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

Don Brown built some excellent midgets also. David Birmingham ran one for years with USAC, Brown drove it, Jerry McClung, Eddie Jackson and others drove the Birmingham car. LeRoy Byers, famous photographer from Denver now has the Birmingham car, Ron Schlieger fully restored the midget 7 or 8 years ago. Here's a ad from Ed Watson's 1970 midget year book, with Don Brown in the car. And some color shot's I took while at LeRoy's wharehouse in south Denver. Sorry for the poor photo's, but any of you who have been to Leroy's place know it's rather overwhelming. The Ramada Inn car is in what appears to have been a very small office at one time. Very cluttered, cramped, and Leroy's cars seldom see the light of day. Pete Brandenberg did the numbers and letters.

 

love the bumps in the hood for tha cam covers!

 

Just got word from the west coast that CRA roadster and sprint car racer, Walt James has died.
I believe he was 86 years old..............
RIP racer

Walt was also the brother of AAA driver, Joe James, who died in a sprint car at San Jose Speedway in 1952.

 

I am friends with his daughter Vicki, they sent him home a couple days ago and the family was all there, he was a true legend

 

Rootie, as I remember, the part of your post that "Brayton didn't do much with the car" made me think of the nite @ Reading when he flipped in turn 3 & tore the car in half. I saw pix of the wreck but no idea anymore of their source.
mlight9.

 

Thanks for the photo of Don Thomas roadster at Calistoga. The car ran great!!! I am getting more comfortable every time out. Thomas gave me the goggles and leather face mask I am using. We went out 4 times during the week end for about 8 laps each time. For us on the west coast Calistoga is a legion, like Devels Bowl, Allentown or Knoxville, just a chance to be on the track was fantastic. The car tracked great considering I recreated all of the front end!!! According to my tack and tire size, I am running the 6" wide diamond vintage Firestones, we were running about 95 to 100. I know we looked slower from the stands but consider USAC sprint cars, unwinged, were running 140!!! Pushed the car back on the trailer, everyone wants to push a race car. I will be back next year!!!

 

I forgot, I was told Gordon Wooley said in his Texas draaal about the Calistoga 1/2 mile : Calistoga is a wicked fast place.

 

I guess that might explain the fate of that one.
Being somewhat obscure there doesn't seem to be a lot of pics of Brayton around. Did come across this one on the web though and appears to be one of Browns 'rabbits'

 

Hey Spike,
I was at the Reading show with the Wentz, Rice and Anfuso crews the night Brayton
wore the rabbit. We ran the Harrington Fair that afternoon and by the time we got to Reading, the only place to sit was the 4th turn bleachers. The throttle stuck going into turn 3 and he hit the wall head on. The car bounced straight back and then learched forward again engine wide open. This time the car spiraled high into the catch fence, almost over it. About 5 years ago, a car collector from Chicago told me the car was restored and in the large estate of Scott Brayton. At that time, the family would not part with anything.
Also interesting, somewhere between '69-'71, Wentz Jr. and I were driving down Hanover Ave. in Allentown and there in the showroom of Boody Chevrolet, was a Brown built Rabbit (red paint, no lettering). We couldn't believe it. After investigating, we found that John ?????? (alias Billy Hughes, alias Wayne Woodward) had conned his way into the position of Boody Service Manager and the car was his. Bruce Craig told us Wayne had stolen it. (Wayne wouldn't have done that, would he?)

 

That day at Reading, a bunch of us were hanging out in the infield and pits. After seeing how many six-packs they put away, i was not surprised when he destroyed that roadster.
To their credit tho, it was a warm day. lol.

 

Another rather unique and long lived car was the Iddings Spl. Originally built as a Offy Champ car in 59 it didn't have a lot of success as such. In 63 it was cut down to a sprint car and a SBC was dropped in at a tilt, as it wouldn't fit otherwise. One of the first cars to use c/o suspension it was also very lite weight using a lot of magnesium. Unfortunatly Allan Crowe was killed in it at New Bremen in 63 but it continued on with quite a bit of success with Chuck Engle and Sonny Ates often at the wheel. Always very fast, it was especially quick on the paved tracks and was the first sub-17 sec. car to qual. at Winchester in 68.

