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

Starting after WWI:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/MDafoeMay1924Crop.jpg

 

John McKenzie,
They are the wives of the drivers and owners. I know who a few are. From left to right:
1-?
2-?
3-?
4-?
5-?
6- Ruth Sampson, wife of driver Jimmie
7- Leon Huble's wife?
8-Edna Graybeal, wife of owner Virgil [Southern Star]
9-Dorthy Smith, wife of driver Chick
10-Florance Griffith, wife of driver Cliff
11-?
12-?
13-?
14- I think is one of Hector's Daughters
One is probably Hector's wife but I do not know which one.
The International pickup in the background is Virgil Graybeal's and it was GREEN and he did not keep it long.
Anybody know any of the others?
Jiim

 

Jim, thank you for clarifying that for me, and I think your recall is pretty damn good. Sprint car racing in the early years is fastening to me as the people who participated in this sport were both brave and crazy. Well, perhaps a little more on the crazy side as safety simply wasn't an issue. I'm a big fan of the full size sprints of the 50's-60's. To me these machines were what a race car was all about. This is a great blog and I enjoy coming here and seeing the old photos and reading up on the sports rich history.

 

Great old photos, Jim!

 

Oh my,a double "entendre"!

 

I have more pictures. A guy came by and help me get those on and wrote down instructions, now he is gone ane if I can read his notes and follow them I will put some more. Yuo guys tell me who are some of the owners and drivers are! I got some but not all.
Jim

 

1:6 scale CAE model update.
Picked up 2 sets of castings yesterday....17 lbs ea!
They are 22.5" long, 5" wide and 5" high.

Thrashing to make some progress for the tether car expo @ Fresno nxt weekend.
(Details contact Rod Sabbatini Ph. 559-287-1717)


These are RAW castings before any machining.
I need to mill the mating flanges between top and bottom halves, drill and tap 5 screw holes to hold the bottom on, drill for axles, ram tubes, grille, and mill out the hood sides.
Hilborn injection is in pattern-making stage, and 5-window Halibrands are at foundry so should have them next week.
Must get a pic of the quickchange asap, it's molded into the underside.
Jim

 

KK,
Those bodies look superb. Can't wait to see the finished car.
These are my 2 Jefff Schmidt 1/4 scale Pacesetter bodies that one day will be 1960s style sprintcars.

 

a Jack Hedstrom facebook photo, it is said to be 1976 or 1977 (sorry) and that Big Al was subbing for Jan Opperman in a Syracuse race aboard the Longhorn Spl #12, can someone here tell me more about this ?

It seems to be the same car Jan raced in USAC Dirt Car series in 1976, seen on page 111 of the book "Dirt road to a silver crown" but the records say Jan only raced Springfield, DuQuoin & the Hoosier 100.

After a little web search, finally found this :

When he was hurt in ’76, Opperman was replaced as Bobby Hillin’s driver by Al Unser, winner of 14 mile grinds in eight seasons yet too slow for the ’76 Salt City 100. That never happened to Unser again because he left Syracuse so humiliated that he rejected any more Dirt Champ car offers. (from a Kevin Eckert column , here : http://diversifiedracing.blogspot.com/2009/11/moody-mile-memories.html)

Speaking of K.E., what happened to the OpenWheelTimes site ?
I saw it was replaced by a site named SprintCarStats but I don't find where to access the stats on this site. It's a pity cause OWT was a great ressource ...


Another photo, found on RaceNewYork site by Claychamp123 :

 

Re: VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1969 and older only please.
<hr style="color:#e5e5e5; background-color:#e5e5e5" size="1"> I have more pictures. A guy came by and help me get those on and wrote down instructions, now he is gone and if I can read his notes and follow them I will put up some more. You guys tell me who are some of the owners and drivers are! I got some but not all.
Jim

That sounds good Jim, looking forward to it. I'm too young to know any of these folks, but I'm sure the other readers will know.
John

 

JIM if you have any pictures of the Blankerbaker Car I would appreciate you put them on so I can copy them to put in my collection. Thanks.

 

Bob, Is he still making these bodies,Im intrested in getting one to convert my wcm 1/4 scale to resemble one from the caged 70's era..If you have any contact info or know of some one who's repopping theis style body for 1/4 scales can you pm with the info......THANK'S, Rich........

 

Eldora 1966

 

1968 : The Overseas national airways Andretti team with Clint Brawner & Jim McGee

 

A few pics Ron Lauer posted recently on the vintage racer facebook page :

1 & 2 : Mario finished fourth in an URC Sprint Race in Marlboro Maryland on October 13, 1963
3. Bill Randall with Bobby and Mike Sheehan (I think he's the racer who won an eatern title without winning a race)
4. Earl Halaquist and Don Gillete at Flemington
5. Bobby Courtwright at the Grove
6. Jim Maguire in the Venezia #27 at Flemington 1963
7. Bobby Unser at Reading (1967 ???)
8. Hinnershitz and Thomson at Williams Grove 1954
9. AJ Foyt at Reading, 1961

 

from the BrawnerHawk site (as for the photo of the 1968 Andretti team)

 

Al, I really love this one :

 

RABs32
Check your PMs

 

easter, i don't remember george harbour driving the long bros car. first sprintcar was a #37 and it was more of a supermod. then he drove maude smith's #19 (granny) then charlie brown's #99. after that it was ed reno's #1 and finally a #17 out of the columbus area for squeek and linda. thx...

 

DuQuoin 1968, Bob Scott photo :

 

looks like Atkins Mario and B Unser

 

Yep and the year is 1966 but don't know the place

 

jimcintosh, I think I have some picture of the Blankenbaker car , I will look. If I do not post them PM me and remind me. Did you know that a farily old car when Blankenbarker got it? It belonged to Chick Smith and Bill Morse[E.T. Morse's-wiskey bottle car of the 60's,70's older brother] It had several differnt motors in it including one they designed themself. It was what they called and over-under. The intake cam and valves were in the head and the ex.cam and valves were in the block.

 

jimcintosh, to finish up. Dusenburg in Indy did the castings and machine work[my Dad helped put it together. It ran great but kept breaking fods so they gave up on it. The car was Chick's #47. If you see pictures of it you can tellit was the Blankenbaker car.
Jim

 

I saw George at Wayne County Speedway (Ohio) years back. He was crew chief for his son's sprint car team. We talked for awhile and during the conversation about the old times, he told me he drove the Long Brothers car. I'm not sure when, where, or for how long.

 

Mario got the ride in Scatsy's car after my father broke his back in a flip at Flemington.

 

Billy I think that one of your Dad was on the cover of Illustrated Speedway News.