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

here's a Hershey fixer-upper for Josh......

 

Hershey 2012 toys.....

 

and just a couple more from Hershey 2012....

 

And my friend Hannagan is quite a sprintcar racer.....

 

Tie rod in front of the front wheels?????

 

???????????

 

Damn!!! I gotta go to Hershey next year!!!

 

1969 Little 500 NSSN report and results.

Thanks for Hershey pics guys.

Jim

 

Need help from the West Coast please-- I need to get in contact with Steve Staza if it is possible. Thank you.

 

Don Edmunds question here

Were the dashtag poprivets ever drilled in a straight rectangular pattern besides offset rectangular?

Were they predrilled on all dashes, or was a tag mounted only on completed frames?

I think I have found an Edmunds super!!!!!!

Thank you, Brian

 

dashtag is missing by the way.

 

Thanks for letting me know about the post. The wreck at the end is where I thought I saw my dad check out. He was up in the turn one catch fence on fire and the car fell back down onto the track. (I was sitting in turn 2 just a few feet away) Dad was fighting to get out, but his leg was caught under the in/out box. When he finally passed out his body relaxed and he kind of melted down over the left side of the car. Smoke was pouring off of him because of the paint on his helmet burning, and all of the rubber burning (like his goggles, golf gloves, etc). He finally stood up to the cheers of the fans, however he stumbled down the banking and was hit by Bobby Black (his buddy) as he came through the smoke. Dad flipped up in the air, landed back on the track and rolled down into the infield. I remember him downing an entire bottle of Excedrin chased by a couple Blatz and saying: "When the fire is out, drag it up on the trailer, I have to be at work early in the morning."

He lost 20+ laps on a pit stop in the middle of the race. When he stopped on the backstretch for fuel and maybe a new right rear, his pit crew (a neighbor and his brother) were eating a hot dog and Coke and trying to figure out where Luke was on the track. He actually got out and put fuel in himself. He still finished ninth. That little sprint car was bad fast at Andersen, but he had better days than that one.

 

Great story easter.
Sounds like your Dad is (was?)one tough old bird.

 

Mac; We probably crossed paths back then as I was with Ray Smith and knew Henry.

 

...Lee....great photos as usual.....

 

HA! Butch I'm sure we did! Those days were the real deal.
I was there in my white "ducks" and my Iddings team shirt.
It was great to be 14 and (illegally) in the pits at Eldora, New Bremen, Winchester, Salem and Dayton, close to Parnelli, Foyt, Rutherford, McCluskey, Branson, Larson, Hurtubise and Bobby Unser.... owners like Ray and Henry, Leffler Meskowski, Watson, Jud Phillips...... great cars like the K.E.Y. Spl, the Konstant Hot Spl, the TRACO Chevy, the Wynn's OFFY and the Watson OFFY, the Fike Plumbing Chevy and the Sterling Plumbing Chevy.
It got a lot different since then, but it sure didn't get better.

mac miller in INDY

 

Hey guys, I need some technical help! I just got my Mag back from being rebuilt at Mag-Tech in Indy(thanks, Roy). Now I'm Not sure what to do next. My Chevy II does not have any crank snout or timing windows, no way to see the crank. Suggestions on finding TDC? Once Ive found TDC any other suggestions? Ive never installed a Mag before.
Thanks

 

Here's one that worked super for me in a similar situation only on a flat head Studebaker 6 where I'm driving a water pump directly off the crank nose.

First of all I am assuming your mag is from my era, points style, not something new fangled that uses a laser or a modern Ouija board to fire it.

TDC should be fairly easy to determine with a plug out on the Chevy II.

Set the mag in the engine so the rubbing block on the points is acting with the cam lobe for #1 cylinder and put a small piece of thin paper between the points and very slowly rotate the mag in the opposite direction the distributor cam turns when running until pulling very gently on the paper, it starts to release.

Now from that point you want to continue to rotate the mag in that direction 1/2 the number of degrees of advance that you want for your timing setting.

This requires that you can mark or degree the base or mounting flange of the cam in some manner. In my case, I went to the Internet and googled "degree wheel" and found a variety of sizes I could print out. I used an appropriate sized one, applied it to, and marked, the mag base, and set the mag on my alcohol burner at 19 degrees on the cam giving me the desired 38 degrees on the crank.

Runs great.

