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

Manny Ayulo in the Coast Grain Spl. pit side 1950. Don't know who's that is in the zoot suit, car owner I suspect. The car is listed as a Offy powered Maserati but it doesn't look much like any Mazzy from that era, maybe it was rebodied (?)

 

Rootie, the car is a Maserati V8RI (Serial Number 4502) that dates back to 1935/36 in Grand Prix racing. It first raced at Indianapolis in 1939 with Deacon Litz as the driver. Litz finished in 33rd position in what would be the car's only appearance in the 500. Even so, the car had a long history at Indianapolis with drivers like Tommy Hinnershitz (1946), Walt Brown (1948), Jim Rathmann (1949), and Jim Rigsby (whose name is seen on the car in your photo) and Manny Ayulo in 1950 all trying unsuccessfully to find qualifying speed. Somewhere along the line the car did get a new body and the Offy engine appeared in 1949. The car still exists today and is run in Europe in vintage events back in its' Grand Prix configuration.

Here's a link to a more recent photo:

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/gallery/Maserati-V8RI-43081.html

 

much prettier with the Indy body IMO

 

Thanks Indy and I agree it looks much better with the new bodywork, real similar to the Blue Crown car.

 

Allen Crowe loses a LR and gets on his lid, while Chuck Hulse eases on by at the Hoosier 100, 1962.

 

Doc Mackenzie in the Cresco Spl. big car circa 1935.

 

Milwaukee 1960.

 

This was the Rex Mays 100 held right after the 500 that year. Twenty two cars started the race with two of them (Eddie Sachs and Dick Rathmann) starting together in the last row after finishing 1st and 2nd in a Consolation Race. 500 winner Jim Rathmann missed the show by qualifying too slow and then missing the cut in the Consi. In all, twenty five cars were on the trailer when field took the green flag.

If only IndyCar could generate car counts like that today. They can't get that many cars even for the 500 now.

BTW, Rodger Ward started 11th and won the race.

 

Does anyone know anything about the car Mickey Shaw is driving?

It looks somewhat different from other cars of that era. Possibly an early Charlie Altfater car?

 

Yes, it is the Altfater house car.

 

Just thinking out loud here because I'm confused. The car in the first post is different from the car in the reply to my question. The rear suspensions are different unless he had one layout on the left side and another one on the right and neither one is looks like the rear suspension he used three or four years later.

Altfaters rear suspensions were always a little beyond off the wall and it took a really sharp mechanic to figure out how to make adjustments on one of those cars without jacking it clear out of the ballpark.

 

The 2nd pic is from 61 so it may be a different car entirely or was changed over by 64. But that is Mickey Shaw who drove for Altfater a lot in the early 60s.

 

Bayliss Leverett in the Palmer Spl., Indy 1950.

 

Babe Stapp inside Deacon Litz. Indy 1935.

 

Paul Jones hooked up in Bruce Bromme's 'Andy Gump' 1965.

 

I have looked at this picture several times over the last few days and I can't get the thought out of my head that it looks like Oliver Hardy stopped by to wish Manny good luck. What is your impression? I fully realize it isn't Ollie but the girth is similar.

 

To me it looks like it could very easily be Official AAA Starter Seth Klein. Klein was a very big man and was the starter at Indy for decades. And he often dressed to the nines and favored those two tone shoes. There's a good chance that there is a AAA armband on his left side if you could somehow see that side.

That photo was taken north of the Pagoda (the starting line itself was farther north in 1950 than it is today) and Klein would have been working from inside the track on a Time Trial day. The crowd behind the pits looks full which also points to a Qualification day. If it's Klein he might be going over procedures with Ayulo; maybe Manny is getting ready to attempt to qualify. At any rate Ayulo certainly looks like he is intently listening to whomever is talking to him.

 

Is this thread for vintage pictures of spring cars, or pictures of vintage sprint cars? Well anyway I took these today at a local show. Flathead Mopar? Supposedly from the PNW.

 

You're right indy, that's who it is.

 

Came across another shot of the Maserati/Offy. This from 1949 when it was owned by Andy G. and driven by Jim Rathmann.

 

I see AJ Watson and Vince G in the background.

 

RIP: BRIAN CLAUSON : Bellville : SAT Night.

 

X4 (our entire family) a top quality racer is the spirit of AJ, Herk,Parnelli, and Smoke. A deep tragedy.

 

Damnit.

It gets easy to forget sometimes, but racing cars is still a dangerous game.

Godspeed, sir.

 

Johnny McDowell in the Coastal Motors big car 1940s.

 

Coastal Motors would likely have been in Savannah, Georgia since that's where a intersection of Oglethorpe and West Broad still shows up. If so, racing in the South would fit well with Johnny McDowell who ran all over the country in all kinds of cars for about two decades making his living. Originally from Illinois somewhere along the line he became a Californian.

It's often overlooked but McDowell drove the ex-Wilbur Shaw Maserati at Indianapolis in 1951 by which time the car had (I believe) a supercharged Offy engine. Roger Wolcott was one of the owners and Herb Porter got his first job at Indianapolis as a chief mechanic on that car as well.

 

Pit side at Indy 1950. Joie Chitwood's Wolfe Spl. gets some attention, while in the background is the Cantarano Wayne 12 port powered car and behind it is the Estes Ardun powered car.

 

The Connie Weidel built Estes Ardun car is still one of the most interesting cars at Indianapolis although it never managed to qualify for the race. It has apparently remained in the Estes family all of these years and is just now being offered at the Rick Cole Auction in Monterrey in a little over a week.

http://www.rickcole.com/auction/1/item/1948-bob-estes-special-indy-racing-car-53

 

A friend shared this with me today and I found it quite interesting, as it pertains to some early racing by some Western PA people who ran Indy:

http://traffordhistory.org/lookingback/index.php/recreation/89-recreation/110-racing

 

From the Old Dawg

A little clarification, if I may...I know I'm a little tardy in my comment; but, I just now returned to this thread. According to Gene Banning's interviews with Art Sparks and a recording that I have of Art Sparks' narration to Larry Sullivan; Sparks got himself out of a personal contract he had with Joel Thorne in late 1941. This after Ted Horn finished 3rd at Indy with one of the "little sixes". Art won a lawsuit getting himself out of that contract and receiving a monetary judgement; but none of the race cars were in that judgement. The cars were put into storage in a closed night club on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood that Thorne had rented. In 1946 Art reluctantly agreed to prepare a "little six" and the "big six" for the Indy race. It was sometime around then that Sparks learned the Thorne had sold one of the "little sixes" to Flavell. When we lived next door to the Art Sparks personal shop in 1948 and 1949, I did see on many occasions Sparks engines and parts thereof on work bench's. None of the cars for those engines were seen in that shop.