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

What I also find interesting is that after the 58 Monza race, Troy Ruttman hung around Europe and got a factory Maserati ride in the French GP at Reims. These are the only pics I've found of that event. While the numbers are different it's pretty obvious they are of Rutt. IIRC he finished a respectable 10th after some mechanical problems, I blieve.

 

He hated those wire wheels for sure, I think he wanted to use mag Hali's but they said no.

 

Not in my price range, by any means. This would be more in line for my wallet. Not a Kurtis, as titled, but quite a bit there to work with.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/30-4...yZ107066QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

The number on that piece of crap didnt seem real important, but you are right. Just wish Jakes cars had been half as good as his engines. With Hickeys brains he had awesome Offies, but only the midget was a good race car.
Im glad both Bob Mathouser and Elmer George had gotten out of that car already that day; wish Randall had not gotten into it.

 

Finding some metric splined Halibrands may have been a problem.

 

I have heard about that over the years, but never have seen much on it. Any pointers or websites I can read? Wasn't that race run for 2 years, with stone age live axle cars cleaning house?

 

I haven't found a website devoted to it, but Wikipedia /google will turn up a bunch of info on it: Monza Race of Two Worlds or Monzanapolis.

 

Not really...... Some of the first Halibrand mags were made to fit the
Rudge-Whitworth metric splined hubs of the day.

 

Cool. Thanks for the lunch time reading.

 

Racing legend Lloyd Ruby, a lifelong resident of Wichita Falls, passed away Monday night in Wichita Falls. He was 81.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Wichita Falls MPEC, Exhibit Hall A. Visitation will be from 5:30-7 p.m. Friday at Lunn's Colonial Funeral Home. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery.
Ruby won seven times on the USAC Championship Car Series in his career and also had endurance racing victories in the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the United States Grand Prix.
But he is best known for the race he didn’t win.
Ruby raced in 18 straight Indianapolis 500s from 1960-77, led in five of them and was out front for 126 laps. But he never won open wheel racing’s most prestigious prize.
His biography, written by Ted Buss in 2000, was titled: "Lloyd Ruby: The Greatest Driver Never to Win the Indy 500."
Ruby’s best finish at Indianapolis was third in 1964. His only top five finish at the 500 came in 1968. Five other times he placed in the top 10.
In 1991, he was inducted into the Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame.
"He is so respected by the other drivers he ran against back then. Everybody knows and loves him. He is one of the greatest guys there has ever been," Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian Donald Davidson said.
Davidson joined racing greats Johnny Rutherford, Parnelli Jones and Al and Bobby Unser in Wichita Falls when the Lloyd Ruby Overpass was named in honor of their racing friend. Rutherford, Jones and the Unser brothers represent 11 Indy 500 victories.
"When I was coming up through the ranks of racing, Lloyd Ruby was my hero, said Al Unser, a four-time 500 winner."He was honest and a hard racer. He didn’t pull bad things on you. You could run wheel to wheel with him and you didn’t have to worry about Lloyd. He made the race car talk.
"He was just as good as anybody. He was never secondary. Look at the record book. He should have won it (Indy) five or six times. Things just seem to happen. You wonder why people with the ability of Lloyd were not able to win. But he won everything else."
Ruby teamed with Ken Miles for his endurance wins at Daytona and Sebring in 1966 and also the World Sportscar Championship in 1966 and 1968.
"If I could drive like him just once, I’d be happy," said Wichitan Eddie Hill, a one-time NHRA Top Fuel national champion on the drag racing circuit. "They’re aren’t many people whose names immediately evoke a smile, but Lloyd Ruby will always hold that distinguished honor in the Hill house. We love him."
Ruby’s racing career was honored with the Bruton Smith Legends Award at the Texas Motor Sports Hall of Fame in Fort Worth in 2005.
Last year he was inducted into the Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in Tulsa and also named co-recipient of the Louis Meyer Award along with Helio Castroneves at the Auto Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony and special recognition dinner in Indianapolis.

 

very nice...
RIP
Dave

 

To be fair, if the races would have been run to include the road course portion, through the parabolic and such, the outcome would probably been different.

 

So sorry to hear about Ruby, Condolences to the family.
Does anyone remember the time @ Trenton when he was assessed a penalty or black flagged or whatever, & he left the back straight & cut across the dirt infield raising a cloud of dust. This was in a RE car, I'm not sure which, the DUPONT or other. Forgot the results.

