60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

If you can attach it to an email, send it to [email protected] and I'll post it here for you.

I thought that big block mod looked good wearing that PT Cruiser's hide too, but I can't imagine how many spot welds had to be drilled to free those quarters and roof skin from the under structure.

Maybe crash replacement panels are the way to go? I saw a fellow on another forum that skinned his tube framed road race car using only OEM crash repair panels for a Fox body Mustang (AKA the Shit Box Mustangs). He said that was a damned sight easier than trying to peel the skin off a donor, and I believe him.

Still made of steel though. How are you going to mitigate the increased weight of the body panels? Is your class minimum high enough that you can just hang less lead?

 

Great pic of Rafter. It seemed every time I saw a picture of him w/o a driving suit he had on a Mac's t-shirt. He must have really like that place or got a bunch of free shirts!

The #5 of Ted Renshaw was an ex-Osborne car.

 

I believe Bucky Buckholtz was an alias that Ron Lux used. Ron had to use an alias at some tracks so he could keep his USAC license. I read that in one of my Oswego Eagles. I'll try to find the article.

 

Bigfeet,was that 7NY car an early Oswego Suoer modified?

 

I don't recognize it. It was a little before my time, but I've seen pics of most of the old supers. It looks more like a modified to me, although pre 1962 supers looked like modifieds. I'm frustrated I can't find that article. I know I saw it recently. I'll keep looking.

 

I can't believe there hasn't been a search party looking for me!!!

Took my pops out for lunch and found this, they knew nothing on the car except some guy names Pete (frick or something) owned it, it was getting painted, looked rough. ANY INFO???????

 

Yes, saw it on Face Book! Does that help?

 

The 7ny car was what was called in those days a "super bomb", wild hairy little things that were an absolute ball to watch and they were the predessors of the oswego supermods. Most of the modified drivers also ran a super bomb. Bucky bucholtz is a real person, owner of buckholtz transmission in the Buffalo ny area. Ronnie lux did use his name (probably while driving a Buckholtz car). I remember Lux driving a copper colored super bomb number 6ny (long before Ritchie Evans had that number) that looked a lot like the 7ny car. He was running sprint cars at that time and also showing up at lancaster speedway to run modifieds and super bombs. Lancaster was also a dirt track at that time.

 

I sent it to you Cool Hand. I hope I did it correctly

 

Cage looks like a 1982-1986 Troyer, but the front end has some serious and strange work done to it if it was once a Troyer car. Almost looks like a Figure 8 car up front, but don't see anywhere near the expected side protection for a Figure 8.

Utterly bizarre, but I'd love it if it were to show up in my driveway. The body's about one or two good days worth of work away from being seriously cool - the raw material's there.

 

Thanks for the info. They certainly look like they were fun to watch. I still wish I could find the article. It was an interesting read. I'm sure it was in a '73 Eagle, but I've been through everyone I have (or can find). I swear I saw it within the last few months. I even remember the title "Remember Ron Lux". I'm so OCD.

 

It may have been converted to a figure 8 car after it's usefullness ran out as a top running modified. There is and has been coupes running at the Head many years now. Two that I know of.

Thanks for lunch Pete.

 

some people believe it's Frank Suess old fig-8 car he ran.

 

Just learned that Gordie Smith Sr. has passed away. He was a good and fair driver in the 50's & 60's. He could really get alot of power out of his Hudson. He ran tracks such as Mid-State,Five-Mile Point,Afton,Norwich and Smyrna in New York state. Gordie was a resident of Oxford,NY.

 

some more Richie Evans posts the early pinto years....

battling it out with Sonny Seamon





At Islip dueling with Greg Sacks in the 18x





At Stafford





chasing Ed Flemke in the Art Barry 14





in victory lane....











probably a modified madness show at Stafford. The car looks even faster with the injectors coming out of the hood....

 

DIRT racing lost another one. RIP Skippy #347 I know I've seen his car on her Raced the Valley starting with there late models

http://obits.masslive.com/obituaries/masslive/obituary.aspx?n=george-w-fox-skippy&pid=152873124

 

Pretty sure Skip ran a late model at the Valley about the same time I did.

Went to the LV Classic site and saw a tribute to Skip and a pic of his coupe modified. Cool guy, just a back yard racer like most of us back then.

May he RIP.

 

Thanks JBull, yeah really busy!!! You missed a good tour race, hope you watched the highlights on my website. Seeing Justin Bonsignore get his first tour win at his home track was great! The guys behind him put on the show!!! Szegedy,Silk and Preece!

 

Timmy Solomito ran the Vega of Charlie J with new tires after qualifying for the 77 lapper, if he ran (wished of course) he would of started 10th, this is all still while his hand and wrist are in a cast!!!

 

Those shots of the Evans Pinto with injectors are from the 1974 Spring Sizzler. It was one of those weird events that were sort of like "NASCAR Opens," which basically meant that you could earn points if your car was NASCAR-legal, but also allowed other cars in (within reason). Interestingly, in that period the two primary points-chasers were Richie and Jerry Cook, but both ran injected big blocks in that year's Sizzler, perhaps by agreement. While many of us recall the stories of Jerry and Richie fibbing to each other, sneaking off to race at one track after swearing they'd race another, there were also MANY occasions where they agreed on things like running big-money races (at Oswego, for example) rather than hauling to Islip or Riverside Park just for the points.

 

Some more Maynard Troyer...I would say the '72 to '74 period....

battling Dutch Hoag in the #7 Gremlin....





battling Jim Rudolph #72 at Lancaster....what type of body is on the #72?





a Fred Smith color photo of one of my previous b & w posts...





Maynard at Evans Mills on the outside of Lou Lazzaro and his #4 Valiant....




more like 1970....








another Fred Smith photo...




Dave Nidhols #34, Jerry Cook #38 and Maynard Troyer #6 in a late race skirmish at Fulton...






Ron Wallace #16, Roger Burdick #54, Dick Clark #16x and Maynard Troyer #6 at Fulton

 

Very odd. Yellow helmet. Car on the left is renumbered on the door. Car on the right, renumbered on the roof.

 

Looks like what's left of a Corvair, to me....

 

the picture of skippy on l.v. classice is one of mine it is skippy in 1973

 

Jim wasn't the only one to "take liberties" with sheetmetal...I once heard from a "reliable source", that the Swain Bros. #44 "Vega" was actually a Fiat, maybe a 124. It looked close enough, especially after being cut and trimmed to fit a modified chassis, that nobody really noticed...or cared.

With respect to the Rudolph car, I sort ot forgot about the Vega sedan body, as many of the racers who used Vega tin, used the fastback body. The picture sequence in where Jim is spinning, shows some of the rear of the car, and it indeed looks like Vega tin. I would imagine that this was before he switched to the Gremlin body that I was more familiar with seeing.

 

Non floating Ford rear end under a Chevy, pretty unusual.

 

Chevrolet did have two versions of the Vega. The sedan had a trunk lid and the fastback had a hatch. There was a very small difference, but different none the less.

 

just something to ponder...At this point, many racers still weren't fully embracing aerodynamics, however in that respect, the Vega hatchback was nothing more than a "pre-Cavalier", if you know what I mean. The hatchback body allowed a long sheet of interior tin to direct air to a rear spoiler. The one driver/builder that I recall, right off the top of my head, using a Vega hatchback body, was Roger Treichler.

I can't say for sure, that the Swain car actually had Vega metal or Fiat tin on it, but the person I heard it from was a usually reliable source of information. I, like everyone else, assumed it was a Vega....

 

Swain also ran a Vega WAGON. The other "Vega" did look too short, and I think it had a flat piece of tin in the taillight area.