Hi guys! I'm 29 and missed all the Dover stuff. Been to quite a few reunions, but it's as close as I'll ever get. My pops (Paul Bayarinas) grew up there. He was good friends with Big Moe. Can't recall his last name and don't want to murdalize the spelling. They ran a little yellow Willys Jeepster in I believe C/SR. Was yellow with a 327 claiming 283. Pops still laughs about it, says "ya had to do it or get beat. Everybody else was and everybody knew." As for the BlackArrow, I got word that it is still around (in a garage in CT I believe). Well, better way to put it would be that it was never junked. Got cut up and moved around real good since the Burgess days. My buddy says it's probably too far gone to do anything with. I will post pics if I can talk my buddy into sharing them.
I used to go to Dover as a kid in the early to mid 60s we raced a 52 MG in BM/SP pretty successfully then. I now have the car and know there must be more pictures out there than what I have. It had a Hilborn Injected small block Chevy with a Vitar Hydro, was painted a 55ish Ford Fiesta Red, had "Willie The Welder" on one door and 321 BM/SP on the other, "Baby Torque" on the rear. I'm going to try and post a picture. Sadly I found out that Vinnie Tarentola owner and founder of Vitar Hydro's passed away last year.
Slightly Ot, but- I worked at the Arco station on rt 55 and bruzgul rd in 1970; used to see everybody headed over the mountain to Dover. On the way back everybody was pumped from the races and rt 55 in front of the garage became an impromptu drag strip!! I find that searching for the remains of old race tracks is fascinating; Found about 30 feet of the 4th Turn of the old Arlington Airport speedway in pougkeepsie, not much else there. However, Went to Onteora speedway near Kingston, NY to see where my neighbor and hero DD (Rebel) Harris was killed racing. This site is like walking into a time warp, looks like u could spend 2 weeks with a bulldozer and be racing. Grandstands there, dump/ junkyard (sorry nothing useable) from the old race days, and a huge pile of Rheingold beer cans. Track closed in '66. Looks like they just walked away. Need to take a trip to Dover and scoop up a jar full of dirt for the workshop display!! Great thread, thanks for posting!! "It's legal height, sir, 9 inches, you can check it if you like" Milner to officer Holstein.....
Welcome to the HAMB! Have you owned the MG for a while? It was at the Dover Reunion about 4-5 years ago and looked real nice an easy car to restore. The paperwork collection was very impressive.
I had it at the reunion at Marcus Dairy only it was more like 10 yrs ago Sept of 97. I have been updating the car to run in super gas but I have too many projects and not the income for them all. But one day I hope to have them all going.
Hey...Dino here !!! I lettered that Car in the "Docs" basement after he hacked it up.And did it while they had the hemi running to adjust the valves. Can you imagine what it would have brought at one of these TV auctions ,in it's original condition when "Grumpy" drove it to win S/S at the '64 winternationals ? The Doc was really the silent owner thall the while with Jenkins getting all the glory.
I went out to dover two weeks ago, to test and tune and it looks like others have been out there as well. Also found a picture of this nova having a bad day of racing ,from the 60's. Today,in the same area, only old lumber.
Seems funny reading these post, I grew up on rt55 next to the Arlington High School. Got to go to The Dover Drags a few times. but mostly always went to Accord Speedway, Middletown and L Vally. gaspumpchas My dad was Friends with DD (Rebel) Harris, Thats how I got my middle name Dee How about Roll Over Westover I remember him Last time I was at Arlington Speedway back in the late 80s IT was all but gone.. My dad won the championship there in 1957. Small world... Jdee
Was wondering if anyone knows the date of this years reunion?...would love to go and try to gather more pictures of the Blown Hearse.....thanks...bc
Reunion is WEEKEND COMING UP !!!! MARCUS DAIRY, Danbury,Ct. right off I 84. Find Mark Mastriani -Danbury for info or call "track Historian"...Brian Marasco 845-383-1134. FOUND ! All of Terry O'shea's Dover Photos. The Late photographer's brother discoverd a old box stashed away in his attic ,and his turned it over to Brian and I to sort through and index. Terry traveled all over with Richie & Gil Shott werever they ran the Shottgun Express AA/GD. Plus he was a Fairfield Timing Assoc. member and took hundreds of Dover shots. Most in black & white. Something like 4000 images on contact sheets with the negatives ! Whew!. "Picz by T. O'Shea " will be honored with a possible website with these photos index and avail to buy (Cheap) to cover print & shipping.
