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

... against some classy opposition, it seems!

 

Here is ya'll a sample of what's coming soon!

Enjoy...

 

CAN'T WAIT......Rich

 

Does anyone perchance have the results of the USAC triple header at Dayton Speedway October 15, 1967? I only have:

Time trials: 1 Pratt (Doty #6) 17.27"
Heat 1: 1 Ates (Iddings #93), 2 Weld (Leffler #92)
Heat 2: 1 Dickson (Smith #51)
Heat 3: 1 Ates (Iddings #93), 6 Weld (Leffler #92)

Even only the top 6 finishers in each heat would be a tremendous help to fill a gaping hole in my records!

Thanks

 

Gosh Josh it already looks fast and it ain't attached to anything
PK

 

The move to rear engine cars did not have to lead to the decline of champ car racing. As Michael's wonderful photos show guys were building & winning with rear engine cars for many years.
What killed champ car racing, IMHO, was the wholesale shift to PURCHASED cars, the reliance on down force, and the dismantling of the "ladder" system from midgets and sprints. The later was a self inflicted wound from the over action of rules makers to the few home built rear engine cars.
We raced a 30 year old conventional midget in Badger during the mid 1970s. The fans loved the rear engined #8 outboard powered car. All it ever did was put paying fans in the seats yet fearful people cried out for rule changes to get it banned.
At the same time our stars, notably Stan Fox, had to run Super V races for free in order to get experience in "modern" race cars. Look how well those rule changes worked out.

Chuck Schultz
Winfield, Illinois

 

Bob Bergeron Collection.

 

Sorry ,dumb question here. What is the "pump" type cylinder located on the left of the cockpit on some of these cars ?

 

Used to pressurize the fuel, kinda like your weed sprayer.

 

Check out Don Edmunds' web site http://donedmunds.com and go to "Don's Soap Box" It's always politics.

Don regards this car (image on web site) as the bestcar he ever designed and built. Four wheel independent, it was a design that would have given independent suspension 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 contenders?
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

Blacki Suede

 

This is not a sprint car but cool and I wonder if anyone is familiar with the builder Al Davis Davis Machine and Engineering in Louisville It must be from the late 50's

 

Vintage Cars ran at IRP today here is a youtube clip of my favorite car that was there http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTS8fPFcoX4

I was lucky enough to get to drive FOUR cars!!!!! Dave Weir's beautiful Kurtis V8-60 Midget, The Garrity Trucking Silver Crown (that's Champ Dirt Car to us old guys)
The Lone Star Welding Sprint Car, and last but not least I got to drive well heck I'll just show ya

 

Here are the rest of the pictures I took At IRP today

http://www.flickr.com/photos/racer5c/sets/72157623944824885/

 

Thanks for posting the pics. The 98 Parnelli car HAS to be my ultimate favorite race car.

 

Bob Bergeron Collection.

 

GREAT shots of champ cars at W/G- Thanks!

 

Just came across this photo I believe it is one of the first laps ever turned at the old Pocono three quarter mile track. Doc Mattioli invited Scats and my dad and a few other guys up to test the track. Scats had a plywood wing as they had put a cage on and started running in Pa. Dad said the front wheels came off the ground about half way down the straightaway so they took wing off. I don't think they were adjustable back then. Not sure who is in this photo.

 

Do I see a "knobby" on the right rear of "New Calhoun"??? John S.

 

Actually, Mr. baldtireman, The tires on the "calhoun" are Firestone Radials.
They were chosen because they are the exact diameter and width dimensions of the tires Parnelli used on the 1963 winner.
Unfortunately, There are no currently produced proper race tires in these dimensions so we must use the best available alternative.

The 15" Firestone race tires that Parnelli, Foyt, the Lotus team and a few others used in 1963 were in short supply that year and virtually impossible to find now.....

The tires we are using are not exactly what I want, but they certainly aren't "knobbies", as you suggest..... In fact, I would bet that the tires I am using are far superior to the tires that Parnelli raced on almost 50 years ago.

You might want to check out my blog about the Firestone Indy roadster tires:
http://indyroadsters.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/1952433-the-firestone-roadster-tires

 

I've just been told on an Australian website that this car that accompanies the above quote, has been in Australia since the 1980's and is owned by the WoO sprintcar racer Brooke Tatnell's family.
Can anyone confirm that this car came to Australia?

 

I doubt things would be any different if midgets and sprints went to different designs. The ladder system exists in Europe, but not here.

What does exist here is the $money$ system. That's what killed the development of talented drivers to transition into champ car racing. Unheard of drivers showing up with sponsorship $money$ to take many of the top rated driver seats.

The talent pool is still there from the midget and sprint car drivers to transfer to the next level. But today that next level is NASCAR, ie., Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman.

 

$$$$$ trumps all. We probably would have just ended up with foreign made, carbonfiber, unobtanium, r/e sprints and midgets driven by So. American/Europeans with suitcases full of $$$.

 

I, dont like rear engine cars at all they , look like a lot of piss ants going in a circle !!

 

Bob Bergeron Collection.

 

Thanks for the great shot of AJ in the Bowes Seal Fast sprint car at Williams Grove. Keep up the photos!

 

Bob Bergeron Collection.

 

I don't get online for a few days and all these Langford Speedway (Victoria, BC, Canada) cars show up!

More about the builder, Jack Smith, here:

http://www.victoriaautoracinghalloffame.com/jacksmith/jacksmith.html

A couple stories on the two rear-engined cars Jack built. He also built conventional big cars, helped found about three racing organizations on the west coast, raced in Alberta and BC in the 1920s and was generally an all round great guy!

 

Yes, the car is in Australia and is owned by the WoO sprintcar racer Brooke Tatnell's family.

Blacki-Suede

 

steve try to post picture