60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

Freddie, Tyler? Anderson, who went over the wall, center photo. The fence looks fine as does the guy at it. Or is that a wheel on a rack on a hauler?

 

LOL about the drivers and smoking. Deke Astle was always chomping on a cigar when he drove. I can't remember who the heck it was, but there was a northeast driver that had a cigarette lighter mounted on the dash. Every caution period you'd see him reach in his suit for a pack of smokes and light up.

 

The smoking and lighters in the car weren't limited to the modifieds. David Pearson and Dick Trickle come to mind.

 

BigDaddy, Thank for pointing out the link. That was a great picture. I remember that he had a later model, vega, possibly with a straight 6 in it when I was a kid. Jim used to give us rides to the speedway and drop us off after the show when I was much younger and he was good enough to let me work on the pinto modified when I would hang out at the shop. My next stop will be the Himes Museum. thanks again.

 

Who is in the 21 Chevette? Peggy Smith?

JBull

 

That is Wayne Anderson's right front that wound up in the catch fence. That is Cliff Tyler in the red 21 vega. Anderson's car is one of the two Billy Auer pintos that Ted Wenofske drove to the Islip Track Championship in 1974. The X91 in the second photo looks like Fred Sipala. I don't recall him having a pinto. I recall his Mustang II and vega. This looks like it could be one of the Billy Auer pintos as well. The Auer pintos changed hands a few times with Kevin Keillor and Tom McCann owning them at one time as well. Keillor kept the number 16 and painted the car orange. McCann painted it a metallic blue at one point and also had it white with a red white and blue #6 on it. Maybe some of those pictures will surface.

Thanks for the photos.

JBull

 

I believe that 21 chevette was peggy smith..

 

I know that Don Diffendorf had a lighter mounted on the dash of the S/360 back in the day.

 

Yes it is. Former Jarzombek Chevette. And, she had a set of balls bigger than a lot of guys! I truly meant that in a good way.

 

We went to Flemington a couple of times, but I can't remember if it was when we were at Pocono or Trenton for the ROC.
I do remember my mom and another friend wore white pants and after the race they stood up it was quite obvious where they had been sitting. Thier pants were red from the front and white from behind. They were not happy, but I got to see Brightbill and Chamberlain at home.

 

That car sat in my garage when I lived in Ridge (NY) for a year, maybe two (don't remember) while Peggy put together the money for an (inexpensive) engine, etc..

It's currently in the shop on the Jarzombek farm, and is one of the Jarzombek family modifieds being restored by Charlie's brother Ricky and their close friend Harold Seaman (two VERY talented guys).

Peggy has been a close & very valued friend of ours for many years.
She's an absolutely GRRRRRREAT person.

BTW .. In all the time she campaigned a modified her engines always cost approximately only 20 to 25% of what the top runners had invested in theirs .. most often with used parts that were bought when the top shoes upgraded to newer technology .. sometimes borrowed engine parts too.

The last (and second) modified she had was the former Cliff Tyler (1970's vintage) Troyer that one of the younger Brunnholzl's (Charlie?) later ran as an SK at Stafford in CT .. her black #21.

Peggy could really drive the wheels off of anything. She was the Champion in the Riverhead (NY) Grand-Am late models (no fluke there) .. did very well with a comparitively low budget car in the Freeport (NY) late models, often beating many of the established top runners .. did very well in an old, tired, outdated TQ midget that was wrenched by the late Artie King (the wheel repair man) .. and most often qualified in her good looking; but old, outdated, underpowered, verrrrry low budget modified at Riverhead (NY). "IF" Peggy had ever had equipment equal to the top runners, I KNOW that she would have been a FORCE to recon with .. competing for frequent wins.

Many may not know that not too very long ago Peggy battled breast cancer & is currently in the middle of battleing a recurrance of that disease. She's out & about and seemily doing very well, but if you would .. keep her in your best thoughts and more.

THANKS!!!!

