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

Sorry, you think by now I could upload images

 

Thanks Blacki-Suede, I'll copy it if you don't mind.

Re: interference with the external oil tank - I have issues putting the lever in the same proximity as the steering arm and the fuel tank pump. I've seen brake levers with a wow-woose in them to clear the pump. Any other suggestions.

 

I had to put an s bend in my clutch handle to clear the nerf bar and radius rod.

 

Mid South sprint car legend, Hooker Hood, passed away this morning after a long illness.

 

From the vintage pictures thread on Hamb

Monza 1957, looks like the McNamara 73 and the Bob Estes car

 

He will always be my hero. I grew up watching him schoolem at tracks all around the mid- south. He will be missed.

 

I'll be busy later this afternoon and tonight; so before I slip up and forget... Merry Christmas everyone. Be blessed and be safe
PK

 

I would think with all the Sprint car knowledge that is present on this thread there would be more discussion about the life of Hooker Hood. You don't have to be from the south to know about this historic driver. He is in the Sprint car hall of fame along with his son Ricky. There is a long list of great drivers who improved there skills competing against the great Hooker Hood.

 

^ I watched him race a few times at the little oval in Carterville, IL back in the early 70's. Super fast. Gary

 

Hooker always said he would race were the money was the greenest. The photo above was taken after he won the 1967 short track nationals.

 

RIP Hooker!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good nite. Bill

 

Had just settled down for a long winters nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was a matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash,
The moon on the breast of new fallen snow
Gave luster of mid-day on the object below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear........

 

A couple from Tampa, 1965. Frank Burriss in the Dil's Ford #27, and Larry Dickson in the Long Bros. #55.

 

J D Leas in a later Long Bros. car.

 

Rootie You are wrong..Cliff Griffith crashed while driving in street clothes for a demo run for the Bardahl people. This happened a couple of days before Qualifing.

Thanks...Jerry

 

You're right it wasn't for qualifying, it was a practice run after a photo shoot and he was wearing a uniform, though untreated.

 

driver uniforms were not required until 1959, and treatment with boric acid was the fire proof fix. go figure.

I believe long pants were the only requirement and not so stated, just hot oil and water to convince a driver to cover his legs and feet.

 

Those firesuits soaked in boric acid on a hot humid day were very uncomfortable.....but safer than a t shirt I guess. Thankfully I never got to test them in a fire. Denny Z.

 

Hey, I think Santa was supposed to bring that car to me. Nice! The one Rootie unwrapped this morning.

 

The boric acid fix was required for pit crews at Daytona in 1966. We had to give the shirts and pants we were going to wear on race day to NASCAR for treatment. Like Denny said, they were very uncomfortable. I was actually thankful that it rained late and they called it with a couple of laps left.

 

Concerning the boric acid treatment didn't Jerry Unser die of burns when he crashed out of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in practice for the 1958 race and he was wearing the boric acid dipped drivers suit. I read that the boric acid solution rather than retard the flame had further ignited and caused the massive burns to Unser. Help me out Rootie, right or wrong.

 

Rootie, Cliff told me that they were going to put a fresh engine in the car that night as the one in it when he crashed was very tired. Also I have been told that car was the first KK500-B built and it was junk after the wreck and was never repaired.

 

OABGM- Actually it was 1959 when he was injured and later died. From what I've read about the incident, he was just wearing his street clothes which greatly contributed to his burns and that is what prompted USAC to then require fire resistant clothing.

 

Yes you are correct Rootie. I was confused with his trip out of the speedway during the first lap melee at the 1958 race. His crash and burn, aboard the Helse car I think, was in practice for the 1959 race. I think I better change my login name from GREAT memory to half ass memory. Truth of the matter is when I signed on back in '09 I meant to type MEMORIES and I miscued it to MEMORY and just left it.

 

All of these are all from my Great Grandfather Frank Bourg's midget some of my great aunt and uncles messing around in it and my Great Grandfather. He was an engine sticker. if there was a crack in a block he would drill tap and thread and aluminum rod same as the hole he drilled and the thread it in the hole until it broke off then on to the next one stitching it the whole way down the crack. My Grandfather always told me that Tiny Lund drove that Midget for my Great Grandfather! My bothers and I always like to think That our Great Grandpa would of been proud when we started racing sprints at are home town of Knoxville.

 

s575.beta.photobucket.com/user/bradleyDon/media/127_zps9d5f9a55.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

I hadn't seen this before. Apparently a couple years old.

The Race That Changed Everything

http://www.youtube.com/embed/POXqGsgAtaY

 

Trip in the "WAY-BACK" machine. IMCA renumbered the Duece to 27. We broke the input shaft of the gear box right before qualifications so we got no time, by the time we got parts, we was regulated to the last chance race for the last feature of the series. I don't remember what happened but we didn't make the feature. Might have been a multi car crash on the back-stretch which was very narrow.

 

I've read where this is also the car Jud Larson was driving in his fatal, sponsered
by Ward Dunseth at the time.