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

Harley Gene
I believe that the car in question is the new for ‘58 KK 500 H. I think it was the only car that Mr. Kurtis built for the ‘58 event and I also think it is the only 500 H ever built.
I had no idea that it had survived. The give away is the trailing link front suspension in the second photo. Johnny Thomson was involved in the first lap N/E accident but continued on to lap 52 before retiring. It was I believe the D-A Lubricant car and Roy Sherman wrenched it. Smokey put a conventional cross bar in it for ‘59 and Duane Carter drove it to 7<SUP>th</SUP>. Don Freeland DNF’d to 21<SUP>st</SUP> in ‘60. I have always thought that it was one of Mr. Kurtis better looking cars.

 

'KK500, 'You just put the exclamation mark on this whole thread!.....'We may as well close it down, now! 'Incredible pics; thank you. 'Interesting story. A life-long friend of ours, (he was married to my Mother's childhood friend) Mr. Tony Russo, had his own machine shop called Ventro Machine in Whittier (CA). And starting about the time I was 8 or 9 years old, whenever we'd see him, he would always tell my Father and I about this guy, "Sally" that was his neighbor at the machine shop. I kept on thinking to myself, 'Sorry Tony but, I'm just not really interested in some 'guy' named Sally! Tony passed away at age 50 in 1976 with me never realizing just who this guy 'Sally' was. I would have given anything a few years later to go back in time and ask Tony some more about this guy he kept talking about, George Salih.

 

The yellow laydown was a D-A Lubricant Spl driven by JIt's actually a Kurtis-Kraft, with a one-off independant front suspension. It ran one or two years at Indy in that configuration, then Smokey Yunick acquired it and put an conventional straight axle in it. Ron Fournier did the restoration on it, and had to recreate the original IFS from archival photos, since Arlen Kurtis couldn't find any drawing or prints among his dad's stuff. Ron's an incredible fabricator; I went to his sheetmetal workshop last year and he's got a big album of each of his past project, includung this one. There are a few of them posted on his website, www.fournierenterprises.com/In_The_Shop. The Kuzma D-A laydown was at Indy this year in the pink #3 Racing Associates livery.

 

I just tried the link I put in the above post and it doesn't work, but if you go to Ron's site and find shop projects in the menu, you'll find it. The last part of the link should be "/In_The_Shop", but it doesn't come out that way when you type it in here.The Kurtis is about seven projects down. A little off-topis, but the Merc was in the shop when I was there, and is going to be a looker.
Sorry, too, for the typo in the first sentence, should finish "driven by Johnny Thompson". I get excited reading and writing about this stuff.

 

is the #43 roadster in post 6246 the recently restored Dr. Jake Vargo Chiropractic Offy, saw it as part of the Trenton display at Motorsports 2009, have a great pic of it somewhere at Trenton, with my uncle Jiggs Peters in it - not very good at posting pics but will try -

 

Yeah, it sure is....
A bit ugly too!!

 

Not much worse than a Roadster with a side mirror tho!

 

Personally speaking I always liked that one as well as Bransons.

 

What a laugh; "Dr Jake Vargo". Jake was in the fuel oil and excavation business, along with some farming!
Very nice man, great supporter of racing, but no way any sort of "Dr"!!

 

Guys, what is really cool about this thread is that 'somebody' knows what car is what. I yield to the DA lube car. I now know the real story. I was fairly sure it was not the Sahli car. The yellow 9 car in the photos posted after my comments 'is' the Sahli car that Hanks and Bryan drove to victory in 57 and 58.
A little trivia about the Sahli car...in 1957 Sahli was hurting for cash to run the car after it was built. He went to Lodge spark plugs to get some sponsor money. Lodge gave him enough money to get the car to Indy and he won! That is the only time in the 50's a car won the 500 by NOT using Champion spark plugs. When one sees a photo car with the Lodge decal on the side, then it's in 1957 configuration. If you see it with Champion it's '58. Now it gets even better. If you see the car today in the Indy museum, it has no spark plug company on it. Ta Da.....
HG

 

Try this:

http://www.fournierenterprises.com/In_The_Shop.html

 

If that was the retired airline pilots name ,Yes. The "Wolf Special" KK 2000, 270 Offy... A Trevis Midget,... A Shilala Offy midget.... and the 220 Offy Engle KK Sprint car. The Shilala (resold) stayed in the club with veteran driver "Methanol" Mel Anthony, whose sales of his new and long awaited book on N/W midget and big car racing must be going well. Smoke ,Sand and Rubber. ISBN:0-9787721-0-5

 

I agree with Gene. One of the neat things about this thread is that SOMEBODY will know exactly what you're looking for.

 

I think he may have been refering to Gordon Reid, the racer who was killed in a gruesome crash in the early 50s.

 

oldebob, thanks for the info on the 3 cars.
mlight9.

 

I think I am right on this. The 39 torbo Roadster Bobby Grim was the last Roadster and first torbo engine car to make the 500 field.
Jim Graybeal

 

The first turbo car was the Cummins diesel in 1951 & the intake which was monted on the lower part of the car for the turbo clogged & put the car out of the race. As with most stories about unusual cars at the speedway there are rumors & speculation. Some folks felt that Cummins didnt want the car to finishy & did nothing to prevent it as it had already gotten tons of publicity. There was also the story that Frank Kurtis wanted to put the intake on the top to prevent clogging. All of the pricipals involved are gone by now so we will live with mith & story as far as the diesel goes. Last week a Diesel won again at LeMans proving the engines ability in all types of applications. The Bobby Grim car of 1966 was the first turbo offy & led to an era in Indy racing that will never be seen again. Massive leaps in speed,innovative experimetation in auto aerodynamics & cxhassis construction & the massive tires that allowed the indy car to race anywhere except on the trditional dirt ovals of thier birth.

 

Herk qualified the Mallard in 68.

 

SHORTY TEMPLEMAN in a really cool Champ Car at the Horne in 1955. Does anybody know who built this car?

 

JERRY HOYT in action behind the wheeel of the Wolcott Spl. at Langhorne in 1955

 

Champcarstats says it's the Peter Wales/ Westwood Tools- Kutis 4000, DNQ in 55.

 

oldebob, and others, who may be interested, a detailed history of the Engle-Stanko sprinter and the people /events surrounding it, including the infamous G. Reid crash, can be found here:

http://www.speedtv.com/site/article/vintage_something_wicked_this_way_runs//P1/

 

Then tried, and tried, and tried to put it back in.
The R-A turbo Offy was definitely the last Watson roadster to make the show. Too bad it didn't make a lap. I remember listening to the race on the radio at age 14 and feeling sad when Sid Collins announced the car as being out of the race. You just knew it was the end of an era.

 

Jimmy Bryan Langhorne 1955.

Is Jimmy using a seat belt?

 

The last driver to make the Indy field in a FE roadster was Jim Hurtubise in 1968. He was also a gun on the dirt.

 

Al Keller in the Hopkins-Lesovsky car, Langhorne 1955.

 

Al Keller is the only driver to win a NASCAR race in a foreign built car. He also had 4 Indy starts. Great driver.

 

Strapped in and taped up.

 

Where was this pic taken? Merritsville?

 

Dunno, Indy I assume, that is one of the later wedge shaped Mallard bodies, probably around 1970 or so, judging by the helmet.