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

Another for Bob...

This is Dean Mast in the #64 Howell car at Sandusky.

And this #75 may be the car you referred to earlier. Dean Mast in the Griffith Trevis car. Dean ran this car for a few years before the Howell ride. Dean ran a lot in the old IMCA series.

 

I honestly have been thinking the R/C car mentality has been taking over these days. R/C people never worry about a crowd, just as long as they have a good car count.

Racers are into their cars performance so much these days(which are so much alike), they don't worry about the lack of butts in the stands as much as they could, or maybe should.

In people like me, going to the races is supposed to be a 'need', the kind of need that puts me into trouble with the boss on my attendance. The kind of need that makes me work higher into the company to position myself to make enough moolah to be there, with weekends off. The kind of need that spills over into my job performance, as i look to go the extra mile.

 

Here's both of the Howell cars together on a Pennsylvania swing. Dean's #64 was (and is again) the Vivian Buick. This is when Dad started driving the #54. By the way, the guy in the photo was Mark Warner who was a helo pilot in Nam.

 

Here's Dean Mast in the Howell #64 at Sandusky



Here's Dean Mast in the Howell #54 in Tampa 1964:



Here's Dean in the Howell #54 again in Tampa in 1965:

 

I think I was there the night this wreck happened. I remember the dark blue car getting dumped in turn #1 and remember seeing in twisted up on the trailer. Granted, I was only 7 or 8 years old, but I paid attention whenever a money car showed up (Howell car, Gus Linder, Mac Clingan, Long Bros., etc.) I also heard Larry Dickson drove the car (when it was still blue) at Greater Pittsburg but didn't use his real name. I think he was running URC at the time. This car had some history. My little photo on the left shows the same #54 car setting a World Record at Winchester in 1967. I wonder where it's at now.

 

Here's Buzz Gregory driving the Howell #54 at Oswego:

 

Here's both cars at Dean Mast's house near Sugarcreek, Ohio. This was before the Vivian car turned into a Howell car.

 

Ready.

 

The friend was Dick Etchison of Anderson,Indiana - Deco Products.

Mac - Didn't mean to steal your thunder, I made my reply before I saw yours.

 

Easter,

I mentioned some time ago on this thread about meeting Buzz at Ascot in the mid '80's when my dad and I were running our sprint car at a Vintage event. A character to say the 'least'! He was a 'walking encyclopedia' when it came to sprint car racing. Sorry to say he passed away at a young age.

Thanks for posting his picture. I wish he was still around - I believe he would have plenty of comments regarding this thread. Do you know about his early racing days?

Offy 220

 

Here's a link to some hard won historical data on the original car from Michael Ferner's web site Old Racing Cars Info:
http://www.oldracingcars.info/marques/indy/miller/1923/



1923 publicity photo of original car at the Beverly Hills Board Track

"Michael Ferner OldRacingCars.info-‘2301′ the 1923 Milton/Milton green (& red?) #1 car (1923 Indy winner) Press presentation at Los Angeles Speedway in Beverly Hills on March 6; new for Tommy Milton at Fresno Raisin Day event (Apr 26) but engine wrecked in time trial two days before the race, qualified the next day too slow to make the field, did not start; fitted with truss rods left and right under the frame rails, and repainted white at Indianapolis Memorial Day due to sponsorship by HCS car company, qualified fastest four days before the race with a new track record, led most of the race with the help of relief driver Howdy Wilcox to win handsomely from three other ‘122’s; fitted with custom-made radiator shell (HCS style) and driven by Milton in six other events till the end of the year, retiring every time except for an 8th place finish at Altoona Labor Day and a win in the non-championship dirt track race in record time at the New York State Fair (Sep 15); engine pulled and used for car ‘2433-X’, chassis damaged in last race of 1923 season and frame (without truss rods) possibly used to build Sig Haugdahl’s “bobtail” car: drum brakes moved front to rear, special body without rear section, but with modified engine cover and steering slot, wire mesh radiator and ‘183′ type engine (apparently from the 1922 “Durant Special” #7 car); new for Sig Haugdahl at an alleged price of $12,500 for testing at Ascot Speedway on Apr 1, raced there a few times and then shipped East on Apr 30; raced as an Alex Sloan team car by Haugdahl in IMCA events, then mostly by Fred Horey from late 1924 on (white #40) until 1928; apparently fitted with DOHC Duesenberg engine (from Ralph de Palma’s 1922 Duesey ‘183′?), new radiator and tail section for 1929 and again raced by Haugdahl; possibly to Oscar “Swede” Anderson from Michigan late 1929; subsequent history unclear."