In the same vein, I was able to go thru a personal photo book of someone who dated the races, track, driver & finish. I never noticed it before, but with all the dirt, sweat & all the rest, everyone had a smile on their face. Seeing Larson, Bryan, Sachs et al grinning with a face full of dirt was wonderful.

They all loved what they were doing in spite of the danger.
mlight9.

 

Thanks, racer5, for this great history of Lloyd Ruby. I always loved the guy at the Speedway...a real racer.

 

Another photo of Al Fredenberg in his sprinter in 1961.

 

Also just heard that Al Unser's sr's daughter Little Al's sister passed away too

 

From the waay back machine:
George Stewart (aka Leon Duray) has his 'racer face' on, aboard his Miller, in this shot from around 1927.

 

Lloyd Ruby cutting through Trenton's infield, I remember he had only a short distance left to qualify, from 4th turn to the flag. He cut through the infield, halfway in the back strech , 3rd, 4th turns, down the front to qualify.

 

Jim Packard leading McClusky, Foyt and P.J. 1960

 

New member, love this thread and have read every page, great stuff, thanks.
See picture of recently completed Edmunds Sprint Car, don't know what year so forgive me if I am in violation, everyone pushes the cushion a little.

 

Spike, here's the photo I got from Dennis Unger of Hugh Randall sitting in a Formula Junior. Dennis said he had no idea who the car belonged to, they were driving around Hugh's neighborhood and saw it. Nobody was home. I think I recognize it as the Barker brothers' Taraschi. Allan Barker was the normal driver. This would make sense because Hugh, the Barkers, and I all lived in the Crescent Hill/St. Matthews area on the east side of Louisville.

 

Another one from the collection of Dennis Unger. Bobby Black in the Cheeseman sprinter at Eldora.

 

damn thats gorgeous!!!

 

Welcome, I don't have a problem looking at caged cars when they look as good as that. If I'm not mistaken, that is the Lewis pavement car driven by Hamilton and others out west, back in the 70s (?)

 

indybigjohn-
Thanks for posting these great pics. Both those guys were gassers! Pedal to the metal...
Looks like Dennis has a great collection.
Do you ever listen to WLW from Cinncy?

 

Okay, I left my drool bib around here somewhere.....Man, that is the shizz!

 

Racer 5c-
I found this great thread again last night after being away for several months, and was pleasantly surprised to see your photos and comments about Barney Barnes, who I had the pleasure of working with nearly 40 years ago.
He used to reside in Youngstown Ohio, a couple of blocks away from Floyd Trevis' place, and moved to Urbana about the same time I moved to PA, early 80' I believe.
As a young stock car racer and aspiring master mechanic, I was facinated by his old fashioned way of doing things, even though they were painstaking, labor intensive, and downright eccentric, to say the least.
In the late 60's he owned a stock car that briefly dominated a local support division powered by six cylinder engines. In the pit area he would ask me to "get a few of your friends and crowd around the car" so he could crawl inside and pull off the floorboard with dzus fasteners that gave access to a quick change transmission he built. (Quick changes were not permitted in this division) By design or accident, his transmission came out turning the wrong way- solution> flip the rear end upside down! Nobody noticed!
When I commented on why he made his own lug nuts from hex stock, he said he had "all the time in the world", and I guess he did. You have to understand that when I started racing, we bought our parts- he made his.
Later he gave me a 50% cut on engine machining we did for locals. Taught me how to bore blocks, pressure test, install cam bearings and O ring the deck. You probably noticed he suffered from Parkinson's and shook real bad, but that did not stop him from going over my work and I can still hear him telling me "you're a half thousandth off". The other odd thing he did (there were many) was making things out of discarded connecting rods. His engine stand, overhead gantry, and even a valve spring tester were made from them.
The last time I saw him was at the Grove in the mid 80's when he had the Argosy trailer deal and said he was going to live forever. That part did not go his way, and I was sad to read of his passing along with his wife Ruth.
My question- where did the Harley powered midget end up?

 

IndyBig John, re your post #5104, was this still the Cheesman or new owner ??
mlight9.

 

I believe Leffler was the owner then.

 

SteveE may be right. Dennis didn't say in the info given, he just said it was the Cheeseman.