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

WOW! That 9s great survivor! The wreckage of an unidentified car became the car below.

 

Hi Everyone,
I am researching a sprint car in an estate that I know very little about, and I wondered if anyone here might have information that could help.
This is apparently the 1935 NARA champion car owned by George Koerner, and driven by William Brown. The engine is a Riley-Ford. Let me know if it rings any bells for anyone, or if there are resources that you might know of to research it online. Google hasn't come up with much apart from a website about a very similar car done by the Watson brothers, who I have reached out to directly.

 

And sorry for the attachments. I'm not a forum poster and wasn't clear the best way to upload images. I hope that you can see them!!
Thank you

 

Thomas Schmech know anything about the NARA history

 

The name of the former curator of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum is Tom Schmeh...

George Koerner was from Reading, PA, and at least for a time (1954) served as president for the National Auto Racing Association (NARA), which was a typical (for the time) "Class B" club based in Pennsylvania, and racing on many state tracks as well as in New Jersey, New York, Delaware and Maryland. "Class B" usually meant DOHC engines (especially Offenhausers) were banned, but rules often varied from club to club, or from year to year - most of the NARA cars, I gather, had Model A or B based engines, with special racing heads such as Riley, Hal, Dreyer etc. Koerner's #27 was a four-port Riley, as much as I can determine, and won the NARA owners championship in 1953, as well as runner-up honours the following year. I don't know of any prior history of the car, which may mean it was built by Koerner himself, but more likely it was a hand-me-down from before the war, perhaps with updated bodywork (the frame rails and tail section look pretty much standard thirties, while the "bull nose" was a feature that crept into fashion late thirties/early forties).

Bill Brown was from Norristown, PA, and should not be confused with the Bill Brown from New Jersey or the Bill Brown from Indiana, who raced at about the same time. The Pennsy Bill Brown sometimes competed under the alias of "Bill Williams", and from memory had a brother who was racing as well (Bob, I think... need to check when I get home). He won the 1953 NARA title with the Koerner/Riley #27, and repeated in 1954 mainly driving the (Art) Daniel/Hal #12. NARA ran championships from 1950 till '56 inclusive, if I'm not mistaken, and Lucky Loux was an earlier champion. I should have a full list of champions and more detail at home.

 

Very much appreciated, Michael!!

 

You're welcome, Hans! (Any connections to the Vaterland, with that name? )

History of NARA starts in 1929, or maybe earlier, with the Atlantic Motor Racing Association (AMRA) which raced throughout the thirties in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Not a lot is known about this club, but historian Buzz Rose found the following season champions:

1936 George "Dutch" Culp (PA)
1937 Charlie Breslin (PA)
1938 Jack McNeal (PA)

Additionally, I found Lou Brown from Illniois mentioned as the 1936 Atlantic States Auto Racing Association champion, which may have been a different club - in those days, sanctioning clubs are not often mentioned, or their names sometimes mutilated. Anyway, sometime in 1939 internal strife (most likely*) led to disbandment, and most of the members regrouped as the Penn-Jersey Auto Racing Club (PJARC), which operated throughtout the forties (except for the war years):

1939 Jack McNeal (PA)
1940 Harry Harper (PA)
1941 Earl Johns (NJ)
1946 Ducky Pehlman (PA)
1947 Ducky Pehlman (PA)
1948 Paul Becker (PA)
1949 Paul Becker (PA)

Another conflict led to the next transformation, and NARA was born:

1950 Dick Fries (PA)
1951 Budd Olsen (NJ)
1952 Lucky Loux (PA)
1953 "Bill Williams" = Bill Brown (PA)
1954 "Bill Williams" = Bill Brown (PA)
1955 Bill Kessler (PA)
1956 Bing Shaffer (NY)

NARA was not a big group, and didn't race very much - the only year I have a full schedule of is 1953, with eleven meetings plus a handful of rain-outs, but they ran some interesting tracks like Nazareth Fairgrounds or Alcyon Speedway, and the 1953 season finale was even at Lincoln Speedway! Because of the thin schedule, most of the leading teams and drivers ran with other groups in between, mostly with the United Racing Club (URC) which covered roughly the same area, and what was left of NARA after 1956 went the same way, too.


* Sanctioning bodies at the time were mostly groups of drivers, owners and promoters, sometimes all three of them in one person, so it was only natural that conflicts of interest regularly shook them up and, in some cases, closed them down.

 

Is that a Mallard in the background?

 

ok-i'll be first -what's a henway...sorry what's a mallard?

 

It looks like it could be, Steve. Interesting, what we sometimes see in the background.

 

Is it possible to contact the poster with the picture of the Mallard in it?

 

Steve, if you click on his username, you will get a drop down list that will allow you to "start a conversation", a newer version of a PM.

 

A good read for Frontenac fans...
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/gemsa-notes-on-frontenac-d-o-conversion.1285395/

 

I'm at the point where I am doing as much research as I can to potentially build one of these in the future.

Ideally I would like to stay with a Model A/B.

What frame would be the best to use for a full sized sprint?

I have a potential lead on a Pop Dryer frame.

 

I just noticed thus post from @Hans Wurl today, I took the liberty of enlarging the photos from his original post, they are a bit grainy but still show some detail.

 

I just shot pictures and never kept records.. Now I am trying to identify a bunch of old negatives that I recently discovered in my closet...

The photo below was 1969 at the Reading PA Fairgrounds, and I believe it was at a URC - ARDC Sprint and Midget Special show (maybe the Bob Wilkey Memorial). I know the driver is definitely NOT Earl Halaquist, who often drove this car, because I have a photo of him on the same strip of film in his regular George Nesler #2.



Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

Somebody on Indiana Open Wheel board seems to have the answer. The above photo is of Earl Halaquist, and the Nesler #2 was driven by Wayne Woodward that day.



I looked very closely at the negative at high magnification and it appears to say Woodward on the helmet.

 

I was almost ready to shout out "Larry Dickson!", but 1969 was a few years past his time with George Nesler, glad you found your answer.

 

More stuff from Al's closet

"Ralphie the Racer" Liguori was the last driver to win a USAC Sprint race without a cage. It happened Oct. 2, 1970 at Williams Grove. and as I remember his was the only car in the show that day without a cage.





Ralph and promoter, Jack Gunn