60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

Old Bridge was long gone by then, New Egypt Speedway, that's Wally Dallenbach Jr in the 35, yes that Wally Dallencbach Jr - he was terrible in the modified; he hit everything but the ambulance!.[/QUOTE]

He wasn't very good in a TQ (three quarter midget) either.

As a favor to his Dad (Wally Sr.) the late Pete Petraitis of Huntington Station put him in his TQ at Wall (NJ) Stadium.

 

he wasn't very good at Winston Cup either....oh and wait he's wasn't that good on broadcast, atleast he had Benny Parsons to help him up!

 

July 7,1962 Orange Show Stadium. Southern California. Photo of the year. The best image I've ever seen to document the evolution of the modified racer in So-Cal.
Preacher Rogers (#34), Jim Roessler (#1), and Bob Simmons (#97) are side by side in cars that were getting progressivly lower, shorter and faster. 1st year of the overhead engine in the CJA.
Tom

 

Jim and Cliff Tyler , at Riverhead early sixties, Photos were taken by Chuck Pecora.

 

John Berkoski at Riverhead early sixties, Chuck Pecora photo

 

In regard to my feelings on accelleration and deceleration and Ken's reply, I think that my point may have been unclear. As Harold has stated, whenever a current driver (JR Bertuccio, Jimmy Blewitt) climb out of the Jarzombek coupe the reaction to the horsepower of the car is jaw dropping...and rightfully so.

The 390 carburetor not only acts as a choke at high RPM's it also has severly limited the power from the middle off the turn. The advances made in suspension geometry since the advent of the big tires ans independent suspension has made the cars much easier to drive through the turns...by anybody with enough money.

Give the current modifieds unlimited motors and 10" hard tires and then the drivers will rise to the top. Yes this is a fantasy statement and a draconian step but nonetheless the modern cars are rules limited and can never have innovation such as Charlie's coupe had.

 

I think that is the 1st time someone used "draconian" on the HAMB.
Love that coupe, i was a member of the Charlie J "Go Bunny" fan club in the early 70s

 

I have a Request for you Photo Historians.

Looking for a pic or pictures from one of the Worst days/weekend for you Long Island racers. Charlie J Won the Best Appearing Car Award @ Martinsville that weekend. I seen one pic of that car an know they took Crew shots up in the corner. Does Anybody have any of those pics an If the Original shooter has them , I know somebody that wants a set ( 8x10's)

For the rest of you posters THANKS for the memories. I fell REAL OLD when I can Name an remember seeing those Drivers running those cars.

Also any of Old Dirt guys have the Last Weld car Kenny drove with the Hemi in it ??

 

Not a bad step me thinks .. but only a first step as even more would have to be done to keep the cars competitive, plus lower the costs. There was a point in time .. 1978 I "think" .. where NASCAR was seriously considering putting the modifieds on the much narrower Winston Cup tires. I had conversation with Bill France, Jr. about this at a Promoters Dinner I attended, at the "21" in NY City.

Now I'm NOT an engineer & my understanding here might be off .. but few short years ago Formula 1 (F1) mandated grooves in their tires (not a treaded tire) in order to decrease the contact area with the track, rather than a narrower tire. .. It was said that was because modern F1 suspension designs/geometry would not safely accomidate a narrower tire / narrower tread width, so they tried decreasing the contact patch with the grooves.
Would a narrower tire similarly compromise the safety of current modifieds? .. I honestly don't know.
BTW, F1 eventually gave up on the grooved tire idea.

This all has memories of something flooding back from the '70s. 1977 maybe? I had some business reason (don't remember what) to stop by the Jarzombek race shop. What ever it was was easily & quickly taken care of I'm sure, but before I left Charlie, Ricky & I got into a discussion about the rapidly rising cost of modified racing. .... Charlie said (and I'll loosely quote from memory) ...... 'If the cost keep going up the way it is, pretty soon you'll (he meant the three Long Island tracks) only have us & maybe Harbach out there. No one else will be able to afford to race these cars.' ... They both went on to say ...... 'The cost of tires alone are killing everyone!' ... 'Something has to be done!' ........ Charlie continued .... 'It doesn't make any difference if were all out there on bicycle tires, we'd all be dealing with the same thing, BUT the cost would be A LOT lower.' .... He & Ricky made me promise to seriously look into it. They were certainly on target .... "LOWER THE COST!!!"
YEAH!!! Lower the cost & also get it back to where it's more of a drivers race .. rather than a who has the fattest wallet deal .. with cars that comparitively almost drive themselves!!!!!

