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

Brian....the grille is cast aluminum and I found it on eBay. I also have a Halibrand grille that I won't be using.

Sorry....no more photos. It's all in pieces at the moment.

 

What ebay search path have you guys found to the best in looking for vintage race cars? I lost my old one and can't remember what it was.

 

Maybe somebody else remembers this. I was messing around on Trackforum and they were talking about Sprint Cars on big tracks. In June of 1960, While I was at Travis Air Force Base waiting to be discharged from the USAF, I went to an event at Vaca Valley Raceway near Vacaville, Cal. They ran two 50-lap races, as I recall, on the 1.25 mile oval. I remember Danny "Termite" Jones winning the second, but don't remember who won the first. Sadly, there was also a fatality the same day. Does anybody else know anything about this race, sanction, etc.?

 

Okay, I looked on Motorsport Memorial, and the date of the race was May 30, 1960. It was a 100-mile race in two 50-mile legs, so Danny Jones was the overall winner. The driver who lost his life was named Ken McLaughlin, who was driving a roadster sprinter, and the race is listed as being sanctioned by CRA.

 

A few from Tucson..

 

Anybody know what the date is for the Jungle Park reunion ?

 

Over on the TrackForum they said it was 9/27.

 

Came across this site recently: Repoping vintage T/Q midgets parts in Ind. which may be of interest to some. http://www.vintagetqmidgets.com/Home_Page.php

 

Thanks for the intrest.....You seem like the only one who is. LOL!! I tried sending many pix to the address but it was kicked back. Try emailing me at paradyne65@yahoo.com and i'll reply with some pix. Thanks Tom Bliss

 

WOW! I miss a day and a few dozen post show up! Great stuff guys.

I don't know where to start..

Post 666 for me.. Damn! If I would have seen that I'd have done something with it!

Jim's card is cool..

100 pages. EXCELLENT! Guys I meet now that show interest in old sprint cars and have questions.. I direct them here. I tell them there is a hundred page, ongoing history report that they need to read first... Then get back to me!

I myself can't believe how much I've learned since the begining.

Johnnyfast! Thats killer.. glad to hear from ya.

On EBAY I just type in "Vintage Sprint car" in the search box. It averages about 30 items a week. I also check "old sprint car" and "sprint car steel"

Duece of spades... Can't wait to see it.

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Okay... Bad news on the Jungle park Reunion.

It IS Sat. 9/27, BUT, Winchester's old timmers event is back again and on the same day!!

It sucks, cause it will pull cars from both.

The only glimer of hope, If you don't mind driving is, Winchester has a USAC sprint race on the following day (sunday) and the Vintage cars will be doing some parade laps before the feature.

So.. You can hit Jungle park Sat, and Winchester Sun.

I have to be at Winchester both days. We'll have 5 or 6 cars in our camp.

I am in an all hours thrash to finish the "Walker Spl." for its debut at Winchester.

here are some pics.
















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It's coming along nicely. But, we'll see how the weekend at Winchester goes.

I'm concerned the "powers that be" are gonna give us a hard time about wanting to run our cars. If they want too, or if some ass hole complains.. They can say that our cars are NOT LEGIT.. I've been told that they have "unwritten rules" that say, for a car to be considered an "original" it has to have something like 10% of the original frame used..

I understand this theory, It keeps the Jalopy's, Dune buggy's and not so old (80's) sprinters from showing up... I guess?

I hope they can look past this, and take into consideration that my cars are pretty damn correct.

But, We'll see.

JD

 

Heres my offering from an historic event held here in Brisbane Australia today.
Some may recognize Larry Rice who guest drove a few of the cars in the demonstration heats


































And here I am in my friends Renault Fregate powered car - made me realise how brave these guys were!!!

 

Great stuff! Good turn out.


Hey Mac Miller, You mention to me once that the "Fike Plumbing Spl" was in Australia, restored the way it was raced there by a "Home country" hero that bought and raced the car for years..


Is this it?

JD

 

Looks like Rice A Roni can still fit in his old uniform! How many of us can do that !LOL

 

Yes! The large pic is a 1960 photo of the "FIKE". I believe that the young guy just above Parnelli's head is Buzz Gregory. HA! Wonder who the chick is holding Parnelli's helmet and Pabst Blue Ribbon?
The smaller pic is a 1962 photo of the "FIKE" being followed by the IDDINGS SPL. The track looks like the Indianapolis Raceway Park oval. The IDDINGS car was my first job in racing.


