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

The #11 car is a Grant King owned by Glenn Necessary in Santa Clarita, Ca. The car was unpainted and Glenn finished restoring it.

 

Crudbro, that looks like the Fetter Bros. car Jack Lancaster is driving. When I knew him he lived in Louisville. He was a tough, no nonsense guy. Saw him beat Wayne McGuire to win a 50-lapper at Danville, Ky. in that car without the wing.

He did well at the Jeffersonville Sportsrome when they were running sprints/supers, and I can remember him in USAC in the early 60s.

 

Had to dig into the files a little but I found a photo of Jack Lancaster taken at the Jeffersonville Sportsdrome in the late 50s. Excuse the cage, but the period is correct. I should have added that he was a good friend, and was also mildly successful in stock cars.

 

Mike Garrepy might shed some light on this one.. You out there Mike? Recognize that wing??

JD

 

will try to load some pics from Zephyrhills again had trouble with them yesterday

 

will try more later

 

(panting)

CrudBro and Josh

(panting)

Sorry I'm late to the party. Can't help on the pictures from Portsmouth. I turn to Tony Martin when I have questions about that era. I had lunch with Tony a couple of weeks back when he was in town here in Columbus. We hashed over some good times at Atomic and about Bobby Marvin, Sam Erwin and the Bare Brothers. I've been working on a story about Don Townsend but I've had to put that on hold for a bit because of another big project.

Crudbro - it's been like forever since we last talked. I think I was at the show we had in Lancaster a couple of years back. Do you ever read the piece I did on Marvin? I tacked down his widow in Texas and she was wonderfull to interview. Good people.

Mike

 

Here is a pic of a car formerly owned and driven by George Farmer. Was on static display at the Vintage Speedcar Spectacular held at the Ekka (the Brisbane Exhibition Showgrounds) here in Oz on September 12 this year.The second pic shows a caged car at the same show. I didn't take the details on this one.

I know very little about George Farmer. Can anyone provided a brief summary of George's career?

 

Jack Lancaster worked at the L&N railfoard [I am pretty sure]. I saw him one night at Danville, Ky run like 3rd in the feature with his left hand on the role cage. The car was so loose he was broadslideing thru the turns and taking up so much room nobody could pass him. I think he was driving his own solid white #11. John was the Fetter Bros. car ever solid white? I was down there with Hugh Randell, he was driving the solid red #21 Shelby TV car.
Jim Graybeal

 

George Farmer was from Fresno, Ca. As I rember he started in Hardtops/Super Modifieds. Pretty succesfull from the start. Spent about three or four years in Supers and jumped into the car pictured. Believe it was a Edmunds. Ran CRA for a short time and was killed in the Edmunds at El Centro in the late 60's or early 70's. He was very good as I rember.

 

The Aussys got all the old cars !!!!!

 

Jim, I can only remember the Fetter car being blue and then maybe yellow. I recall Hugh drove it in USAC and he was third in the first 500-lap Sprint/Super race at the Fairgrounds behind Gordon Johncock and Wayne McGuire.

 

...
http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=3038

 

They got the REAL Fike Plumbing car too..

Dang it!




.

 

Got to sit and listen to some great Old timers Wend. night at a BARC (Buckeye Auto Racing Club) meeting at my dad's shop. Heard a good saying that I think I've heard before somewhere, maybe here... :

"That was back when drivers were FAT, and tires were SKINNY!"

But the coolest story I heard all night was about how the Ol' timers used to get Rookies to put in good qualifying laps at Indy there first time there.. It went like this:

"When the veteran car owners would have some hot new rookie at Indy the first time, and they would shove him down in a roadster.. the header would run right next to him and end a foot or so behind his ear. Well, They'd work with him all month, and get him as close to 'Runnin with the big dogs' as they could, maybe a couple MPH slower than the fastest guys. Then the veterans would pat the kid on the back, and say 'your doing good, run her hard for qualifying and you'll be okay'. Then the magic happened.. They would put a header on the car that was about 18" longer and not tell the kid. The kid would go out, mash the gas down the straight away, the car would be in essence quieter and slower and he'd drive it WAY further into the turn!" He said, "They'd either end up a hero or a Zero.. on the pole or on the hook"

I don't know if there is any truth to it or not, but it makes for a good "Racers tale"

J shaw

 

HA! sounds like that would have been a great time to have your bull shit detector turn on...

