History Cars From Milwaukee Wisconsin, SE WI, and Northern Illinois....

I stopped by Howard's today. I mentioned I posted pics of the vette. He pointed at a shelf and said the engine and trans are right there.

 

John voight racine wi. Name might be miss spelled.

 

Larry Perfetto and Howard Kayes vette. Racine wi.

 

Larry Perfetto again. Racine wi.

 

Sky Clausen Racine Wi.

 

Howard Kayes first altered. Ran at union grove.

 

Howard's shop after leaving R+B 13th and Washington ave. Racine wi.

 

Anyone with pictures of an injected small block powered 55 Chevy convertible,straight axle,one piece flip front, green in color?Owned by a guy named Rittburg...Raced at Great Lakes.

 

Sky is still around, he lives in Northern California. Back in about 1969 I had Sky paint my Cyclone, he did the prep and painted it red- cost was $100!! ( not missing any zeros!) I paid him an extra $10 for gold flake, $110 total out the door! That does not buy masking tape today!

 

Jim as you can see I was into Howard's photos. They are in the tool box in the office. He said he has hundreds more at home and will get them out. I made 8x10s of the 39 chevy for him. When I gave them to him there was a long pause and he looked like he was reliving those days. When he came back to reality he said wow those were some memories. It put a huge smile on his face. 37 hot rod provided the link to better pics.

 

Glad I could help.

 

While a little bit too new for the hamb it's worth mentioning Ruffallo and eihland. Could be wrong on the spelling. These guys out of Kenosha build the most over done dragster ever. When this car came out there was nothing like it and to this day nothing has matched it. The car was built at R+B of course just down the street from their shop. The black paint was beyond perfect. Every part and I mean EVERY part was gold plated. Real deal dipped gold plated. The rims on the truck and trailer were gold plated also. A plating place in Chicago did all the work. The cost to do that even at that time is hard to imagine. The car did qualify in NHRA top fuel at least once. It was a regular on big weekends at the grove. Today the car; truck and trailer can be seen at Garlitts museum. This car really shows the quality of work coming out of this area of the country.

 

This man is legendary in the history of Grand National and USAC racing from our area. Norm Nelson was from Racine Wi. He started his career racing Fords in the late 50s into the early 60s. He jumped ship over to Plymouth when the hemi came out. Norm along with RogerMccluskie flat out owned USAC for the next several years. I can't begin to list all the races and championships won. They had a full ride from Plymouth. Local sponsorship came from Hub Chrysler Plymouth in Milwaukee and Kilborn gardens located at I-94 and Hwy 20 Racine. After the Mopar deal dried up Norm ran a AMC. Norms first shop was located on Eaton Lane off Rapids Drive on the north side of Racine. The property later became Micks Automotive. His next shop was located a stones throw from my house. I can stand in my front yard and see the shop. Located in the unincorporated town of Husher on Nicholson Rd. Just outside of Franksville. The cars built here were so fast mopar told him to stop running grand national events and concentrate on USAC after he beat Richard Petty by over ten miles at a Grand National race. There could only be one top mopar driver. It was stated by his wife if anything ever happened to Petty that Norm would become the top guy to replace him.
Every week a inventory of damage was done on the cars. They raced several times a week back then. If there was enough damage a whole new show room stock car would be shipped to the team as it was easier to do it like that. The extra parts were boxed or in the case of sheet metal hung from the rafters. A friend of mine needed a door for his car. The team had changed to the newer body so they pulled a door from the rafters and sold it complete with the car number still painted on it. They said it won Atlanta. Countless hemi parts also found their way to hot rodders in the area. The team did build hemis for local racers both drag and roundy. The roots run deep in our area. Several guys associated with Norm were later helpful in Alan Kulwickies success. Here's a pic of the second shop as it appears today now used by a local stock car team.

 

Here's photos of the 22T coupe built by Tony Walker in 1947, later went on to be the Hot Rod Shop of Milwaukee mascot. I bought the car from Ralph and Bob around 1973. The left front photo has me behind the wheel then. I sold it to a guy named Larry Brown from Long Island NY in 1974.

 

Norm was an icon in this area during the 50’s & 60’s, he also drove stock cars in the early to mid 50’s for Garbo Motors of Racine. Back then Mercury’s were the hot ticket in Grand National racing. I remember visiting the Eaton Lane shop with my father, he knew Norm quite well.

