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

Bill Puterbaugh drove the #71 Industrial Hardwood car to a 3rd place in points, 1969.

 

Cincinnati Race Bowl and West 16th Street Speedway

For an upcoming project, I am looking for midget pictures from 1954 and 1955 from the Race Bowl and / or the West 16th Street Speedway in Indianapolis. Can anyone help?

I've tried Greenfield Galleries, the Indy Speedway Photo Department and Ken Coles and have come up blank.

Several posters here (Roy Caruters and Rootie) have been great help and understand what I am working on. I hope someone may have the pictures I'm looking for.

Thanks.

Mike Garrepy

 

Thanks Wynns #1 for your input; I contacted the National Sprint Car museum to display the car and a possible buyer a while back. I could advertise in the magazines that you mentioned during its stay at the museum. Also, I contacted Watson and Dean Jeffries a few months back, both interested in having the car but I think the amount I need to get for it is the issue. I am hoping it would go to a private buyer who would appreciate the car and run it vintage events.

 

Mike,check the Midget thread for a 16th street photo.

 

Ken Coles has just added 35 more photos to His dirt car pages.

http://www.colesracingphotos.com/Cars/Champ-Dirt-Cars-1950s-60s/10716978_bqtH9#784757954_Wswnn


Plus some awesome 1985 USAC-CRA Sprint car action

http://www.colesracingphotos.com/Cars/Sprint-Cars/10499404_5f2iA#785625238_UwZ8a

 

Rootie Kazoootie, you are correct! And, the Frankenstein car still exists.

Along the same subject, I think I remember Gary Bettenhausen on the pole in the 99 car at the Copper World in Phoenix coming down to take the green flag to start the race when Anthony Simone went inside passing several cars at the start only to run over Gary B and I think he may have taken them both out...hot times. Bettenhausen's car was pretty cool, seems like four torsion bars in the rear?

 

Anyone remember when USAC outlawed the external (cage mount) oil coolers?

 

The definition of an outlaw

http://stores.ebay.com/Greenfield-Gallery

 

yes he was.

 

A little 'sumpin sumpin' for our, often overlooked, NW friends. Legendary Bob Gregg checking out his equaly legendary brand new Michaelbus (pre-Cheeesman) sprinter 1951.

 

I'm sure you have your hands full with many issues to resolve, and I'm sure you have lots of good memories tied up in that car.

As others have suggested, a great place to start would be to discuss your situation off-line with Wynn's #1. No one has a better grip on the current market.

You also might consider contacting current owners of vintage Bowes cars. It's not unlikely that one of these guys would love to have a Watson/Bowes sprinter parked next to their Bowes roadster or champ car. Phil Reilly, a well-known vintage race car restorer and owner of the 1960 Bowes Kurtis/Epperly #5 roadster is well connected with the Bowes crowd and may be able to point you in the right direction. I have a list of several other Bowes owners and their contact info I'd be happy to pass to you off-line. PM me if you'd like to follow up on this.

 

Thanks Larry, PM is sent.

 

Hi Wynn's#1-Mark Hughes' Industrial Hardwood No. 71 was built by Ron Ward, ran USAC (and URC I think) 1968-1970; then sold to Sidney Van Winkle, continued with USAC 1971-1973. It ran in early 1968 as the O'Day Special; may have been sold to Hughes in about the middle of the season. It was only brown (glossy but not metallic) in 1968. Always well prepared; ran well. Photos are all 1968; left at Heidelberg (as O'Day Special), middle with Johnny Parsons at Terre Haute, right with Bill Puterbaugh at Eldora.

 

Thanks,Rootie and Old Bill!

 

Out of curiosity, I remember that Howard Linne had Don Edmunds build a pavement sprint in the general time frame that is being discussed now that only ran a few times. As memory serves me it was also a black 99 and I " think " that Gary B drove it.

How does this car fit into this conversation or am I just muddying the waters?

 

QUOTE=Speedwrench;4899504]Out of curiosity, I remember that Howard Linne had Don Edmunds build a pavement sprint in the general time frame that is being discussed now that only ran a few times. As memory serves me it was also a black 99 and I " think " that Gary B drove it.