 

The CVRA website shows the Richards family just repaved Albany-Saratoga and Devil's Bowl. I remember when CJ tore up the first asphalt at Devil's Bowl to prevent foreclosure. Some hinky financing had the loan on the track surface.
There are some strange photos of modern dirt mods on the track. Also a photo of a super.
http://www.cvra.com/photopage.htm

I know it doesn't belong, but Albany-Saratoga had some great racing, but
I never liked the CVRA rules.

 

I'm pretty sure it was not the 357. Delmolino did drive the 357 mostly at Fonda, but for owner Austin Dickermann. 357 was his dealer plate number, and that's why both Eddie D. and Butch Jelley ran the number when driving for him.
It was probably the 24.

 

I have the same memory of Neil Bonnet. I didn't know many of the Late Model driver's so I was cheering for fellow Vermonter Bobby Dragon.
The mods there were amazingly fast.

 

Bullfather,

Enjoying many of the old Islip photos. There are quite a few of the 9A and Bobby Holmberg. Are they from the George Meade collection? Some nice shots of Charlie Jarzombek that I haven't seem before. And it looks like a few from Martinsville, including action shots over the last few pages.

Thanks again,

JBull

 

Great Race. A 200 lapper (maybe the Weld Built 200) Tom McCann in the 16 would pull away on the restarts with his automatic transmission and then Charlie Jarzombek (on the outside) would run him down. Charlie had the faster car and was even pushing McCann down the straights but couldn't quite get up enough on him in the turns to complete the pass. That was the way it went for the first 160 laps until Charlie pushed McCann down the straight into the enrance of turn 1. McCann got a little loose and Charlie got even with him into two and it was a drag race down the backstretch into turn 3. Charlie started pulling ahead and that's when McCann said he had enough, he stuffed Jarzombek and himself into the turn 4 wall. Guess he wasn't too happy about Charlie's bumper. I think John Blewett might have been running third and took over the lead and the win. 1979? McCann was done for the night, I believe Charlie charged back to fourth with a bent racer.

JBull

 

First, my best to Peggy.

Second, thanks, Ken. Great info. I'm surprised Peggy was able to run the Chevette. When the Jarzombek's first built the Chevette, they ran the car a few times: Oswego I believe (where they may have wrecked it)and Thompson where Charlie won the Mulligan Stew Event (twin races: he won the first and finished second to Evans in the second race). Then Nascar outlawed it. I believe their explanation was that the body was too radically offset (the right rear shock was outside the body). I thought they just reskinned the car with a pinto body for the rest of the season. Did they park the Chevette entirely and build a new car with the pinto body? I believe that was 1981 and Charlie did not really run the island that year. I only saw the car in the papers until I hit the Race of Champions in Pocono where I saw him run the pinto bodied car.

JBull

 

I don't know where Pete gets his pictures from; but, yeah, some are from my collection. I have the originals in my scrapbook and I posted most of them on http://www.lasheefs.com/ a long time ago. It's great to see them resurface here...brings back great memories. Most people don't realize that Bobby drove a lot of cars besides our 9A. That's him in Billy Spades' 15x, the Ace of Spades Falcon, Vinny Crawfords' #25 Pinto and Joe "Chicky" Malaves' # 17 Vega (the former Winters Cougar). He also drove Scibelli Bros. 75, Mousey Kempsters' 3K, Bobby Parks' 19,and Fred Harbachs X89 on at least one occasion. He was a great driver and a really good friend.

 

Yeah, some of the Meade stuff are from facebook that I've come across, some great stuff there George! I also get stuff emailed from time to time. I'm just glad we can recall some of the history of modifieds. Brings back memories and then most of them before I was born lol

 

Great stuff! Thanks to both of you. Keep it coming.

 

Bugsy Seekonk

 

west hampton, new photo of the track I've never seen, aren't many of them

 

sweet looking any info folks?

 

hendrickson and tappen's car in background