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

Check out this photo I just found in the Vintage Stock car thread. Anyone know who this fleet of cars belonged to?

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t114/dog427435/HSC/213-Eddie-Casterline.jpg


Eddie Casterline.

http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/focus.php?db=ct&n=4850

 

He knew NOT the definition of fear behind the wheel of a race car. But then PJ was of course pretty much the same way 20 years ago.[/QUOTE]

I watched Paige win a TQ main at Saugus in 1990. Lapped 1/2 the field. He would have surely surpassed PJ, and maybe his dad. Damn shame.

 

Hi Buildy,
I think those cars are Ted Koopman team.I believe that Joe Sostilio was part of the team . When Casterline was killed, Ted got out of racing. He lent Joe the money to purchase his first of 3 Kurtis midgets.

 

Thanks wynn`s,

I`m just learning about Casterline,but I do know that Joe Sostilio was a hard charger!

Hope you have a great time with the car at Loudon,and I wish I could be there. Weather forecast for Wed-Thurs for up there looks good.

 

I watched Paige win a TQ main at Saugus in 1990. Lapped 1/2 the field. He would have surely surpassed PJ, and maybe his dad. Damn shame.[/QUOTE]


Paige came along at the right time to go into the stock cars down south. Had he made it, I'm certain there would have been key fobs at the checkout counter with his colors, number and picture on them. He would have made it in by the mid-90's and not slowed down. There are truly very few of his kind from each generation.

 

Wondering if any one on here has any experience with a 4 rear radius rod set up on a 4 bar sprint. They can't be very common as I havn't found a picture that shows them . I have seen them before, poss. on a Ward / Watson car. My Malloy upright has them , 2 equal bars on each side, one at the upper rail , the other on the lower rail. What is the proper way that the rear arms attach to the birdcages? I would think they would have to float somehow. I know this car worked very well when built but when I got it it was running single bars with the arm hooked to the cage with a heim end in the conventional maner. Any help or a picture would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Bob

 

If I understand your question correctly, you probably want a 'shackle' much like a hairpin setup. Bunch of different ways to do it, but male/female heims are quick and easy.

 

Or if the birdcage is in "double shear" the arms could have sat on top of a roller which is nothing more than a bolt with a piece of tubing over it, do you have any pictures of the bird cage?

 

Thanks fellas, The "shackle" method is what I used to reconvert it. However I gave them side play . Intending that they would self center like a roller does. Seeing in the picture those have no sideplay, perhaps mike are sticking cocked and jamming up the jacobs ladder. I will post a pictur now it is daylight and my crappy camera will take a picture in my shop.

 

I am thinking about radiator mounts for my midget, I have a few ideas but does anybody have any pics of radiator mounts with the strap holding the top?

Thanks

 

Those three pictures show the right method in my opinion.

 

Theoretically what you have should work, other than, it appears the right side doesn't have much clearance. I assume by "giving them side play" the heims aren't clamped tight and can slide on the bolt ? I'm no expert, but I think they should be bolted up tight as letting them move on the bolt will lead to binding. Maybe use cone spacers and snug everything up and then run the suspension through checking for clearence. JMHO.

 

This was the Tognotti method.

 

Think I will try it with the cone spacers tightened up and mill a little off the side of the RH arm to open it up there a little as you pointed out. JMHO isn't working out, more than glad to give yours a try. Thanks Bob

 

A little over 50 years ago, somebody figured a open wheel race at the, then, new Daytona speedway would be a good idea. I have to believe that flat out in a 1600 lb. upright dirt car on 31 degree banking must have been, well......

 

I'll finish the sentence with INSANE.

 

Yeah, I think that was the general consensus when they left, never to come back.

 

They didn't come back because George Amick got killed.

The three pictures are great. Thats Tommy Hinnershitz (blue coveralls)pushing the orange Glessner car with Jimmy Packard.

Don Branson in the red drivers suit,...

 

Sadly,
George and Marshall Teague ....

 

Jim Dieter sent this to me a couple of months ago:

50 Years Later, Indy R oadsters Make R eturn To DIS<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>​

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on">DAYTONA BEACH</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Fla.</st1:State> &#8211; On Thursday, Daytona International <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Speedway</st1lace></st1:City> turned back the clock 50 years.

On the 50<SUP>th</SUP> anniversary of the first and only time that USAC open-wheel championships cars competed at Daytona International Speedway, five-time R olex 24 At Daytona champion Hurley Haywood paced eight restored Indy R oadsters around the storied 2.5-mile tri-oval for parade laps at speeds near 100 mph.

The special visit to &#8220;The World Center of R acing&#8221; is a prelude to this weekend&#8217;s Amelia Island Concours d&#8217;Elegance outside of Jack sonville .

In attendance, but not driving, was Jim R athmann, the 1960 <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1lace></st1:City> 500 winner and the driver that captured both open-wheel events at DIS back in April 1959.

Rathmann&#8217;s first victory was in a 100-mile race that was completed in just over 35 minutes with an average speed of 170.261 mph, which, at the time, was the fastest race ever run on a closed course. Later that day, he won a second race, this time only 50 miles, with an average speed of 160.694 mph.

He was watching the parade laps on Thursday from the Sprint FANDECK.

&#8220;I like to see the old cars,&#8221; R athmann said. &#8220;We got some good speed out of them.&#8221;

Five of the eight cars that actually competed in the open-wheel races at DIS back in 1959, including R athmann&#8217;s, were on track on Thursday while the other three competed in events during that time period.

