Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

I certainly agree "old age".. When this thread was started it was in the hopes of getting a few guys with "Big knowledge" talking that I knew were hanging out here.. To get there stories and knowledge recorded in writing somewhere would be killer, little did I know it would snow ball into what it is today!

The amount of information I have learned since the start of this is mind blowing. For someone like myself that was not there for the real thing, stories like these are priceless.

I look forward to your stories and info, as well as ones from others. Thanks for joining and welcome.

Joshua Shaw

 

Great shot of Ned in an earlier ride. Someone scratch built a slotcar of the Hansen #9 and gave it to Ned. His stepson brought it to school one day to show it off. It was very cool.
BTW, in an earlier post i implied it was possible for the Lehostky & Singh car to have won the owner's championship and Don Thomas to have won the driver's title, since the #3 was driven by both Spath and Minyard in '66. Further research shows that Thomas in fact won for both drivers' and owners' points that year. Ned was 5th in drivers' points with 794, Hal was 7th with 615 and Lehotsky & Singh were 6th in owners' points with 489.
Hal's only main event win was in the number 3, Ned won once in the three and twice more in the Pop Miller Chevy, not with Carl Alleman as I had earlier stated. He didn't start driving for Carl until '67 when he picked up 4 wins and was second in points, 25 behind the great Billy Wilkerson. Ned is very underrated in my opinion. He is tied for 14th in CRA main wins with Tony Simon, Allen Heath, and Paul Jones, and only one less than Wilkerson. And he was another one who stood up in the seat at all times.

 

Another CRA car with some history.
Bill Cantrell at Ascot in the Maxson/Jefferies Offy 1963. This was the ex-Foyt 1959-62 car that he unloaded when he joined the Chebby brigade.

 

Welcome OLD AGE, I know how it feels.........'cept I don't have the GREAT MEMORY part!?
Migrated here 3 years ago from Australia with a Green Card to get some experience in racecar fabrication. Have been gainfully employed at Sears Point Raceway, CA in 2 or 3 shops and hope to go back to Australia to finish a sprint car there. Am collecting parts for the project as the bank account allows! Want to compete in Historics but there is a similar division of sanctioning bodies there like there is here. SCCA vs USAC not recognising the other's race history nor eligibility. Hopefully the Historics promoters will see thru the b.s. like General Racing has with Montery/Laguna Seca. Note! SCRAMP (who runs Laguna) wanted too much $$$$ for their fee in future and Steve Earle has walked away, although he will do 1 season as a consultant in 2010. This is great news for Sears Point (Infineon raceway) as his next most important event is the Wine Country in June every year. This event will grow astronomically in the next few years.
P.S. had Captain Marko (Mark Sange) visit our shop last week he runs a Kurtis V8-60 in Historics and loves blowing off the supercharged Alfas and Bugattis.

http://motorsport.com/photos/select...ark_Sange&I=&N=&E=Monterey_Historics/Group_2A

He will be at CSRG event Sep 25-27 http://www.csrgracing.org/
Must find out more on the Kurtis.
Has everybody seen the collection of sprint cars for sale here in Concord,CA as advertised in Vintage Oval Racing Mag??? Must be seen to be believed. Reasonable prices. PM me if u can't find any details, I will chase the info I have.

P.S. I listed a Sprint Car tee shirt for sale on the Classifieds today

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=395277

Just can't stop looking at the artwork.............thanks Doug!!!

Keep on sprintin'
Jim

 

Is that Buzzer Gregory standing next to A. J. ?

 

Yes it is, he was A.J.s gopher/wrench early on.

 

Finally got to spend a whole weekend on the midget. I made the side panels. I don't know how long it takes veterans to make these but it was my first time making them and it took forever!!!

 

BZNEIL,

Nice Nice work!! Can't wait to see it done!

Sean

 

Excellent Neil.. Can't wait to Letter it!

J Shaw

 

Neil...that car is so cool.....keep on with the picture up dates...

 

Beautiful work on the midget BZ. Can't wait to see it. -- Dave Hatcher

 

YO BEZNEIL--- looking good--- is that a weight jacker ? Post some more pictures. ----- PLease )

 

BZNeil, great work on the side panels, and the nose, and the bumpers, and the... I think you are really talented, but then I'm your Dad.

Blackie Suede

 

Neil...Looks great !!
Long panels look good.

 

Got back from Calistoga this afternoon. Fantastic weekend, the sprinter ran great and put it on the trailor in one piece, some great storys I will post soon. All is good!

