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

mlight9

About our avatars:
1) Yours looks a bit longer - 96 inches would be a Champ Car. V8 or 4-Banger?
2) All your carbs are on the opposite side - mine is pretty boring from a left photo!
3) Yours has no roll bar. I'm guessing mine was added later?
4) Mine was driven by Chris Kringle! Merry Christmas to all!!

 

This was Mario's first sprint car ride. I think this was a old Horn car, maybe the Jewel Box ???

 

From a every day lurker here Merry Christmas.

Curt Grogan

 

does anybody know something about this car?
the owner was my grandfather John Lesniak

 

Merry Christmas everybody! Maybe Santa is an open wheel fan and we will all find offys under the tree tomorrow!!

 

Merry christmas!!!!!

I already have all the gifts i could ever want.
A beautiful and loving wife, 4 beautiful and well behaved
kids. And all our health.

I hope you all are as blessed as i am.

 

Me, too! We are very blessed! Merry Christmas to all!
Ebert

 

Ha! Brian26 and I have been talking about that picture.. I told him I thought I had seen a pic of a VERY young mario in it..

Thanks rootie!

 

Gotta show my all-time favorites......... I dream of some day having a real vintage sprint - and racing it!!!!!!!!!

I used to work with Larry Bettenhausen - never understood how he was not into Indy Cars with the rest of the family...........

Merry Christmas to all the H.A.M.B.ers!!!!!!

 

Where was this picture taken?

I remember Mario driving a sprint car at Lebanon Valley Speedway in the early 60's. He's swing the ass end of that car right up to the wall in turn #2.

I think it Buick powered with wire spoke wheels. Was this the car? I was an impressionable young teenager at the time. I'm lucky I remember anything at all from back then .

AND ....... Merry Christmas to all on this thread .

 

Says it was LV speedway May 21 1961 but no other info. I was thinking Spike might know more.

 

That car was a sister car to the one i had.
In the photo with Mario, it was at LV, and the car had a big Cadillac engine in it.

 

7th pic on the bottom... winchester? vogler?
Dave

 

The midget in the center of the top row. Is that Kenny Eaton at Soldier Field about 46-47?
HG

 

Smokey Yunick once said of Foyt that when the cars didn't handle well, he'd bring out the best in them and be so far ahead of everyone else. It was when the cars started to handle really well, that Foyt lost some of his dominance.

Some drivers I think needed a car that suited their level of difficulty that they were used to. The flipside of that was, no one else could understand THAT winning car like the one that MADE it a winning car. In that sense, a legendary car could make an otherwise great driver look bad. Great car, great driver, yet not always a great match.

 

The last picture is Tony Stewart going out of Salem after a mess with Bulter. The picture before is what happens when someone does give in to a slide job. In the 60's a slide job was not the thing to do, the old men did not like it and they had a great memory[ if they did not crash you when you tryied to do it the first time]. A slide job with no roll cage was a no no. I got to drive against those drivers and am glad I did. They were the best.
Jim Graybeal

 

The indefinable, intrinsic quality that seperates the greatest from the great.

 

I'll let Smokey Tell it,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGoMKX-Hra4&feature=channel_page

 

I never got to see Opperman drive. I did get to see footage without knowing who it was(it was him).

With an unbiased eye, it was obvious he was every bit as good as the legend said he was. It was as if his nerve endings went right into the groovings on the tires. Walking like a calm cat over red-hot glass at 100+mph, on dirt! A pure artist.

 

Yeah, a Caddy engine. It was different. I remember the car he drove wasn't the quality of many of the others, but I'm pretty sure Mario won the feature race that day.

The banking on the track looks like Lebanon Valley in the picture. It looks like turns 1&2.

I also remember the USAC midgets coming to the Valley. It was the summer of the year PJ won Indy ('63?). What a show!!!!!!

 

I've been lucky enuf to see Jan race a he was special. Here are 2 pics I took at Williams Grove in '72 with Opp in the Bogar 99 and Smokey Snellbaker in the Morral 880. The photos are from different days, Jan is driving different cars.

 

Hi Ronnie isn't this a great site. As you well know I am a real 50's and 60's central Pa. fan. I know from the views the Supermodifieds of that era are not exactly everyone's cup of tea here. I would appreciate any pics or stories of the Supermodified or 50's jalopies in Central Pa. Thanks

 

Jan used to come out to Phoenix at Manzy and run the Twister II. Fun to watch...The racing Hippy he was called

 

That car which Mario drove at LV was about two years newer than the one i drove; both were over 30 years old at the time, and neither handled very well. Mario was the differece; he drove the wheels off that old piece and won the feature that day!
Ted and Shaw built both cars. The one i drove was built for a wealthy man from Florida name of Peters. Ted did run it a few times for the guy. Another driver who ran it was Indy 500 winner Bill Holland.

 

That's some interesting history there Spike, thanks. Lil ol' Mario almost looks lost in that big, heavy crate, a real testament to his abilitys long before power steering and such.

 

Yep, I remember my dad and I remarking that "who ever that guy is", he's puttin' on a show for the fans!!!!!!!!!!!

AND ............... now I own the midget he drove that helped launch his career .

 

Thanks, Brian26, for the video of Smokey on Foyt. I was always amazed at Foyt, and I had a high opinion of Opperman as well.

Jimmy G, I'll be the first to tell these people that you aren't blowing smoke when you tell them you raced with those guys. And you weren't half bad.

 

a little offbeat here are a few dirt track toys from 40,s,50s,60s

 

Kyle, the guy who made this last post might be the only one on earth with a s-10 pickup with ford wire spoke wheels on it, he keeps thinking of putting a v-8 60 in it