I just went to "John Force day" at TASCA ford & saw a 68 mustang fast back from RYE FORD , guy said it ran at DOVER.Pretty nice car, he said it was a 428 CJ but i don't remember them being in 68's. JimV
JDee- what a great post!! As far as Dover goes, the topography of the land has changed a lot; massive mining of gravel and peat moss; theres a lake there that wasn't there when the strip was open. But- .3 mile of the strip is still there. I'm trying to figure out where the missing part was. Did the strip go all the way back by the houses that are still there?? Looks like the land where the houses are could be at the same grade as whats left of the strip. Amazing that there's that much left of it. Would like to get someone who remembers the layout so I can place whats left....you can hear the engines roar.... If you go back there, bear in mind that it's private property and the owner goes back there fishing quite a bit. Be discreet!!! Email me if you have any info; [email protected]. Slightly OT- trying to get a reunion going for the old Pocono Drag Lodge in Bear Creek, Pa...pass the word... Will have Dover and Pocono Drag lodge Tee shirts at the goodguys car show, sept 13,14,15 at Rhinebeck..see you there, stop by and see the pics I took of Dover!!! Also have pics of whats left of Onteora speedway, where DD Harris had his accident...stood in the exact spot where he was ejected.........RIP Rebel!!! gaspumpchas
Is that the Bug that David Carroll restored, I think it was Peter Seneferian's car at one point?? Just interested, Lots of lost hot rod history up in N.E. Best, MRAK Small world Jim! I just turned over 56 years in town, yes I'm a native. Grants gave way to Caldor, nows its Koles. Fred Brown ran the Texaco, only guy I knew that owned a Beachcraft STAGGER WING! Then Peter Kastle took it over. Building is gone and the new Kane Funeral Home is in its place. I spent 14 years in the shop in front of Reuters. If you see Rich or Robbie tell them Bob said hello. Here is a shot of the last GP Bugatti I did the body & paint work on. [/QUOTE]
[/QUOTE] No picture came thru!I don't know the ruothers, but i think my ex brother in law is back working with them! Did you know Chet? He ran the station in the early to mid 70's JimV
Now I see why Dino wanted me to post the epitome of the "Black Arrow" here. How much history of 'Doc' and the 'Arrow do you all want? Sadly the remains of the hacked up 'Arrow do not reside in anyone's hidden garage. The car was taken to Consolodated Metal Works in Newburgh New York, crushed, and sent to (presumably) Japan to return in another life as a Toyota Corolla. My brother Bill bought the 'Arrow from 'Doc', who had been a good friend of ours, in early 1968 when he got out of the army. We ran the car for a season as the "Storm King 2" (roman numeral). It ran below the et record and above the MPH record, and the Stiles motor put the Jenkins motor to shame. We prefered S/S to 3200 lb funny car so striped it to the shell and dropped the running gear into a wrecked '64 Plymouth which we repaired and put the 'Arrows body panels on. I sold what was left of the 'Arrow to a kid in Cornwall for 50 bucks, but his Mom hated seeing the car in the backyard and made him scrap it. This act was witnessed by my brother's racing partner one afternoon; so we know it's really gone.