 

Thanks for all the compliments! I am pumped to get working on the hood now, I can't wait to see it with a complete body.

Ned - The handle is the clutch lever for the Tilton starter/clutch assembly.

 

We need more Pacific northwest stuff here. I'll do my best to scan some more photos that I've accumulated. Here's one of Jimmy Wilkeson at Seattle's Aurora Speed Bowl in 1936.

 

Anybody know of the 'Mechanical Rabbits' built by the late Don Brown in the late 1960's? He supposedly built three dirt track roadsters and I got to see Brown and Joe Saldana run their respective cars. At the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame induction ceremonies one year ago, 2008, a gentleman said he thought one of the cars had been discovered in, I think, Wisconsin. Does anybody know anything about these unique sprint cars?

 

Here are some pictures of Joe Saldana's rabbit as it was being restored by John Layne and Mark Randol for Speedy Bill Smith. It is now in Speedway Motors Museum.

Curt Grogan

 

It all kind of began when Brown wrenched on Johnny Thompsons Indy roadster in 1959 and he thought it would be a good basic design for dirt, but it was years later when he and Greg Weld collaberated on the Mechanical Rabbits. Weld commisioned Brown to build the first one and Brown built one for himself. Saldana wanted one too and helped Brown build them in exchange for one of his own. Todd Gibson ended up with one of them in the 70s but changed it to pretty much a pavement only car and Lee Brayton ended up with the other but didn't do much with it. Saldanas' kind of got lost for a while but as shown above it was eventually found and restored.
Among other things, these were among the first sprint cars to have power steering. This was due to the fact that Browns shop was next door to the Lee Steering shop and were kind of a prototype deal.

The first one nearing completion at Browns shop 1966
Brown on the pavement around 66/7
Saldana on the dirt.

 

Once again you guys just blow me away with the knowledge and photos. Just out of curiosity was the Saldana car found in Wisconsin?

 

IIRC, it was found in the upper midwest somewhere but not sure where, Curt may know more.

Also, in Curts cockpit shot you can see the torque arm which was quite unique for 60s sprint cars. The Mechanical Rabbits were said to have great foward bite. Here's a close up of the unique steering linkage, which was done to minimize the inherent bump steer of conventional sprint car setups.

 

'SteveBonesteel in the ex-Don Thomas roadster sprinter at Calistoga (CA) for the vintage midget and sprint car meet last Saturday and Sunday night. Steve looked good, the car looked and ran good and best of all.....Steve wore an open-faced helmet with goggles!

 

Don Brown was one of my heroes, I am lucky to have known him all my life, to say he was talented is more than an understatement. I am lucky to have his car club drag plate from when he was a kid and a few of his tools, One of my most prized possesions is a picture of Brown Jerry weeks Baker and Jackie Howerton that they signed and gave to me. at the bottom it says to Roy from your friends 11/22/02 I am looking at it hanging on my wall in front of me as I type this. When I was a kid Brown was really into planes, bi planes old planes, his buddy Jim Bob Luebbert had a VW and went to California for the winter, I helped Brown build the VW into a "plane" it had wings, a tail and a prop on it when Jim Bob got home, maybe someday I will tell you about Browns van the sopwith camel. Don't forget he built the Weld Modified "bat mobile" that dominated at Syracuse too, I have copies of the blue prints for that car also. He was eccentric but also a genious

 

http://sprintcarhof.com/FileGet.aspx?ID=14

 

Thanks Roy..I didnt know half of that about Brown. Progressive torsion bar setup in the rabbits ?

 

There was a fourth "Rabbit" in addition to the original three. Kenny and Greg Weld built another copy for themselves during this same time period. Kenny Weld ended up racing this car in the east during the same period that Greg was racing his in USAC. Supposedly the fourth car was last raced in Texas in the early 1980s. It turned up a few years ago in an eBay auction. I always wondered just how many of the cars there really were. I finally confirmed the existence of the fourth car in a conversation with Greg Weld in 2007. I believe that the Brown built cars had aluminum bodies (someone here will know for sure). The Weld copy used fiberglass copies. In some ways the car being restored in the photo looks like the Weld copy. Somewhere I have a picture of the car in it's Texas configuration that I'll try to find.

 

Quite sometime back the K. Weld roadster was discussed here but I didn't realize it was a 'rabbit' copy.
FWIW- This is the info I have on the bodywork of the original:

 

I took these at the 1970 Knoxville Nationals. I'll leave it up to the experts here to I.D. this one.

 

Does anybody have color photos of the Saldana roadster either when Joe was racing it, or as restored?