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

There's been several over the yrs. Here's a good one from a couple yrs. ago.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163095&highlight=don+smith+collection

 

I just read about this crash. Evidently the crank broke and sent the enginge one way and the car another. It was a Miller engine which had the tendency to blow up alot. I belive the driver to be Frank Elliot. Could be wrong though. I recently saw some footage from board tracks and it looked like some damn good racing.

Bob

 

mlight9-
Thanks for the info on that old Offy. It really did go better than i expected, especially for its age.
Did Vuky also drive this car out West early in his career?

 

Chapman Root, (orginally an Indiana businessman and later a fixture in the Daytona Beach area), and Don Smith were partners in Sumar Racing. They converted their wives’ first names, Sue Smith, and Mary Root, to name Sumar Racing.

Root made his fortune distributing Coke Cola in Indiana and Florida. The Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences has a "Roots Family Wing" that contains much of the Root family memoribila, including his personal train cars he used for traveling, and his Sumar Special Streamlined Indy Car, team uniforms, jackets, photographs, etc.

Smith made his money as a banker, obviously at a time when bankers had morals. Smith owned, sponsored and collected race cars (still does) and promoted the races at Terra Haute and the Indy Fairgrounds. Smith was, and is, the real deal.

Blacki-Suede

 

...

 

News from Saturday is the man that used to publish the Marc Times racing news here in Michigan ...Dick Beebe had a heart attack and passed away... He had some health issues but always seemed to pull thru.. The paper went under a year ago i think it was because of rising costs and not enuff advertisers . I knew Dick pretty well . he could be a real asshole but he sure did love racing.. His daughter is married to Jeff Bloom who was always refered to on thursday night thunder as the Michigan pavement specialist Jeff drove the Hoffman car also... Like a 3 time little 500 winner also..
RIP Dick
Dave

 

Josh, I am sure I am not the only one that would really appreciate your efforts on the pics from the CD. These early racecars can be like a sickness. In your post 4553 with the first batch I see you have Sig Haugdahl's rocket car,the car on the bottom row by itself. I am surprised I have not seen a reference on this forum (it may have been mentioned or discussed but then I missed it). No engine or trans in this car just a bunch of tubes where they inserted explosive rockets which propelled it around the track. I spoke not too long ago with Bill Castle (owner of the Miller Baby Chev) about this car and he and his wife were in Illinois and watched the fire where it and the Golden Sub and the Cadwell Miller burned up as well. Bill worked down the street and had been at the movie theater with his girlfriend-now wife and when they walked out saw the fire. Too bad three interesting cars such as these met such a fate.

Hopefully your treasure trove will contain more great tidbits. I realize you're busy but hopefully we will get to see them eventually. Thanks-Jim

 

+1 here, I love the early "roots" of the sport.
Ya gotta love the rocket power :
http://www.auto-history.tv/filmarchive/novelty/2280T548/

 

Jimmy Knight was areal nice guy. The Lite Knight was a car he built himself. He was a machinest at a railroad in ILL. I was told he made the steering box and most all the things on the car. It was a semi roadster. The steering drag link was in two pieces and the connector was connected to the frame and was said to give a more solid feel of the track and made the steering easyer. He was know as a pavement driver but was good on the dirt also, but I do not think he ever drove the Lite Knight car on the dirt. He got hurt out west in 1966 and got burned some. He called his wife and told her he had one more skin graft to be done and he would be home. He died on the operating table. I had the please of meeting him and racing against him in 65 and 66.
Jim Graybeal

 

Rootie, that is a pretty neat video. I have never done any real research on rocket cars but they would have been a hoot to see occasionally. Sig Haugdahl was more famous for his Wisconsin Special wherein he set a record of 180mph in 1922 I believe (if my memory is correct). The record was not accepted universally as a number of records were not at that time for a variety of reasons. Below is a picture of his Wisconsin special at the Miller meet a couple of years ago.

The other pics are of the rocket car back in the thirties.-Jim

 

That Wisc. Spl. is a pretty slick ride! Here's another early rocket car from the 20s/30s. I believe this is a Opal experimental car from Europe. Somewhere on the net (youtube probably) I recall seeing a vid that shows it making a run.

 

jim;Thank you very much for the info on Jimmy Jnight.If have any pic could post them?

 

Spike and Mlight9

Rootie Kazootie posted the pic of Chuck Arnold getting run over in post #87 on page 5.

The series of pictures is about Mario.

 

Thanks Jim

 

Well boys, I'll just start at the begining then... There are 1200 photo's on here.. a lot of them are Teather cars (that's what the guy is into) but so are we, so I'm gonna post them too.

