Vintage shots from days gone by!

It was the race promoter Jack Kochman who in 1937 had the idea of bringing Eastern Alliance midgets to the Nutley Veladrome, a little-used bicycle track in Nutley, NJ. In Crocky Wright’s book on the facility, he speculates Kochman had little idea “what an awe-inspiring spectacle he was creating….The following two years were to produce the most spectacular phase of midget auto racing seen anywhere in the world.” It should have been more obvious. After all, the track was little more than a motorcycle Wall of Death. It was one-eighth of a mile, its boards built to a dizzying 45-degree bank, and speeds were unimaginably fast right from the first lap on April 3rd. And it was unimaginably dangerous. In the semi on opening night, Ken Fowler lost it in his Elto and vaulted the guardrail, as shown above in this fuzzy but dramatic photo. Just one cable kept him from going fully into the stands, but 13 spectators in the front row were injured, and Fowler broke an arm. The track operated for two years, but after the third driver fatality – Karl Hattel in the Pat Warren Offy on August 26, 1939, town officials shut it down, calling the place “homicidal.” FromTHE FABULOUS NUTLEY VELODROME, by Ernest Crocky Wright. (Bruce Craig Photo)
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September 1, 1957 – Gardena, CA: Glen Howard and Bill Mangold got to lockin’ wheels heading into the first turn and smashed the pit entry gate at full bore. Neither was really injured, but Bill did end up with a costly case of bent chassis syndrome. He took out a bank loan for $200 the next Monday to build a new jalopy. FromMEMORIES OF THE CALIFORNIA JALOPY ASSOCIATION, by Thomas D. Luce.
(Bill Mangold Collection)

 

Rex White and Louie Clements brought one clean-looking Grand National car to Daytona for the 500 in 1961. They had a brand new Chevy, one of those 409ci engines, rated at 360 horsepower, just off the production line, and a truck load of high hopes. They had a horrid qualifying run, however, and started 41st. So, at the end of the day, a 12th place finish wasn’t too bad. It paid $500. FromTHE CREW CHIEF’S SON – A Trackside Memoir of Early NASCAR, by Michael L. Clements.
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The hot rod that started it all. Ed “Isky” Iskenderian posed next to his famous ’24 T-bucket. He originally bought it in high school in 1938. Ten years later it was the cover car for the brand new Hot Rod magazine in June of 1948. Note the hot set-up custom-cast aluminum valve covers, inscribed. FromMERCHANTS OF SPEED – the Men Who Built America’s Performance Industry, by Paul D. Smith. (Ed Iskenderian Collection)

 

During a half-century of auto racing on the dirt of Allentown Fairgrounds half-mile, there were some incredible shows. Certainly the most dramatic testimony is that Bill Schindler lost his life there in September 1952 and Johnny Thomson followed suit in September 1960, driving the same car. Things got a little intense in the infield, as well. Reading the body language of the lady to the right, It does not appear that “Rocketman” was any kind of hoax. (Dale Snyder Collection)

 

Is that a Helms Bakery truck in the background?

 

Yes it is..... Now what?

 

I dunno, just askin'. My memories of Helms is a little later with the Chevy C10 panel trucks in the 60's.

 

Yet another sign of the Indy roadsters’ last hurrah. Karl Ludvigsen writes, “Designers were still striving [in the mid-sixties] to improve and lighten up the traditional roadster to keep it competitive with the new mid-engined ‘funny cars.’ This new chassis by Eddie Kuzma carried its steering rack bolted to the tubular front axle as unsprung weight. This had the merit of providing absolutely rigid and precise guidance of the front wheels with respect to the axle, eliminating any effects caused by jounce and rebound. Detailed refinements were not enough to save the front-engined roadsters.” FromINDY CARS of the SIXTIES.
(Photo from Ludvigsen Library Series)

 

Four brave men, Bob Welborn (Pole), Shorty Rollins (outside), and Fritz Wilson and Tom Pistone brought the field down to the start of the very first Daytona 500 in 1959. But were any of them braver than the starter, Johnny Bruner Sr.?
FromDAYTONA 500: Official History, by Bob Zeller
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Hudson Hornets won more AAA and NASCAR races than any other brand from 1951 through 1954. It was pretty amazing because the bulky cars were definitely overweight, powered by in-line sixes rather than V-8s. But driver Marshall Teague really liked the low center of gravity, and he taught the factory so much about piping up the straight sixes that the cars became know as “Teaguemobiles.” Here’s an early dual-carb setup on a Hudson six driven by Tim Flock. FromFAMOUS STOCK CAR ENGINES, by John Carollo and Bill Holder. (Bob Fairman Photo)

 

Our buddy in Ohio, Bruce Pike, used to run Riverside Park in Agawam, MA, on Tuesday nights, along with the occasional fling out to Empire Raceway in Menands, NY. He sent us this rare photo of Hall of Famer Moe “Money Bags” Gherzi at the Park. For a short period starting in the mid- to late-fifties, late model specials were run as an alternative to the normal coupes and coaches. The cars were often pretty, but generally not too fast. That was a good thing. Take a look at the rather minimalist “roll bar” on Moe’s Ford – and at the way the bends in the tubing were made.
(Bruce Pike Collection)

 

Next Memorial Day will be 100 years since Willie Haupt pulled into the pits at Indy, dismounted, and watched as his crew changed the right rear. Haupt hustled his Mason, race cars constructed by the Duesenberg Brothers, to a ninth-place finish in the 27-car field. FromThe Illustrated History of theIndianapolis500: 1911-1994,by Jack C. Fox.

