History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Hello, Tractorguy. Glad to hear you talk about the klaids. I know they had one of the sidewinders backed in there barn/garage. I remember seeing it backed there when my dad let Danny use his driving suit one time. Danny, I was told. In Newlenex every morning at A coffee shop. He is on oxygen from what I have been told. I also remember cant say witch one Danny or George. Came out to the stadium with A older midget it had the skinny left front with the straight line tread. And in A heat race he got out in front and “NO ONE” could get by him and they tried. Looking at the car(being so older than the cars he was running with)you wouldn’t think the car would place let alone win! That was some serious driving to win that heat race!
Thanks, Tom PS. What other goodies did you pick up?

 

Hey G.Evitt in New Zealand and all the rest of you guys there
Hope you are all right? No racecars got hurt in the earthquake?
Hope that is not a bad joke!

 

To add a little bit here .. When he was very young, John lost his Dad .. BILL ZERILLO .. in a work related accident. BILL ZERILLO was a prominent car owner with the ARDC in the 1950's. John is looking for the folks here to hopefully share information, history, photos .... anything about his Dad Bill &/or about his race cars. John wants this both for himself and for his children.

On page #79 .. posting #1564 is a photo from the Awards Banquet for the 1956 ARDC season. John's Dad Bill is in the top row .. the second fron the right.

Anything and everything will help and be important to John and his family. For instance you might collect old race progams or ARDC Banquet programs. In one of those there might be a mention or a picture of BILL ZERILLO or his cars, etc.. Even a copy of something like that would help.

Now who can be the first here to identify the driver in the large picture of the Zerillo car above?

In the smaller thumbnail photo the one with the push truck behind the car .. who is the driver in that photo? ... Also, what year is that Chevy push truck .. '55 - '56 - '57???

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hmmm???? For a couple of reasons I don'tthink it was Danbury, CT.

Maybe a stadium track like Hinchcliffe in Paterson, NJ although the track appears too wide .... but the rail on top of the wall, in front of the grandstands is the same / similar.

Can anyone name any of the cars &/or the drivers in this picture?

 

John .. you feel this was your Dad's first car?

MAYBE??? can't see much of it, BUT this screen grab (I guess from a video) show that this #17 car had a roll bar. That would probably put it in a later time frame that the #4 car in the other postings.

Guys .. What year did the ARDC mandate roll bars?

 

Johnz. That was the oldest, boxiest # 17 I could come up with. Sorry. I'll keep looking.

 

Ken I have photos of the #16 1954-1955 One shot has Len Duncan in it,one had Nick Fornoro and the 1955 shot has Dick Brown in it. The caption on the Duncan one calls it the Jenks Offy.

I have a 1955 photo of the #99 with Bill Bichtman driving it. The photo I have of Bichtman has the older style helmet than in the Johnz photo.

I also have a photo from Illustrated Speedway News of Dutch in that #99 at Trenton.



"Guys .. What year did the ARDC mandate roll bars?"



Ken,

In looking through my stuff, it looks like it could have been 1960 for mandatory roll bars in ARDC. Most cars had them in 59,but I have some photos of cars with out them,unless the photos are mis-dated.
Once again, I am only guessing by observing photos.

I`d also like to hear about the strange looking bars that covered the top of tails of some of the cars. Was this any kind of New Jersey thing? They appear to be bolt on from the roll bar to the push bar.


Wayne Doersler at Trenton.

 

#39 looks like Jim Barclay's car with Chuck Arnold driving. Agree on the 99.

As far as that fuzzy 17 picture, looks like the Vargo/Hickey/Kernan car from 63-64-65 time frame.

 

New Jersey State Police required roll bars. Even in 1957 when Trenton started racing again as an asphalt track. I believe Conn did it too.

And yes bolting onto the nerf bars was pretty standard.

Doerstler looks like he is in one of harry hespell's cars

 

Thanks Jim.

 

That is John, for sure. We were there. Shortly after this photo was taken, John ran over a wheel on another car and destroyed his own car. He flipped so hard, the engine came out before he ever hit anything. He got a chipped hip bone and a broken finger out of the mess.

John was a friend and was killed the next season in a USAC show at Jackson, MI. I believe he was driving George Holterman's Chevy II which did not have a cage as it usually ran UARA. I was stooging for John that night. I still have bad dreams about it.

Doc

 

Jonnz, Picture in post 1885, could that be Plainville CT? Denny Z

 

Mike Nazaruk

 

I found in a Google search a Fred Rockey company in Wauseon, OH. They are an automotive repair shop and machine shop. (419) 335-6774 I would give them a call as they may be able to help.

Also found a Fred E. Rockey, deceased, from Serena, IL.

There are at least 20 more Fred Rockey's showing on 411.com, most from midwest locations.

Doc

 

What's with the woman on Nazaruk's midget? Something from his days in the USMC?

 

hey, all you dreamers heres a chance to get a real ride , GO VINTAGE RACING !!

 

THANKS for the update!!!

When you see Billy, please tell him that I'm both thinking of him and that I send him my best wishes.

 

I was there. I remember you doing very well for a rookie in a first class ride. I also remember Johnny Riva in Jack Sims Chow Chow Offy rough riding you. That irritated Grandpa Hartley who then spun Riva out of the hooligan. That old, dusty half mile horse track is still running from time to time.

Doc

 

DocF, My first hot lap was in time trials, 18th quick and made the show. Finished 18th but was on the same straightaway as the leader. Would have done better[I think] but the car had a 2 stage master cly. on it and when you used the brakes a little it was not enough and when you got into the secound stage it would lock the wheels up and you had to use a lot of brake there so I was not as smooth as I could have been with a regular master cly. Do you remember the white Cad. that they used to pull the Chow-Chow car with? If it was hot they would leave it running to keep the dogs cool. Thanks for the compliment.
Jim

 

Pete Sindone

 

Ken, the photo of the dog in Ritters car was taken at Hinchliffe. The wall that's behind the car was from the first turn to the second turn and the pit area was behind that wall. Nothing against you, but I, too, aften spelled Hinchliffe as Hinchcliffe - that a "c" between the h and l.

 

Hey Guy's, Spent a few hours today with Billy Courtwright,He' still sore and his normal self. Snapped a few shots of him rehabing.....Rich

 

Getting out in the garage with the race car is good Medicine.

 

There wasn't enough time to start a pool as to when he was gonna be back out there...

 

Hey Rich, Mark and I got that engine in in no time on Saturday. Mark said we should put in closed circuit TV so billy could watch and talk to us I said no he will start telling us we are doing it all wrong.LOL Glad to see he made it into the shop today. Wont be long till he is as good as new.

 

OK, here's a hard one for this group - Might anyone have a photo or two of Clarence LaRue. I have one of him in a black # 2, taken off of a progam. To this day I swear I saw him race tha tcar, but no idea as to where. I know he was in the 100 miler at Goshen back in 1947, and led for a while, but I didn't go to that race. Any one know if he raced at other tracks here in the east?

 

Special thanks to Pete Poodiack for sending me a photo of LaRue, via e-mail!

 

that looks like one of harry hespels cars #1 with tony standing in backround

 

ken how are you its tony bonadies jr how have you been

 

the #9 won many races with tony bonadies driving for tasie vatis