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

Hi jshell 515,
Is this car a black #4?

 

Yes he was awarded a gold watch for winning the pole, and one of the rescurers stole it too!

 

The guy in Wisconsin still has the Black Panther car. He also has the 98jr sprint car that Aggie owned.
Jim

 

Unfortunately he has no plans to restore the Agajanian 98 jr. and he doesn't wish to sell it either.

 

I'm still trying to play catch up on this thread. The above post on page 541 raised a question in my mind.

The flagman for all things racing around Tampa when I was a kid was a guy named Johnny Hicks. He worked the Tampa Fairgrounds at Plant Field and Speedway Park in Oldsmar. He owned his own set of timing clocks and even flagged for our early attempts at drag racing. The first legal drag racing I can remember in Florida was at a deserted WW II airstrip in Brooksville when a Christmas tree was unknown until the month of December.

Does anyone know what happened to him and where he might be if he is still living?

 

Question? Did Allen Heath ever drive a Ford powered sprinter that was owened by Parnelli? or Vel's Ford?

 

Yes, here is a close-up of it, taken from the Imperial Fairgrounds CRA races in 1963.

 

Thanks MickeyD! Did Parnelli own it, or Vel?

 

I don't know what happened to the Tampa flagger, but Jerry Enright, one of the sons of the "Crazy Indian" starter, Tex Enright, is the flagger at the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, NY - same track his father flagged on, along with others. OCFS is also the very first track that the late Nick Fornoro flagged at - the day after he retired from racing. It is also the very first track that the Atlantic Coast Old Timers (ACOT) held their very first on-track exhibition runs. If one were to see the place today, well, they surely would be not too happy. Really has gone down hill over the last decade or so.

 

#
Vel Miletich. Was #97. The Hook won several races with it.

 

Vel Meletich owned the car Allen Heath drove. If memory serves me it was Omar Danielson, Parnelli Jones car owner in CJA, who helped sort out the fuel injection system on the Ford engine in Vel's car.

 

Bitchin picture! I knew it was Millwauki right away cause of the A (slow) session. I took a roadster out in one of the A sessions for a light cruise with a Go-Pro Helmet on... I showed it to my dad and the first thing he said was "Why are you in a T-Shirt and jeans?"

The A session is a Slow, joy ride session for Two seaters to take people rides in, and others who are either not real comfortable going fast, or... maybe someones first time in a vintage car. IT IS NO DIFFERENT than driving your roadster HOT ROD down the highway in a T-Shirt with NO helmet... something most guys on this site do every day.


Thanks for posting.

J Shaw

 

Funny you mention that car... I was just on the phone with a guy that is friends with the current owner. I was getting his E-mail so I could send along some new pictures of it that surfaced.. Might as well share them here too!

Best part is WHERE, WHEN, and HOW I got them!!!

We all know the 98jr was sold to Gus Hoffman and ran succesfully for many years. I was at Eldora this year at the THREE (aka Four) CROWN. I was standing at the rear opening of HOFMANS trailer chatting with Richard while they fitted Kyle Lawson for the car. Richard was telling me how excited he was to have Kyle in the car. At that moment a fella walked up to ricjhard and said: "I've been waiting all year for you guys to come here, My dad took these pictures of your #98 car a long time ago. I found them in his stuff when he died and thought you ought to have them"

Richard looked and said "Uh oh Josh, these are your kinda pictures!" I imediatly took them in the Hauler, layed them down and shot pictures of the picture with my phone. They are great!!

Enjoy!

 

What a coincidence, I was just looking for some pictures of this car! I wonder what days these pictures were taken, If you look close the third picture, the car has different belly pans, different style number on the tail and no roll bar. Was the car rebuilt after an accident? Would love to build a replica of this one next, good Cincy history.

 

My guess the 98jr was at New Breman, what do you think?????

 

Josh
Looking to find out the dia. of the frame rails of this type and year of car
And if you have any images of a bare frame.

 

Agree. Thats New Bremens concession stand in the infield in the third photo for sure.

 

Josh,
I see Gus in the pictures. I met him in Louisville, Ky at a Sprint car race. I was walking around with Joie Ray and Gus yelled at Joie to come over. Joie introduced me to Gus and told him my Dad owned the Southern Star, Gus perked up and said that was his favorite Sprint car and wanted to know if I knew were it was, told him I was still looking. He was a very nice person and I realy enjoyed our talk.
Jim Graybeal

 

Re--98jr. Did the 98jr park lumber car become the black #7?

 

Hey Napp, I am from Tampa and watched many races that Johnny Hicks flagged at Golden Gate Speedway. I have all of his Scrapbooks ,photos,trophies,even 8mm movies of johnny hunting.really neat stuff. Johnny passed away on june 4th 1987 from a self inficted gunshot, he was in failing health ,he was 80 years old.

 

Thanks, sprintfreak. I suspected that he was no longer with us; but I didn't know that he took his own life. For all the local fans, he was as much of a legend as many of the drivers.

One special memory sticks in my mind about something that he and Frankie Luptow had going on between them. Whenever the track was especially heavy, Luptow would always kick out the rear of the car toward Johnny; and jazz it to throw mud clods in Johnny's direction at least once during warm up laps. I don't know the story behind it; but I never saw any of the other drivers interact with Johnny in that manner.

RIP....Johnny Hicks.

 

Is that you in the photo?

 

Isn't that Mutt Anderson in the pictures with the Hoffman #98? I believe he was chief mechanic on that car. I'd say the first two pictures are 1959, driver possibly Bud Tingelstad? The last picture is 1958, and the driver looks like Don Branson to me, which would make it the September meet (Rex Easton was in the car in June).

And yes, the car was #7 in 1960. Don't know the colour, but it was dark.

 

Michael, the driver looks to big for Tinglestad IMO. I don't remember him wearing a Cromwell helmet either. Rex Easton drove in a blue suit might be him not Branson.????

Bad angles to tell though.

 

Mutt Anderson was the chief mechanic on the Hoffman car and that is him in the white tee shirt with the blue lettering in the photo on the left and in the center photo.
The driver of the car looks like Ed Elisian - however I don't know if he drove the Hoffman car?

 

Hillagas is 2.375,Shilala is 2 even.

 

Edmunds single tube sprint car is 2.25"

 

Which black #7???

 

Gus Hoffman painted the old Agajanian 98 Jr. sprint car black with a number seven like his famous midget that Eddie Sachs drove. The year was 1960.

 

Thanks for the frame size,s men.