paul Goldsmith taking his rookie test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1958. Zoomie has been posting some fantastic newspaper stories by his father. What I found neat about this photo, and qualifying it for this thread, is it shows "back in the day" the cars still had the chrome trim on them. It's a 61 or 62 Pontiac, I believe and you'll notice the "Ventura" on the door. Neat.
Loved those photos from the Nashville Fairgrounds. Here's Marvin Smith of Columbus, Ohio in the Fort Loramie car...
No, that's not Nashville. Sorry about that. That's one of the Ohio short tracks, Shady Bowl or Kil-Kare. I was just commenting on the Nashville photos before I posted this one.
This track was called "Oakland Stadium", located in San Leandro, California. It was a 5/8 mile egg shaped oval with 45 degrees of banking in one turn, and 62 degrees in the other. It was active from 1946 to 1955, and had a few different configurations, including a 5/8 oval with paved straights and dirt corners, and a paved 1/4 oval. The cars shown were probably one of the 3 Grand National races held there; on November 8, 1951(Winner Marvin Burke), March 28, 1954(Winner Dick Rathmann), or August 1, 1954(Winner Danny Letner). Two prominent names at this track were Troy Ruttman, who held the all-time track record, and Bob Sweikert, who ran his first race here. This was the second series of tracks to occupy this particular space. The previous layout was a 1 mile dirt oval from 1931 to 1938, they paved it in 1939 and ran until 1941. It also had a 1/2 dirt oval from 1935 to 1938, and they paved that track in 1939 and ran until 1941. All this was torn down during world War 2. The location in San Leandro is where the Bay Fair Shopping Center is, on the south side of the intersection of East 14th Street, and Fairmont. Neat thread here, and a neat site, I was sent this way by a fellow member. Hope to add more to this forum. Tom
I wondered, too, Random. Looks like an awesome racetrack. Too bad it was gone when I came out of the Air Force in 1960 and was in Frisco for a week or two.
I recall your post asking me about it and felt bad not knowing the answer. I did try and find out but drew a blank. I thought maybe I'll take a stab at it with a good guess then said, no, not a good idea.
Oakland Speedway was the subject of two books by Tom Motter, A History of the Oakland Speedway 1931-1941, andA History of Oakland Stadium 1946-1955. Both are good reads.
Leonard Blanchard of Louisville at the old Fairgrounds Motor Speedway. We took this car to Indianapolis Raceway Park for the Yankee 250, started on the tail, and finished fifth. Leonard started signalling that he needed gas with two laps to go, and I waved him to keep going. If he had pulled in we would have lost at least one spot and about $800. He made it to the finish, and I was afraid we were gonna have to send a wrecker over to the backstretch to push him in. He made it back, barely.
The Jalopy Journal
