History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

As a 15 year old teenager, I was sitting in turn 1 next to the Bullpens at the Sydney Showground Speedway Royale and watched that race between local driver Bryan Cunneen and American Sherman Cleveland.To this day I have not seen better.
We were all excited that Cleveland would return the next season with Bob Tattersall, when he was killed in a sprintcar at Calistoga.

 

I read some place that Tattersall told the promotor down there, dont count on Cleveland coming back next year he wont live through this year. or something to the effect.
aXe.

 

Ok I finally got some photos scanned to post.
Most are from Bay Cities Racing Association or West Coast USAC. 1960 to 1977.
I think this is West Capital in 1963 Inside is Mike McGreevy in the Goff Offy and out side Chuck Booth in the Harry Stryker Offy after purchasing the car from Jack London.

 

The Jack London Offy from 1962.
This was at the Oakland Roadster show.
I still remember the morning that my dad woke me up to show me what he brought home. It no longer belonged to Jack after that show !

 

This would be the Old San Jose Speedway 1962. Yes it was pavement.
Driver of the 4 car is Charlie Lawlor. 1963 Oakland Indoor Champion.
They are fighting it out for the b Main Win !

 

one more try !

 

Ken,

Here is Leigh Earnshaw in the Brenn #10 from 1970-probably the Coy driven 4 bar Edmunds #20 in the 1968 photo. Unless Brenn bought some more Edmunds cars,always a possibilty.....

Just found the photo on e-bay today.




Another thing,I was looking at the Consoli photo of the #35 and the Honker II photo I posted of Jerry-it is the same car-the hand brake is black taped exactly the same in both photos and the car has the weight jacker. Coy had an old fashioned air pump on his 4 bar with no hand brake or Jacker.

Earnshaw still has the pump in 1970,although with a different end on it. Coy had a black ball on the end of the pump rod.


Here is Tat at the 1969 Hershey USAC Midget race

 

Brenn had three midgets in that time frame. All similar although one may have been the Trevis of 1964 time frame. ?????? Had similar lines, at least for my simple mind.

 

GRRREAT pictures. THANKS!! I have to learn a lot more about searching for different things like this (and other items) on eBay.

No way that beautiful car now in Australia (owned & fantastically restored by Graham Gallegher) could have competed in four shows with Tat up .. on his way to the '69 USAC Championship if Ken Brenn already had it in 1968 (the year before) when your Uncle (Jerry Karl) drove it (June '68) .. Bert Brooks lost his life in it (September '68), Don Kretiz, Sr. later drove it & more .... then some time after that it was sold to Pete Petraitis. Somehow, some way there must have been yet another car involved in that mix?????????? I still have homework to do.

The Trevis had a somewhat different grill (more squared off / flatter in front) and a very distinctive (flattened rear) tail. To me the hood looked kind of flatter on top too. In a way (to me at least) the lines almost mimicked a roadster. I'll post pictures of both the Nagy & Brenn Trevis Craft rides. .... BTW Brenn told me that his Trevis was restored to such exact detail that even the correct period / era hose clamps were found & used !!!!

BEFORE all this I remember seeing Tattersall flip a (Stroud owned) HONKER (no idea which one &/or what year) in an ARDC / USAC co-sanctioned show at Hershey (PA). They took him away in an ambulance. .... The story that was told me is that later on in some nearby bar someone asked .... 'Does anyone know how Tattersall is doing?' .... and the response supposedly was .... 'Why don't you ask him? He's standing right over there (with a drink in his hand)!!!!'

No matter what cars he had at any point in time, you could always depend on the Brenn stable of cars as being very competitive contenders. ..... Which reminds me of a very popular picture that I once had (many others did too) that somehow got lost in my various moves over the years .. it was three of Brenn's cars .. A midget .. his sprint & his upright Champ car together .. parked side by side. Does anyone here have it & can they post it PLEASE?


IS ANYONE HERE GOING TO THE ANNUAL LOBITZ SHINDIG IN HAZELTON, PA NEXT MONTH?

Brenn & MANY other "Old Timers" usualy attend and ENJOY a GRRRRRREAT day there.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

Buildy .. (what's your first name?) .. Any idea where that picture of Earnshaw in the Brenn ride was taken????

The promoter in me made me notice the seemingly PACKED grand stands. ... Was that Trenton (NJ)??? .. Maybe a fair date???

THANKS

 

This is all making me think.

Does anyone have a picture they can post of Johhny Coy (in a Vitucci car I THINK) so tired that he's practically falling out of the car (hanging out f it) on his way to victory in one of the 500 lap (NASCAR I THINK) races at Islip (NY)?????

It's HARD to make this old brain work & fully remember things like this.

 

My very first Midget ride was in the first Honker [tthe #35 car] in Iona, Michagan in 1965. A few tears ago Mike told me he was there with his Dad [Jack] and remembered the day.
Jim Graybeal

 

Here's a photo of that fantastic match race between Cunneen and Cleveland......now that was midget racing!



Photographer Larry Taylor?

 

Ken Schou, the Earnshaw picture is Reading Pa.

Biuldy first name is Tony

 

Thanks Guys my name is Tony De Seta. I am 52 so I`m a little young for the 50s early sixties stuff,but I really like that era.

I will be at Stan`s Nov 8th!


"Brenn had three midgets in that time frame. All similar although one may have been the Trevis of 1964 time frame. ?????? Had similar lines, at least for my simple mind."

