History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Olympic Park in Irvington, NJ was the site of the first midget race in the east. 1934 I think.

I don't know if any remnants of Olympic Park still remain today.

 

Going through another one of Dad's boxes and found his envelope stuffed with orignal old Race car decals. Just put up a nice group of mixed type (midget, sprint, Ind etc) race car graphic ones, on the vintage Sprint thread..
Here are two special Early midget ones. Original 1936 Freeport Stadium decal, for the Tuesday AND Friday midget races. (the bottom date was added later, by us, to show correct date). The other is a custom vintage decal that Dad had made a few of, back in the day, of his #8 Gertler Special. There are some other original vintage midget ones on the sprint thread, mixed in the grouping..

 

You go look at the toy train factory,I'll go to Hawaii,then.....

 

Memaerobilia.....thanks for sharing.....the T shirt idea would be so cool.....

 

Midgets at Loudon Vintage Show The #59 Blew a hole in its Sesco.

Sorry the 42z is a Sprint Car

 

I like the photos a lot. The #42 sprint car is responsible, indirectly, for one of the great things in recent history. Herman Wise from Atlanta was the driver for this car over several years. He had a rock go through his face shield and suffered a very severe compressed skull fracture. The owner of the car was an engineer for General Electric and he was determined to do something to help prevent this injury from happening again. The result was Lexan!

Doc

 

The # 71 is a TQ. Pretty sure that's a Crosley engine, too. They used to put on some ral good indoor shows in the Teaneck, NJ Armory during the winter months. Future wife and I woudl go every Saturday night, and order the same seats for the following week, when leaving after the nights racing. Back then (1958-59) we didn't worry about snow.
Which remeinds me - I have the race results for the indoor races held at the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, NY, from the 40's. Can only find one show that was canceled due to weather, and they ran a couple of times a week in the armory, back then.

 

My dad and uncle had a Crosley car that they laugh about.

We spent many Friday nights at Pine Brook wathcing the ATQMRA TQs with all kinds of engines. Crosleys were still used and I still recall Alan Mollet's #1. But Howard Boyd's #43 had its own sound that the old Triumph made. We could tell Lenny Boyd was on the track as we walked across the parking lot.

Every time I pass the Home Depot I feel a bit of sadness.

 

When we were trying to get a TQ group going down here in the Carolinas, we go a lot of support from both the guys in Indiana and the ATQMARA guys. It was quite a change for them to come down here and run on our much bigger tracks.

A few of the guys were still running Crosleys, but most had switched to various snowmobile engines. We ran mostly punched out single stick Honda motorcycle engines. Anyway, we had a great time racing with these guys and they must have enjoyed coming down our way as many of them did so time and time again.

Doc

 

Carl Ruby, Lyle Heilman, Sie Flory,Ed Bremer and Al Pratt,, N/W ohio bad boys 1955, car is Cushman powered

 

Bruce Jacobi from Salem, In used to run that #71 T.Q.
DocF, never heard the story about lexan but knew Herman had that happen to him. The car has been restored. Sonny Ates drive it several times after Herman.
Jim

 

Bob Ziegler's #42 had a long career here in western Penna.,after it's USAC career,as a "caged,sometimes winged" sprinter. It always appeared as neat and clean as it is now,usually driven by Lil' Eddie Murphy,of Coraopolis,Pa. John S.

 

Bob Ziegler's #42 also ran URC in the late 60's. I'm thinking Herman drove it then. Denny Z.

 

I am quite sure that Herman drove the Ziegler car on several occasions after his accident. This car was always immaculate - I never saw show up anywhere looking less than perfect. Was not Ted Swiontek the mechanic on this car, at least in its Auto Club years?

I got the Lexan story from Chris Economaki when we were discussing the accident several years after it happened. I do believe that Bob Ziegler worked for G.E.

Now on another subject, yes the #71 TQ pictured earlier on the page is one that Bruce Jacobi drove. I knew Bruce before he got hurt in Nascar. It is interesting to note that he got virtually nothing from the Nascar insurance policy, whereas the USAC policy of the day paid most medical bills and a few bucks each week of disability.

Doc

 

DocF, You are correct Ted Swiontek was the mechanic on the #42.

 

DocF,
When I got hurt indoors at Ft. Wayne in Jan. 67 [driving for Ted Hartley] and was offwork almost a month USAC paid all the bills and I got more money each week than I got where I was working. Jim

 

USAC cares about it's people and they take care of their people when they are hurt. Denny Z.

 

I am trying to identify these pins I've had since I was a kid. Bought them from a guy that used to work on my dad's boats, whose house and shop was a mile or 2 west of Winchester Speedway in Indiana. They are nice enamel pins, and curved if you look from the top, like they are made to pin into a hat or belt. There is a thumbwheel on the back that screws on, with the words "HOOKEAST" and "PROVIDENCE RI" on it. Anyone have any more information on them? Thanks!!

 

Ted Swintek was also the mech/owner for early Dave Lundy sprint racing,and assisted in getting current Outlaw/All-Star standout Tim Schaffer going early in Tim's career!!! John S.

 

They look like the same pins sold at West Haven (CT) Speedway back in the sixties. Someone here knows more I'm sure.

 

I've seen those pins in a catalog somewhere in my past, but I cannot for the life of me recall where.

Doc

 

I have the balck and white one! It has a safety pin type clip on the back rather than the thumbwheel. I bought mine from Roscoe Turner when he had his souvineer stand at Gardena stadium in 1957. Yes, it is enameled and very well made, not cheap Chinese crap.

 

bought my black one @ wms grove from frank smith, prob.
1949 or so.
mlight9

 

Thanks for the info guys!! I have the 4 pictured, only 3 have the wheel on the back.

 

I have looked through my stuff and I no longer have a catalog from the company I believe was the source of these pins. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it either. We bought souvenirs from them when we were running trips in the Southern Railway steam excursion program many years ago. I do remember that the company was located in either Jacksonville, IL or Robinson, IL. Getting old makes the brain leak like a rusty sieve.

Doc

 

A technical question.

What gauge aluminium was typically used in the manufacture of the Kurtis Midget bodies?

I am particularly interested in the gauge used on the belly pans.

 

.063 3003 h14 16 gauge

 

Thanks slobitz.

 

Engine finally getting ready to go in. One more step to get her running!!!!=

 

I am looking forward to seeing this important car run again. I remember Rich Vogler driving it at Hartford (MI) Speedway in the late 70's or early 80's. At the start of the feature, someone got out of shape and collected most of the field.

Richie and his parents evaluated the situation. The front end was pretty well trashed. While Rich and Don started pulling bent things off the car, Eleanor and Danny Lockard went and retrieved spares. Then all four of them started bolting pieces on. Before the rubble had been removed from the track they had the car back together and running. Amazing!

Doc