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

Don't know if this has been posted before, but it's the first time I've seen it. Came across this article about the 52 Dayton race when Jim Rigsby was killed. At bottom of the page there's a odd, little, short video that shows a little bit of the Swiekert crash and then Rigsby's "flight". YIKES!, It didn't start out as that bad of crash but it sure got ugly fast. Poor guy just had waaaay too much time to think about what he must have known was going to be inevitable. Like driving off a cliff I suppose. http://www.autoracing1.com/article.asp?id=1760

 

wow..I had read about that but never saw footage,RIP

 

I know this cover has been shown before, but it really shows the horror of the crash.

 

loved reading all the Dayton stuff Rootie, ty

 

Josh,Here's a few shots for your racecar on a trailer collection. It's from Mario andretti's '69 Indy victory parade in Nazareth,Plus one of how they hauled the Indy cars before the Big rigs..........Rich

 

Great pics Lee.

I am looking for pics of longitudinal torsion bars attached to the axle or bat wings on a stock ford style axle. I have a few pics of setups on early champ cars but the wheel always blocks the actual connection.

Thanks,
Neil

 

These are great...those drivers were fearless.

 

A few more models to check out.

 

Anybody know what this double top on the roll cage is? Local Craigslist ad:

http://gulfport.craigslist.org/cto/2984316516.html

 

Here's how Wally M. did it, though not a stock ford axle, it would be the same/same.

 

For a really tall driver? Gary

 

Common method for complying with "cage to helmet" distance rule for tall drivers. Lack of down tubes places its build date as early 1980s. Old style hood is interesting.

 

looks like a midget hood sitting on a sprint car

 

I'm thinking that the driver was on the tall side and added the additional tubing for his size and protection........Rich

 

Thanks guys. It looks like it was a really nice shaping and welding job - ugly - but well fabricated. It's very odd for anything "open wheel" to be for sale on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

 

Check out this trailer of mine, could this be the same trailer? It was first registered in California in 1947 and at some point belonged to Leonard Fass. The front was painted over with white rattle can paint, when removed with thinner and a rag it exposed "Len Fass Sprinter" and in between, you can read, "KING-O-LAWN". It's a very cool old trailer and tows great.
Glenn

 

Glenn, Now your gonna have to find this one to put on your trailer.....Rich

 

Thanks, Rich. You've posted pics of the #98 sprinter before. That is the same trailer. It should also be pointed out that the man standing directly behind the roll-bar (red shirt) on the #98 dirt car is our old friend, Adel Mitchell. Adel was everyone's friend in racing and grew up in Fresno (CA) and moved to Stockton (CA) later during the sixties. He pitted for Don Thomas in CRA sprint cars, including Don's championship winning season of 1966. Other drivers he was associated with were Chuck Gurney and Gary Ponzini, also from northern California. And, Adel's nephew was Marvin Mitchell, sprint car driver from Fresno. Adel passed away in September, 2008 in Bouse, AZ.

 

Josh pay attention to these pictures, the lettering was done by one of the best ever

 

Forwarding a message from WRA President Bob Mastroleo:

"We are sorry to report the Kenny Van Blargen passed away on April 29, 2012. He had taken a turn for the worse and was hospitalized several days prior. Kenny was born in Santa Maria, California in 1931. He was eighty-one at the time of passing. We will all miss him. There will be a memorial for him at a later date and information will be posted on the web site and in the WRA newsletter. Please keep him and family in you prayers and thoughts."

 

Need a little education here.

I know there have been several great painter/letterers, but my list gets alittle short after Dale Burton and George Gruber. I spent too much time hanging around in Indy.

 

Dale Burton was who I thought of when I saw that post. Denny Z.

 

A little tough to see in the pic, but if you squint it looks like it says "Indy Job" by Paul Knierim.

An artist indeed; I knew him better for that cool poster he did back in the late 70's-early 80's of Deano, Buster, Jimmy and the CRA gang backin' 'em in at Ascot (I think there's a King o' Lawn car in that drawing, now that I think about it...).

 

Dale, George and Paul were the three that stand out in my mind, Dale lettered both on the west coast, (Arizona) and in Indy, I would watch him at Grant King's when I was a kid, when I worked at the IMS museum while I was in High School I would watch George letter cars in the museum basement, he had arthritis really bad and actually had to tape the brushes to his fingers, Knierim was THE guy on the west coast, if you had a beautiful CRA it was most likely lettered by Knierim cant make out the above pic but it usually said
"fancy jazz by
Paul Knierim"

 

Nice shot of Speedy Bill's Beck car. Don't know who's up- Opp, Beckman...?

 

Hi: That is Opperman, it was 1969 when the car was new. Me and John Leverenz wrenched the car, we also had our own car with 4X on it which Jan also drove. Bill Chadbourne

 

I enlarged the photo - and you're right - it says: "Fancy Jazz by Paul Knierim". There was a garage in Dayton that did various automotive work, but also rebuilt racecars. The Trevis Dad drove was rebuilt there after a Winchester wreck. I remember sitting on an old workbench one night - real quiet and still - while this young guy did all of the hand painting on the car. He would use both hands to pull and guide the brush for the long pin stripes. Sometimes he would hold a guide, like a yardstick, with one hand against the car and slide the little finger of his brush hand along the guides edge. I asked him a question once and it was like a kid catching his older brother having sex with the neighbor girl - he tried to be polite - but he was damn focused on the task at hand. Bad photo, but here's what he did:

 

I never saw Opperman wear that helmet.

 

Here's some "open trailer" shots for you guys. Gene Davis sprinter from near St. Louis. Was driven by Dad and Cliff Cockrum:




Hard to beat the Bob Howell twin trailers. Dean Mast and Dad:



Dad's first sprint:


Dean Mast:


Still love those Howell trailers:

 

Bill posted minutes before me with facts, I had never seen him wear that style helmet but I never saw him run that car either .