Chuck Engle racing with J.R. AT IRP and at T/H 1964
Norm Brown at Eldora with Gary Congdon #38 and Sam Sessions #52 1966
Sonny Ates leading Mike Mosely #2 and Mickey Shaw 1968 New Bremen.

 

I am working on the Kenny Weld rabbit right now!
Being a "rabbit" fan for many years and knowing the Welds were a group that always wanted to have an advantage, I could not pass up this car when I found out it was for sale. I would like to know any info about the Weld car that any one would have.

 

Wayne Woodward or what ever the F his name is took me for 4 new knock offs and presure plates that I, gave him to use at Winchester back in the 70s he came with a new car on a flat bed no wheels no gears no tires he got stuff from every body but the S. O. B. never returned any of it !!!!

 

I know more than i care to about that guy, Woodward. But, sooner or later things tend to turn around.
I was running a URC car and an ARDC car at the Nazareth 1 1/8 mile dirt way back. Right after hot laps about a dozen black wagons wheeled into the pits and a large number of FBI agents jumped out, and headed for Waynes ride.
They grabbed him, threw him into one of their wagons, and hustled outa there!
I later heard that he and some other guys had pulled off an armed bank robbery in LA right before that.
Really worthless idiot!

 

I believe MacMiller got his start working on this car fill us in Mac

 

Please do, that would be most interesting.

 

Johnny
The 1970 Kville pictures of yours is the Saldana car. It was # 2 that year and Steve Shultz was it's driver if i remember right. It's the same car that is in Speedways Museum now.
Curt Grogan

 

ALERT!

If you want a Grant King framed car, here is yo chance!


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Vint...rts?hash=item2302de5394&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245

 

Thanks, Curt.

 

Photos of Lee Brayton's Don Brown roadster. First two Terre Haute 9 Aug 70; 3rd 1970; 4th and 5th Cincinnati 14 Mar 71; last two Eldora 19 Sep 71. This one was reported to have been Weld's 1967-1969 car.

 

Thanks for the great pix, rootie.
My first job in racing (at 14 years old) was " stooging" on the #93 IDDINGS SPL. This car was built in 1959 with a 96 inch wheelbase and a 220 OFFENHAUSER engine. It was raced in USAC as, both, a champ car and a sprint car. After the '61 season, USAC made owner, Henry Meyer, choose which class he wanted to race in, champ or sprint, so Henry chose the sprint division and shortened the car to an 88 inch Wheelbase and replaced the OFFY with a 305 CHEVY engine.
This car raced in the USAC sprint division through the 1973 season.
Through the years this car was driven by Bobby Marshman, Don Branson, Jim Hemmings, Allen Crowe, Roger McCluskey, Bob Mathauser, Chuck Engle, Sam Sessions, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Bud Randall, Buzz Gregory, Norm Brown, Butch Wilkerson and Sonny Ates.
The car won five USAC features on both dirt and pavement and held track records at Winchester and Salem. Branson and Crowe won features at Eldora and Ates won at Winchester and Salem. Allen Crowe was fatally injured in the car at New Bremen, next race after winning at Eldora.
Owner and builder, Henry Meyer, had a aircraft machine shop in Dayton, Ohio, which did business with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Consequently, Henry had access to magnesium and titanium materials that few other guys could get their hands on. Henry made his own gun drilled, titanium bolts, magnesium body panels, etc. The car also featured coil spring suspension.
In its original 1959 spec, it weighed less than 1200 pounds.
Sponsors, Howard and John Iddings operated a successful auto parts and auto glass business in Greenville, Ohio.
The IDDINGS AUTO PARTS AND GLASS SPL #93 is currently on permanent display in the Garst Museum in Greenville, Ohio.

A couple more comments about the car….
The car was either the fastest car out there or the most dangerous, depending on who was driving. With the coil springs and rather ineffective shocks, back then, the car had to be driven hard. For drivers, who jack up and down on the throttle, it was like a pogo stick….. It needed the modern multi adjustable shocks.