Here is a pic of the same car in the late 60s when it was owned and raced in Cal by Johnny Anderson
http://picasaweb.google.com/dgnb69/1970SSprintcars#5084747465818070738


Here is a pic of the car as it raced into the 70s driven by Aussie hero, Gary Rush.
http://picasaweb.google.com/dgnb69/1970SSprintcars#5084746851637746338

My last information was that the car is still in Australia, owned by a guy named Bob Blacklaw.



.

 

My old friend and mentor Kenny Riffel stopped by the shop today. He had called earlier so I asked him if he had any pics of the old 1966 chevelle he used to tow his old super modified with as I had bought this car from him in 1977. Luck would have it that he had just ran across some photos of the chevelle while it was used for towing the racer. We visited quite a bit and were trying to put the time frame of the photos together with the year they were taken. One of his replies was "the 55 car was brand new as it rolled onto the track for the Hutchinson Nationals. We went to Warren's sight and found that date to be 1968 as the car set fast time and was the event winner. At this time that made Kenny and Frankie Lies one of the elite team to be 3 time National winners. One of the next pics of the car was at the Louisiana state fair grounds. The pic has the date of March 1972 on the back. This was the first outing for the new version of the revised car. Kenny had told me that he had not tested or raced the new version at all and loaded it and towed all the way to Louisiana to race it for the first time. The results of this race were ugly as the duo of Kenny and Frankie beat the competion so badly the officals of the race impounded the car and placed it in a sealed off area under the grandstands. At the end of our visit he promised me a chance to copy more pics of race action and larger pics so stay tuned for more >>>>.

 

Very cool Bruce. I never thought of a Chevelle as a toter car before.

 

Oh yes back in the day it was quite popular to use the family driver as a tow car. That brings up a funny story. On the trip to louisiana Kenny had been up working non stop on the car so Frank was choosen to drive for a lot of the trip. Someplace he encounters a highway patrolman and gets pulled over. When Frank's getting back in the car Kenny wakes up and quizzes Frank on the stop. He claims he got a warning and was not speeding. 45 miles down the road the 396 spits out a valvespring. Into the spare race parts and a short repair they are back on the road. At the next gas stop Kenny gets into the console and finds a speeding ticket fo 98 miles per hour towing a trailer. Then the shit hit the fan. If you knew Frank or Kenny a good arguement was right down their alley >>>>.

 

Jos,
I do not think you will have any trouble with your car. My Coors car is a 1986 Gambler Silver Crown car and I have never had anyone say anything. See you at Winchester.
Jim Graybeal

 

Sharp car. I have been unsure as to whether I should or should not legalize mine.

We would like to see more pics, it's just that there is so much going no one wants to be pushy.

 

No problem. hope there not to big, I have include a pic of my Gibson roadster also. I have a early 60s Ron ward car believed to be owned by Ray Smith in the day. Not sure wich one it was though as the Smith Speed shop cars #s were shuffled a bit. I will have pix of it in the future. Tom Bliss

 

Here are a few more detailed shots. Fun car and truely give one the feeling of how it looked in the day. As all my cars it is available to a interested buyer. Thanx for looking , Tom Bliss -"Racinfool"

 

Do you still have the roadster too? They'er both pretty sharp. Gibson- as in Todd Gibson?

 

Yes I do, The car was the last roadster run in the lil 500. It was driven by Gene Lee Gibson Todds son......The car has a carbon fiber body, Indy car airjacks and is just a sweet lil piece. .......If you like stuff like check out my brothers nostalgia site. My race pages are there also. Thanx Tom Bliss www.jakessite.com

 

Sure looks like 1968 to me, right down to the err... 'welding'

 

At least your paying attention.

 

There wasn't much for affordable "store bought" parts back then for the hobby racer. Pretty much had to do with what you could find in the junkyard and with whatever skills you could muster. Those VW torsion bars are a good idea though.

 

I have to tell you I grew up around supers at Oswego as well as raced and owned them.......Seems like it was a lot more innovative as far as one mans creativity using parts that you could scrape up. Cars are very high tech these days but its not as a individual type thing these days. That is what makes the past so interesting to me. ... They tell me that these are the good old days but i'm not sure about that! Tom

 

Yeah that!

That roadster is a serious collectors item just for what it is besides who drove it and where. Love the lines. Got any more pics of it?

 

I'm sure the roadster is not an old Indy car, but if is even that would make it even more special.

My guess is Todd built it. Seems to me he was as good a builder as he was a driver. Never got to see him drive since I'm in Ok.