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

Ken My uncle Jerry Karl drove the car still in it`s Honker II colors for Ken Brenn in 1968 at Hershey PA.
Late in the race Jerry took the lead just as the Yellow came out. It reverted back to the previous lap,and Coy ended up winning,Jerry Second.
Jerry later quit Brenn and took over the Fahey #18 and Brooks went to the now Brenn #35......
Jerry won the Labor day race in the Fahey #18,which was supposed to be twin features. The second race was called due to the Brooks tragedy.

BTW There were more than one Honker II cars.

Even after Brenn got this one Tattersall was driving another one still called Honker II in USAC.

 

Hi Ken,I just spoke to my friend Graham & I have a little info for you,
Don Edmunds only built 2 space frame cars with front spring axles for the Stroud family which were to both Strouds & Tattersalls spec & that being short wheel base.The 67 car is the one here owned by Graham.It was delivered to Strouds in blue livery.They both had a differnt radius rod pick up point near the engine plate.The 69 car had an additional helper torsion bar on o/s rear.Both cars had the bonnet hoop,no letter in the front crash bar & both had the std Edmunds dry sump,69 built car had a 120 cubic inch.In 1969 both these cars were the same yellow & Bob run them both that year.The Honker was sold to Bob Olds & run as LuLu's Honker#93 then #76 pear white with red nose or stripe maybe # on US flag.
After researching over the years,the pic of the car you mentioned varies somewhat,there were similar cars at that time that Brenn owned.
The Stround family were thrilled by the restoration of "The Big Honker" that they helped Graham buy the original " Honker" & provided many original spare parts they had been storing all these years.
Please click on the site below & scroll down for more info,it is the real deal,cheers
http://www.vintagespeedwayfestival.com/

 

I have a bunch here.....prepare to drool-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/farmerjohn/sets/72157617527608271/

 

Thanks Farmer! Good looking stuff. I've checked those out before.

There is Good shot of Racer5c's Dad's car in your mix, after Chrisman got a hold of it..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/farmerjohn/3495081035/in/set-72157617527608271/

...and oh yeah!! DICE Magazines kick's ass!! ;-)

 

MANY THANKS Buildy & Hutcho (Ron) ..

Now it seems that I might have myself really confused. I'm going to have to do more research re the Petraitis Chevy II #40 that he bought from Ken Brenn that I had always assumed was the Honker II. It was an Offy under Brenn's ownership.

All my personal pictures of the car .. both in Brenn's & Petraitis's livery .. are in storage (easy enough to get); BUT to make matters worse (as far as posting any) they are in 35 mm slide format (color transparencies) and I have NO IDEA how to easily convert them to a digital format for posting here. CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH THAT?

You say that both the Stroud Honker II's were space frames and it seems that yet another Honker (The Big Honker) was a modified (shorter wheelbase) Kurtis kit. ("If" I have that all straight?) The Kurtis (kit) of course would be a single tube chassis.

If the Brenn #35 was the car that Bert Brooks lost his life in and was one of the &/or the Honker II and the same car that Pete Petraitis owned (all assumptions now - until I can do more research) it's certainly not Graham's current #3 Honker II. One (#35) has wish bone (paper clip) radius rods .. the other (#3) two seperate radius rods (both front & back) and more. As I said now I'm CONFUSED!!!!

I guess the best I can do is talk to Jon Petraitis (Pete's son) and if need be to Ken Brenn .. as well as dig through my storage bin for my own pictures too.

I could be completely wrong here and if I am I apologize.

Whether right or wrong I'm certainly happy that any &/or all of these cars survive, are still being enjoyed by many & being cared for .. although of course I selfishly wish they were still here in the USA.

BTW .. Speaking of Ken Brenn .. he puts on an annual Car Show in September at the municipal grounds in Warren, NJ (USA). If you're in the NJ, NY, PA, CT or surrounding areas it's one not to be missed. Probably 70 to 80 race cars of every sort and overall between race cars, hot rods, customs, antique cars, trucks and such between 400 & 500 vehicles overall. Chris Economaci of the National Speed Sport News (NSSN) and of TV fame was one of the MANY in attendance the year. It was GRRRREAT to see so many people again .. folks that I hadn't seen in all too many years. Don't miss this show next year!!!

I hope no one minds .. I'm going to copy these postings re the Honker's to the "Cageless" Midget thread here on H.A.M.B. as that's where they belong & to also try to stimulate some growth there too. Maybe some pictures from Ken Brenn's show too

Buildy .. THANKS for the scan & posting of that neat photo of your Uncle (Jerry Karl) from Illustrated Speedway News (ISN) in the Honker II.



