60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

Rentawrench, Who was your Dad? I'm thinking Holly Bunn? Denny Z

 

My thoughts too. The New Smyrna Speedweeks races were notorious for add-on spoilers and such.

Billie Harvey did drive this car, but so did Gary Balough, so it's hard to say. If he's on the front row or near the front with Evans and Bodine, I'd guess Balough is driving.

 

That 41 was a beautiful car. It was my favorite back then. That #1 is gorgeous too. Those southern cars were things of beauty, but that northern 41 was right up there with them and those fenders were great looking.

 

Flan; your Uncle Red is in my Thompson 500 video at 5:20 and coming out of the pits at 6:05. I remember watching him race. He was a "shoe"...
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Nynay9A79#p/u/0/jPAigYkwsPY


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I wonder where that car is now?

BTW .. Jerry Karl's nephew "Buildy" some times post here on this thread, but most often on the Midget & Sprint Car threads. he's an EXCELLENT photographer!!!

 

Here are a few of Red in the 69 at West Haven. I was just a kid (11 yrs old in '64) and my two older sisters took me there often on Saturday nights. I bought the middle pic at the track back then for a quarter.






I later got to know Billy (Panther) Korzick, who helped build these cars and painted both the 69 and Billy Greco's 43 out of First Ave Sales and Service. West Haven ceased operation following the '66 racing season. I later was able to attend Riverside Park, Plainville Stadium and Stafford Speedway starting in '69 when I got my drivers license.
Please tell us a little more about Red.

 

Denny -Nope my Dad was Joe Ryan ran Keene Nh,Brattleboro Vt & Millers Falls Ma in the 50's


I did get to see you run at Thompson & Trenton in your 4x .

Bill Slater is home for Now from rehab that from Karen Slater.


I try to Respect my elders an I now have become one my self, with the 15 yr olds running SK Lites at Stafford.

I've shown this thread to Japs Son's an they all get a kick out of it.

 

BTW George I did happen to check your Youtube video of the 1969 Thompson 500. Good stuff.

A little more on Red. Keep in mind I was just a kid at the time so most of this info has been passed down to me. He has some good years at West Haven in that little coupe. I've been told it was a '34 Chrysler. I'm not sure to be honest. It was a sharp looking piece. The car handled pretty well on the bullring that was Savin Rock. He also ventured out to Riverside Park for the Tues. night sportsman races. Red also ran special events at the Big E in Springfield.

After West Haven closed the little coupe went by the wayside and they built the blue & gold Falcon (the one in the Thompson video). He ran big shows at Thompson, Trenton, Dover, etc. Billy Greco was behind the wheel for a couple of these events. He had a great run going at Trenton one year before the car broke. Supposedly Red got a little set up advice from a very young Geoff Bodine that day. I don't know if he ran Stafford with the Falcon. Here's a grainy shot of Billy Greco in the 69 taking the Harry Gant line at Dover with Ray Hendrick and another car...


After the Falcon came the coupe (blue or gold paint...see the previously posted pix above). I believe it was a '37 Chevy (?). This was the car he ran at Stafford in the early '70's. It was either the '72 or '73 Sizzler that they got the car finally hooked up but he clipped someone trying to avoid a spin and tried to knock down the fence in the heat race...

I've been looking for that shot for a long time.

Red was shaken up in the crash and gave some seat time to Lou Austin. I remember meeting him at Red's garage. Nice guy. I think he sold the coupe to Hop Harrington who was running Seekonk at the time. The last ride was a pinto which was his final hurrah at Stafford 1974 (?). He could never quite duplicate the success he had at West Haven. Running against Bugsy, DeSarro, Flemke, etc. every week is a tall order. I wish I was older at the time so I could have gotten to more races. I'll ask around to see if I can get some more pictures and some more stories.

 

ummmm yeah?!?!?!?

 

Some More Fred Harbach and Islip Action

Photos by Brian Chollerton



Fred Harbach X90 racing with Billy Parks #20 vega



Fred Harbach X90 racing with the #18 Bobcat of Butch Mecieka driven by Tommy Baldwin





Fred Harbach X90 and Gil Hearne #12 at Wall Stadium



The first X90 pinto of Fred Harbach

 

How did The Eastern Bandits name come to be? Might have missed it before, who gave the drivers that nickname, Mr. Zimmerman?

