60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

Thanks for the quick story, sad do doubt!

Leo Cleary

Leo Cleary

Leo Cleary mystic missle

Les Farley

Les Ley

 

Les Fowler

Lester Slone B class model T 1964

Lester Slone

Lester Slone

Lester Slone Mr. Klean

 

Lester Slone

Lew Blair

Lew Hennessey Islip Speedway

Lew Hennessey Islip

Lew Mood

 

George Minson



Bolwing Green

Lloyd Agor

Lloyd Agor

 

Lew Hennessey Islip Speedway


Lew Hennessey, what a nice guy and a great fabricator he was. Remember the Kosher Coach and Kosher 'Vette?

 

Thanks for all the pics. of the oldracers.Brings back a lot of fun memories. camco

 

Denis...

I called Jean Guy to try and get some more info on the Denis crash ...Denis had showed up with is regular ride the number 50 coupe ,but the car was not to his liking in the warmups , so he turned to the number 7 pinto , wich had carburator problems , so just before the start of the heat they made a switch...Jean Guy recalls watching them going down the stretch , and seing Denis car going up in the air ...and then earing the impact ... Eddy Flemke would keep Jean Guy up to date on Denis condition after that cause he knew the people on the safety crew...On impact , Denis seatbelt had probably come loose cause Denis head had come out the front window and hit the wall ...his helmet saved his life that day ...

Jacques Lalencette

Well the story about that mom and kid is unfortunatly true...And , yes Jacques to had a terrible wreck at Drummond in the late 80's ,flipping violently down the front stretch ,on the final impact the car landed on its roof , he to his seatbelts had come loose ,he broke his back and was paralized...

For you Modifieddriver here are a few pics of St-Gregoire circa 75-76...
( the track was sold and closed down in the mid 80's...Just like Drummond it was 1/2 mile inside and 5/8 on the outside , real fast...)
and some pics of Jacques Lalencette....

 

Thanks to all for the great memories. I grew up going to Reading Fairgrounds along with traveling for ARDC midgets in the late '60s. Dad bought a sprinter in '73 and we raced with URC, getting to see alot of these modified greats along the way. In '76 we towed to Canada for a two race weekend with URC. Drummondville and St. Georges, had a great time! We took 2 cars and I got to run the backup car at St. Georges, my second ever sprint ride. Had to give up the seat for Drummondville. I remember the mods having tail lights at D-ville 'cause of the poor lighting, but we saw some good racing!

 

What a great looking track with the bridge in the back ground, must have been an awesome sight coming down the backstretch heading into turn 3!

 

Thanks for all the information and pictures.

The pic of St. Gregoire (I had called it St. Georges 'cause I couldn't remember the correct French spelling ) is great. It triggers my memory.

When I was up there for the Trans-Am race, I stayed at the hotel that was built on the same side of the river as the old track but on the northeast side of the bridge entrance (nice joint!!! ).

I have the O'Keef beer poster from '75. In that poster pic I'm the car in the second row inside.

Yep, I remember Jacques #48 car. For some reason I think it was a Tobias chassis. I can't remember where all the money came from to run his operation, but they spent a bunch.

There was a high import duty into Canada on racing parts back then. I don't know if it still exists. Canadian customs would even write a record of the number of tires I took over the border.

There was one American, Don VanGuilder, that came up there and started beating the Canadians. Not a smart thing to do. He was smuggling parts across the border and got fingered (probably by an irrate Canadian racer) and spent the night in a Canadian jail cell. We're there at Drummondville Saturday night looking for Don. We find out the next day he's did cell time .

I befriended a Canadian racer, Frank Hodge (really Frank Hough, but I think that was pronounced Hog in French, so he changed it). He drove the "Lucky 7". In '75 he had the old Jack Johnson 12a. One night at Drummondville Frank rolled that old Johnson coupe (a tank) over the nose of my 'Cuda. Mashed the hood (missed the radiator) and pealed back my roof.

That winter,or the next, he came down and I took him over to Ken Tremont's place. Frank bought the #115 Pinto that Chuck Ely was driving. (I never get did a cut from that transaction ).

Fun times .

 

Jackie Evans Reading Fairgrounds

 

I'm enjoying some the stories keep them coming!

Llyod Agor

Lloyd Kimball

Lloyd Kimball

Lloyd Kimball

Lloyd Seay

 

Jackie Evans drove a lot in fla and the birmingham alabama area. when all the tracks went to late models 55 chevys jackie driove them but also disliked them. That was one of the reasons he went up north for the fast cars not the tanks we started running down here. Everyone that knew jackie was very sad when he died. He won a lot of races driving Ernie Knightons cars at sayre and other tracks in this area.

 

Sorry for the stock car here, but awesome picture in my vault lol Fred Lorenzen takes the checkers! IRP 64

Lou Funk Sr

Lou Funk Sr. street rod

 

Lou Hennessy

Lou Prior

Lou Austin

Lou Caso

Lou Funk

 

Lou Funk Jr

Lou Funk Jr

Lou Funk Jr

Lou Funk Jr

 

Just found this image online of Jean Guy Chartrand...

 

That's cool...matching truck, all lettered up. "Professional"!

 

look page 80!

Atlantic City Speedway

Will Cagle at Nazareth

Will Cagle headed to the track! The old fashion way, self advertising.

Gentleman Jim Hendrickson

Charlie Kremer and John Baker

 

Elton Hildreth

Richie Evans in Tom Green's ride

Frankie Schnieder

John Gill at Wall

Wall Stadium, NJ just got great news closed for the whole 2008 season, except for Nov. Turkey Derby which happened on a wing and a prayer, will be re-opened for 2009! Glad to finally hear a track opening or re-opening instead of closing it doors for another housing project or mall!

 

Lou Funk Jr

Lou Funk Jr

Lou Funk Jr

Lou Funk Sr

Lou Funk Sr

 

Lou Funk Sr.

Louie Prior Thompson

Louie Shoup

Lou Judson

Lou Judson

 

#99 Bob Malzone(spl)#J-16 Elton Hildreth#96 Johnny Crawford, Sr.#00 Moe Harden and #2 Bobby Able.

 

This is one of the best threads ever here on the HAMB. While surfing around on the net the other day I stumbled across an interesting site. It's www.historicaerials.com where they've linked older aerial photos with modern satellite imagery. You can enter a town or location and see some interesting stuff as far as what used to be.

Check out these from Deer Park NY in 1953 and again in 1980. Many folks have no idea there was a 1/2 mile dirt track in Deer Park along with a 1/5 mile oval. Rumors around Islip in the early 70's was that Jim Hendrickson used to practice there on occasion. Whether that's true or not I don't know but it sure is neat either way.

 

Here's Trenton NJ at the old NJ state fairgrounds from 1963 when it was a 1 mile paved oval to 1970 after it expanded to a 1 1/2 mile dogleg oval and forward to a couple of years ago. I still remember seeing Neil Bonnet (who I had never heard of at the time) in a late model in 1974 checking out on the field only to have the motor go after 20 laps. It was neat seeing the local Islip guys race on a big track.

 

Here's Islip circa 1966.

 

i'll put it here also . word out of birmingham al, un-confirmend,but the city of b'ham started tearing down the old racetrack at the fairgrounds today. really sucks

 

weekend has started!

Lou Judson

Lou Judson

Lou Lazzaro

Lou Lazzaro

Lou Lazzaro

 

Lou Lazzaro

Lou Lazzaro

Lou Pane

Lou Pane

Lou Pane

 

Lou Pane

Lou Pane

Lou Pane team

Lou Preston

Lou Preston