 

I don't know much about early part of his career. I never heard Tom or Dick Garbo mention anything about it. The next time I'm at the dealership I will have to ask them. It's cool he ran a merc I didn't know that. When Glen Heflen was crewing on Norms sons Leroys sprint car he told me about the garage at one of the families houses on three mile Rd. North of hwy 31. There was a lot of mopar parts in it. Norm had passed away by this time. I went over there and literally hauled a pickup truck full of parts away. I went back several more times. One thing that stood out was a large shelving unit full of control arms. They were all modified with tags showing the number of degrees in each one. There were alot of Ford parts upstairs still in tan packages with red lettering on them. I remember grabbing some. They were rods and valves.

 

No cool story, but I picked this patch up on eBay the other day.

 

Dick and Tom will remember better than myself, they are a few years older than I am and were closer to the action. Here are a couple of photos showing Norm in #9, ‘57 Mercury and #55, ‘55 Mercury.
Jim

 

That's super cool. Do you have a pic of Dicks black comet or the comet that preceded it?

 

Does anyone have pics of the race track from Racines Horlick Field were they ran midgets? My dad told me they had no money to get in so him and his brothers would sit on top of the box cars parked along the south side of the property. They could then see over the wall.

another track I want to see pics of is the Franksville Park circle track. The track is now the baseball diamond. You can see the way the light poles are set up were the track was.

A track I have never seen a pic of is the dragstrip in Lake Geneva.

 

Glad this thread got revived! Coincidentally this was posted on the "Old Milwaukee" FB group this week. Courtesy Mark Dietrich.

 

Sorry I do not have or have ever seen pictures of the ‘64 Cyclone Dick owned. I was there when it came into the dealership “on the hook” after it went head on with a Rambler. Dick bought the car and proceeded to build it, this was in about 1965. It got a built 289 with a cross ram dual 4 set up, five spoke “mags”, and a “Case Orange” paint job. (It was originally silverish blueish color) it eventually made it way to Kenosha where the last I heard it met up with a telephone pole that ended it’s life.
The ‘67 Comet still exists but is in very rough shape. I talked to a guy last year who actually saw it in the flesh and confirmed its condition. Here is a write up about it from a few years ago.
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/ultrarare-1967-mercury-r-code-comet-caliente-sitting-chickens/
Both of those cars left an impression on me that still exists today, my Cyclone was purchased because of the Orange car and my ‘71 Comet GT ( which Dicks son owns now) was ordered triple black because of the ‘67.
There is no cure for the disease!

 

My friend Jerry K. found this yesterday while going though a pile of old car magazines, he said he picked it up at the Hot Rod Shop of Milwaukee when he was 16. (He is early 70’s now) I thought it might bring back a few memories for some of you.
Jim

 

Great story racer x! I never knew the history of that property in Husher. My friend Paul Dygon is the current owner. Yeah he’s got it stuffed full of HAMB friendly vehicles. I just moved from Racine county to the SW part of Wisconsin 2 years ago.
Did you happen to know John Vassh?

 

I believe that building was a machine shop a few years ago, I knew a guy who said his wife’s family owned the property.
And I see you have a Meteor! That’s kind of a rare sight now a day. I remember them in the show room in ‘63, they had a strange front suspension system.

 

I know Paul. I went to high school with a john vassh. There was another john vaash that was killed when a car fell on him. I didn't know that guy. The building paul owns was originally the case implement dealership. The guy that owner it also owned the house I live in. The dealership was later moved out to hwy 20 and 94. After Norm was done racing the building housed his snowmobile dealership. Sw wisc. My wife is from Bagley.

 

Strange front suspension is accurate! Never seen one like it!

 

Small world, as my wife is from Franksville!
The John Vassh I was referring to is the one whose car fell on him. Just asking as my wife always spoke so highly about him and his wife. They took my wife under their wing when she was young. My wife’s dad (John Conwell) died in a motorcycle accident when she was just a kid.
If you’ve been to Paul’s Daytona 500 parties at the Husher shop, I’ve probably met you before.
Tell him Drake says “Hi” if you run into him.
Take care.