 

Corpus Christi, TX. 1936.

 

The Marmon, a luxury car built from 1931-1933, boasted a 16-cylinder, 490 cubic inch engine, the largest in America. Few of these weighty (930 lbs) powerplants found their way into race cars, but Tony Capanna stuck one in this hot rod for the Southern California Timing Association runs in 1946. He set fast time of 145.39 – and then, in all likelihood, drove it home. FromHOT RODS AS THEY WERE, by Don Montgomery. (Kobo Fukataki Collection)

 

On November 12, 1965 Bob Summers strapped himself into the minimalist cockpit of the “Goldenrod,” a land-speed streamliner at Bonneville. Along with his brother Bill, the two hot rodders from Ontario, CA, built the sleek 32-foot machine in a small shed, determined to have the fastest piston-engined auto in the world. George Hurst donated $5,000 and Chrysler put up four 426 Hemis, which sat one after another in front of Bob. The average speed of his two runs was 409 mph, beating record-holder Donald Campbell, the Brit who had run 403 mph the year before.
FromPROVING GROUND – A History of Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth Racing,
by Jim Schild. (Summers Brothers Collection)

 

It is amazing how certain racing engineers have been so many laps ahead of their time – and their peers. Case in point was the prolific technologist Howard Johansen, most famous for his Howards Racing Cams for early dragsters. Way back in 1953 he was racing track roadsters at Carrell Speedway, a mile north of Gardena, California’s Ascot Park. Sixty years ago, most guys were experimenting with flatheads as an up-fit over six cylinders and, sometimes, even equipping them with a couple of carbs. Howard is shown here working the Bebek Brothers’ CRA car. He built the stout looking Cadillac OHV and built the fuel injection system as well. George Amick cut an astounding lap of 19.90 on the half-mile that year, which will stand as the all-time lap record at the infamous old facility, also once known as the Gardena Bowl. FromMERCHANTS OF SPEED – The Men Who Built America’s Performance Industry,by Paul D. Smith. (Don Johansen Collection)
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Nearly sixty years ago, in 1954, this photograph drew national attention. Ed Wolf’s coupe got to flipping along the front stretch wall and catch fence at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. It must have been pretty impressive for him – and for some of the nearby spectators. Thanks to his lap belt, he was not seriously injured. But it sure was a good thing he did not have to rely on the integrity of his roll cage, interior sheet metal or side bars. Photo fromSPEED AGEmagazine, August 1954.

 

It was back in the forties; Ford V-8 60s were the hot setup, but often too hot. To deal with that, innovative midget car owner Sarge Robinson built up and demonstrated his newest flathead to Playland Stadium Speedway (Seattle) official Gordon Fish. It featured extra aluminum water jackets, redirected the exhaust, and added new water tanks to the sides of the block. It became known as the “waterhouser.” Though the workmanship was apparently quite spiffy, it didn’t work, and soon the Offenhauser reigned supreme. FromSMOKE, SAND, and RUBBER, by Mel Anthony. (Golden Wheels Collection Photo)

 

That’s Mario Andretti next to the Mataka Bros. ARDC midget at Thompson (CT) Speedway. He finished third that day. Mario reflects in his 1994 biography,ANDRETTI, “If I had stopped and really reflected on the danger just once, I probably never would have stepped back in a race car. As realistic as you wanted to be, you almost didn’t want to think about it. I was driven by something different. I was driven by the desire to win at all costs. But I didn’t want to know what the costs were.” FromANDRETTI,by Mario Andretti, with Foreword by Paul Newman.

 

The photo is reversed. It should look like this:

 

Derek Daley had a ways to go. Here he was in 1969 at 16, driving his first car, a ’52 Ford Anglia. He would advance through the Indy 500, the Grand Prix of Monaco, and the 24 hours of Le Mans before writingRACE TO WIN – How to become a Complete Champion Driver, a book, says Mario Andretti, that “teaches lessons it took guys like me years to learn.”(Derek Daley Collect

 

(In a pouty voice) "Why do they always get to ride in the car and I have to sit on the fenders?"

 

After sweeping the Lincoln (PA) Speedway championship in 1959, Roger Sowers showed up with a rear engine car. It didn’t work on that dirt as well as Jack Brabham’s Cooper did on the Brickyard in Indianapolis in 1961! FromLINCOLN SPEEDWAY 50TH ANNIVERSARY – 50 Years of Thrilling Dirt Track Racing

 

A cool shot of Shelbyville, Illinois’ Wilbur Shaw at Indy in 1940 in the Boyle Maserati Special. He won, as he had in 1937 and 1939. But perhaps even more significantly, Shaw would really become savior of the Brickyard. The condition of the raceway, unused during World War II, was so deteriorated that owner Eddie Rickenbacker decided to close it. Shaw wasn’t about to let that happen and he persuaded Terre Haute’s Tony Hulman, owner of major food-producing and grocery interests, to take it over. That was in November 1945. The price: $750,000. FromGENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES, by Wilbur Shaw.
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Well, I sure do remember the donuts they sold off those trucks! As good as any from todays shops........

 

Before I read your post I thought the guy was sitting in it backwards... Doh!