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

Rootie, check rollbar on the car in post 6982, identical. What is history of Mutt's #7?? Did he build car ??
mlight9.

 

Yes I noticed that the roll bar on the 67 Reading car is the same as Hemmings car at Salem 61. I don't know if it's the same car or what, and I haven't been able to come with any info on that car at all. So I'm not even sure it was, in fact, owned by Anderson or Hoffman. (?)

 

Amen, brother. Nothing piques the interest of racers like actually seeing a piece of their own history.

 

John and all,
This must be an Eldora shot, the guard rail and trees are not from Tri-County. I should have taken time to try to ID more of the stuff that John now has. Of course some of it has faded from the old memory entirely. I had made good notes on who was in what car for each race, but that was lost along with the negs in the 1979 flood.
Wayne

 

1964 season opener for the Champ cars and inagural race at PIR. About a equal mix of uprights and roadsters with one r/e car and the start of A.J.s near total domination of the 64 series.

 

If that is Eldora June 69 my guess would be:
#85-Pratt
#16-Kunzman
#78(?)-Doc Dawson
#12(?)-Chuck Arnold

 

Thanks, Wayne and Rootie. Thanks again for the photos, Wayne. I'm slowly working my way through 'em.

 

Rootie you never cease to amaze me with how much knowledge you have! I think you may have forgot more than all of the rest of us on this post put together know

 

Thanks Roy, the 50s -60s stuff has just been kind of a hobby of mine, guys like Jim Nise, Old Bill and others are the real experts and seem to have the first hand experience to back it up.

 

Thanks for the complement Rootie, but I only have a very narrow window of the past. 1957 to maybe 1966....

After losing good family friend Bobby Marshman, it was not important anymore, and then military service took over.

I love the pictures of real racing, where drivers made up for less than the best equipment, dirt tracks had a cushion, big holes and sometimes ruts (nobody wanted the ruts, but thats how it was).

Thanks for corngrower for sTarting the thread too!

Just an enjoyable trip through old brain cells, and a tribute to all that drove in the era of ultimate possible tragedy, at any time.

 

Geeeez... I look forward to looking through this thread every night!
Great stuff. Really hope it keeps going!
ZOOOM

 

Me too..I really think it would make a great book!

 

The looong and well traveled life of the Frankie Cal Offy. It started life as one of the first Kurtis midgets built. In it's midget form, in 1940s SoCal, it was driven by some of the greats of the day, including Parsons, Linden, Tolan and many more. As the midget mania of the late 40s declined, it was streched into a sprinter and shortly thereafter it was sold to Frankie Cal back east. There it started a new life as one of the east coast top cars, with many of the greats behind the wheel including the likes of Bryan, Nazurak, Peters and Marshman. In the early 60s Cal moved to the west coast and the car came full circle with him and was raced with the CRA until 1963 when it was retired.

Johnny Tolan at Culver City 1947
Rex Record racing with another streched Kurtis of Joe Barzda.
Bobby Marshman at Reading 1960
Bob McCoy at Ascot 1963.

 

Rootie;
Great pics of a classic car! A number of years ago i saw this car run track time at Latimore. What a show! An older man was behind the wheel, and man, did he put the hammer down! Reminded me of the old days!

 

That probably was Marty Himes, he found it in Cals garage about 30 yr. ago, bought it and keeps it at his museum, unrestored, and brings it out for vintage shows and such. http://thehimesmuseum.com/

 

It has always amazed me how long a life many of those cars, from back then, lived. No matter how broke, bent, burned or outdated they were, they got straightened out, updated and kept on racing. I credit that to the fact that probably most of the owners/racers were products of the Great Depression and WW2 in one way or another. Both my parents lived through those times and they never threw anything away that had any possibility of being used again. If it broke, it got fixed unlike today when a trip to WalMart is how things get 'fixed.' A different time for sure.

 

Rootie..Couldn't agree more..everything's disposable, even people. By the way, thanks for the great posts. Brings back memories of great times at Manzy,Az. State Fairgrounds, South Mountain and the old Tucson tracks of Gilpin and the Rodeo Grounds.

 

Your welcome. Don't know if it's something in the water down there, but there sure have been some great drivers come out of AZ. Bryan, McCluskey, Davis etc. etc. and then later on, the Shuman bros. Haven't seen too many drivers more on the gas and fearless than 'The Shu.'

 

You may see more of this yourself. Times are changing in racing and in America. I keep hearing about local racers doing a whole lot more fixing and making do than replacing nowadays. That's one reason I hated to see the "Cash for Clunkers" program be so "successful". There were tens of thousands of V-8 engines from old cars and trucks that got destroyed instead of junked where they might have found their way into local race classes across the country. Alot of youngsters just might be indirectly priced out of entry level racing over this program.

 

Amen to that Rootie... after I read that Dizz Wilson immediately came to mind.
PK

 

Hi Spike,
The#97 in the photo you referred to is the same car. In 1964, Aggie was sponsored by Bowes. P.J. drove the car for a race or two while awaiting arrival of their new Watson dirt car. P.J. put the car on the pole against roadsters and rear engine cars and finished second. Jud drove the car for the rest of the season.

 

do they still have the quarter midget track on south mountain?

 

Yep, he was famous as the one who could do more with less and proving it didn't have to be pretty to go fast. Another cut from the same cloth was Chet Wilson. Not only did he build the Offy Killer himself he salvaged the Chevy engine from a dealers warranty pile. Being so new, there wern't a lot of speed parts yet for the sbc so he hand fabbed and adapted much of what he needed.

 

I snapped these pics of the Frankie Cal Offy at Williams Grove during the '87 Old Timer's Reunion. Don't know who was in the seat, but he had his leg in it! The list of drivers reads like an open wheel who's who.

 

I was hoping somebody out there might have some knowledge on some halibrand 301 quick change rear ends. I have (2) 301 center sections. One has markings 85 BA 260.
The other one has more markings, 80 175, 12-80 and it reads Halibrand Torrance CA.
I know the second is obviously made in Torrance california and I assume that maybe it was manufactured in December of 1980. But as for the first one I dont know if that may be the year as well 1985? I have two side bell covers they say ARC 293113, does any one know any information on these like when they were manufactured? Thanks for any and all info.

 

I've got some Hali. catalogs from the 70s but they don't list any casting #s. and your #s don't jive with any part #s. I can scan the exploded view and parts list of a 301 Champ rear if that will help any. Of course the parts list won't do you any good but the bearing #s are probably still good or cross reference-able if you're lacking any bearings.
ARC was the second generation of CAE. I also have a catalog of theirs from the 70s, but that number doesn't jive with any in the catalog either.

 

Sorry,I really don't know. Maybe the Phx. guys can help.

 

Sorry for the poor cellphone camera pix, but here's a few interesting sprinters from way before 1969 that I shot at Toledo Speedway a week or so ago. Perhaps one of the experts here can shed some light on their history-one appears to be the Grancor Sprinter. Enjoy!

 

Posting this here and on the Cageless Midget thread. The 61 is probably Mel Kenyon, of course. The date stamp from Wayne Doubling says May 29, 1970 and it looks like IRP, so it's probably the Night Before the 500...

 

Don't forget Leland McSpadden either!