We ran the 'replica' car as an NHRA legal S/S through '68/'69, and did very well with it. About that time Pro Stock had come into being and that's where we wanted to go. 'Doc' called us and was so tired of kids in suposedly 'fast' street cars wanting to take him for rides to impress him, that he called us to make our 'replica' into a new 'replica' of the "Black Arrow". So a fresh coat of yellow paint, a set of mufflers, and away it went, back to 'Doc's' house. Later my brother's partner bought the car back from 'Doc'; upgraded it for then current racing, but never did much with it. Somehow the car ended up in Jim Kramer's hands, and he sold it as the "Black Arrow" to someone. It didn't have the original block in it, some of the light wieght body panels came off a car in Arizona, the chassis was not factory reinforced like the original, etc, etc. So someone out there has a phoney car in theri garage. The Burgess that ran around oval tracks was 'Doc's' son, Robby; who was just a little kid whern I knew him. He works on some NASCAR team now and I know 'Doc' is somewhere down in the Carolina's too. Maybe they live in CARY ( appropriatly accronymed for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees"). I spoke to 'Doc' a few years ago about how frustrating it is to see his car refered to as "Grumpy's", even in books one would expect to have some degree of accuracy. "Grump" never owned the 'Arrow, although he did give the car it's name. It was named after "Grumpy's" Dad's boat. There's a piece of triva for you all! 'Doc' bought the car from Bud Faubel and had it delivered right to "Grump" for the motor work. 'Doc's' DVM practice caused him to miss a good number of national events, which is where Jenkins drove the car for him. I got more if you want it!
Storm King ...Welcome to the HAMB...and thanks for the History Lesson on one of the most famous Mopars "The Black Arrow"
You're very welcome, and thanks for the welcome! I might add something I read earlier on this thread; GRAMATAN DODGE was the other local, fast max wedge, driven by Jay Broderick, and tuned (maybe owned) by the Rickman brothers. It was a former Ramchargers '63 team car. It was very fast for it's day, and as we had a steel nose max wedge car they had quite an advantage. They would usually come in and run very fast in time trials; and for some reason fiddle with the thing over lunch and slow it down, so we had about a 50/50 win/loss against them, when they should have dominated. We bunped into Jay again in '68 at Connecticutt Dragway when they were running an awsome heads up S/S class, the fore runner to P/S. It was a 3200 lbs, gas 429 Cube max heads up class which we pretty much cleaned up in that year. Jay ran a '67 Coronet Hemi; but had the tranny explode on him; and came right up into the car (before blankets and shields) and that put him out for good to my understanding. He spoke to my brother some time after that and was going into politics.
To Add To STORM KINGS story on Jay Broderick...don't know about the politics, but his son Jimmy had quite a run since the 80's running open wheel Modified stock cars(Waterford,Stafford,Riverside,Thompson). We did plenty of his paint & lettering back then ....got in Stock Car Magizine, & won a ton of Best Appearing Track awards. His Dad,Jay, helped out in the wings, with powerplants for him.
That's kind of what "Wild" Bill Flynn did after he stopped racing (after his Dodge Colt pro stocker nearly killed him), he built motors for the stock car guys. I understand he passed away a few years back.
6t5frlane, I Remember Craig Well, He Was Good Friends With The Hopper Brothers(64 Indian + Ra4 Cars), Barry Lives In Florida And Wayne Is Still Local. I Own 2 Of There Cars,one For 28 Years. I Heard That Craig Has Passed, His Car Was Beautiful, He Will Be Missed.
Old fan of Dover from the early 60's. Dino reminded me of the Schottgun Express AA/GD. I used to take photos on the side for my brother-in-law, George D'Alessandro, the sports editor for the Putnam edition of the Reporter Dispatch newspaper. The first one is what was published in the newspaper. The second photo was taken at Englishtown Summernationals where Richie tried to get his twin engine machine to work. If I remember he had trouble with it and did not qualify. I heard later that Richie ran off the end of Dover and bent it badly and never rebuilt it. Maybe someone can verify this.
Yeah, I was there announcing when the twin "Express" went through our lousy shut down area "Guard rails".....3FT. Telephone poles with one cable connecting them. That's what lost our NHRA sanction. We got it, then about 4 months later ,then Division Director, Darwin Doll, made an "inspection" visit . took one look at them and pulled the sanction.
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