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

Thank's for the nice remarks about my cars. The one that is not done is a sprint car. The nose, hood, cowl came from Mac in Indy. Ran out of money for now. Need paint, lettering, correct size tire and wheels [the ones on it are for the COORS car. Ilike Josh's remarhs, I think the least they could do is make everything on both sides of the cockpit clear so we can see the drivers WORK their trade. Years ago we used to tape cardboard to our arms or they would be one big bruise. I was even against cages because I thought they would make everybody too brave. It did, thankgoodness we have them now. Cars used to be hand made, if you tore one up you were out for maybe a week or two. Now you just buy anotherone. PROGRESS?
I feel better too.
Jim Graybeal

 

Good point on the clear Rock guard. A guy named Beesacker ran a clear one at the burg a few years back. It was a cool car all together. He had a "B" in the front nerf bar and a little chrome grille on the Scoop opening. and gold leaf vinyl numbers. Very cool!

JD

 

Corngrower32
You just tell it like it is don't you, I like that, when I get one of my midgets ready I would like to bring it to you for gold leaf!

"Doc" Parsons

 

[quote="Doc" Parsons;3233396]Corngrower32
You just tell it like it is don't you, I like that, when I get one of my midgets ready I would like to bring it to you for gold leaf!

"Doc" Parsons[/quote]
Doc, tell us more about what you're getting ready.

 

I really enjoy the old stories as well, and as Josh says the ones way before your time mean a lot, when you can get a hold of them.

I attended a old timer's annual event at Rushville IN last Saturday. Not too many cars, but all worth looking at and each with its own story. Nice to see Harley Gene there.

The "kingpin" of the day was Mr. Hankins, a TQ driver from the early 60's. I asked him about a track that was on the south side of Rushville. As a young boy, I saw the imprint of where it was in the pasture. My father said that cars raced on it way back. Thats all he knew.

So I asked of Mr. Hankins, "Do you know about that track?" And he said, "Yes, I do." And I became a young boy again as he spoke.

Here is the story.

Around 1930 there was a horse barn built in the pasture and a track made to train the horses. Training was done during the week, and so the track was free on the weekends.

It wasn't long before guys showed up on Saturdays and Sundays with there "A's" and "T's", took the bodies off, put boxes on the frame for seats, and went a' racin'. Mr. Hankins father was one of those fellas. Fronty heads were the hot setup.

This went on for a couple of years until , on one Saturday, the hood came off a Model T an cut a guy in two. Yes, that's what he said.

That's the last day cars ever raced on that track.

I'm damn glad I asked. Fifty years later, I got my story. And it's great to pass it on.

Carl

 

Excellent story Carl..


and Doc, I'd be honored!

Now for some self promoting... My website finally got going. It's about 75% done. Check it out!

www.shawhotrods.com

Thanks,

Joshua Shaw

 

Jim and Josh,
I am with you on the clear rock guard deal. Back in the early 90's when I was working at Hajduk's shop we rebodied Danny Milburn's Oz car with a set of CAE style panels replacing the wedge stuff. I made an old style grille for it and as vintage looking an air box as I could, and then we put a Lexan rock guard on it. Could not see it from 50 feet away.
Unfortunately Danny was killed in the car at Phoenix that year.

Roo

 

Thanks guys for the great photos and comments.

All these guys driving these car were "the real deal!"

Gary

 

Josh,

Amen, brother! I agree with you 100% on your top five worst things. I have run a pavement car on an extremely low budget, with open trailer and all, but even if I had unlimited funds, I will be using an open trailer.

Why? It is absolutely amazing how many people will start talking to you when you stop for fuel, to eat, etc. when you're on the road with a sprint car on an open trailer. Not to mention the thumb up's you get driving down the highway, or people pulling up and talking at stoplights. I have run into people at a gas station who ask where we're going, and you see them and their kids at the track later. If you're towing a big box down the highway, nobody knows or really cares what's inside.

