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

Looks like fun, who else is going?

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Folks, the 1960 Indy 500 winner has taken his final checkered flag. RIP Royal Richard "Jim" Rathmann. 7.16.28 to 11.23.11.

 

Rest in peace... we've lost another great one.
PK

 

We will be there on Sat. with some friends and the Beck/Mead sprinter

 

Is the Harry Turner the car builder the same midget driver/owner or are we talking two different people?

 

Harry Turner was a driver, builder, and owner of midgets, sprint cars, and Indy cars for 50 years beginning in 1938. He won USAC midget races as a driver into the 1960s and had many famous drivers in his cars.

His circle of friends included the Bettenhausen clan, Paul Russo, and Mr. Tomsche.

His son Lance Turner restores race cars at the same location on 39th Ave. in Kenosha Wisconsin. A fair amount of postings about Harry can be found on the Cageless Midget thread.

 

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/indy500/news/show/50874-the-1933-indianapolis-500/

Excellent Flickr Stream by IMS showcasing the 1933 500...Enjoy!! -Mark

 

Thanks Geraguy. I thought that was the case. Harry must have worked 20 hour days with all the things he did/was envolved in!

I still think his best was the Racing Associates Chevy he turned out with Herb Porter in 1962. Classic and distinctive.

 

Thought you fella's would get a kick outta these pictures. Here is my Childhood friend and fellow Kart racer Jo Kerr and I at the Hoffman shop in June of 89. Vogler was our hero and we were in HEAVEN this day!!

 

Josh, those pix can't be you....no beard!

 

Great pics, Josh!

What was with your hand?

 

Josh - I noticed in this photo both you and your buddy have taken your left foot and are pressing down on your "go" foot. I'm sure it's completely unplanned, but it shows you guys are born racers. Some boys get around good looking girls and their jeans get a little tighter. You guys got around some sprint cars, and your trying to press the gas harder.

 

Bitchin, Josh!!!!

 

Thanks guys..

A lot of you probably know that "other youngster" in the picture with me at Hoffmans. Joey Kerr. Jo and I became Best buds racing Karts together from age 10. We both ran karts till we were 17. Our last race together was at Thunder Speedway in Glencoe Ky. where we just happened to both show up with rides in other guys OPEN 2 Cycles. Jo jumped out at the start, and I was able to run him down and get around him for the win. The next year I moved up to Modifieds and Jo went to a Mini Sprint. From there, He went to Full size Sprints, and landed a ride driving for Greg Stabb. Jo ran USAC for a couple years, and won a USAC B-main on Thursday Thunder where he was interviewed by Dave Dispain. Jo then got hooked up with Steve Stapp and drove for the legendary "Bopper". Jo had a good career running sprints, won a few races and in recent years was a driving coach for some young USAC stars you all know very well! Jo Kerr and I are still Best Friends to this day, and of coarse my oldest friend.
Jo builds KICK ASS Hot Rods out of Brownsburg Ind. these days in his shop called JoKerr Fabrication. Look him up if your around Indy..

...as for my hand bandaged. Jo and I were known to do some dumb shit when we were laft attended. We were ridding a dirt bike where we shouldn't have been, Jo was driving, I was on the back and we hit a small log that rolled and we went down. My Pinky finger got caught on the handlebars and it ripped it off! (It was hanging on by some skin and nerves) I wrapped it up in my shirt and walked the rest of the way. The Docs stiched it back on, and it works great to this day. A nice scar to remind me of a fun childhood with a fellow racer.


J Shaw

 

A guy here in Pittsburgh wants to give me a 215 Cu. In. aluminum Buick. It's in pieces.....should I take it........John S.

 

here is a guy from switzerland who bought / build one
http://lowtechblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/hershey-special.html

 

As a youngster listening to Sid Collins and crew do the "Speedway" broadcast, the Rathmann brothers were bigger than life characters to me. Dick and Elisian in the '58 N.E. incident, and Jim dueling with Ward and Thomson in '59, '60 is a favorite memory.

Seems that Jim was actually Dick and visa-versa. Apparently in the late forties
the man we all knew as Jim was actually Dick and the younger brother to the man we all knew as Dick who was actually Jim. The way I have heard the story is that the man we know as Dick (actually Jim) was running C.R.A. Roadsters and the man we know as Jim (actually Dick) was too young to run with C.R.A.
So they traded I.D.'s and ran the rest of their racing careers that way. I may be wrong but have heard it for years.

 

Ted McClure, Owner driver. Santa Maria Speedway, Calif. 1972

 

That is the truth, every word of it.

 

It had to do9n with theb minimum age rules forb drivers back then.

 

Thanks for posting this.
Any vintage oval racing info you could share from Europe would be appreciated.

 

Bruce Walkup in the Surdam Chevy 1966.
According to a story that has circulated for years, Leonard Surdam's Chevy sprint car was alleged to have been the Champ car in which Johnny McDowell died.
The story goes on to say that the car was shortened into a sprint car, owned by Mari Hulman. The car was driven by: Eddie Sachs, Jerry Hoyt and Elmer George.
At some point the car found its way to California, in the early 1960s, and wound up in the possession of Leonard Surdam.
When Hank Henry lost his life in the car, in 1968, it was alleged by one author that Leonard Surdam cut the car into pieces and buried it in the desert so it could never be rebuilt!
This story sounds more like an urban legend than the truth. Does anyone have any solid information about the fate of the Surdam Chevy?

 

How many cars were supposedly cut up? Lets see
Bob Sweikert's sprinter
Jake Vargo's champ car
...

 

Don't know about the legend, but this is the car I witnessed Ned Spath yank Walkup out of, Sam Brown belt & all, after a wheel-banging incident during a heat race at Whiteman Stadium, mentioned in a post earlier on this thread...

 

The bar that you are questioning is a radius rod mount. The car is a 1969 Beck, it was a bad actor. We changed geometry of rear suspension to stop torque bind. It worked great after change.

 

Thanks for the response Bill. Are you saying the front of the radius rod could mount along the length of that bar? Very cool that you answered. Were you there that day? Topeka 1969 IMCA

 

After watching "To Please A Lady' again on Monday, I was curious if any of you old timers know where the garage and engine assembly scenes were filmed? Also wondering if the XK Jaguar parked in the garage scenes belonged to Clark Gable? I am hoping that any info or antecdotes regarding this film you guys can provide would be of interest on this thread.....

 

Speaking of stories of cars being cut up, I would like to tell a fun story about Morrie (FIreball) Fuller from Boise Idaho. Morrie ran one of Jerry Malloys early creations in the 1960s, and possibly up into the 70s. When he finally decided to quit racing,he parted the car out selling all of the running gear etc. Morrie did not want anyone else running the car so off to the scrap yard they went with what was left of the car. Many years later Stan got a call asking if he might be interested in buying his Dads old race car. Stan told them the car had been cut up at the scrap yard, and there is no way that it could be his Dads old car. He went out to the farm, where he was told the car was, and there it was just like when they left it so many years before at the scrap yard. Turns out that the farmers son worked at the scrap yard, and talked his boss into selling the remains of the car to him. The farmers son never did anything with it, and it is now in Stans hands, and well on its way to a full resoration.

 

Bob Higman told me parts from the Sweikert sprinter were selling left and right for a while.

Higman was known for his ROSS steering gear units. Higman said to me his first was out the Sweikert car. They outlasted, outtoughed any Schroeder box you could find.

The Sweikert/Ross unit was never rebuilt, was in a series of Higman cars over the course of 12 or more years- and was finally sold with a midget because ..............well, after all those years Bob could easily replace it.