History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Yes it was a 144 ci falcon the next year he made it a 177 and it never ran right again. the Mataka car was after Mario 1966 My father won his only feature with ARDC that year at Lincoln Pa.

 

Just had another thought the Mataka car may also have been a falcon back then Stan or Ken may know the answer.

 

"Lover Boy" Ernie McCoy in the #17 !!! Johnny Mann, Frank Savona and myself were just talking about him last week and how he was a SUPERB race driver in his day (quote Johnny Mann) and of Ernie's running Indy and how he well earned the right of running there.

Now I hate to dispute you Billy, but that's not the Joe Csiki Falcon that was so famous & won the ARDC championship one year and I think maybe a NEMA championship too. That car was never owned by Ed Hunter. First thing I noticed was the lack of the high cross spring front suspension that was built on the car from day one & is still on the car the very same way. The car always & still carried the #22, most times (maybe always) in a star burst.

Csiki built it and first ran NEMA with it, then sold it to the Bennett Brothers. Csiki campaigned it for them with the ARDC. It was a team car to Dutch Schaefer in their Kurtis Offy. Talk about the Csiki car being fast!!!! Csiki made it look easy one night on the 1/2 mile asphalt at Old Bridge (NJ), when in a 100 lapper .. except for Ray Brown in the second place car .. he lapped all the stars & all the cars of the ARDC (except for second place - the entire field). If the race was five laps longer, he would have gone around Ray Brown too.

It was then sold to Joel Merksamer (spelling?) of Birchwood Towing here on Long Island, NY .. some where in this time Dutch Schaefer & Ray Sigowski changed the rear suspension from coil overs to cross torsion. Joel also exchanged the some what crude body Csiki had on the car for new Trevis TQ body parts.

Joel sold the car to Johnny (Karklin) Action and his Dad, Big Carl. They campaigned it with the SMRC starting in 1973 or '74. Some years later, when Johnny Action stopped running, he parked it in the garage at his home in Toms River, NJ. There it sat for a good number of years .. collecting dust, etc. .. until the retired Judge Schumaker or Shoemacher bought it (at a bargain price) and ran &/or showed it in various vintage events up & down the east coast (he also did the same with the Csiki sprint car).

When the Judge stopped doing this and after it sat for some years, I looked at the car, with the idea of buying it from the Judge .. but the price he quoted was both astronomical & laughable (at the same time). Plus, although superficially the car looked good (shiney, etc.) .. but once one looked past the surface .. it really needed A LOT of work!! I added the price he wanted (already a joke in my mind) and added the work needed in my head and "almost" laughed out loud!!

Both cars still sit in the late Judges garage here on Long Island and are owned by his daughter &/or his estate.

Anyhoo .. that's the complete history of the ownership of that car.

I'll post some pictures below. If you look at the front (high cross spring) suspension, the location of the steering (never changed), the angle of the Eggers & Vetting (E & V) injector velocity stacks (never changed), the upper portion of the headers (never changed), the nose (never changed after Joel M. put the Trevis TQ nose, etc. on it) and other features .. you'll see they're not the same car. .... BTW, most of these pictures were posted by someone else here before.

Now Ed Hunter, from Wayne, NJ, did own a white #98 Falcon powered car that was driven by Duke Pavelick with the SMRC in 1974 .. at the very same time that Johhny Action was campaigning the former Csiki car with that club. In the 1974 year book I did for the SMRC, a picture of that Hunter #98 looks to be the same car that you drove, but again NOT the Csiki car.

Now there is a Csiki built car that is missing. The one before the one we're talking about. It was known as "The Worm". It was a strange, almost wierd looking car, Nose to tail, it "had" truly crudeish home made body work (as I remember) .. steering wheel almost flat (like in a big bus). I have no pictures of it .. although I'd sure like to. It was sold by Csiki's widow, along with most of his racing related stuff and has never surfaced .. UNLESS it has a completely new body, etc..

 

Johnny Mann ??? Good to hear that he is still around. He came back to the midwest in 76 to run with us. He won a race or two, and went back home. We also had a couple of Lindblad's cars that ran in the midwest. I drove out to meet Rollie in New York to pick up a pinto powered yellow Badger that Johnny may have driven...but not sure. It was the lightest water cooled car I had ever seen.

 

That is their Kurtis your Dad was in. I don't think it ever had a Falcon in it, but I sure as heck could be wrong.