Anyway, my two cents, FWIW.

 

Tail Tanks are my biggest pet peeve! The small short tanks they run today just completely ruin the lines of a a good midget or sprint. They look unfinished. Especially with the big side panels they run now, they look all out of proportion.

At a 30 lap Usac show this summer there was a red flag around lap 20 with no yellows before that. During the red a lot of the top teams all ran out to put more fuel in the car. That just seems ridiculous.

Every now and then, and it is a rare occurrence, I see a sprint or midget on an open trailer going down the road. I think I get more excited now than when I was a kid. I want to drop everything and just follow it for a while.

Jim, your sprinter looks great!!

 

I'm a touch older than Josh but not much, but my earliest sprinter memory is when we were on a family vacation and we stopped for breakfast and this guy with a Chev Dually pulled in with a open trailer in tow with the tire rack in the front and a killer looking black and green Sprinter on it.. I remember after dad payed the check I ran out to check out the car on the trailer, asking what it was, the driver/owner came out (stopped eating to come out and talk to a snot nosed kid) and let me climb inside it we talked for awhile, he gave me a quick lesson and a team t-shirt that had the saying across the chest that read " Backin' In" with the car pictured below busting thru a turn with mud flying, and on the back it read "keep the ASS out of the GRASS" I was the coolest kid on vacation wearing that shirt (or so I thought). I wore the hell out of that shirt..But after that we ended catching a "Bicentennial 76 lapper" at some track in Georgia on the way to the beach.. I will try to dig up the program if I still have it. Been hooked ever since..Ryan

 

Josh, your new site is gonna be one of my regular daily stops, I can tell. As to the rock guards, I remember one night at the Hoosier Dome midget race when all anybody could talk about was how they enjoyed watching George Snider drive Fedorcak's "Munchkin." He didn't do well in the race, but it was the only car where you could actually see the driver working.

 

Man!! The munchkin. That would be a cool car to have. Wonder where it is?


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When Dad and I were at Kokomo, their were two open trailers in the pits. One guy, no shit.. Had a steel block and a "short" stock chevy water pump on the front of his engine. I got down to look thinking it might even have a Carb ob it, but it was injected. The fuel pump was driven off the back of the block. My dad and I smiled, and complemented the guy. Too which he said, "it is what it is". While we walked away dad said, "I wish I could hand that guy a hundred dollar bill just for being here."
His car didn't run worth a shit, Missing and popping.. but the bottom line is, while most people sat in the stands on there asses, HE WAS DOING IT!! Good for him.
I remember at either putnamville, or Paragon, seeing a couple Carbed sprinters running.. At least there having fun!

 

Stewart owns a pair of them. Mike Fedorcak maintains them and they run them indoors in the winter. The story goes that a few years ago, the night before the Ft. Wayne race, Stewart was playing poker at Fedorcak's house, and bought the car from Mike. The car was sitting in a barn, and they worked most of the night to get it running for the race the next day. Stewart drove under the assumed name "Mikey Fedorcak". Exactly how much of the story is true, I don't know, but its a good story anyway.

I think the car Stewart drives is the original Munchkin, and the car Fedorcak runs is a later customer car. Mike built a few of them before USAC added some rules that reduced their effectiveness outdoors.

 

I vaugley remember T.S. telling that story in a TV interview just after buying it, probably at Daytona (?)

 

Josh, was that a light blue car? I forget the number, but he was there when I was there...OLD car with a rectangular tube frame. Sort of an early supermodified type body on the car. I thought he was just there to hot lap, but actually ran his heat and consi. Way off the pace, but respectful to the fast guys when they got to him (he pulled in the infield).

I think the car had manual steering on it...looked like a ton of work to drive. Definitely a survivor from an earlier era, when strapping in was more of a suicide mission than it is now.

 

I had this in my archive. I believe this was taken the first night Stewart had it. Although not as vintage, this car really had the old school spirit of building your own car and doing something different.