How does this car fit into this conversation or am I just muddying the waters?[/QUOTE]

It was a midget The car only ran one time at Phoenix, Lee Kunzman drove it I was there, I have heard it went to Australia after that. The black car is the car you are talking about 4 wheel independent suspension, it was a beautiful car, the yellow car was built by Edmunds for my uncle Red Caruthers. His wife Virginia had Edmunds build it as an anniversary present it was rear engine Offy powered. The other car was bult for Gene Hamilton and it rean VERY well


this is from Don's website

"Don regards this car as the best he ever designed and built.
Four wheel independent, it was a design that would have given
independent suppension experience to upcoming drivers and car owners.
It was killed by U.S.A.C. politics. If midgets had gone this direction,
would the Indy 500 be dominated by foreign drivers as it is today, or
would sprint and midget drivers be strong conteders?

Solid axles front and rear, still used by sprints and midgets,
is a concept in use since the late 1890's, more than a 100 years."

 

My fuzzy memory is telling me that Big Al had a ride in a rear-engine midget, and did quite well in it before they were (quickly) banned; is the Edmunds-Red Caruthers midget the car that Al drove?
I see "Jones" on the helmet of the driver of the Hamilton 55; is that Ol' Bub? Looks like a solid front axle, too. A concession to the USAC hard-heads, no doubt.
All three of these cars are beyond sexy. Don always did have a knack for making good-looking machines.

 

Roy, I have to agree with you and Don. They stifled the innovative thinking and in doing so turned Indy car racing over to the crowd with that kind of experience.

 

Anybody remember about when the current dry sump systems came to be used on sprinters? I've got a spare sbc sprint motor and thought it might work for an older sprint buildup.

 

Not sure what you mean by "current." Dry sumps have been around forever.

 

It was a midget The car only ran one time at Phoenix, Lee Kunzman drove it I was there, I have heard it went to Australia after that. The black car is the car you are talking about 4 wheel independent suspension, it was a beautiful car, the yellow car was built by Edmunds for my uncle Red Caruthers. His wife Virginia had Edmunds build it as an anniversary present it was rear engine Offy powered. The other car was bult for Gene Hamilton and it rean VERY well


this is from Don's website

"Don regards this car as the best he ever designed and built.
Four wheel independent, it was a design that would have given
independent suppension experience to upcoming drivers and car owners.
It was killed by U.S.A.C. politics. If midgets had gone this direction,
would the Indy 500 be dominated by foreign drivers as it is today, or
would sprint and midget drivers be strong conteders?

Solid axles front and rear, still used by sprints and midgets,
is a concept in use since the late 1890's, more than a 100 years."[/QUOTE]
That's Greg Staab in the Edmunds Sesco #44.

 

Dry sumps go back to the very early days of racing. However, as far as sprint cars go there was a mix of wet and dry in the early stock blocks used. I'm not sure of the exact year but it was somewhere in the middle 1960s when USAC finally made dry sumps mandatory in their sprint car division. Several long time car owners and mechanics argued against it but had to go along with the new rule.

 

Thanks Indy exactly what I wanted to know.

 

Roy......thanks for the great info on the Howard Linne roadster that Lee Kunzman drove. I remember being at Howard's place when he advertised that he was selling stuff out. He had that large photo of him, Kunzman and Edmunds in the glass display case. I bought it but should have taken out a loan and bought much, much more. Looking back at it I had no idea the significance of all the stuff I was looking at.
I remember crawling up into a 2nd. floor storage area and seeing Offy blocks, heads etc. with holes blown in them......and I didn't try to make an offer.....within an hour, another guy .....maybe Gordon White ??? had bought them all. I did fill my Lumina company car with Kurtis radiator, halibrand midget wheels and lots of small stuff......woulda.....coulda.....shoulda.

 

Need to edit my last post.......not Offy heads.....Offy cam carriers, side plates etc.

 

Hey guys heres a few for ya ....Rich

 

Desert....

 

Thank you very much!
Set 1
Duke Cook 99,Ralph Ligouri 42, (#82?),Toby Tobias 17, Don Nordhorn 6
Last photo-unknown.

Set 2.
Ligouri,Bettenhausen,Parsons,Dickson,Busson.

 

82 Carl Williams possibly?

Curt Grogan