I have to say something here .. because it's always bothered me BIG TIME and does so to this day.
Prior to Riverhead, my main background had been open cockpit racing .. midgets, sprints, TQ's, etc.. (No matter the type car .. racers are racers I've found and for the most part racers are GOOOOOD people.) .... I worked a year for Vinnie Moribeto at Riverhead first. Being nice, that was a real low budget operation, but I did start to get to know some of the modified people .... but the top guns on the island ran with us very infrequently. Because of that, I did not really get to the Jarzombek's.

WIth Moribeto out of the picture, I was now working with Ed Hawkins who owned the track. .. In my very first meeting with the top ranked Long Island (NY) race official I was (erroneously, it turnrd out) told that .. 'Charlie Jarzombek is a maverick, a rebel.' .. that 'he'll be a big problem, he'll always fight against you!' I took those statements with a grain of salt .... said to myself .. 'I don't know if that's true or untrue' and reasoned that I'd have to find out for myself.
I was already really banging heads with this top official on other things, regarding the (race) operation of the track.

To cut this already all too long rant short .. I'd like to say that almost immediately after that (due to the noise problem & eventually a proposed muffler test) and thoughout my years at Riverhead I found the opposite. I found Charlie, Ricky, Super (their Dad) .. even Gladys (their Mom) Jarzombek to be the most helpful, cooperative, nicest, honest, sincere people you could ever hope to meet, deal &/or work with. .... Heck, I'll even include Eddie (Cecil Palmtree) Partridge, Paul and a couple of others in their crew in that. ..... Sure, at times we disagreed &/or looked at things from a different perspective, but always with a positive & constructive result.

I did however find some (not all) of that officials "favorites" to be less than helpful, cooperative, etc..
OH WELL!!!

Maybe I should add something to my signature here.
HIGHER & HIGHER SPEEDS DO NOT EQUATE TO GOOD COMPETITION!!

SORRY for the looooong rant. ... BACK TO SOME PICTURES .. PLEASE!!!

 

pictures to please lol

 

One of my all-time favorites.

 

Any one out there know any history about this Modified Pinto? Was racing up in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Any info or pics would be appreciated.

 

Does anyone know what happened to Pops racing site? The site seems to be down, it's a shame there were alot of great shots on it

 

Hey s10ace

My immediate thought when I saw your picture was that it was Pat Wood's car that ran Monadnock Speedway in Winchester NH. Memorable number style and orange numbers. So I pulled out an old program and bingo, I think that is it, maybe with a slight update in the painted number and different window tin scoop.
But look at the side rail and the small brace bar just in front of the door. Also, the dash pod can be seen in the action shot.
You might have a championship-winning car.
I don't know anything about builder or where Pat Wood was from.
EEZI

 

s10ace
Here is a Speedway Scene photo of your car.

 

Thanks for all the info EEZI and Neil38. I am trying decide on restoring this car or make 32 Ford Coupe from a mold I have, My original idea was just a 37 Chev with 6 cyl. early 50's stock car. This Pinto rolls and steers, has motor mounts, transmission. Needs a lot of cleanup and a rear axle.

I would appreciate any additional info. I will probably post my progress on any of these projects in the future. My wife likes the 32 coupe, (it has a nice rear end).

 

If you plan to put a mid to late '30's body on that chassis and you want it to look right you'll need to change all of the unpainted bars as seen in the attached picture.

Doug

 

Doug,

Seems it was worth it your case. Very nice car!!

 

These two are about the nicest pair of early modified coupes I can remember seeing. Proably newly rebuilt but they sure bring back some memories.