 

Bob,what year are you restoring the Weld car to and what number and colors ?

 

John,
I was at that race. I had never heard of Gordon Johncock before and the car did not look all that good, but he came down to Ky and put it on the best drivers around our area. Most of the time the Fetters car was yellow. At one time it had an Edsel motor with 6 carbs. on it. Several local drivers drove it. Hugh drove it mostly on dirt. They had another car a few years later that Gordon Johncock set a world record in at Winchester, In.
Jim Graybeal

 

Mac, ANYTIME a bunch of us Old Farts get together is a great time to have your bull shit detector turned on.

 

Yeah, Jim, that was quite a race, five 100-lap segments. Wayne McGuire started on the tail because he didn't qualify and was challenging Gordy within 50 laps. He spent the next 430 laps challenging him, finally giving up and settling for second with 20 to go.

Randall told me after the race, "They ran off and hid from me in that last one."

I asked Johncock if he was aware of how hard McGuire was trying, and he said, "I can tell you that he has chrome moly all over the front of that thing."

 

I remember that Farmer car being in the GMB shop. George made the frame more rigid by adding some X bracing on the bottem of the frame. There was more done to it but thats gone from My memory banks for now?
aXe

 

You bet! Cool story none the less..

ehhh.. The older we get, the faster we were, right?

 

Inmate: Good to hear from you. I've been reading your articles in Flat Out. Great job!! Was the Bobby Marvin story in Flat Out? This old brain don't function like it used to. I talked to Sam Erwin's widow this summer after the Portsmouth Speedway reunion about borrowing her photo collection of Sam. Hope to copy them sometime this winter. Some great shots of Sam in her collection, many I had never seen. Thanks to Indybigjohn and jimg12 for the Jack Lancaster info. I can always count on someone for an answer on this site, amazing what some of you guys know and remember.

 

Here is another Tony Martin photo from Portsmouth of the Jack Lancaster car without a wing. The other Martin shot is of three drivers mentioned in a previous post. Bobby Marvin in the #76, Gordon Johncock in the #85, and Wayne McGuire in the #41 also at Portsmouth Speedway.

 

.....'fredeuce, 'You've done it again! I can't ad much more to what "desigs that work" said, except that George Farmer was the 1968 CRA Rookie of the Year, had an even more successful 1969 including winning a race at Irwindale and setting fast time at the U.S. Open Comp race at the 1-mile California State Fairgrounds and leading the race for 60 laps before finishing second to Jerry Blundy. 'Like "desigs that work" said, he lost his life the following February at El Centro. Friends told me that even though he was killed in the car, the car could have run the feature later that day it was so unscathed. And he's right; he was very good and he was on his way to bigger and better things. As for aXe's comments about GMB putting the braces in Farmer's Edmunds chassis, that was also very common for owners putting what they called an "X" in between the bottom frame rails in the drivers compartment of Edmunds midgets, also. So common that Edmunds started putting the X in the chassis, stock from his shops in Anaheim.......'I gotta ad, MetalBender's right, 'the Aussie's have got all the old cars.' But, I wish the guys would take off all the big rubber. 'Farmer's Edmunds sprinter never ran rubber that big on the dirt. Check out this pic of him racing Blundy on the mile at Sacramento. (A rib on the left front.)

 

These are from a shoot I did for the Vukovich family.

 

Thanks to all who have provided info about George Farmer.

 

What is the connection to Vuky with this car? Help me.

ZOOOM

 

Originally Posted by metal bender
The Aussys got all the old cars !!!!!

Here is the unfortunate fate of the "Fike" in Australia .......roll cage... wing.....wide wheels Hank Henry probably rolled over in his grave when he saw how Johnny Anderson and Gary Rush screwed up his "magnum opus".
My last info is that it is owned by a guy named Bob Blacklaw who has or will restore it as it raced in Australia.

Then again....Hank might also be pissed about my replica "Fike".

 

Read a great story, titled "A Fish Story", on the blog at my Indy roadsters website!