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

Does anybody have any picks of Jackie Howerton? My pops was telling me that they have a neighbor down in Somerset Ky (retired houseboater's, uh I mean party animals in there 60's) who is either a nephew/cousin/or some shit of his, and is supposed to copy a bunch of pic to a disc for me.. If and when I get them I will post..

 

Here is a shot of Junior Smalley at the Lawrenceburg Speedway posing in front of the #4 K-K Sprinter/Willey Homes car. I guess this is one of the Vern Kunkle cars that Mr. Hamilton is refering to?

 

Okay, Roy, Jimmy, Josh, or anybody out there...

Can somebody ID the driver in this photo for me? It was taken at the Jeffersonville Sportsdrome in the 50s. I thought it was Potsy Goacher, but I can't find a record of him winning a AAA midget race there. Had to be AAA, because I left for the USAF after graduating high school in 1956.

 

I'm looking, Jackie was from Tulsa. I keep running into relatives and friends of his.

This is a car he turned out some time back.

 

Jackie has a shop in Gasoline Alley by the Indy track. He is still building that car. He sold it and is completing it for the new owner. The roadster is an unbelivable car and he has fabricated damned near every piece of it.

 

Howerton on the way to winning the 74 Hoosier Hundred.

 

Oklahoma's last real Indy 500 contribution. Too bad times changed.

His winning the Hoosier 100 against that field was big since he was driving a long wheelbase car much like ours were down here.

 

if and when I get them
i will post up for sure...

 

A earlier Okie contribution to the big time was Jimmy Reece, unfortunatly it didn't end well.

 

Just curious here. Anyway to find out how many 500 drivers came from Wichita Falls?

 

Indy Big John, Here is a photo of Potsy Goacher. You be the judge,
HG

 

Indy Big John, here's another photo of Potsy Goacher. This one should answer your question.
HG

 

Have been looking for one of these quarter midets or something close. Does anyone know where one is or what this is? (Thanks Dean Lowe for all of your help!!!!) Is this a Potter sidewinder? Thanks! Ebert

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A little bit off topic.Does anyone know where I can get
drawings/plans of a Watson indy roadster
Thanks .Kenny G.

 

Looks enough like the photo to be him, I suppose. Thanks, Gene.

 

The only AAA midget race listed at the Sportsdrome on ultimateracinghistory.com is in 1955 and the winner was Shorty Templeman. There was a USAC race on May 22, 1956, and I remember being at that one, and the winner is listed as Jimmy Knight. I guess a call to Dick Jordan at USAC is in order.

 

I have all of the drawings and prints that I used to build this car

 

Mr Mac Miller.Thanks for your reply,Thats the car that has
my interest.Do you sell copys?I am veryset on building
a copy for the street.I mostly need chassis and body
specs.I built and raced several midgets and sprints,back in the late 60,s
and 70,s C R A and N M R A.But the roadster has to be my favorite.
Ken gibbard.

 

I was there at Trenton the day Jimmy Reece lost his life. God, what an impact!!
Such a damn shame; he had talent to burn, just sometimes seemed to be a little over aggresive.
But if there had never been any hard hitters, how many of us would have been addicted to this racing!!
that looks like bignotti standing next to the wreckage.

 

Here are a few pics of the cars my father's team built.


Duane Hanson in the 1st EVM midget.


Phil Meyer, Eugene Meyer, and my dad, James Vetting at the shop.


The 1st car before given the number 57.

Enjoy!

Josh

 

According to the article, Biggnotti had tapped Reece to be the team driver, mainly because Jud Larson didn't like the pavement too much.
It was speculated that a stuck throttle caused the crash, with the car ending up 300 feet off the track. The 1950s weren't very kind to the open wheel drivers.

 

Welcome Josh, Wow! EVM, thats quite a pedigree, thanks for the pics, looking foward to any more you might have.

 

Yes, that is George Bignotti looking at the wreckage.

I was there that day as well. Stuck throttle and a 12 to 18 inch drop off on the inside of turn 1. Reece was trying to drive under Johnny Thomson on the inside. He went under and the car sort of hooked to the right, straight up the track and through the fence. Thomson never locked it up etc to avoid, thats how much faster Jimmy was going.

Bignotti ran a roadster many times on dirt. Johnny Boyd was the 1957 driver for him.

George would then lose George Amick at Daytona to start the 1959 season. This after having Johnny Boyd severely burned at Langhorne in June, missing the rest of the season.

Did anybody look closely at the picture of Jimmy in the John Zink Dirt car?? it has Driver, Jimmy Reece, "Balloon Foot"

 

How about giving some of these guys a quick history lesson on EVM

 

I'll second that request for more EVM info. I have a few old pieces for my Chev II and I just got an injection unit for the Ford Falcon 6cy. that came out of a midget as part of the Danny Kladis auction this fall. Nice to see some of the old craftmanship of Wisconsin folks.

 

Some filmclips of past Sprint cars, and Champ cars appear on website;
www.historicspeedway.com
Click on the start button on the Video box.

 

This one comes courtesy of fellow HAMB'er GMC Bubba. He gave it to me earlier tonight during our regular Wednesday build night at Bubba's Garage/Trailer Park.
Evidently the driver is Chuck Booth who was having somewhat of a difference of opinion with one of the trackside photogs at the Indy Fairgrounds.

Roo

 

Naw! Thats just Racer sign language for: "your number 1 man!"

Yes, bring on the EV Machine shop info..

 

just wanted to put a couple of pictures of the engine i got in the car today. just setting in there need to weld in some motor mounts and figure out the motor plate. BUT IT LOOKS COOL SETTING THERE!!!!!!!!!
I'M EXCITED ABOUT IT!!!!!!

thanks for all the help,
Rob

 

Looks like a "spaghetti offy"