History Historic Stock Car Photos

1967 NASCAR promo material handed out at the World 600 for the fall race at Rockingham.

 

OOOPS, Sorry Arcarace, the pics are on the nationaldirtlatemodelhof site, the actual restoration you are talking about is on dirtfans.com. Sorry about that.

 

I used to work with T.C. Hunt at Nalley Chevy during the time he was running Grand Americans. We dirt tracked against him a few times. Harry Gailey's shop was about thirty miles from my home and we used to go by there now and then. His brother Arron Gailey was also a local dirt tracker.

 

Great photos. I love those oldies from the old Daytona Beach course.

 

ya watch out some on here dont like stuff newer then 65 ( eventhough i saw a post were he had added stuff from the 70's) just my 2cents

 

While looking for historical pictures for ARDC midgets and East Coast stock cars, I came across the fabulous picture of the 1956 ARDC banquet on this forum posted 12-10-2010 by Doug (Sprinter 2). My Dad, Walt Mordenti, is standing in third row, second from left.

Walt now lives in San Francisco with his bride of 66 years, Margaret. Walt turns 90 this month, and we are having a big birthday celebration for him tonight at his favorite North Beach restaurant "Tommaso's Ristorante Italiano." Family and friends from all over the Bay Area will join us. I found the ARDC banquet picture while looking for pictures to make place mats for his celebration.

Walt raced from the 1940s-1980s. He is probably best know as an owner/builder/mechanic, who also drove the tow truck and served as the pit crew, usually all by himself. He had a red, Kurtis chassis, Ford-powered #78 midget racer (chauffeurs Dutch Shaefer and Roger Bailey to name a few). Later, when he was in his 50s, he added "driver" to his resume at the 1/2-mile high-banked dirt track at Lebanon Valley Speedway, NY in his big-block, super-modified, AMC-powered, open-wheel #36 Gremlin/Rambler American stock cars (body had to match motor). In the 40s/50s, he also wrenched on Hudson stock cars with other Waterbury friends: the Mordenti-Mambrino-Mordino trio. I remember #12 Hudson stock car, affectionately known as the Tank!

I am the little girl Joyce who was always at his side at tracks like Pine Bowl (with outhouses!), Old Bridge, Islip, Freeport, Savin Rock, Riverside, Stafford Springs, Plainville, Danbury Fair, Hersey Fair, and Army-Navy Stadium (I can sill smell the fumes of the indoor track). He raced his midget at Daytona on the sand, winning recognition for the Flying Mile. He was a spokesperson for Oilzum oil. My favorite drivers were Freddie Meeker and Mark Donahue.

Walt still goes to work every day in his mechanic blues. He is world renown as a Hudson mechanic, and he is very active in automotive circles, rebuilding carburetors, engines, and transmissions for vintage cars. He rebuilt a '53 Hornet sedan for me in the 80s, then rebuilt a '53 Hornet coupe for himself in the 90s. Both are daily drivers. If you Google "Walt Mordenti and Hudson Hornet," you will find lots of current information about him, including pictures of his car. He writes a regular Tech Tip column for the Hudson-Essex-Terraplane (HET) Club magazine. This month, he and Margaret will drive their Hudson Hornet to Oklahoma for the Annual HET National Meet. Walt frequently wins the long distance award and oldest driver award.

If this thread is still active, I hope that race car fans who remember Walt (or who are just crazy about racing history) will send their birthday wishes to his email account: [email protected] [waltmordenti-at-aol-dot-com]. If you have some pictures to share with Walt, I am certain that he would appreciate them. Walt carries his iPad every where, so he is not hard to reach! Drop him a line.

