History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Frustrating day yesterday but was ready for the alignment shop this morning.

A little overkill but when a friend offers...


Here's a few photos of the John Bean, and Ray the alignment Guru.

 

.....'It was mentioned over on the sprint car thread that the great photographer, Ken Coles, recently suffered a stroke. 'Looking back, it's amazing the career that Ken had. There maybe no one that has captured more images of Mario Andretti in more circles of racing than Ken Coles has. USAC midgets, sprint cars, dirt cars, IndyCars, sports cars and even Formula 1. Ken Coles did it all.

 

Great thread and some cracking pictures.
Heres a pair of midgets from England,both built by the owners and street legal!
The white one has a solid mounted Buick (Rover) v8.









It would be great if that track was dirt!

I just remembered,i spoke to the guys for a while,they were laughing about how the wind would pull the goggles down from their eyes when they got up to 100mph...crazy!

 

Street Legal!! That would be so cool! You guys must have the most tolerant Motor Vehicle Registration regulations in the civilised world.

 

Here in Oz you would get hung, drawn and quartered for thinking about trying to register something like that. Nanny state.

 

They are closing in,things getting tough i beleive.

We followed 'Ol smokey' for a good while,every time he let off the gas it would pop and bang,backfiring like mad.It had us in tears of laughter,cool as hell!

 

The lights are not a problem,we can get a dawn till dusk Ministry of Transport test (daytime MOT) to get around that problem,no fenders are a little more difficult,but at worst a 'fix it 'ticket could be issued by the Police.Once fixed ,car must be checked at the MOT station,and off we go again.How many times you could get away with this is anybodies guess.We just try pushing that envelope!

 

I made my deadline!

I got enough of the Midget together to take it to Reggies 80th B'day.

It was a major Hit. This was an important piece of the Jones family history.
We had nieces and nephews present who had grown up with the car & the racing. His old mate Eddie Cotton was also there. Ed was part of the original pit crew, 60 years ago.

I was a bit worried, I had tried to paint the cowl at 10pm the night before.... outside...in the dark... The paint melted the primer and the whole lot slid down the panel.... I had to flatten it out with a brush and let it flash off enough to spray a bit more over the top.
At midnight, I decided to skip the tail!

Everyone who knew the car said "Thats Exactly how it looked" Preparation for racing was allways a rush and paint always took last place behind mechanicals.

 

Hi,

I am new to the site. in fact this is my 1st post. My grandfather is Chet Conklin and it's hard to make out if that is him the picture, but I do know he raced a Harry Hull car is it might be him.

On a side note I would love to try to find the car he raced. Goal would be to try to buy it, but I'd just be happy to get a picture of it.

I have a bunch of pictures at my father's house. When i get up there again I'll try to scan some in and post them up on here. What a great thread going on here. I am much to young to have seen them race (only 34), but I do love the midgets.

 

Here's a couple of scans of your grandfather...they were already cut from an old program when I got them, that's the way alot of this stuff is, you get what is still around, and it is sometimes all we have.

 

The rail frame car is around somewhere in Ct. If you find it I have the original nose off the car. I also have Harry Hulls Twin Fire tube frame car.

stan...............

 

WELCOME San Lobitz !!!! Happy to see you here. I look forwatd to your input.

 

Hugh M, thanks for posting the pictures.

SloBitz, I sent you a pm on here. Thanks for the information on the car. I am wondering if you might be willing to sell the nose piece that you have. It would give me a starting point on trying to get his car as i would love to restore it to keep as a family heirloom.

 

How are you Stan. Is the old Hunter midget you restored the Csiki car I can never remember. Billy C

 

Hi Billy,
Yep! Started life as the 16 Walker electric car out of Tulsa Driven to the south central championship by Cecil Green and Jud Larson drove it for the Mears family
( Orchid Cleaners Car ). Then came East to Al Rose who sold it to Smokey Secundo.
Russo won a NEMA championship in it. Joe Czikiwon a lot of races in it Hunter got it from Joe Bowen
Billy some day I`ll tell you how ARDC stopped Ed from campaining the car.
When you gonna visit me my friend.
I forgot to mention my friend Bill Jones from Texas crewed on that car when Cecil Green drove it
Stan..................

 

If the car is in Connecticut as Stan Lobitz feels it is, it quite possible that .. wynns #1 .. (Joe Fiore) over on the Vintage Sprint Car thread or one of the other folks over there, from that area, might know its where abouts .. but asking wynns #1 would be a good start.

 

Posted this photo before, it's a pretty neat shot of Mr. Hull's car, just as it was completed, no lettering, and stock heads...that's his wife Bea in the seat.

 

trying to find the time maybe next saturday I have to come out that way to help a friend with his house.

 

Very nice..nice car too!

 

Thank you for the information. I am sending a pm now.

 

What a great picture

 

I found the picture in one of Mom's old albums. Dad's '39 Zephyr convertible fordor sedan tow car and the midget on the way to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the fall of 1948. It was the last time he raced the midget. He sold it the next day and returned to California and used the proceeds to make a down payment on their first house, and purchase his first two screw machines. Dad would not see the car again for 40 years. In '87 he found it in Davenport, Iowa, and brought it home to Ca. It now rests in the Justice Brothers racing museum. The Zeyphr sat in back of the machine shop over 20 years. In the early 70's he sold it for $500. We later learned Ford only made 157 '39 Zeyphr convertible fordors! Oops!!

 

I love midgets

 

I think the pit and trailer shots tell as much about the times as any of the racing shots, albeit not as exciting. Thanks.

 

Trailer shot.. Full of period details

 

Like that bald tire, guessing they didn't have far to go...

 

Plenty of life left in that one.... not even any canvas showing.

90 mile round trip to 'local' speedway.

Notable are the new tyres on the rear of the midget.
Originals were agricultural nobby tyres from International Harvester equipment like the front LH.

Things were quite tough in Australia in the post-war period, fuel rationing was still in place till 49-50.

It was a major achievment for a young motor mechanic in his early 20's to build and operate a race car at the time.



This photo was from a feature article in the local newspaper.

 

I had a chance to attend the open house deal at Paul Weisel's museum in Orefield PA on Sunday. Really glad I went. A lot of old race guys there, and nobody told any lies. Race cars, photos, memorabilia galore. A really neat deal. If you get the chance to see it, I'd highly recommended it.

Spike

 

Paul Weisel puts on a nice exhibit. And there is no charge... Spike was there.
Stan..............

 

First I've ever heard of it.

How / where does he promote these Open House deals?

THANKS.