These pics were given to me by a Gentle on the HAMB here that I know watches, but doesn't say much. Maybe He'll jump in and say "Hi"

I'll try to post a few a night if my schedual allows it..

Some of the photo's on the CD have been posted before, so I'll try not to run them again, but I might forget a few, and we'll have to see it again..

As I stated before, some are also very small. However they show up here is how I have them, so please don't ask if I can post it bigger. If you want, you can "right click" on it.. then select "Save picture" to save it to your computer, Then you can enlarge it in your photo viewing program, however.. it will be very fuzzy.


Here we go..
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next batch,,

 

next batch.. I skipped about 30 different Tether cars, and I got to Picture 99. So this might not take as long as I thought.

 

Ha! Just saw.. That's John Gerber in the #15



GREAT PITURE!!!

 

Great pics Josh-thanks-Jim

 

Speaking of tether cars, here is a micro real working tether car I built for my dad several years ago. It uses a .010 cubic inch motor and the fuel tank is just a small piece of rubber tubing. The chassis is all aluminum and the body is a thin Vacu formed Plastic.

 

Not sure if this was posted, 70 Hoosier 100. Points out the mismatch of the cammer fords vs. the offy about the third lap when AJ about runs over Sessions...pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0qL5ZitM_4&feature=rec-HM-fresh+div

 

Looks like he had a better handle on it than the previous week.

 

Actually Chapman Root was the son (he may even have been the grandson) of the original Chapman Root of the Root Glass Company in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Root Glass Company owned the patent for the distinctive original glass Coke bottle design that they had developed in a competition for the Coca-Cola company in 1915. Here's some more information:

http://web.indstate.edu/community/vchs/wvp/rootglass.pdf

Don Smith was a partner in Sumar for only about one year (and maybe part of a second). He and Root were partners in the Jimmy Daywalt Sumar Special in 1953 at Indianapolis. Soon after that Root bought out Smith's interest and Smith went on to spend his time on his banking interests. After that the cars entered at Indianapolis were always known (and lettered on the cars) as "Champman Root's Sumar Special". I'm not sure of the exact timeline but Root was the sole owner of Sumar by the time the streamliner came around.

 

Few more.. There are a ton of "Posters".. I posted some of the good ones.

 

Off Topic but Gene Nolan from southern Indiana had his complete Silver Crown Operation stolen in Oklahoma City while on the way to The Copper classic Please OKC guy keep your eyes open

Oklahoma City police are seeking the public’s help in solving the theft last week of a pickup and a trailer with a race car inside.


Last Tuesday, two men were en route to a race in Arizona from Indiana, pulling the trailer with a white 2005 Ford F-350 pickup, said Eugene Nolen, owner of the Indianapolis-based race team. They parked at the Red Roof Inn on S Meridian Avenue at Interstate 40 when they stopped to spend the night in Oklahoma City, and the pickup and trailer were gone by morning.

All told, the truck, trailer and its contents are worth more than $250,000, said Nolen, who was home in Indiana when the theft occurred and had planned to fly to Arizona for the race. Inside the trailer was an open-wheel race car used in the U.S. Auto Club’s Silver Crown Series, a spare engine, spare parts, tools and an all-terrain vehicle. The enclosed trailer is white, and it and the truck have Indiana tags.

Nolen said the race car, one of four his team operates, is yellow and has the number 20 on the side.

Police ask anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers by calling 235-7300 or sending a text message to (405) 415-5666. Tipsters may remain anonymous.

 

Been a lot of that up there in OkC recently.

 

Great pictures and storys guys, thanks for sharing. Anybody know of any 11.00 or 12.00 x 16 old NOS dirt tires?

 

Saw that posted on several sites, Roy. Good way to get the word out. Gene is a great fella and a real racer. We don't have many Silver Crown cars show up in this area, but we're keeping our eyes open on the interstates.

 

Gasser Dave! How are ya!!

You were right, Coker does not make the wide Double Diamonds in 16"..

If there are any out there, these guys will know.

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Speaking of Rare tires, and COKER..

THE FIRESTONE "SPEEDWAY" TIRES SHIPPED OUT TODAY!!!

Coker has been gearing up to reproduce the 16" and 18" inch "Speedway Tires" found on the roadsters of the 50's and 60's. I went ahead and paid for a set a year ago..
Well, my guy called today and said THERE IN!! and they shipped out today. I'll have them Friday maybe! I CAN'T WAIT! Those are the Holy Grail of tires for me!! (I'm kinda a tire nut!!)

I'll post pics when I get them and we'll all see how close they came to the real thing. Usually they do pretty good!

I was also told that they only made 40 of each (16's & 18's)
at noon today there were only 11 left.

These are the tires I'm talking about.

 

Check Speedway's New Catalog #276, Page187