 

The other car is Cliff Tyler in the #21. Looking forward to more stories and pictures of your uncle.

 

I remember that third photo from 'Illustrated Speedway News' way back when. Great stuff BF

 

Thank you Zeora, like I've said in the past, none of these are mine, stuff I've found on the internet and share here, so we can hear stories and bring back memories.Most of them lately have been from facebook, tons of photos have been popping up there.:O)

Thanks Dr. John for the information, wonder how many tickets he avoided on the road to and from the track haha

Here's some dirt shots for my buddy!

 

Outlaw race?!?!?

Mauser

 

Bullfather, Quick answer.. I don't remember, but someone coined that phrase and it stuck. Eddie went down south once or twice then he talked me into taging along after that Rene and Red Foote started taging along.

Although they had some good cars and drivers we were pretty successful and won a fair amount of money (read bandits grab the money and go home).

As I'm writing this my feeble brain is beginning to remember.....as we would role into Richmond every Friday morning (after having run New Egypt NJ Thursday night) Southside Speedway in Richmond ran Friday nights, we would go straight to Junie Donlevey's place of business. Junie allowed us to use his shop to work on our cars.

I think it was Junie Donlevely that coined that phrase, he would welcome us (baseball hat tiped back on his head and cigar in his mouth) with a smile he would say "good morning my friends, the bandits from up north") from there the media got a hold of it and it changed to "The Eastern Bandits"

Junie would open his shop for us after the race (Friday night or Saturday morning) if we needed repairs because Saturday we would go on to either South Boston or Manassas. Then Sunday we would head north stopping in Marlboro MD to race in the afternoon then to Old Bridge NJ for the night race, then home to CT.

That's the best my feeble brain can remember...Denny Z

 

Awesome, thanks, Junie is a real Legend, many great racers drove for him and I'm heard nothing but the highest praise about him from some of guys on TV that used to race from DW to Petty.

 

Racing on Daytona Beach must have been fun, but... isn't he going the wrong way? Gary

 

To all you folks that were or are Rene Charland fans, here is his address_

Amsterdam Memorial Hospital
Wilkerson Facility
Att: Rene Charland Room # 202
4988 State Highway 30
Amsterdam NY 12010

He has good days and then not so good days....whats wrong?....the easy explanation is he's senile. On the good days when he remembers I'm sure he would appreciate some cards. I send him a card every so often, I call him "The Champ".

Denny Z

 

Denny it is great to have you aboard. The J-2 was my my mothers first husbands car that Red Foote drove as one of the "Eastern Bandits". I still have a 1961 Norwood Arena program with the #66 that was 6th in the 4th mod heat. The list was #53 Hill #3 Charland $ Flemke #2 Harrington #J2 Foote #66 Zimmerman #122 Thompson #42 Patnode.

 

Great stuff here on the board of late. Nice to here some stories from DZ about the bandits. Not too many guys left who will ever tell these stories again. Thanks DZ and BF.

 

Re: Rene Charland...

The last time I talked to Ron Hedger, he told me that Rene was victim of Alzheimers. Rene's girlfriend had just donated most of Rene's racing memorabilia to the Saratoga Auto Museum c/o Hedger and the New York State Stock Car Asociation, and Hedger was extremely happy to have it. At the same time, he was overwhelmed because it was almost 2 van loads. Hedger said he didn't know what all he had, but it was lots of "stuff" and was going to take quite a bit of time to sort through it all. Hedger was saying that Rene wanted to run a museum himself, but his health got in the way. I'm going to send a card or two myself, and I never got to see him race - thanks for the address.

While I am here, that picture of the car over the wall and into the catch fence from Illustrated Speedway News... can anyone tell me a little more about it? Like, who was the driver, what track was it (almost looks like Riverside), and did he survive that crash? And were there any spectator injuries? Judging by the look on the guys face under the left rear tire, he looks like he just had the fear of God instilled in him.