Thanks for the memories, Joyce

 

Thanks for the nice post, Joyce, and happy birthday to Walt from us in CT. I remember a Mordenti (John?) who raced at Plainville Stadium in the seventies. My uncle was Sparky Belmont, who also raced midgets in the 40's, then switched to stock cars around 1948. I'm sure Walt knew Sparky, who passed away back in 1968 minutes after winning a 100 lap modified feature at Plainville Stadium (I was only 15 at the time and rarely got to watch him race). I am from West Haven and attended many races there before they closed it in 1966. Send my regards to Walt and post some photos of his midget days (and any of Sparky he may have). It's nice to hear from the veterans of the early days and know they're doing well.
PS. Jump over to the 60's-70's vintage oval track modifieds forum here on the HAMB, it's a great thread, and also the vintage midget and sprint page also here on the HAMB. Good luck and thanks for posting.
Richard

 

Hi Richard, Ronnie Evans drove my Dad's #78 Ford V8-60 midget to many victories. His son John saw my Birthday message, which was also posted on the Vintage "Cageless" Midget thread and another thread titled "Walt Mordenti Turns 90," and he posted some great pics of the car with his dad at the wheel. He even posted a picture of the two of us as kids in the pits posing with the car on the trailer after a race. If you go to those two threads, then you'll see his pics, and he mentions other places on this message board where he displayed more pictures of the #78. Thank you for writing and sharing your story, Joyce

 

vegas_oldtimer;649862
Sir, you are correct that the photo of Tommy Wible was taken at Dayton.
My apologies.
Yes, I'm sure that Baer Field wwould likre to add it to their website.
The website adress is: http://baerfieldspeedway.net/. While you are there,
check out the "Hall Of Fame" link. It is on your left hand side of the page.
Just scroll down a little and you will see it.
Threre are some neat photos from the early '60's to early '70's.
Thank you for the correction on the photo.
Take care,
stock car fan

 

I was digging and Joes name came up with Fort Wayne Speedway, And that was when I came upon this. Thanks for sharing

 

Indybigjohn, what was the name of the fellow that ran IRP back in the mid-late nineties? I can't remember.

This is part of a post I put on the Stock Car Racer Reunion site:

Speaking of mooning, with the mention of IRP above, another story comes to mind. We were at Daytona several years ago, back in the '90s if I remember right, for the premoters workshop that was held there each year. A group of us were in the motel lounge and over stayed our welcome at closing time so we were asked to leave. In our group was the then manager of IRP, wish I could remember his name. We went outside into a court yard where he got up on a table right in front of the large windows to the lounge and mooned the lounge workers. Seemed to be the thing to do at the time!

Racing was fun back in those days before it became a "Product".

 

Mid to late nineties, probably Mike Lewis. And I can see him doing that.

 

SO tell me about this pic...
Whose's car is it. Pretty sweet looking ride.
Has a nose on it like a Studebaker Hawk.
looking forward to knowing
Chris

 

Man this was originally posted so long ago, the author might not even read here any more... anyway here goes.
Seems I remember the incident you are referencing. I wouldn't be surprised if the passenger in the car was David G. Rob & he were big buddys, and the three of us all bowled on a local bowling league together
If I'm not mistaken John Harrison has (had) a race shop over close to Georgia Intl. (Peach state, JeffCO, whatever) and his son John Jr. did quite a bit of late model racing. I'm not sure but it seems I heard John (dad) died. But don't quote me on that.