My favorite part of the car is it uses longitudinal torsion bars that are almost laying on the ground.

I wish I had a picture of it with it's original square tail.

 

I hate that car, I ran second to it at the first race it won, televised thursday night thunder race from the speedrome. I don't really hate it but I did that night.

Oh and for the record when everyone else racing there was laughing at that car i told em they better laugh now cause it was gonna kick our asses eventually

 

Here's a little more recent shot of both cars...

I'll look for the original OW article about it. The interview with Fedorcak is priceless!

 

Josh, I agree with you on almost everything you said. One thing i would like to say though, there are no promoters anymore, only track operators. Instead of doing a little promotional work to get people in the stands they just add another class to make more money off the back gate.
As for the open trailers, lets go even further single axle open trailer, pickup truck think how effective that would be at reducing costs, all you could bring is what fits on the trailer and in the truck, might stop a lot of guys from crashing so much too if they can't just roll a new one out of the trailer.

I like to see the driver too, ya aint driven a sprint car if ya don't have black and blue marks on your right arm from gettin hit by rocks at Eldora. (until ya got smart and duct taped cardboard on your arm)

fuel cells
Has anyone ever lost a race from havint to much fuel???

How many have lost a race from not having enough!!!!!


ALL race cars should be hand lettered and only the REALLY nice ones should have gold leaf lol

Damn I feel old

 

How about HANS devices.. Yeah they mean well, but not when a driver can't get out of a car in a timely fashion. How about HANS devices for Half miles and bigger only??

Well.... I had a couple good friends get it at the speedrome. Even quarter miles can get you if you hit something solid. I dont know if they would have saved Johnny Gaul or Don Vogler, but it may have increased the odds a little.<!-- / message -->

 

...

 

That car makes me think of Jimmy Shampine and the super he had that had the exposed front axle. The hood bottomed under it.

 

Any guesses (or knowledge) of what the original weighed ?

 

Regarding the worst things to happen to a sprint car, specifically on dirt, is a WING, hands down. Dirt cars are not supposed to be aided by Downforce, they should broadslide, bounce, and want to lean or tip to the right side, not be going 70 mile an hour counterclockwise and having the chassis leaning to the left. WINGS ARE FOR AIRPLANES!!

From Rumbleseries .com
2 new/copy Munchkins built by Mike Streicher to run Indoors @ Columbus next Saturday (11/1), 2 more to built for the Toledo race.

By JIM MORRISON
The Rumble Series

When Tony Stewart and Mike Fedorcak unload their midgets for the Rumble Series of Indoor Racing this winter, they’ll not have the only Munchkins in town.

Since May, Ohio car builder Mike Streicher has constructed four new cars from Fedorcak’s original drawings. Two more will be completed before Toledo’s Rumble in the Seagate Centre and a possibility exists for two more to be assembled.

Fedorcak, creator of the Munchkin midget chassis Stewart’s driven to four Rumble Series wins in the last three years, reached a deal with Streicher in May for Steicher’s company to construct the cars. Since 2005 when Stewart set quick time and won the feature in a Munchkin that just hours before sat in the hinter regions of Fedorcak’s shop, the Hoosier fabricator has received several requests to build more Munchkins.
Fedorcak resisted.

His fabrication business has kept him busy and he’d been burned in the late 1980s when USAC changed its rules. Twenty years ago, Fedorcak had just reached an agreement with a California company to sell the cars and he was left holding the parts for new cars. Some of the chrome molly tubing he bent for those cars remain in his shop.

“I had 10 cars cut up and ready to put together,“ said Fedorcak. “Rule changes put an end to that. I still have the materials here from that.”

In fact, Stewart’s car was the prototype Fedorcak assembled. That car incorporated refinements he wanted to make after completing the first Munchkin.