THANKS AGAIN!!!

 

All I can tell you for sure,Ken,is that Brenn bought one of the Honker II cars-this one I posted is the car that became the Brenn #35. My Uncle Jerry drove it at Hershey in ARDC as a #3 still in the Honker II colors.He also drove the car for a time(not sure how long) in the Brenn colors #35 before quitting Brenn.
Jerry said he was mad because they gave all the best stuff to Coy-LOL.
By Labor Day Jerry was in the Fahey #18 KK Midget.

I wish I had better photos of Jerry in the car still painted in the Honker II colors,but the racing paper photo is all I have.

I was there when Jerry drove it for Brenn the first night,and also the Day Bert was killed in the car.

As I said earlier there was more than one Honker II. I don`t know how many,but at least two.
Bob Tattersall drove a new one in 1969-still called Honker II.

Slides-you need to get a slide scanner to convert slides to digital. I have never used one.
I hope someone can get you going in the right direction on that,Id love to see what you have.

Ken-you might like this tribute I did to my Uncle Jerry I did shortly after he died in Feb 2008.

All the photos I could find in my collection of Jerry`s racing career.

It is also a tribute to my late father,who was Jerry`s mechanic and built some of the cars Jerry drove.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/millerracers2000/sets/72157603720064481/

 

Regarding the second Honker (and I hope either Rootie or Mitch can post some pics): Hutcho is right about that second Stroud car. I have first hand knowledge because that was the first midget I ever sat in! Bob Olds' son (Dave) and I have been friends since we were very young. Bob bought the car from Stroud (I'm thinking around 1974) painted it a beautiful Cadillac red with silver leaf #93 and put Frank Mantello in it to run with the RMMRA. Later, both Donnie Wilson and Gene Pastor drove the car. Today, the car rests in the collection of Leroy Byers ( a well known racing photographer) in it's "bi-centennial" paint scheme: pearl white with red and blue trim and a gold leafe #76. Still one of my all time favorite race cars!

BTW The story goes that Edmunds was away when the cars were built (I think Jerry Weeks was working for him at the time) and was none too happy when he found out about them. He said a spring front on a space frame would never work!

 

I'll check with the source (I'm still in touch with all the parties). It's possible that Bob didn't get the car from the Stroud family (my assumption). I'll get the real scoop!

Sean

 

THANKS AGAIN Buildy & Vintageracer37.

It seems that I have some homework to do re these cars.

Hey guys .. let's move this midget stuff to the "Cageless" Midget PICTURE THREAD
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=337192
and help build that thread, get it rolling, help it grow too.

LOTS & LOTS of very interesting midget history that kind of get's lost here with the sprints.

I've already posted a couple of pictures there & will add more later on.

T H A N K S !!!<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> vbmenu_register("postmenu_4463968", true); </SCRIPT>

 

I REALLY ENJOYED that tribute to your Uncle (Jerry Karl) and your Dad.

THANKS!!!!!

 

Thank you,Ken!

I`ll try to keep an eye on both the sprint and the midget threads.

Where are you from on L.I? I was born in Oceanside,lived in Rockville Centre and Baldwin as a kid.
I just went back and walked my old neigborhoods this summer on Vacation.

Spent a LOT of time as a Kid at Freeport and Islip. Midget cars are very special to me.

 

Hey again Buildy ..

I'm origionally a Brooklynite, now living in Coram (Suffolk County) .. which is a town about 1/2 way out on this long sand spit.

Maybe 11 miles or so west of Riverhead, where I once lived when I first managed and then co-promoted the (Riverhead) Raceway there.

Back in the day .. Freeport, Islip, Riverhead (all here on Long Island, NY) , Old Bridge (NJ) and others were my regular stomping grounds too.

I agree .. midgets are SPECIAL.

I really enjoyed taking my two grand sons to their first ever dirt (and midget) show this past summer at New Egypt (NJ) .. a split show .. the (wingless ) ARDC midgets & the Tri State big block modifieds. Both put on GRRRRREAT shows!!!

The folks that now have the New Egypt (NJ) Speedway have turned that place into a REALLY OUTSTANDING facility .. in every imaginable way. Everything is NEW and FIRST CLASS. .... I've been to A LOT of speedways over the years, plus being involved with the management & promotion of one .. I know whatto look for/at/etc. and to say that I was IMPRESSED is an understatement.

