60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

Yes, is was the World Series 1985. in qualifying. But it was the last time he saw the flag.

 

Or the last photo of Richie taking the flag.

 

hope a pinto goes on display not the j-style mod

 

And a 5 window 36 or 37 Chevy

 

Gater News, February 1980.

 

Here's my vote for the best finish.

 

Evans and Bodine running wings at Thompson in Nov. of '78.

 

I am pretty sure this is an early photo of stock car racing in Alabama at the to become "Iron Bowl" in Birmingham. MY uncle J P Rotton was the promoter. It appears to be a road course! It was made into an oval with fans sitting on the hill in the background. I would love to see and maybe race old model a's on that course.

 

Terry1, I have a 17 shot sequence of the Evans-Bodine "Greatest Finish Ever!"
Contacted MRN for the radio broadcast to possibly put to a short mpeg, but never received a response from them.

The winged pics... Were those taken during the Fred DeSarro memorial race?

 

Here's the site. The race event is not specified though.
http://www.racingthroughtime.com/ARCHIVES/MAR11/3-30-11.htm

 

i dont remember any wings at the memorial race,,,but that was long ago

 

I remember that day at Thompson, the Largest crowd I 've ever seen there an the race was the Best , till the last lap,over 32 yrs an I'm wellin up as I type.God Bless you Richie, God Bless Freddie.

 

The Cavalier is there. The American Pickers did a special for the Hall of Fame and I saw it in the background.

 

Here's a Cal Custom from ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/gass...tZVintageQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

 

Dr. John the air cleaner your looking for was a motion or fly eye air cleaner it took me awhile but their out there.

 

The tough part about those air cleamers is the fact you can't find the filter elements. you have to improvise. & I do agree romanfan, they are out there. Dad has 2 of them however neither is for sale. 1 of them is going on our car.

 

If i remember,Richie showed up with a wing. Geoff sent back to the shop
and they attached it right in pit area

 

I know Geoff ran against the supers one year. I think he put on 18" wide tires also. I'm going to say it was for one of the World Series events. I know that's not the same wing I saw him with. I know Evans used to borrow a wing from the 10 pins super team.

 

A couple of tidbits on the "winged Modifieds" pictured a few posts back ... The Fred DeSarro race was originally scheduled for Nov. 5, 1978 at Thompson, CT, as a tribute/fund racer for Freddy, who had crashed so badly on Oct. 8. When Freddy died on Nov. 1, the grief in the region was overwhelming, and thousands of folks, me included, just HAD to be there, the same way you need to attend the wake of a family member or friend. The rules were simple: pretty much anything goes, with NO PURSE, since the money would go toward Fred's family and medical bills. Richie showed up with a wing that I believe was a from the Supermodified he'd bought from Oswego regular Ronnie Wallace. (Richie ultimately ran the car just once, at Star in 1979.) As Terry1 noted, Evans had borrowed a Nolan Swift 10-Pins wing for a 1976 "open" race at Stafford. Anyway, Geoff and the Armstrong team responded by borrowing a Midget wing (you can see the smaller size) from the NEMA team owned by the late Iron Mike Scrivani. The result? No one could run with Geoff and Richie. As noted above, there wasn't a dry eye in the place when the white flag waved and the entire field, led by Geoff, simply slowed and pulled into the infield, symbolically leaving the "win" for the great Fred DeSarro. It still gives me a bit of a chill. In reality, that race also marked win number 55 of Geoff's greatest season. Hope I got all this correct; it's coming from memory, and that's a tough day to forget.

 

I remember being at the Memorial race at Thompson with my father but didn't recall the field pulling after the white flag.

The day after Shampine was killed in the Modified classic at Oswego, I remember the next day in the classic when the supers pulled off on lap 199 as Norm Bacon waved the checkered to silent track.

The racing community sure knows how to salute fallen heros.

 

That was an incredible show for sure, so much emotion all around the pits, I'll never forget it. I ran the #123 Waterford street stock (my avatar pic) against Stafford and Thompson big block streets stocks and anything else that showed up. Everyone had a great time participating, considering the reason we were there. It was a Richie & Geoff show in the modifieds, but that last lap was a heart wrencher. Everyone loved Fred.

 

Summit has one that is similar. Although it's shaped as a triangle, but it's currently on sale for $16.00.

 

I know this may sound corny Dr John but, I think you could use a furnace air cleaner element & cut it to fit the cleaner if you find 1. Talk to your local plumber/furnace serviceman & he may have what will work in sheets. It's not the paper element type. Its kind of like a scotchbrite pad but thicker & a little coarser grain That's what I plan on using.

 

Thanks, dr john. great link for Richie

 

Damn. Those are expensive. Good luck.

 

Indy Bones,
I read somewhere that you may have some info on this Dover car.

 

No special info, Terry1 ... Just that back when Dover ran the Modifieds at the dawn of the 1970s, a lot of guys went the "aero" route by running full bodies. Richie was one of them. He draped a Camaro body over a cage that was obviously built to conform to a coupe. Interestingly, when the Modifieds went back to Dover in 1977 and most entrants ran swoopy bodies with all sorts of fairings and flares, the Evans #61 Pinto was barely changed from its usual short-track look. Incidentally, at the time Richie described that whole "superspeedway Modified" period as "insanity." He told writer Andy Fusco, "A lot of people are risking a lot of money to make this superspeedway thing work. I just wish they'd take some of that money and put it into the half-mile tracks. That's where Modifieds belong." Amen to that thought, and amen to having a champion who always spoke his mind.

 

Every time I've seen that pic the first thought that went through my head was "that looks like a Dutch Hoag rollcage."

 

Hey Bakes I may be wrong but I think that camaro may be the 1 that Bernie Miller built with Bob Munroe. I know that they built 1 that Richie ran in practice @ Dover once. Dad didn't drive it. He had his Corvair there too race.

 

Bones, a little of Richie's philosophy on making the half miles work would go a long way toward improving all types of stock car racing nowadays.