At last year’s Rumble in Fort Wayne, Fedorcak and Streicher started talking about building more Munchkins. Chuck Rencurrel, who fielded a car an old Volkswagen midget for Tyler Nuckles, approached Fedorcak about a car. As Stewart and Fedorcak talked after the NASCAR star’s win at Fort Wayne, Mike Osite, an East Coast racer, spoke to them at length, offering to find Fedorcak a ride at the Gambler’s Classic in Atlantic City a couple of weeks later. Osite, from Brooklyn, N.Y., also wanted a new Munchkin.

“I made a real effort to get into the car building business and it didn’t go,“ said Fedorcak. “Now I am not trying to get into the car building business and people are wanting me to build them.“

Fedorcak and Streicher reached an agreement in May with Streicher’s Strei-Tech company in Findlay, Ohio, paying Fedorcak a commission to build Munchkins based on the original blueprints, photographs and jigs. The deal includes the chassis setup used on Tony Stewart’s car. Fedorcak also provides a few different anti-roll bars so each can be tuned to a driver’s preferences.

Streicher already built midgets, sprint and Silver Crown cars in his shop in addition to his other fabrication work. Undertaking the Munchkin project went surprisingly well considering it was the beginning of a whole new project, according to Streicher. Since they construct race cars already, his workers were able to figure out the little things they had uncertainty about.

“A race car is a race car,” said Streicher, former USAC midget champion and a winner of the RCA Dome Invitational.

Rencurrel was the first to receive his chassis followed by the three delivered to Cicconi, All are identical to Stewart’s.

Two additional kits will be completed after the Buckeye Bowl Indoor Midget Nationals. He’s had discussions about building two more after those are assembled but nothing has been finalized. Streicher needed to complete work for another customer -- he houses two traditional chassis owned by Rick Daughtery -- that races in the Rumble Series.

Thus far, Streicher’s only delivered kits, but he’s not opposed to providing a roller. It all depends on what the customer wants. Although the parts delivered in the kit are traditional body-style pieces, Streicher said nothing prevents a car owner from attaching different styles of panels.

Over the years, Fedorcak’s Munchkins earned the reputation of being radically different. Other than being constructed lower to the ground and wider, Streicher disagrees with this contention. The parallel bar-style suspension was used by the Kurtis Kraft midgets of the 1940s, he said.
“They are doing the same thing differently,” said Streicher.
So what makes the Munchkin so good?

“It is a combination of things,“ said Fedorcak. “What I got was a happy medium of a lot of things for kind of a specific purpose.“

The car Stewart drives was designed for a short track. Many forget Fedorcak built another Munchkin to run a big track. It established a new track record at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

Fedorcak, a trained draftsman, has ideas for a new car but Cicconi wanted one identical to Stewart’s. He reasoned Cicconi wanted to match driving skills with the two-time NASCAR champion on a level playing field, but another consideration was the expertise on chassis setup included in the purchase of the Munchkin kit.

“I told him it was essential because of the fact that he had his cars figured out already,“ said Cicconi.

Working with a car constructed from an existing design would not present as much of a learning curve on chassis setup for the five-race Rumble Series, according to Cicconi. Fedorcak’s been on the phone with Cicconi just about every other day to answer questions on the car’s assembly and suggestions for chassis setup.

The Munchkin has many differences from the midget he races with the New England Midget Association. The Volkswagen-powered Munchkin chassis is shorter than Esslinger-powered chassis Cicconi drives outdoors. The shorter length makes it turn more easily in the corners.

Cicconi plans to race in the Rumble Series this year. He raced once before at Fort Wayne in Rencurrel’s Kalamazoo Twister.

“I couldn’t hire a driver that made me happy so I am going to do it myself,,“ said Cicconi.

Three Munchkin chassis arrived in Cicconi’s Ashton, Pa., shop in kit form in late September. Cicconi and others worked 10 to 12 hours a day to make a midget identical to Stewart’s. The second car -- for Osite -- was also completed in time to race in Columbus. The third car -- for Jim Morgan -- might not be ready until the Rumble in Toledo on Dec. 19 and 20.