 

'vintageracer, 'I'd sure like to know the true story on Jack Stroud's Honker II if you can indeed, find out. The pics that our new friend Hutcho posted awhile back confirm that this was one of the most beautiful, classiest midgets ever built. The job whoever is responsible for restoring it, is just amazing! And, it happened to be driven by one of the greatest of all time. I remember hearing that when Stroud and Tat went to Don Edmunds and requested a cross-spring front end, Edmunds just "cringed." But hey, that was 'Tat.' Shortly after one of the following pics I've posted of Tat running the Honker II in the Houston Astrodome in his championship defending year of 1970, Jack Stroud started experiencing health problems and had to park the famed racer. Tat promptly hopped into racer5c's Dad's twin 4-bar Edmunds to Jimmy's #5 and ran most of the rest of the season. And, he won some races.

 

........'Few people knew Jack Stroud and Bob Tattersall better than Ed Watson (Ed Watson's USAC Midget Yearbooks of the late 60's/early 70's) So when he wrote the book on Tat, the cover photo shows the Honker II in it's original colors of bright yellow with the red scallops and piping. I still can't believe how the fellas that restored the car to it's pre-cage days, did such a magnificent job! 'Could it be that when Stroud parked that particular car in early 1970 that it never ran again???

 

OK, Strait from the horses mouth! Just got off the phone with Bob Olds. Seems he went to California with Johnny Tolan (ex RMMRA driver and USAC champion) in search of a midget to buy. His original intention was to buy the Leanard Faas Edmunds Sesco. Faas wanted to run the car a while longer, so he wasn't ready to sell. He did mention another car that might be for sale; The 1969 USAC championship car, the Jack Stroud Edmunds Offy. Tolan knew Stroud well (Bob not as well), so they went back to Denver, got a trailer, and went to St. Louis and got the car.

Bob coroberates the story about Edmunds not knowing about the car being built. Seems Edmunds was in South Africa with the modifieds, and Jerry Weeks, Tattersal and Stroud built the car in his absense. An interesting side note: Bob told me that after he got the car, Edmunds called him and offered him a BRAND NEW car in exchange for the Honker! Seems even though it was a USAC championship car, he wanted it back so he could cut it up and pretend it never existed! Again, this strait from Bob Olds!

Bob claims that he doesn't know about the Australia car, and states that his (now in the hands of Leroy Byers) is the Stroud Honker II.

The plot thickens!

BTW, I have been around this car since I was 16 (1974), so I have every reason to believe the story.

Sean

 

here is one

 

thanks man, if you want copys of any of them pics lemme know

 

Ken,

Feel free to put this stuff on the "Cageless Midget" thread. I'm not so good with computers, so I don't how to post on both

Sean

 

'TheDude, 'That's one helluva picture of an awfully young Mike Wasina and the two trophy girls. It's either Roseville (CA) before they paved it (for the '70 season) or Capital Speedway in Sacramento before they renamed it West Capital Raceway (for the '72 season). I would say either 1969 or 1970.

 

RIP Chip

 

Friday night is speedway night at http://www.rowleypark.com/ some histroy from South Australia

 

I have no idea, I got about a thousand of them at an estate sale. Slides.

 

The trophy says 69

 

How about three generations of Indy cars? Phoenix 1965, from Mitch G. on the Autoracingmemories site...

 

Here's some sprints from Ken Brenn's show this past September in Warren, NJ.

Some of the midgets at the show & more about the show can be found over on the "Cageless Midget Picture Thread .

 

More from the Ken Brenn / Warren, NJ show this summer (a Watson copy) .. plus a quick view of only SOME of the open cockpit cars there.

 

Way off base here BUT WALLY DALLENBACH SR'S. sucess in midgets, sprints, dirt champ cars, Indy cars and later as a top ranked CART official speaks VOLUMES.

Few know &/or remember that stock cars (one of his pictured below) were his early roots.

This was again at the annual Ken Brenn show in Warren, NJ.

A quick flash back .. if I might. A split show one night at the Islip (NY) Speedway. ARDC midgets & NASCAR modifieds (plus other divisions). Wally's ride for the night was in the #29 Hophan Offy (I think). .. Anyhoo he also climbed into a strange car .. the Fred Harback backup modified (#X-90) and started dead last in the modified feature. Need I say that he deftly trounced all the Islip NASCAR modified regulars by winning the feature (again from dead last).

I've forgotten where he finished in the midget main that night.

 

I'm thinking this is 1970?

 

Your thinking right

 

That is 1971-AJ was #7 in 1970, #6 in 1969.

I don`t believe AJ had a cage on his Dirt car in 1970.