Motion Pictures Dirt Track Jalopy Movie

Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post:

Dirt Track Jalopy Movie

Continue reading the Original Blog Post

 

That poor jalopy driver who got ejected and slammed to the ground . No helmet. Looks like they are many miles from a hospital. The film was great to watch but that accident was very unpleasant to see.

 

That is some amazing footage!

 

I think this is on 16th street the road to the old landfill, I will check with some West siders and find out if I'm correct.
Cool footage.

 

@Jive-Bomber -

Cool video! ... Thanks for sharing!

That "Almost Lost Images" YouTube channel has quite a few other "HAMB-friendly" vintage home movie clips, including (but not limited to) ...

... this clip of jalopies racing on the "Pikes Peak Speedway" paved oval track near Colorado Springs, circa 1945-50:

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... this clip from the 1936 or 1937 INDY 500:

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... this clip from 1937 at Olympic Park Stadium racetrack in Newark, New Jersey:

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... and this clip of a Grand Prix auto race run on The Donington Park course in 1937:

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As mentioned, no helmets, no firesuits, no seat belts, but hey they had what looked like real rollbars...
I think some of the Trophy Girls were friends of the racers

 

Great racing; sure they could use more safty equipment but no wings & no 20 inch wide gum ball tires - & NO one crying they needed more "downforce". They raced cars not the junk that "race" today.

 

I might be old, but racing seemed better with these trophy girls .

 

Thanks Jive and Hemi for posting these. Captured forever the youth of the yesteryear. No doubt the rollbars evolved quickly even during the duration of Jives posted video. There was a mix of cars with and without this protection. The second wipe out did not have any rollbars perhaps not even seat-belts...Its been said many times but the Hotrod influence from this jalopy racing is highly evident.

 

Really enjoyed watching this old film. Very cool. Thanks.

 

Very cool footage. Very neat to see the way it was. Thanks for sharing!

As for that driver that was ejected. It's hard to tell whether he survived or not. If you freeze-frame the video, or watch it in slow motion...
- The car goes over on it's side. The driver gets his hand down on the ground.
- The car goes up on it's roll bar. The driver is still centred in the drivers compartment - not being crushed under the cowl, or under the deck lid (thanks to the roll bar).
- But as the car continues it's roll, it appears that the door and/or quarter panel at the B pillar area landed on his shoulders/head. Depending on inertia, it might have been a hard shove, or it might have been crushing.
- It's hard to tell on the stretcher whether a blanket is covering his head (suggesting he died) or not.