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

Thanks for putting the picture on the thread. As I said in the article I wrote, Parnelli Jones said Bowman and the others who drove sprints in the 50's and 60's were the bravest(drivers) of them all.

 

I saw Stan many time at the Burg when I was 10 and 11 in 1960/61..You are right about his talent. When he drove a USAC sprint for Harold Beck and gave him his first win at Eldora (which plans to honor Stan on the 50th anniversary of the win on April 21,2012) Beck asked him how he wanted the car set up. Diane Beck told me Stan replyed "set it up the way you want and I will drive it."

 

I understand what you mean.

 

I'm sure it courage to climb into a car that had killed someone ,but the fact was if you didn't drive it someone else would-and if you didn't race you didn't eat.You had to have the attitude that it was always going to happen to the other guy.If a car got rebuilt after a fatal wreck the odds were that it was a pretty good ride,and a lot of times they were few and far between.Many of the drivers of the 40's and 50's were war veterans and had a different outlook on life than we can even understand today.

 

Along those same lines. I had always heard that Don Hewitt started his career by racing a hotrod/roaring roadster at Shady Bowl that a guy had died in earlier that day and the car was still raceable. The vast knowledge in this thread should be able to confirm or dismiss this. But it is a tale I have heard several times around Ohio race tracks. Growing up watching him race it was always believable to me. The guy was brave as hell I always thought.

 

Does anyone know what year/years Gene Besecker owned the car that Stan Bowman lost his life in? A gentlemen PM'd me about this and I don't have the answer - but hopefully someone out there does. Thanks in advance. *See post #17946.

 

There is a gentleman who posts on this forum. His name escapes my feeble brain, but I think he is related to the Besecker family. He has posted many photos of the Besecker car. One of them has Duke
Cook in it.
Just remembered, Gene Besecker is Mac Miller`s cousin.

 

The story that I always thought took some real internal fortitude or guts was on Black Sunday, July 29, 1951 at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comWinchester</ST1</st1:City>. The first driver to qualify was Cecil Green and he lost control and went over the wall and died. The second driver to qualify was Bill Mackey and he to went over the wall at the same spot as Cecil and he also lost his life. The third driver to qualify was Duane “Pappy” Carter and somehow put all that out of his mind and from what I was told he set fast time that day. I can not understand how Pappy could have done that, he was sitting in his car waiting for them to get the track ready for the next driver and he had to wait for two drivers in front of him and had to get that out of his mind, he must have been as tough as nails. I have been around him and he was as nice a person that I have ever seen and I always thought how tough this guy was on the inside.

 

The story I always heard was not only was it fast time it was a TRACK RECORD!! My dad was there that day and I believe thats the way he told it. Can anyone verify that?
















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Thank you slobitz for the info. I PM'd the gentleman and hopefully he can find out what he needs through Mac. Sideways - wild story. My dad saw a number of fatalities and at least one of those was at Winchester. After he hung up the helmet he tipped up a beer. It's almost like he had PTSD. Like a combat veteran, nothing could fill that space where risk had lived in him - no matter how much he drank. He wouldn't talk about racing, either, except that NASCAR sucked, there wasn't an American at Indy, and real sprint car racing died in 1969. Also, if anyone ever said anything negative about A.J., they might get slapped. Dad didn't tolerate putting down A.J.

PS: Denny Z - I didn't say Dad was right about Indy, that's just what he said!

 

I remember driving back from a race at Eldora, Bruce Walkup was with us and he pointed out an older sprint sitting in a yard. He called it Frank's coffin. Can any one clear that up for me? Dan

 

Framewelder, I was told that Carter set a new track record that day. Do not remember what car he was driving. [98jr.or Pancho]
Jim

 

I was at l-burg in 59 and during hot laps Bowman slide over the of the track in turn 4 and came to a stop, in about 5 secounds the car just rolled over and blew out the right rear tire when it stoped, that was how much it was banked back then. Hugh Randell also drove the car Stan got killed in.[at Salem, In.]
Jim

 

Randy Hannagan,current sprint star, is married into the Besecker clan...