I always got tickled and laughed at Rob. I remember a couple MORE incidents he had with the tracks Pace Car. On one occasion I was driving the pace car, and we had a big Winged Sprint Car show as a feature event. Of course we know they like to do the four-wide salute to the fans pace lap just before the green falls.
Rob had brought me aside and told me.. "Now when they come down the front stretch stay as close to the sprint cars as possible. I want a nice picture of the pace car right in front of the sprinters".
Well at the last minute the promoter of the SPRINT car series found me and told me "Get as far out front on the pace lap as possible." It seems rolling these high horse power sprinters around for the four wide salute bogs down the motors, and as soon as the cars entered turn #1, they'd be flooring them to blow out all of the 'build up' to get ready to race.
SO we are rolling along on the pace laps, and I am hanging back waiting for all the cars to get started and start to form up. Then it comes time for the big 4-wide deal, and as I come off of turn #4 I start easing away from the field.
Rob Jumps on the radio and starts saying "slow down, slow down, to far ahead, slow down"
Well it is THEN that I realize the sprint car promotor never got with Rob and told him what I had to do... so they aren't on the same page. Also Rob just keeps saying 'slow down', and I can't reply back.
IN any event, I am almost to turn #1 by the time the lead row of sprinters hit the front stretch, not a lot later I hear one of them start to kick it in. As I exit turn #2 I floor it to get further away.
I was running 75 mph when I got to turn #3, and three of the sprinters caught and passed me. Man what takeoff and drive those things have.

What made it all so funny was first Rob was on the radio yelling "slow down, slow down"... when he saw the sprinters kick it in he started yelling "GO GO GO GO" at the top of his lungs. Way too funny.

 

Now, that's a neat story. I can just hear Rob yelling, "GO GO GO GO."

 

Another Incident I was involved with at Peach State (Ga Intl) was when the pace car got wrecked. This was the same year as the story before.
This was one of the last "All Pro" races ran and they were always rough and tumble affairs.
I had driven the Pace Car for all the events the entire season. This was the final event, and he came to me with some song and dance story like "You've just drove on 'regular' events. Never a big event like this, and we want to make sure nothing happens to the pace car" (it was a sweet little white convertible mustang supplied by Akins Ford)
IN any event I got booted from my pace car drivers deal - but I got to ride co-pilot. (woohoo )
SO the race starts and the guy driving (David Beard) brings the field to green, and we head down pit road. If you know anything about Ga International; then you know the pit wall on the frontstretch was shorter than the number of pit stalls available. SO you drove PAST the protection of the pit wall, and even almost down into turn #1 to back the pace car into it's "ready" spot for when a yellow flew.
Anyway, the green flag comes out, and David just goes right on down into turn #1 with the race cars still going by. I told him. "Everytime we come in we should come down pit road and STOP at the end of the pit wall.. then AFTER the cars have passed, jump out into the 'open' area, and quickly put the car where it needed to be".
I was told "NO it'll be fine - nothing is going to happen"

SO I spend 300 laps in the passengers seat, and every time as we exit from behind the pit wall I am looking over my shoulder to see WHO is going to hit us when we pop out and expose ourselves.
SO I'm sure you see where this is headed... lol
WE get down the the final restart. Three laps to go in the 300 lap race. Well. Wayne Willard, and Buckshot Jones had been beating each other to death in the later stages of the race. ON the restart Willard was third, and Jones fourth. ON the radio Jones had said,.. "I'm tired of him. Him gonna dump him on the restart". We pull onto pit road, the cars take the green just about the time we get to the end of the pit wall. Jones jacks up Williard, and here he comes sliding right at us. David has pulled up and stopped and put the car into reverse so he can back into our 'ready' spot. I'm seeing Willards car getting bigger and bigger as he comes barreling toward us. All the while I am yelling at David... "Pull Up, Pull UP.. go FORWARD..." If he could of pulled up about 5 car lengths this would of all been avoided. But by the time he sees what I want, we get slammed. The right rear corner of that poor little Mustang had major damage. We got out... looked it all over. David jumped back into the pace car and again started pacing the field as they came by.
The Crowd went WILD> Jones punted Williard, that was just 'some' of the excitement,.. but here the pace car gets tore all to hell, and it goes back out to pace the field. Of course the track announcer (Charles Head I believe) was playing all this up on the PA system. It was a wild day...

SURE GLAD I had someone 'show me' how to drive the pace car at a big event like this, and make sure it did NOT get torn up... ROFLMAO

 

Great story about the pace car getting hit, Pickup Guy. I recall the ASA pace car getting T-boned in the infield at Anderson one night.

