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

I'm with ya on the 60s midgets. Here's another of P.J. at Milwaukee. That car pretty much defines 60s midgets for me, right down to the Clay Smith decal. Time to get back to work on my time machine, I guess.

 

....

 

Bunch of Astrodome pics here:

http://www.ssmamidgets.com/texas/index.php?showforum=14

 

Hereis a favorite of mine. Billy Engelhart at the wheel.



Josh

 

Roy, I'm happy to know that's you on the cover. Ed gave me one at IRP when it first came out.

 

'To me, this was the greatest day EVER on this forum. Thanks to racer5c (Roy) and Rootie for these truly unbelievable pictures. Anyone that's ever been involved in racing or even a half way serious fan of midget racing would know that the whole Caruthers family was an iconic name for so long. The best at what they did. From Doug as an owner, Red as someone who revolutionized the sport in his day, Jimmy, Danny, Lonnie and now Roy to pass along to us these treasured family archives really makes my day! Thank you, gentlemen.

 

Any other pics of this car? What year/era was it from?

 

It,s a 1935 indy car.

 

Here is something similar on youtube at the Newport Hill climb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIih9gM4bto&feature=channel_page

 

My dad hot lapping his sprint car, I have this face mask hanging here in my den. Sorry if I posted to much today don't mean to hijack the thread

I don't see hijacking, I see great memories shared with all of us, Thanks.
I only had the pleasure of seeing Danny Caruthers race once, at Williams Grove, and man did he have a set of BALLZ along with a great talent! He wasn't lettin' the mill breath much at all, and in a nonwing car at the 'Grove thats incredible! Danny was flatout into turh 3 in the feature and tappin' the right rear off the rail to get off turn 4, never liftin'!

 

Got this in a package of stock car photos sent to me by Wayne Doebling, our photographer in ASA back in the day. According to his date stamp, it was April 1969, and it looks like Salem. Don't know who these two guys are, but they're obviously not having a good day. Figured someone on here would know them...

 

I'm glad you mentioned Red Caruthers. Here's Bobby Olivero in his LTC.

 

Thanks Roy leave it to me to have it backass halfwards!

Bob

 

The body and suspension are 1935 Miller Ford Indycar. Real or copy?? I don't know. I've never seen this car in person.

 

Hey Ron Kramer are you any relation to King Kramer?

 

Nope, no relation to King Kramer, the only blood we share is the racing type.

 

The old Indy car that is in the Cincy car show photos is the Indy car that Andy Granatelli stuffed in the wall at Indy 'I think" in 1948. It is front wheel drive . I have emailed the owner to get the straight story. Hopefully I can relay those stats to you guys soon. It belongs to a guy from Cincy and who owns Zakhiras Garage.
Here is a shot of the engine.
HG

 

Mine, before. The little boy in the car is now 19, 6'3" and 215lbs.

 

OK, here is the scoop on the Granatelli Indy car from the owner.

The car is the Miller-Ford Andy Granatelli crashed in practice at Indy in 1948. According to his autobiography, the Granatelli brothers had purchased the car from Gil Pearson in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1lace></st1:City> on a few weeks prior. The car was powered by a 270 Offy when Andy purchased it. Andy wound up driving the car at Indy in practice because he was not happy with the performance of his original driver.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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I have always assumed the car was a Lew Welch car, but I am not certain. Gil Pearson, I believe, worked for Lew Welch for a number of years. Lew acquired one or more of the Miller Fords from Henry Ford in early 1937. Welch ran an Offy powered Miller-Ford at Indy several times before the war. In 1941 he ran a Miller-Ford converted into the first <st1lace w:st="on">NOVI</st1lace>. Many people have assumed the same car ran all those years starting in 1937 and wound up as the 1941 <st1lace w:st="on">NOVI</st1lace>. I do not think this is accurate. I suspect Welch had more than one Miller-Ford.

Hey how about that, I knew something about an Indy car Mac didn't.....that doesn't happen very often. You gonna let me get away with that, Mac?.......bet not.
HG
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Jimmy Caruthers Ken Brenns car Terre Haute 1967

 

car on the outside was my dads not sure who is driving it in this picture

 

I was lucky enough to become friends with this really cool old guy named Barney Barnes, whenever we had vintage cars running with us when I was racing I would spend as much time as I could looking at the vintage cars (unlike most of the guys I was racing with who couldn't have cared less about them) anyway Barney built this car originally in 1937 and raced it himself, I really liked to listen to him talk about the Akron Rubber Bowl, Motor City Speedway, and all the other places he raced. There was just something about Barney and this car that he built and drove that really drew me to him every time I saw him. One night I was racing at the Indianapolis Speedrome and the vintage cars were there, for probably the first time since I had met him Barney came up to me instead of me coming up to him and he asked me if I wanted to drive his car. Up to this point in time NO ONE had ever driven this car but Barney now remember this was a vintage meet that was running in conjuction with our races and usually they wouldn't let the vintage cars run very hard. I can't tell you what an honor it was to be asked to drive this car that he had built himself and owned pretty much his whole life and no one but him had ever driven. I couldn't say yes fast enough. I thought I would go out and putt around in it, Barney had other ideas, He told me he wanted to see me run it as hard as I could, "I want to see how fast it will still go" he said. John Stiles the owner of the Speedrome was ok with it and I took the car out without any of the other vintage cars on the track for a few laps, I did like Barney asked and ran it as hard as I could. I'm not sure who had a bigger smile on their face when i got out of the car Barney or me. These pictures are not from that day but this is the man and the car. I will try to dig through some more of my scrap books and find pictures from that day if anyone wants to see them.

 

This picture is to new but Spike asked for it, if others think these are to new let me know and I won't post any more caged pics. Me on the inside in A.J. Watsons car, Rich Vogler on the outside getting ready to blow my doors off in Wilkes car

 

Me my dad and Johnny Rutherford

 

This will be my last caged pic unless Josh says its ok for more. This is the last Offy EVER to make a USAC feature. I was lucky enough to be the driver. it might be the last Offy ever to be raced, I also ran it in a NAMARS show at Indianapolis Raceway Park later than this.

 

Roy,
Thanks for sharing this awesome story....look forward to more pictures.
Thanks,
Eric

 

Roy-
Thanks for posting those great pics. Hope you are permitted to post more.
Spike