Cicconi’s entered cars at Rumble Series races the last couple of years. Liquid Lou, as Cicconi is know, has a wealth of experience with indoor racing. He competes annually at the Gambler’s Classic in Atlantic City and is a past winner of that event. He raced at the old Niagara Falls Convention Center and competes during the summer with NEMA and ATQMA.

Like Cicconi, Streicher’s has many laps around the tight indoor circuits. Niagara Falls, Columbus, the RCA Dome. The list goes on. He loves that form of racing.

“I don’t know why I like it but I always have,” said Streicher.

Streicher’s racing career started in quarter midgets when just four and a half years old. Today, his son, Richie, races in the division. In fact, last year he finished second in one of the features

Fedorcak began racing in 1974, running go-karts. He purchased a midget in 1979 and raced super modifieds. He also ran an ASA stock car in the early 1990s. His skill with fabrication landed opportunities with the Baker Racing and Hemelgarn Racing teams at Indianapolis. Fedorcak did work on Stan Fox’s car during that time.
Fedorcak attributes the Munchkin’s popularity and the demand for more of them directly on Stewart. Fedorcak won a Rumble Series feature in a Munchkin in 2003 and then parked it. During a poker game, Stewart called Fedorcak just hours before the Rumble in Fort Wayne to buy the car. He dug it out of the back of shop, not even certain it would run.

Stewart sat a new track record and later won the feature. Since then, the NASCAR star’s visited victory lane three more times. He now owns two Munchkins, having purchased a second version that he had learned about during the summer which Fedorcak now drives that at indoor races.

Fedorcak originally developed the idea for the Munchkin during a ride to a surgical procedure in a Louisville hospital. His hands had been burned while racing supermodifieds and as he rode by the exit for the Indianapolis Speedway he filled his mind with concepts and plans started floating around in his head.

“By the time we got to Louisville I had the thing designed in my head,“ said Fedorcak, who had been close to winning at the Speedrome but never successfully.

After Fedorcak drew out his designs on paper, family and friends helped him begin gathering parts even before his hands had healed. In January of 1987 Fedorcak began cutting parts and assembling the chassis. At his first race -- at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Ill., -- he lapped the field up to third place.

“During hot laps, they threw the green and I thought the other guys had not seen it,” said Fedorcak. “I was that much faster.”

His next race came at the Speedrome where he won a race televised by ESPN. Things evolved from there.
“I have been riding a wave ever since,” said Fedorcak.


COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Buckeye Bowl Indoor Midget Car Nationals, a new indoor race event date on a temporary one tenth mile oval built inside the Ohio State Fairgrounds Expo Center Coliseum has been announced.

The event combines the National, Regional, Kenyon and Ford Focus Midget Cars running a full show with a 60-lap feature . The pits open at 7:30 a.m., with the main gate opening at noon. Time trials are set for the midgets at 4 p.m., with a full midget event after 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 1. Slingshots by Tobias, 600 Wingless Modified Midgets, quarter midgets and go-karts are also on the card.

Call Tony Barhorst at 317-418-3216, or e-mail tbracefest@aol.com. Visit rumbleseries.com

 

To quote the OW article: "The weight is unpublished" but built to the USAC rule book. I'm sure some lead was used to get to the minimum, whatever that was back then.

 

The original munchkin looks so minimal, what a great look. It is so awkward looking that it just looks fast.

 

From Racer5C..."One thing i would like to say though, there are no promoters anymore, only track operators."

Roy and Josh are right. When I think of all the work we used to put into promoting oval races at IRP, I have to wonder if it's still going on. Obviously there aren't as many open wheel oval races anymore.

Bob Daniels used to say if we didn't have any people it wasn't going to be because we didn't try to get the word out.