I think it was 1960 when Bob Marshman was driving the car in a champ car race at Trenton. He flipped the car onto the fence and put a dent in the roll bar, That dent is still there.

 

Been on the road for a while, Just checkin in while I'm in front of a computer. You guys are killin' it! Great job!

Keep er up on the cushion-

J Shaw

Here's what is on my Table at the shop right now, waiting for my return..

 

Thanks, Mac. I'll bet working for a old hand like Meyer must have been a great 'early education' for sure.

 

I think I will stay out of the Wayne Woodard stories, at least the controversial ones, But I will add that the Last Offy ever to driven in a USAC feature was being driven by him when I met the owner, being the lover of Auto Racing History I am I started talking to the owner. Found out the engine was out of the car that Bob Wente won the USAC Midget championship with and that he had the rest of the car at home, now remember I had a pretty fast car for where I was running at the time mostly the Indy Speedrome. But Duke Edwards and I (he was named after Duke Nalon) hit it off pretty well and he asked if I would like to drive his car, I thought it would be cool to drive an offy so I said sure, I think Woodard had to "go out of the country" for a couple years so Duke didn't have a driver. I introduced him to Duke Nalon III and he drove the car too. But I made the last feature race the car ran a USAC National Midget Race at Speedrome in 1999, I also drove it at IRP at a NAMARS race after that. Sorry to get so long winded but thats as far into Wayne Woodard stories as I am going. So as far as I know I am the last person to make a race in an Offy, if not the last at the very least the last to make a USAC Feature

 

HA! During my USAC sprint car days, I was fortunate enough to work for some of the greatest "curmudgeons" in racing history. Henry Meyer, Paul Leffler and Wally Meskowski. It doesn't get any better.

 

More photos of the Don Brown roadsters. The first three are Tod Gibson's former Don Brown "Mechanical Rabbit" at Sandusky as a supermod in 1971. Note the Flip Wilson line "The Devil Made Me Do It" on the tail. The 4th is Greg Weld at Winchester in 1966. The 5th is Don's with temporary Ken Lay number for use by Rollie Beale at Salem 22 Oct 67. The fifth is Greg at Heidelberg 21 Jun 68. The last is at Eldora 6 Apr 69.

One more note on Brown's car. It went to Bruce and Norma Carpenter for use as a supermod in Tri-SAC in 1977; driven by Harold Reynolds as yellow No. 49, finished 3rd in Tri-SAC points. Reynolds was killed in it warming up for Little 500 qualifying in 1983; died after a long time in a coma.

 

Thats going to be a great looking sprinter!!

 

Roy;
I can assure you that i do know where Woodward went when he had to "go out of the country"!
As far as when he had the Rabbitt at the dealership in Allentown, he had , for sure, stolen it.
The amazing thing is; after all this stuff, he was still able, later on, to come very close to getting a court injunction ti stop the running of the Indy 500! Hard to figure!
Now the story is all pretty much mute, for Woodward took it all with him to his grave.

 

Great posts, as always. Roy, I remember you driving that Offy at IRP, and recalling how nice it was to hear that sound again.

Mac, I liked your comments about the Iddings 93 and depending on "who was driving." Sonny Ates said if you weren't really smooth with it, it would "romance" you coming off the turns, but if you were it was a rocket.

 

1963 Champ car season opener, the Trenton 100. The weapon of choice was the upright with a smattering of roadsters and only one (but rather ominus) r/e car.

Old school Offy man Eddie Sachs in Meskowskies Chevy powered car. This may have been the first time Sachs wheeled something other than a Offy (?) Broke the rear qualifying though and drove a Offy in the race.

Spectators getting a up close experiance in this great shot of Colby Scroggins #26 Cotton Farmer #42 and J.R. flying by.

Troy Ruttman slaps the fence but keeps going to finish 4th.

A gaggle of uprights with car #51 none other than Curtis Turner in his only champ car start.

Mickey Shaw #68 ventilates his engine and heads for the infield as Bob Materhouser goes by.

Lloyd Ruby in his "go-kart on steroids" with a tiny engine (a direct decendent of a waterpump/forklift motor) traded the lead with A.J. for 40 laps until it finally gave up. Shades of things to come I guess.