I`m thinking in 1968 he had the #20 4 Bar Edmunds that Coy was driving, bought the HonkerII which quickly became the Brenn #35 and the 1960 Trevis #24.
He may have bought another Edmunds or two after 1968. Not sure.
Dick Briggs found and restored the #24 and it appears at many shows including Latimore Valley and Hershey,although he wasn`t at Hershey this Oct,as far as I know.

The Trevis is what I call a semi roadster.
He only built 4 of them.
In 1968 Russ Klar ran the Nagy #8 which was also one of those Trevis cars.
He also built some TQs that were basically the same as,scaled down.
We had one of the TQs,built by my Dad and Jerry in the winter of 1964 from a Trevis kit.
The TQ was a featherweight and very fast for it`s time.

 

"Brenn & MANY other "Old Timers" usualy attend and ENJOY a GRRRRRREAT day there."

Last year was my first time there . Ken Brenn,Leigh Earnshaw and Jimmy Maguire all were there and in fine form.
Johnny Mann was there.
Chris Economaki was there,he gave a speech and when he was done speaking he came over and sat right next to me.
First time I even met Chris after reading his Paper and seeing him on TV over so many years.

 

Rear 3/4 view of the Brenn Trevis.



Front side







At Reading HOF ceremony.

 

The Trevis in 1965 with Len Duncan driving.

 

I've heard that before .. "He (Floyd Trevis) only built 4 of them."

Ken Brenn, Charlie Nagy & Jerry Willets account for three. Who had the fourth?

BTW .. I believe that it was Trevis TQ nose, hood & tail body parts that Joel Merksamer installed on the Csiski Falcon when he owned it.

 

I can`t remember,but Brenn bought his from someone else,I`m pretty sure. Not sure if Harry Hespell had them or not.

I was told they were built around 1960 or so.

Someone told me last year,but I didn`t write it down-Grrrr.

 

'bobjefferson, 'I really want to thank you for posting that picture of Sherman Cleveland and Bryan Cunneen. And thanks also to Digney for posting the video from YouTube. Since he first posted it, I've probably watched it 25 or 30 times! A lot of us in Northern California back then were huge fans of Sherman Cleveland and as was pointed out, he lost his life later that year (1966) in a NARC sprint car race at Calistoga. I am SO impressed with Bryan Cunneen, though! I can see why people still talk about it today, over 40 years later! At first glance, it looks like just a Chevy II engine? Where as Cleveland and his car owner, George Davis had the very best Offy engines from Jack London. Do you fellas know if Sherman's #10 car stayed in Australia as did most of the cars that the American drivers took down there or did he bring it home? 'Along with this are a few pictures of Sherman and his George Davis Real Estate Offy and his good buddy, Gary Koster (seated in car).

 

Anyone know if that is the same Gary Koster that ran 1/4 midgets in So Cal in the late 50's?

 

Dean I think that is the same Gary Koster Last I saw he was still racing and winning in a spec. Sprint a couple years ago in Watsonville and Antioc Ca.
I think he is still in Woodland Ca.
Here he is in The Stryker Offy about 1970 Indoors @ The Cow Palace .
I Know it has a Cage !

 

Notice the ramp in back ground Evil Knievel jumped in there same weekend, I have movies I took of that weekend some place around here.
aXe

 

The #7 TQ that Dick Northern was in the spin became the #74 Bob Lowe TQ, one of the most famous ever. It was built by Dick and had a rearend bolted to the in-out box and was chain drive off of the left hand side [that is hhow Dick lost his fingers, checking if the chain was still on while the car was moving].
I drove a Trevis TQ one time that was owned by Jack Shannon. Jack was the Son of one of the Shannon Brothers who owned USAC midgets.
Jim Graybeal

 

I raced against Gary Koster in 57/58 when we ran at the San Fernando 1/4 midget track. He's got to be getting a little long in the tooth for running sprint cars.

 

Amazing! You bring up the chain deal and my memory kicked in! It was told that Dick would reach down every so often in a race and slap the chain to check slack... and did it 'til he did it once too often.

In the 90's I remember seeing the remnents of the 74 car in one of Dick Dwenger's extra garages. I'll have to check on that.

 

'Hi, DeanLowe. I hate to bust Gary on his age but, Gary Koster, Sherman Cleveland's best friend from Woodland (CA) was a 26 year old rookie with BCRA during the 1961 season. And yes, Sprint4j is right on; Gary's still racing spec sprints in Northern Cal. 'Perhaps it was a Koster that was related to Steve "Chunky" Koster that ran USRC and USAC midgets in Southern Cal in the 70's & 80's? And aXe!!! 'Excellent eye there, good friend. BCRA midgets at the Cow Palace with Evel Knievel on March 2nd & 3rd 1972, a Thursday and Friday night. I also remember being at the Cow Palace in Dec. of 1970 (the start of the 1971 season) and Dee Hileman drove Harry Stryker's Offy. After Koster drove it those 2 races at the Cow Palace in '72, Harry brought the car out for Danny O'Neill for the 1973 Indoor season and had a fantastic season; always in the trophy dash. For our friends down under, I've included another one of Sherman in another one of the George Davis cars from the 1964 season taken at Hughes
Stadium, Sacramento.

 

Here is a pic of Tattersall, Stroud # 35, and Sherman Cleveland at a practice , press sesion in Brisbane , Aust.