 

Once, at Wayne County Speedway at an Allstar event, I saw Randy walking through the pits and told him he was a good looking young man. I thought it was funny, but he gave me a real worried look.

 

In the spring of 1976 Barry Kettering was killed in a sprint car at Fairmont, Minnesota and Gary Bott was killed in a supermodified at Husets in Sioux Falls,SD. Local driver Harry Torgerson purchased the Kettering chassis and put the Bott engine in the car and won in his first attempt at Jackson, Minnesota. The car was later driven by Roger Larson, Dick Forbrook, Ralph Parkinson Jr. and Doug Wolfgang.

 

easter, I tend to agree with your Dad on two points, there should be more American drivers at Indy. Drivers should be able to earn their way to Indy thru sprints and midgets like the old days. To their credit USAC has started a "scholarship" program that has allowed Bryan Clauson to get to Indy and that's a good thing. I wish / hope USAC will expand the program to sponsor more than one driver..maybe the top two from each division.
As for your Dad's statement "real sprint car racing died in 1969"...that's when cages became mandatory, ..need I say more. Denny Z.

 

Denny Z, I agree with you andEaster.
Jim

 

The way I heard the story was that Carter was the 4th car in line. When the first 2 were killed whoever was 3rd pulled out of line then Carter went out and set a new track record.
Can you say "balls"?????

 

That's also the way I heard it, Butch. We might find out something on the daytonspeedwaylives site.

 

Ask Roy.. Racer5c? How about it? How did it go down?

While your at it tell your story from the Indy 500, when you were crewing... When you rode out on the golf cart with the Pancho (I think) to see if the "Debris" was in his line for qualifying.

That one got my attention...



J Shaw

 

Kevin Besecker is Gene's grandson and is on facebook he should know.

 

I think Randy grew up not far from San Francisco... might explain his concern at your remark.... He was very good friends with my late brother,and my youngest brother "stooged" for him.....

 

Just wondered if the Easter that posts on here is related to the Easter in this article.

 

I didn't ride with him, but
After Gordon Smiley died at Indy in qualifying, Pancho was next in line, there was a very long delay which I'm sure if your familiar with the crash you already know. Pancho went out in the pace car as they were having a few drivers inspect the track, I won't go into the gory details, but there were chunks out of the asphalt etc, they asked Pancho what he thought, he said the chunks weren't in the groove, back then they still had board men and I was out on the wall between the pit lane and the track (even though I wasn't 21 yet) When Pancho went out to qualify he used every bit of the race track, so much that as I watched him come off the 4th turn all 4 laps he brushed the right rear off the wall and you could see a mag flash. The Smiley crash may be the worst one car accident ever at Indy, if you saw it you know what I mean. Pancho Carter in my opinion never got the credit he deserved as an Indy car driver. And I can only think of one other driver I've ever seen that was as brave as him. This is another Pancho story but it's worth telling too when he got upside down in the Hardee's car at Indy and his helmet was grinding on the track, he told me that when he felt it getting hot he would turn to another spot on the helmet, I don't think I would have been able to think that fast.

 

FWIW....Pancho upside down in a Hardees/Asphalt sandwich...Yikes!!

http://bandverde.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/panchocarterindy5001987.jpg

 

I realize my story about Dad getting "burned" in no where Ohio isn't quite the same as Roy's Smiley/Carter story from Indy. Roy is a man who really has "been there and done that" on a much higher level than I ever did. I was just a kid who was around some racing for a few years and have a pretty good memory of those times. Hopefully, no one will ever be offended by the timing and/or content of my posts.

 

Beseker 99 at Eldora chuck Arnold driving.

 

Wow... Unreal. Yeah, I remebered your story roughly. If I remeber correctly it was told to me late at night somewhere in a Hotel parking lot after a few cold ones.. so forgive me for my embellishment.
I'm always amazed at your first person accounts of so many historic moments in racing Roy.

Thanks!