About that day at Salem, I remember a similar situation when I was flagging there, don't know if it was the same time or not. I remember somebody on the radio saying, "We've got some brats and other s*** to clean up down here."

This one goes in the next book.

 

Indybigjohn, Were you still the flagman For ARCA when the car burnt to the ground refueling at New Bremen ? I believe it was a Dayton 500 that was run there that year.

 

The Terry I was talking about was the heavy set one. He came down from Prototype and helped with the track for awhile. I guess the stuff you were talking about was after I had moved back up to the mountains. I came back and helped with a few races along. I found some photos today from the time the track was repaved. I will have to scan them because I can't find the negatives. John H. was a real character, I never got to see his son race as that was after my time.

I still talk to George Seagraves from time to time. I haven't been down to the track since it was reconfigured by Gresham.

The race at Talladega was the Winston 500 (as you can see from the trophy) and Baker won it. The #1 on the pole is Pearson in Hoss Ellington's car. This may be the race where Bobby Allison's back bumper fell off and started a big wreck early in the race.

 

It is a '53 Studebaker. When they first ran the Modifieds on the superspeedway at Daytona, the old coupes quickly proved that they weren't aero-friendly. The hot setup was a Stude powered by an Olds, Caddy, or Chrysler. This one is Jean-Guy Chartrand's (if I'm correct), and would have been FLAT TOWED all the way from Canada!

 

WOW George is still alive... we was old when I was there. That guy had a lot of stories.
Funny thing... People "think" the first NASCAR truck race was back in the 1990's.
I have some race tickets that George gave me (somewhere around here) that were for a NASCAR TRUCK race at Peach State back in the 1960's (If I remember correctly - I'd have to look them up and see the exact date)

 

The bumper deal was in the 1982 Daytona 500. (finally something i know about!)

 

Hi all, I have searched though several pages of this thread but not all. I was hoping to see if anyone had some pics of my grandfathers car. He never drove, just built them. He raced them in the late 40's through the mid 70's. His name is John Renstrom and he lived in Norwalk Connecticut. He built most of these cars with his lifelong friend Woody. I don't know Woody's last name but I am sure I can get it if needed. I know he ran the NE coast in the late 40's - early 50's. He told me stories of a place names gasoline alley where they would get fuel in New Jersey. These pics would mean a lot to Grandpa and myself. thanks for any help you can offer guys. I should add that I also posted this in the cageless midget thread as he built those too. thanks for any help. I will keep searching this thread as time permits.

 

Fogs58, I wasn't flagging that race at New Bremen when that happened.

 

I just spent almost four hours looking at all of the pages of pictures posted here,and i gotta say,a huge THANX to everyone for posting the massive archives of oval racing! You have preserved history for us 'young'uns' to enjoy and learn.Awesome!

 

Because we aren't supposed to post any photos past the mid-60s, we've started a thread on TrackForum.com in the Danny B's section. Check it out and add some of your own.

 

When did it change? Just wondering because your original message that started this thread stated 1985...... Did I miss something somewhere?

 

Came across a couple of excellent 1956 Daytona Beach race

 

Things changed on post # 4886, page 245, when the moderator advised we were off topic for the forum.

The thread was locked on post # 4936, on page 247.

I went to bat for the thread and commucated with the moderator and got the thread reopened on post # 4937 on page 247.

We were called back on the floor for going off topic again and I had more communication with the moderator and came up with clear explanation of what was allowed and what was not allowed on post # 5044 on page 253.

If people try to push the issue, I will notify the moderator to have off topic posts eliminated. If the issue continues, this post will be gone forever. It is not open to debate, we have to play within the rules set on post # 5044 on page 253. Feel free to PM me concerning this issue. Any farther debate posts will be removed.

I only wish to keep the post open and within the rules of the website. It matters not what is happening on other threads, we have been called on the floor and have to follow the rules set down. Gene

 

For those not wanting to go back and check the rules. Gene