Great Oregon Racers

Thank you for the reply! Yes, a lot going on this summer for me too. I got married on the last weekend of July, so I most likely just wasn't paying close enough attention and missed the show. Oh well.....next year!

 

The event was well attended, great bunch of cars and people. Send me a PM with your mailing info and I will make sure that you are still on the mailing list.

 

Thank you. PM Sent.

 

I just received a call from Ron Heugli at the WOS Museum, he told me Rolla Vollstedt has passed away. Rolla would have to rank right at the top of Great Oregon Racers, with his many accomplishments, starting with racing Track Roadsters all the way to Indy. I was lucky to have had him for a friend, as well as doing work for him on his final 2 projects, both Track Roadsters. He was a great friend and will be missed, he turned 99 on Sept 8th, RIP old friend !

 

RIP Rolla.

 

What a great life he had and the stories to go with it.
Rest in peace Rolla.

 

Rolla Vollstedt was a great racer indeed, by any standard.
R.I.P.

 

VINTAGE OREGON

Rolla Vollstedt: Oregon's Indy 500 pioneer dies at age 99
Posted November 02, 2017 at 09:33 AM | Updated November 02, 2017 at 01:22 PM




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By John Killen

A Southwest Portland man who was a leader in several breakthroughs in auto racing — including hiring the first woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500 — has died at 99.

Rolla Vollstedt, who grew up in Portland, graduated from Benson Technical High School and attended Reed College, died on Oct. 22 in Portland and was buried Tuesday.

Vollstedt was known as one of the more innovative racing car designers during the second half of the 20th century. His contributions included helping develop aerodynamic wings used to improve traction on open-wheeled cars and proving the legendary Offenhauser engine would perform well in rear-engined cars.


Race car builder and designer Rolla Vollstedt, then 88, looks through a book about his career at his Portland, Ore., shop Tuesday, July 17, 2007. Vollstedt, who is credited with building the first rear-engine car to run in the Indianapolis 500, spends his time now building roadsters. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Don Ryan/The Associated Press

But he also showed his independent thinking when, in 1977, he hired Janet Guthrie, an aerospace engineer turned racing driver, to pilot one of his cars in the Indy 500. Guthrie’s car suffered a mechanical failure early in the race and she was unable to finish. But her performance behind the wheel was one of many events in the late 20th century that helped draw attention to the women’s rights movement. Vollstedt later said hiring Guthrie was perhaps the highest point in his career.

Vollstedt was born Sept. 8, 1918, in Hutton, Alberta, Canada, to Fred and Cleo (McCoy) Vollstedt, and later moved to Portland. He graduated from Benson in 1936. He then went on to Reed before serving in World War II.

While fighting with the U.S. Army in Europe in December 1944, Vollstedt was wounded on two separate occasions in one month and was awarded two Purple Heart medals.


Janet Guthrie is all smiles as her pit crew swarms around her following the Indy 500-mile race in Indianapolis, Ind., Sunday, May 28, 1978. Guthrie is the first woman racer to finish the Memorial Day classic race. (AP Photo)



The Associated Press

Vollstedt had worked at Frank Costanzo's Portland Speed Shop while attending Reed and after returning from the war, his interest in cars led him to began racing hot rods on the old Portland Speedway oval track in North Portland. He began building cars and teamed with local driver Len Sutton to build a reputation as the region’s top race car designer. From 1947 to 1955, the two teamed up to dominate the roadster and sprint-car circuits in the Pacific Northwest.

“We were just unbeatable,” Vollstedt told The Oregonian’s Paul Buker in a 1995 story.


In 2005, at 79, Len Sutton still fit into his 1965 Bryant Heating and Cooling racing jumpsuit and helmet that he wore in his last race at the Indianapolis 500. Behind him is an image from 1962, when he finished second.

Patrick Sullivan/The Oregonian

By the mid-1950s and into the early 1960s, Vollstedt’s reputation reached outside the Northwest as he started designing Indianapolis-style racers — known as “big cars” — for Sutton and driver Ernie Koch.

Over the next few years, Vollstedt began working on designs for cars with rear engines, as opposed to the front-engine machines that had long dominated open-wheel racing. While building cars in the basement of his Portland home, he also figured out a way to adapt the revered Offenhauser engine to the rear-wheel configuration.

By the mid-1960s, Vollstedt’s designs were making it to the Indy 500. On May 16, 1965, The Oregonian reported that two cars designed by the Portlander had qualified for the race: An Offenhauser-powered machine driven by Billy Foster and a Ford-powered racer with Sutton at the wheel.

The race would be won by Scotsman Jim Clark while Foster was forced out with mechanical problems. But Sutton finished 11th and the race signaled the end of front-engine open-wheel race cars.

In 1967, Clark drove one of Vollstedt’s cars in the Rex Mays Riverside 300 in Riverside, Calif. The car was equipped with a tunable rear wing and aluminum vanes along the side of the car’s nose. Both were new ideas. Clark was initially skeptical but found that the design increased downforce, which enhances the grip of the tires on the road.


The trademark Vollstedt engine is show here in a 1965 version at the World of Speed Museum's "Heroes and History" exhibit in 2017. The Wilsonville exhibit celebrated the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 race.

Dave Killen/The Oregonian/OregonLive

Clark, who twice won the international Formula 1 championship, then took the idea with him to Formula 1 racing, where it soon became a world standard for racing cars.