 

Remember the "Stoye Special,driven by Bruce Jacobi?

 

Mac,

You must have known the Beck family? Beck Construction Spl's both father and son (Sonny) also Paul Mead and Glen Niebel? If you have any info I would like to hear it.

 

I remember the Stoye Special. It was designed by two brothers in the Freeport LI area and they were known to be brilliant engineers.

As often said about engineers they are never in doubt but seldom correct.

A pretty sharp oval track modified fabricator, Lew Hennessey, was 17 or so and just starting out with his love of racing cars and he got to hang around the Stoye shop doing anything he could... hey this is an INDY car!!!

Lew told me they used to practice pit stops in preparation for Trenton but the race came & went, then they got ready for Indy but Indy always came & went while the Stoye car stayed in the garage for the month of May and so it went for every race. The only picture I ever saw of the car at "speed" (ahem) was taken at Langhorne in 1962 (I think) and it was either Jacobi or Mathouser behind the wheel and the writer of the magazine article said something very sympathetic like "poor so and so driving the Stoye Special" as the car was well into the 40 second range while everyone else was in the low 30's. The car was that odd that the picture was selected for the article

I seem to recall that there was hideous body work and perhaps some peculiar suspension, boy would it be interesting to see that beast again.

 

Here ya go....

 

I remember seeing the Stoye Spl. run at Trenton Fairgrounds at the very first race I ever saw as a nine year old kid in April of 1962. I can't explain why, but that car made a lasting impression on me and until now, I had never heard mention of the car. It surely was not a front runner that day as Eddie Sachs started from the pole and led every lap in the Dean Van Lines Spl.
However, I do remember that the Stoye Spl. was metallic blue in color. Must have had Jacobi at the wheel because I vaguely remember Bob Mathouser in a dark colored roadster. Another impression of a 9-year old mind - I thought that name to be amusing as I took it as "Mad Houser" - perfect name for a Big Car driver, eh!

 

Not the prettiest champ car ever built and is kinda "supermodified-ish" looking but you gotta give them credit for thinking outside the box though. They coulda just copied Watson or Meskowski, like everyone else. BTW, it got a 9th place at DuQuoin 65 in its short career with Bay Darnell in his first champ car ride.

 

Mac, We can say we were there for the best of times. The only heros I missed was Swiekert and Bryan. 1962 I was sitting with Herk and Parnelli eating fryed chicken under the trees at New Breman. What a thrill for a 16yr old. Those times set the path for the rest of my life. We'll have to get together next year at a vintage race, I'll have my midget out then. Are you going to the IMS trade show?

 

I'm not familiar with the Stoye Spl. I believe that it was a championship car, not a sprint car. I did know Bruce Jacobi. In USAC sprint cars, he drove the O'Day Spl.

mac miller in INDY

 

I can definately remember seeing the Stoye Spl. running at Milwaukee June Mays race, maybe around 1962. Couldn't possibly mistake it for any other car. Wonder what happened to it. Next time i see Bay i'll have to ask him about it.

 

Watched Bruce at Daytona in his final ride.....So Sad.....

 

Thanks 28dreyer! That is pretty much what I thought but wanted some reassurance. I did overlook turning the mag only 1/2 the total degrees I needed. That would have caused some problems.
Thanks again.

 

I knew Harold Beck and the red #11 Beck Construction OFFY 220. That car won the first USAC sprint car race ever run at Eldora in 1962 with Stan Bowman driving.


Also, knew Glen Niebel very well. Glen and my old boss, Paul Leffler were lifelong rivals around the Indiana tracks.
Glen's big deal was winning the Copper World Classic with his driver Bob Frey. For several years they dominated the Copper World sprint car race before USAC took it over and destroyed it. It was "run what ya brung" open competition.... In 1979, after we had won our second straight USAC sprint car championship with the Armstrong Mould cars, team manager, Paul Leffler decided he was going to beat his old buddy, Niebel, at the Copper World. At the time, we had some 735 HP factory Chevy turbo V6 Indy engines that we were going to install in our pavement sprint cars for the Copper World.
Niebel found out what we were up to and called all of the other competitors.
They threatened to boycott the race if we showed up with the turbo motors.
Track owner, Dennis Wood, called us and told us that they wouldn't let us run the turbo engines so we didn't go.... Niebel's winning streak continued for several more years.

mac miller in INDY