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

ok Michael, who is this ?

 

Ten bucks says he's got info on this one too.

 

I Have The Thrid A/C Powered Car That Ran In The MSVRA , Had It At Winchester Old Timers In 09 . My Car Did Not Win As Many Races As : The Farmers Offy Or Miss Allis But It Was Compeitive. OHV 228 Cubes, 41/2 " Stroke . My Car Goes Like HELL, It Was Driven By Queinton Cowles

 

I believer this is your brother, Danny, Roy.

 

Pictures

 

Beautiful car! Is that a Caddy or La Salle grille on it?
Can you give details on the engine?

 

I would've said it's Roy himself, but maybe I'm making him a bit too old!

Certainly one of the three Caruthers boys... the "Viking" bit is a giveaway!

 

Thanks, The grille is the top part of a Lasalle, The engine is a WD45 Allis, Bored 1/8" comes out to 241 cubes. OHV, 41/2" stroke, Full pressure Oiling, Twin 97's, Battery Ignition. Can see why it beat the A's & B's, The car has alot of torque

 

Thanks very much!


This thread is a great place to learn things I didn`t know.

 

Re: Elisian/Rathman/Sweikert/Elkins comments

Since my father is not computer capable, I share items from the HAMB threads with him, particularly intrests of this thread as he was eyewitness to most pre and post WWII midwest racing history. Being so, I shared these conversations with him to get his perpectives.

Elisian was every bit the hard charging and hard living individual, and developed a shady reputation which typified his personality as history reports. Not that he wasn't an exceptional driver, but he had tendency for the string to break between his head and foot on occasion. Also, not that most drivers did too as well, but
Elisian's off track actions, reputation, and personality all led to less than popular following. Dad described most of the "upper crust" drivers that could make it to Indy as having a confident arrogance - "knock this block off my shoulder" personalities, making some drivers less personable than others. Let's face it this was a very
dangerous period of time in racing history, and a drivers success was strictly measured to most owners by their last success. Finishing in the top ten didn't matter as it does nowadays to the current crop of points racers. Dad's analogy to me was Don and Rich Vogler being the 70's version of the 50's era drivers. They didn't
come to the race track to socialize, but just win!

Dad and C.V. Haschel were present at New Breman. Davis and Elisian raced each other very hard, but Davis was clearly holding Elisian up, and unfortunately they tangled with Davis losing his life. A case of the mid-west sprint racer trying to show up the champ car driver, and it went horribly bad for both.

Dad and my uncle were at Salem, witnessed Sweikert overdrive his great abilities to his own demise. Sweikert's greatness extended to more than his driving talent, as his also built AND owned his own cars, which he would let other great drivers race, while driving for someone else. He backed up his personality with ability, but was
less than approachable to most people.

Dad's review of Foyt's recount is that Foyt was spot on - two drivers that could not back-off against eachother, but resulting in the popular Pat O'Conner losing his life as the result of the "head string deal" between Rathman and Elisian. Same as we all felt a couple of weeks ago losing Dan Wheldon.

Elkins he described, to put it nicely, "a rich eccentric" - an owner that you never really new where you stood with him. Same sentiments held by my cousin Johnny Batts Sr. who also drove for and like most was fired by Elkins.

 

The Dad Burgess post is spot on. The only thing I would mention is the fact that Bob Sweikert's black and red number 5 sprint car was built by A.J. Watson in 1954.

Ed Elisian was one of my favorite drivers! I saw him race at Langhorne in 1956 driving the Lutes Trucking Champ car and he really impressed me as a stand on the gas driver.

Here is a picture of Ed after he was awarded a jacket for setting tenth fast time at Syracuse in1957.

 

Galen Kurth gave us a lot of insight as to the events leading up to the 1958 Elisian/Rathmann accident. Galen is very close to the entire story on the Zink team.

 

40 years ago today we lost one of our brightest stars Danny "Kid" Caruthers. These pictures are for Roy. They are from the 1971 Hut 100



Please pardon the cages.

 

Anybody recall how the "extra" bend on the top-right cage tube got there? I didn't notice it until Little Fauss posted the DuQuoin shot, but it's visible in the Hut pics as well.
To say the Caruthers clan dominated midget racing in that brief time-span probably isn't too far off the mark...

 

I know both of them flipped at the Wil County fairgrounds in Peotone Il. But I don't know if that is where it came from. My dad told me they were trying to decide who should be the one to call Doug and tell him, since he wasn't there that night.

 

Way back when, the wife and I went to the Flemington NJ track to see the midgets run. I guess it was a combined ARDC/USAC show. One of the Caruthers boys kept getting higher and higher in the first turn and I told the wife that he would get it on one of these laps. He did. Rolled that sucker a few times. Next day he won at the mile and an eighth track at Nazareth. Maybe that's the car and the slight change on the cage?

 

Even before the wide tires of 71 the Midgets held the track at several big tracks and our widest tire was 5 1/2 inches wide.
Jim

 

Michael....I've been a litte slow......the light went on today....but then I am WELSH.

 

Stan's annual event is less than a week away. Who's planning on attending?

 

Me and Racer Billy C will be there...........Rich

 

I am planning on it.

 

This is somewhat off topic, but all the talk of roadsters at the Speedway got me wondering how many drivers are still around who actually ran a roadster there and this seems like as good a place as any to get answers.

I'll throw out the names of Foyt, Johncock, Bobby Unser, Rutherford and,maybe but I doubt it, Mario.

Anybody have other names to add?

 

Parnelli

 

Jim Rathmann?

 

Chuck Hulse?

 

Found pictures of New Bremen from 2005. Some interesting sights.
http://www.teambesecker.com/newbremen.html

 

This is an excerpt from the Indy 500 celebration from 2011:

Also recognized were the fourteen living front-engine "roadster" drivers of the Indianapolis 500. They include, Don Edmunds, A.J. Foyt, Paul Goldsmith, Bob Harkey, Chuck Hulse, Parnelli Jones, Gordon Johncock, Art Malone, Jim McElreath, Jim Rathmann, Eddie Russo, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Unser and Chuck Weyant

 

Thank you. I didn't realize that some of these guys were still alive.