While none of Vollstedt’s cars ever won at Indy — the best finish by was ninth in 1969 — his reputation as a designer and innovator grew and drivers such as Gordon Johncock, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Unser, Dick Simon and Cale Yarborough also drove his cars over the years.

He last entered a car at Indy in 1984 and spent the rest of his career involved in the local racing scene.


Oregon car builder Rolla Vollstedt stands behind driver Gordon Johncock before the famed Indianapolis 500 race.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation

Please contact the family for details on Celebration of Life at [email protected]

 

Thanks for posting, there will be memorial for Rolla at WOS Museum on Sat Nov 11th @ 6PM. His Son Bruce called me a couple of days ago, and told me they buried Rolla at Willamette National with a 21 Gun Salute. A fitting sendoff for a Great American !

 

Here is a picture of Rolla taken in 2013 by a friend. He is second from the right. Far right is Randy Francis. I think they were celebrating Randy's 90th birthday.

 

BUMPOLA ! Lets not let our history die! START POSTING,PHOTOS NEEDED!

 

Marty Strode suggested I post this here, it was built by my brother in Medford around 58 or 59 and sold to someone in Portland around 1960, Trying a real longshot of running down any info on it's remains. It had a mid engine Stude V8 and with the deep chop and vent holes it wasn't a easily forgettable. Can't figure out how to post large pix after the demise of Photobucket. But double click on it to enlarge.

 

Give Imgur a try. I've switched to it after losing all my Photosucket images, and it works much better, and easier!
https://imgur.com/

 

Here you go, now that would be a race car to clone !

 

I received a photo album of the late Palmer Crowell. He was one of the best open wheel racers out of Oregon. It's full of great pics like the one below. With Bonneville coming up, I am too busy to scan and post right now, but I will get it done. I noticed the name on the Roadster, Hegwald Spl, one of the go-to engine machine shops in Vancouver. I had no idea that they campaigned a roadster, and a spiffy one at that !

 

Wow, some great Oregon racing history. I have some "old shots" for me. These are from the late 80's with my grandfather racing oldie but goodies with his 33 Ford Pickup (now mine). I know there are some pics of him racing at Woodburn and Balboa in the early 60s with his then brand new 61 Impala. I do also have a couple pics of Miss Taboo racing at McMinnville and PIR. I currently carry on the racing in the family but in modern muscle cars

 

That's quite a pairing CJ and Old Gold.

 

Yeah I found it odd and cool when I found these pics when going through boxes. That pickup was quick when he originally built it, Now the truck is becoming a full tilt show truck.

 

Found the couple of pics of Miss Taboo and its very small racing career. First is from 60 at the pits of McMinnville where then owner Ron Luchs was racing it. Then the other is when CJ was racing the car at the old Super Cruise in races at PIR

 

That's what me and my younger brother are planning to do. All we have is verbal descriptions and that picture, If any of the Wheelers or Strip Saints in Medford have other pictures we would love seeing them.

 

My shoebox Ford was a race car at some point in its life, at Woodburn mostly. I just got the phone number of a previous owner from my mom, of all people (she still lives in the area). She says he has old photos, and I want to see ‘em! I need to know what motor he was running, ‘cause I don’t believe it would be the flathead that’s in it now. It’s the car in my avatar.

 

Marty Strode: a lot of photos in this thread are gone. Do have some pics of Ernie Hall? I’d like to send them to my cousin Dot (his daughter). We still talk quite a bit, and she misses her old pop. If you could post a few, that would be great. Thanks!

 

Dave, here are a couple of Ernie's "Stripper". He raced it from '64 to '68 with the Desoto and the 392 Chrysler. He offered me the Desoto complete (blower manifold to pan), for $600. in 1975.

 

I realize many of the photos are gone, I didn't have Photobucket, and posted using thumbnails, so mine are still on here.

 

The Old Timers Picnic @ Blue Lake Park is this coming Sunday.

 

Old Gold was still running hard it this past Oldies But Goodies. Picture of our 55 with the old tower at Woodburn.

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I just received a call that my old friend Bob "Whitey" Jenson, passed away, he was 80. Whitey started drag racing at Scappoose in the mid 50's with T roadster with Flathead power. In '59 he bought a new Chevy with a 348, and was a terror in the stock class. In the 60's he ran a G/G 38 Chevy coupe, before moving up to a Jr. Fuel Dragster in 68. Around 72 he bought a Woody Gilmore FED, that was built for Kenney Goodell. It was brand new, and had never had an engine installed, Kenney had a ride in a rear engine T/F car, and the slingshot was passe at that time. As all of his cars, Whitey did his own engines, along with most of the fab work, he was a perfectionist ! He ran A/FD with a 440" early Chrysler on fuel. He spent the years that followed with his team of Belgian Horses, until he got back into hotrods. His last car was the 31 roadster pictured. Over the last few years we had a lot of fun racing it at the Billetproof Drags at Toutle. His love of drag racing spanned 62 years ! RIP Whitey, you were someone special, and will be missed by many.

 

Marty
I don't recall who introduced me to Whitey but I saw the FED at his place on Baseline not long after he got it, as with everything Kenney had it was a beauty.

 

Thanks, Marty. I remember getting to sit in The Stipper wen I was like seven years old. Great moments.

 

Thanks for the update Marty. I still glance over at the property every time I go by on Baseline.

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