I THINK the car they had a Falcon in was a newer, lighter, space frame car. The car I'm thinking of is the one that Frankie Schnieder put on a REAL SHOW .. indoors at Atlantic City, ARDC sanctioned .. the ONLY one on the outside .. passing the parade on the inside .. until the injector pump belt flew off, ending his really spectacular charge to he front in the Mataka / Raceweld 3n1.

Ed Mataka lurks here .. reading, following and enjoying all. MAYBE he'll chime in and put us on the right track?

Someone (I've forgotten who) who posts here &/or on the sprint car thread owns their Kurtis.

 

Jus' goin thru Adelaide stuff and seen a period pic of Kym Bonython's Offy ( Bonython was Rowley Park's popular and long standing manager).

Can anyone shed some light on this car?

(Sorry, no pic.)

 

As far as the Lindblad Badger cars, for the most part Johhny drove a black Chevy II powered one for Dewey Cali (spelling?). I do not know if he ever drove a Pinto powered one or not, but I'll ask when I next see him.

Johnny's late son Billy also drove a Badger, first powerd by an Offy .. then switched to ???????? power. (Does anyone remember?)

Today Johnny says (in the same breath) that "He don't know how old he is, but that he's a "YOUNG" 83'.

He still straps into a midget at Old Timers / Vintage events, such as the annual three day extravaganza at the Loudon, NH mile, and shows everyone how to get around F A S T !!!!

I'll post a picture of a Badger below, with modified stock car ace Ed Flemke in the seat.

BTW .. the Badgers were eventually outlawed. as were an independent suspension car by Don Edmunds and also various rear engine midgets. I'll loosely quote Don Edmunds regarding these type of cars being outlawed.
'The 1890's technology of straight front axles and solid axle rears give todays drivers no shot at the big time.'<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

 

Think about this. A good running 300 cu. in. Ford truck engine .. the same engine that Csiki ran in his sprint car .. but in a midget.

Yes, it was done and legally. The SMRC rules allowed it.

 

I haven't had any luck finding it yet. I am waiting to hear back from a few people though.

 

Yeah I saw the pictures. Great looking car. Not sure who Harry Conklin is though.

 

The show was great. It was at the fairgrounds though. The Aerodrome is a few miles away from there. They have the car show every May and ACOT is always there on the Saturday during the car show. Yeah they use to race at the Rhinebeck fairgrounds. In fact the track is still there, but not used. The infield is now used for horse shows and they have a stage set up over by the grandstands for concerts during the fair. I will try to get the pictures up this weekend as I am having issues with the card reader on my computer.

 

HARRY CONKLIN

Harry Conklin became a race car owner in 1946, owning midgets, modifieds and sprint cars during the next 60 years and continues to be a car owner today. His cars have won 140 Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association feature races and 15 of their yearly championships. His midgets have won seven Mile High Classic Nationals and scored two wins at the Belleville Midget Nationals. His sprint cars have won four Colorado championships and early on his modifieds won two championships.

Drivers that won RMMRA championships in Conklin's cars include Jimmy La Manna, Sam Sauer, Randy Roberts, Kenny Lewis and present driver Gary Taylor.






http://www.coloradomotorsportshalloffame.com/cmhof/inductees-by-year/2006-inductees

 

Ken Stan told me the car I drove was in fact a Csiki car If you look at the front suspension of the $ car it looks identicle to hunters 98 whereas the 22 cars frontend looks totally different A little help Stan.

 

Here's a picture i just downloaded off friends of Hinchcliff on facebook

 

Hey Billy ..

That car may well have been "a" Csiki owned car, yes .. but not "the" famous one. Sure looks like it could be the $ sign pictured.

I don't know if Walt May actually owned the $ sign (as stated in that caption) or if Joe Csiki did and Walt May sponsored it (maybe)? Sometimes those things were puropsely skewed, for what ever reasons. An example being .. when Dutch Schaefer bought the Kurtis Offy from the Bennett Brothers, Charlie Shick became the "registered" owner .. but actually wasn't.

Also, Joe Csiki sure could have owned the $ sign &/or what ever car the Hunter #98 was, etc., etc. at some point or other.

The $ sign being a Falcon that Csiki at least drove, I would guess that Joe Csiki probably built the engine .. and again possibly owned the car. Others on here would probably know more about that &/or the NEMA history involved.

