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

Thank you, now I that I have gotten my ritualistic 3 hours of sleep I fell a little better, but I am still not going to go through 856 pages. I still love this thread.

 

Billyc, Wow Bob Sall was your stepfather and Bobby C. was your father.....that's a lot of history to have grown up with. Bobby C. was a hell of a good race driver and Bob Sall had lots of history as a driver in the early days and when I knew him as a NASCAR offical, and now I find out he was a crew chief too. Denny Z

 

CAVALCADE TIME AGAIN..

As many of you who follow this thread knows, every year here in Cincinnati I am in charge of an area in our yearly indoor show for Traditional Hotrods and Vintage Race cars. In the years past, my displays have been wonderful. This year will be NO exception!
The organizers of the show have further let me "Do my own thing" and given me another entire Isle for OPEN WHEEL CARS. So far I have put together a display linking OPEN WHEEL history from 1920's to current with an example car FOR EVERY DECADE!!
BUT!!! I have room for more! AND I WANT MORE!!!

Please, if you have ANY interest in bringing a vintage car to this show, don't hesitate!! This is a good time, and a KILLER set up.

I'm sure Gene, and others will attest to it.

so... if you have a car and want to be in the show please contact me ASAP!

The show is Downtown Cincinnati Jan 13,14,& 15. 2012


Thanks!

Joshua Shaw

***Here are some shots from previous years***

 

Here are a couple more shots of the car/trailer. I know the man in the white polo and blacks slacks walking in front of the car is Parnelli Jones. Not sure why the car was there or who owned it. Pretty cool, though.

 

Wow, a car for every decade sounds awesome! I am thinking the 60's may be over represented!

 

Well... I'd love to have a MIDGET for every decade too!

Your on my list Neil, let me know when your ready to letter it.

 

Owner was "Red" Crihfield (or, Crichfield?), and the driver most likely Bill Carr of Carey (OH).

 

I always thought it would be cool to have a all the basic styles of midgets/sprints. Rail frame, single tube, 4 bar space frame, 4 bar caged, and a down tube car plus and Indy roadster. Someday.......

Midget is getting upholstered today and then it will be ready to go to your shop anytime.

 

That's how the car looked in 1940, three years later.



And that's 1941.



1946. I have other pics of the car in 1936 and 1937, but they are not very good. What are you looking for, exactly?

 

WOW, Bob Sall was your step father??? Post anything you have!!!

 

Thanks for posting those pics! So far, I never found the time to actually compare pictures of the cars, but always thought the Pestana-Lang #98 didn't quite look like the Fike car, shape wise. Of course, that doesn't mean a thing, as cars get rebuilt and change appearances.

Good analysis on your part, and I agree with your last sentence.

 

And I bet they competed against Deb Snyder on the IMCA Circuit.

 

Snyder, yes, but IMCA, no. As far as I can tell, Carr raced mainly at Sharon Speedway and some other tracks in Eastern Ohio, like Steubenville, Cleveland and Toledo. Deb Snyder was the top dog in those races, and won at least one track championship at Sharon (1934). I'm not sure if these races were actually sanctioned at all, but there were promotional groups that ran a sort of circuit, like Jones Speedways, the Keystone Racing Assoc. or International Speedways Assoc. - these races also formed the nucleus of the CSRA in 1936.

Snyder did not race with the IMCA before 1938, and by this time Carr appears to have retired from racing.

 

Im thinking thatn International Speedways was part of IMCA.

 

I never did figure out how all that worked. I think IMCA was the scantioning body only, but there were only afew groups authorized to promote races for IMCA and International Speedways, Gene VanWinkles' group, was one of them and actually put on the majority of IMCA's races.

One of the others was MARCAR, Bud Carson's group, out of Oklahoma.

Not sure who the others were.

 

Is this the 1936 Hartz Champ Car- the car built for the Vand.Cup Revival of 1936 driven by Ted Horn?

"Also in 1936, Stevens apparently helped build the Hartz Champ Car, a single-seater for the Vanderbilt Cup and mile dirt tracks. Most probably it was the work of Curly Wetteroth, but some sources insist on calling it a Stevens, so perhaps he was somehow involved. It became a winner on the championship trail after the relaxation of the “junk era” rules."
Michael Ferner - Oldracingcars.info-Stevens


If so, here's photo scanned by Jim Dillon of Ted in The Hartz car at Vand. Cup in 1936

 

Racing Legend Steve Staap was involved in an accident today, his RV ws hit by a train, he is in critical but stable condition, please send prayers his way
http://www.wishtv.com//dpp/news/local/west_central/train-vehicle-crash-in-brownsburg

 

He is in my prayers!

Very sorry to hear of his accident.

 

If one is in the Midwest in January, I recommend the Cavalcade of Cars in Cincinnati. Josh and the guys do a bang up job putting this together.....and the rest of the show ain't bad! A great addition to a bucket list. Been there done that, got the T shirt...lol
HG

 

I saw that car in a hanger a few years back, I was told by the owner that it was the car that would go around the Gilmore track with a lion riding shot gun. Car was owned by the prop house Cars of the Stars, Don't know were it is know. Anybody out there old enough to remember the car from the Gilmore midget races?

 

That is the 'Topper' car, from the movie Topper. It was purchased by the Gilmore Oil Co. in 1939 and fitted with sound equipment to be used at promotional events, parades, gas stations, etc... Mobil took the car over when they bought out the Gilmore company in 1945. During the years Mobil had it, it was redesigned a couple times- IMO, mangled! The car has very little resemblance to what it originally looked like.

It's been talked about here several times. Here's one thread...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104643&highlight=Topper

 

Sad to hear this. Prayers sent.

 

That was about two generations later!! In the thirties, as far as I can figure out, Alex Sloan and his Racing Corporation of America (RCA) promoted all IMCA races, but there were definitely two or three different "circuits" serving the many fair dates in the summer, when dates would clash. After Alex died in 1937, his son, John Sloan took over the reins at RCA, but he was less than popular with some drivers and officials. The first group to split off was National Speedways, Inc. (NSI) in 1941, headed by Al Sweeney and Gaylord White. NSI actually promoted CSRA races before the war, and RCA was still the only IMCA promoter until 1945. A few years later, Frank Winkley started Auto Racing, Inc. (ARI), and by the early fifties RCA was gone, and NSI and ARI split up the IMCA schedule with a few independent promoters here and there.

Both Winkley and Sweeney were gone by the seventies, and Gene van Winkle took over presidency of the NSI, while ARI was substituted by Bud Carson's MARCAR. International Speedways was never affiliated with the IMCA.

 

Yep, 'tis.

 

More bad news!

All the best and a speedy* recovery to Steve Stapp and John Heydenreich!!!

* You are racers, you know the word, don't you???

 

Bad time first Heydenreich and now Stapp he was Johnny's crew cheif on the # 90 champ car bestwishes for a speedy recovery to both good men.

 

This is terrible news.

Prayers to the Bopper and to Rosemary in this time of need.

 

I just talked to John Godfrey of Spike Chassis and he said that he had talked to Steve today. Broken legs and a rib or two and a punctured lung as well as lots of cuts and bruises. BTW, the motor home was for sale and I had considered buying it but I guess that it may be a little hard to piece it back together now.

Roo

 

From the photos of the accident, I'd say he's very lucky to be alive. Who would have thought these guys were safer on the race track.

 

Bopper's deal sucks. I've been following the updates on Facebook. My thoughts and prayers go to him and his family.

He took a HARD RIDE.