&#8220;Many times all you get is part of a frame, a rear end maybe if you&#8217;re lucky and some other bits and pieces,&#8221; said Bob McConnell, an owner of one of the restored Indy R oadsters. &#8220;You start from there and then restore it from the pictures and as much original parts as you can get.&#8221;

After spending &#8220;many hours and years&#8221; restoring the car, driving the parade laps on Thursday made all the hard work worth it for McConnell.

&#8220;It&#8217;s one of these things that is almost a dream come true,&#8221; said McConnell, who calls <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Urbana</st1:City> , <st1:State w:st="on">Ohio</st1:State></st1lace> home. &#8220;Seeing these cars running at Daytona and to be able to run on the same banking with a champion here, it&#8217;s hard to describe.&#8221;

For Haywood, as he was driving his Porsche, he found himself looking more in his rear view mirror than what was in front of him.

&#8220;It was too cool to look out my rear view mirror and see all those Indy cars lined up,&#8221; Haywood said.

The special visit to &#8220;The World Center of R acing&#8221; is a prelude to this weekend&#8217;s Amelia Island Concours d&#8217;Elegance outside of Jack sonville .

In attendance, but not driving, was Jim R athmann, the 1960 <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Indianapolis</st1lace></st1:City> 500 winner and the driver that captured both open-wheel events at DIS back in April 1959.

Rathmann&#8217;s first victory was in a 100-mile race that was completed in just over 35 minutes with an average speed of 170.261 mph, which, at the time, was the fastest race ever run on a closed course. Later that day, he won a second race, this time only 50 miles, with an average speed of 160.694 mph.

He was watching the parade laps on Thursday from the Sprint FANDECK.

&#8220;I like to see the old cars,&#8221; R athmann said. &#8220;We got some good speed out of them.&#8221;

Five of the eight cars that actually competed in the open-wheel races at DIS back in 1959, including R athmann&#8217;s, were on track on Thursday while the other three competed in events during that time period.

&#8220;Many times all you get is part of a frame, a rear end maybe if you&#8217;re lucky and some other bits and pieces,&#8221; said Bob McConnell, an owner of one of the restored Indy R oadsters. &#8220;You start from there and then restore it from the pictures and as much original parts as you can get.&#8221;

After spending &#8220;many hours and years&#8221; restoring the car, driving the parade laps on Thursday made all the hard work worth it for McConnell.

&#8220;It&#8217;s one of these things that is almost a dream come true,&#8221; said McConnell, who calls <st1lace w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Urbana</st1:City> , <st1:State w:st="on">Ohio</st1:State></st1lace> home. &#8220;Seeing these cars running at Daytona and to be able to run on the same banking with a champion here, it&#8217;s hard to describe.&#8221;

For Haywood, as he was driving his Porsche, he found himself looking more in his rear view mirror than what was in front of him.

&#8220;It was too cool to look out my rear view mirror and see all those Indy cars lined up,&#8221; Haywood said.

 

One of the more 'notorious' races of the 60s was the Champ car race at Phoenix in 1961. The first pic shows the pace lap with Al Keller on the pole and Rodger Ward on the outside. While the track looks to be in decent shape at the start, it deteriorated badly and on lap 40 Keller crashed and was killed. The other 2 pics are of Ward during the race and it's obvious he is being hammered pretty good. After 89 laps the race was called and P.J. was declared the winner.

A bit of o/t trivia: Until Toyota won a Nascar race a couple years ago, the last foreign make to win a major Nascar race was a Jag. at Linden N.J. around 1955, driven by..... Al Keller.

 

'Man, Rootie, 'Thanks for those and to Jim Dieter for sending that along. What a beautiful sight seeing all those roadsters lined up on the straight-away. I know I've mentioned it before (maybe on another site) but, they say that when the cars (indy roadsters) would come off of turn 2 that they would just "fall off the banking." 'Which is basically what lead to little George's death.

 

IMCA ran a sprint car race at Atlanta in the 60's.
Jim Graybeal

 

Just heard from a good frend that larry rice was not doing very good.

 

Thanks for reminding me Jim, I had forgot all about that. IIRC they "thinned the herd" pretty good with just a few cars finishing but with all the drivers surviving. Nonetheless, it must have been a real white-knuckler.

 

I hope he gets better. I was hoping someday I could get to meet him.

 

Rootie, check this out, this is an actual program from the Phoenix race in 1961. I was there (I was only 18 months old). My folks went to that race every year through 1964 the first year at Phoenix International, they quit going after that. Anyway, my mom took notes on the entries page, it's hard to read, but her notes for Al Keller read "rolled over on to fence 41st lap, killed". Also on her notes for Ray Crawfrod #94 "rolled but conscious". And for Chuck Hulse #52 "rolled 88th". She notes that Clark (Shorty) Templeman, "injured his hand in hot laps". Bobby Marshman needed a driver change on lap 45, Jim Hurtubise took over for him. A.J. Foyt dropped out in the 55th lap. It's interesting to look at her notes from that day, glad I kept that old program around.

 

Thanks Mitch, I'm glad you kept it too. Kind of a "moment in time," very interesting.

 

I heard Larry is real bad. Same, he is such a nice person and represented our sport as good as anyone.
Greg Weld won the Atlanta race, driving an [converted? Indy roadster]. dick Gaines ran well but do not remember his finish. Charlie Masters broke a u-joint and torque tube and it dug into the track lifted him up in the air and came around and hit the tail. Did not break the fuel tank and there was no fire. It took Charlie 2 or 3 days to get all of the seat out of his butt! Somewere I have the starting positions and speeds, there was a big difference in fat to slow time.
Jim Graybeal

 

I got a message from Terry Lingner about Larry, forwarded from Fred Nation and giving Robin Miller as the original source. It's bad, apparently.