 

Ken,
Both of those crude built Cziki cars (Called worm #1 and #2) together did not win as many features as Cziki did in the Kurtis chassis 345 that he bought from Smokey Secundo. Check the photos of his #32 cars, the only Kurtis made with twin bungs for the radius rods.
Cziki put a ferguson and put on #22. Did not win with it till he put in the falcon.
He eventually sold it to Marguson with the $ sign on it and continued to race it till Ed Hunter bought it.
Your photo with the checkered flag is the Kurtis with the $ sign on it. When you come to visit I can show you the records and a ton of photos of it.
If I ever figure out how to post pics I will place them here.
Stan...................

 

Got'cha!!! .... THANKS for clearing that up Stan!!!

BTW .. when you get a chance, read your Private Messages here .. re trying to make plans to go to Mataka's, getting you & Rich together re that wing, etc.. .. .. .. We're waiting on your reply & hopeing that the time that Harold S. has available doesn't run out in the meantime.

 

Thanks for getting my back Stan. Having both driven and worked on the Hunter car immediately saw the similarities tothe $ sign car pictured. Also Ken keep me up to date on visit to either Matakas or Stans as I haven't seen either of them in way too long.

 

ME 2 .....Rich

 

You folks were talking about Johnny Mann. Here is a photo of him and the Strapoli car. He won a ton of races in this car. It is stashed away in my barn.
Stan..............

 

Remember watching Johnny Coy in the Strapoli car at Hershey that was one fast car.

 

This is a V8 60 midget that was owned by All Rymsa until about 58. Then sold to Ben Cook. Johnny Mann almost won Bloomsburg Fair race but blew up on the last lap. The race was schedueled for 25 laps but they ran 30 laps. Just Johnnys luck.
Checkerboard had many fine drivers, Bobby Boone, King Carpenter,Bill Troutwine, Steve Yannigan, Ronnie Rough, Johnny Coy. Gordon Reid.
I helped Al paint this car in 55 and it still has that original paint on it.
Had to trade a Kurtis Offy for it. I would get rid of all my cars before I would part with this.
Stan.................

 

Stan... amazing car and paint job. This question is off topic a little, but how did this paint job reproduce in racing news type magazines or track programs? The reason I as is that I'd think the pattern on the car would be a problem when the photo was converted to half-tones for the printing press, creating unwanted / overlapping dot patterns. Heck, it's kinda hard on my eyes in regular photos. Just wondering... Gary

 

Gary,
I could always pick it out , but honestly maybe I was just familiar with the car. The polished aluminum hood scoops the R in the front bumper and the black style of the tail stood out.
Stan..................

 

Sorry for the cage!!! But this is a photo of Bob Cicconi in the ex Strapoli car. They bought it from Strapoli. It went to Hompish from Jersey. I bought it from his widow.
Stan.....................

 

My Little willy`s midget. This was the second car I restored. I also made a model of it. It came from the Philly area, I don`t know anything about it.
Stan..................

 

In the picture, you can see the patch panel to cover the hole for the Secso injectors. At least that was my conclusion. Gurney, it likely was. I had Butcher in my head all these years. I'll bet my dad remembers. I have an old program with a picture from that race on the front. I will have to find it. Silver Dollars. How cool was that. Wasn't the payout at a Casino too? Everybody loved to go to Vegas to race.
Found out yesterday my dad bought a V4 midget from George Tallant years ago. Any pictures out there? My dad has a few when he had the car.

 

Bonythons Kurtis Roadster is restored in Queensland ,Look at VSAQ.net and his Kurtis upright sits unrestored in a barn in queensland Gordon

 

.....'Hi Rim Ryder, I totally understand the point you were trying to make. So, no arguement here. Yes, the hood had to be "notched" for the SESCO and not the Offy. In the early days of the SESCO, naturally it was more powerful but lacked the reliability of the Offy, plus.....it leaked oil! It just so happened that Red's brother, Doug Caruthers did the very same thing for the 1970 Hut Hundred for Jimmy's #5 car. He also pulled out the SESCO and put old faithful back in for the 100-lapper at Terre Haute. But he didn't bother to cover the void left in the hood.

 

Any ID this oil pan maybe used for a Midget Racer" Boat? Has Laco stamped on it, Kind of looks like a model A or T But Different
Cheers & Beers Gruntis