 

I remember the car brand new,at Clinton for a special show. Notice the "nailhead"Buick. Larry Dickson(incognito that night) drove,and the Howells tean received an award for "Best Appearing Car" ! Car was painted a dark blue/green,and the crew alll had matching uniforms. John S.

 

Note the novel use of the roll cage socket as a receptacle for the weight jacker rod! Anybody know what became of this car? It was one of the first by "Floyd"!

 

Yep, I remember talking to you earlier about Buzz. I don't know much about him, except he drove the Howell car at least once and he won the Little 500 one year when I was there (when he ran out of gas at the finish). I think I remember seeing him at Winchester once as well. (in 1967) I can still hear those IMCA cars echoing through the covered grandstand and zipping under the old red bridge in turn #1. They would echo off the trees down the backstretch and then disappear behind the infield hill going into #3. Sorry, I'm rambling.

 

I think this is the same car.

 

well no one else mentioned it so I will, 21 years ago Today (ok Thursday but I'm still up so it's still today) the best race car driver I ever saw strap in a race car died at Salem, I miss ya Rich

 

Thanks Racer5c for mentioning Rich. I was at the Hoosier 100 back in '89 when he won the race. I would agree, one of the best - RIP.

 

Agree with Roy and Offy220. I only got to see him a couple of times in person, he was something. Unfortunately I was watching the broadcast from Salem that night.

Mike

 

Easter,

Thanks for the rambling. All I know of is what he told me of his earlier days is that he grew up in Speedway, Indiana and hung around all of the race shops as a kid. Somehow he got hooked up with Foyt and Bob Dorn [both of them were stooges for Foyt - possibly others].

He didn't talk much of his racing days [early to late 60's] only about the high banks and winning the Little 500 in '69. Some how he ended up in Southern California working as a contractor. His sister is married to Bob Coulter - former CRA driver and Crane Company owner. One of his last jobs that I knew of was doing work for Gordon Schroder at his shop.

Other than this information - that is all I know of. I was just curious of what other cars he drove during that period.

Thanks,
Offy 220

 

Jerry Malloy , Colorado car builder and racer, brother of Jim Malloy passed away this week. His 60's modified roadsters were classics, almost unbeatable with Jim behind the wheel. In the early '70's, the time he was building rear eng modifieds he built several sprints which ran as modifieds. A few of his cars still survive to keep his memory alive. Mine is here.

 

Roy and others who have commented...
No question, Rich was probably the best I ever got to see on a consistent basis. I saw Foyt several times in the 60s, but only when he was racing near me. Seeing Rich week in and week out was a fantastic experience in seeing how an open wheel car should be driven.

 

Sad news for the vintage racing scene....just got this from Tom Williams.
HG




Due to sale of the Jungle Park property and canoe livery, there will NOT be a Jungle Park reunion this year. Hopefully the new owner will be interested in resuming the Reunion in 2012. Thanks for all who have helped, those who have brought race cars and those who came to relive the glory days of one of America's most unique tracks. As Vern Trester put it, Jungle Park was a piece of Americana-there will never be another place like it.

Tom Williams
Temperance, Michigan
734-847-3042

 

Gorden Johncock #85 and Buzz Gegory in the #11 Beck Const. SPL at New Bremen 1964

 

One more thing to add to the Vogler piece. Wherever we were racing at, if you looked across the pits and saw him,i always kind of figured if he didn't break he was going to win!

 

From 1964, I think the #32 is the Schmidt Spl. not sure though.

 

The385 that Johncock was driving I think is the car he set a world record at Winchester during qual. The 11 Beck car is the one Stan Bowman got killed in.
Jim

 

Jim , I think Stan was in the Gutzweiller chevy. Stan won at Eldora in the beck though.

 

I'll go along with Roy and the others regarding Rich Vogler. He had an undeserved reputation for being an unfriendly person. He was actually a really nice guy who would help you set up your car or tell you what gear to run at a particular track. People mistook his shyness and focus on the race at hand as being unfriendly. He was a tough but clean racer, in my opinion.

 

Gods speed, Rich

 

I can't confirm #32, but the other car in the photo, #11X, is the former 1959 Watson "Simoniz Spl." that won the April 1959 Daytona race and finished second to Ward in the '59 500, in both cases driven by Jim Rathmann. Tony B. drove his last 500 in the car in 1960. It was later driven by Foyt, Weiler, Hurtubise, Dick Rathmann, Hartley, Cheesbourg, and Johnson. It ran IMCA one year, 1964, winning a bunch of races, including the Little 500. It wrecked (lightly -- no injury) at Nashville late in '64 and never raced again.