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

Nice super in your avatar!

 

Thank you Sir.

 

I think Don Smith has Herks old #56 Sterling Plumbing champ car (post #12603) in his collection.

 

Over the years many people have claimed to know the whereabouts of the missing Sterling Plumbing #56 sprint car. Most of them have mistaken the Don Smith champ car for the sprint car and none of the rest have come up with any conclusive evidence concerning the sprint car.

One guy who worked on the car "back in the day" claims the car was irreparably destroyed during its afterlife on the southern Indiana dirt tracks.

Would love to see Mr. VintageSprint76's photo......


mac miller in INDY

 

To add to the confusion, there were 2 Sterling Plumbing sprint cars.

 

Heads up...


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The Sterling Plumbing car in Boise has lettering on the side claiming the car was restored by Bruce Bromme in about 1986. I still have not figured out how to get a picture on here, but I will try later today. Lonnie Gotschall

 

I suspect you are refering to this car. Reading the comments on the site it appears to have been built by Bromme on a original Henry frame but it's not the original Herk #56.

http://offy223.com/?p=92

 

Thank you Brian for the comment on the Super. The car was built in 1963 by Bob Morgan in Seattle, Washington and later was known as the Parkin T Bucket , owned by Neil Parkin and ran out of Pocatello, Idaho. It has lots of CAMRA history. ( Canadian American Modified Racing Association ) The car sat in a garage since the mid to late 70s just as it was last raced until two years ago when I was lucky enough to purchase it. I was very surprised the car still existed. It is an offset car, which as a kid watching the car at the Fairgrounds Speedway here in Salt Lake City I never noticed. Some of the many drivers that drove this car to many wins were, Norm Elefson, Terry Nish, Mel Andrus, John Lewis, Ted Corrington, Jeff Parkin. I will get some pictures on here. Lonnie

 

That makes sense Rootie.

 

I'm pretty sure that would be Billy Allen in the 22 car

 

That is Rick Goade in the 23

 

Those were the days!!! I think I went on to win that race

 

Billy Allen in the 22 and Rick Goade in the 23

 

I remember seeing the car at Paragon, Indiana in the late 60's. It was owned and driven by a guy by the name of Steve Craft. I think he lived in the Indy area.

It was still numbered 56 ( don't remember the color) and there was lettering on the backbone of the tail that said something to the effect of " Herk's ol 60 model ". For some reason I want to think that Don Shepherd (AJ's brother) had something to do with the car at this point in time.

I don't remember the last time I saw the car or where it might have gone.

 

You are correct, Speedwrench. Don Shepherd worked with the Hurtubise Bros. on the car in USAC and he is the guy that told me that the car no longer exists...... No one that I have spoken to has been able to prove him wrong.

 

I love reading this thread. I though you might like to see the car I worked on in the early 70's. This is Tommy Noblin who drove the Bobby Davis Sr. car from Memphis. The last photo is of Tommy, Little Bobby (Bobby Davis Jr.) and Tommy's son Tom. We spent a lot of time in the north before WOO days.

 

He told me the same thing

 

did kurtis sell rail frames to build your own midget as a kit or would you have to order a complete car? I picked up an old midget with no known history other then is may have come out of NY and the rail fram is nice and no way "home made", a buddy says the engine mounts are Kurtis? I was wondering if bak in the day someone could buy frame parts in pieces to build there own car. Is there anyway to tell who made the chassis with out a "badge" on the surviving frame? anyone have an pictures of early midget rail frames and or construction?
Paul

 

Don't think Kurtis built any rail frame midgets. His lightweight tube frames are what made his cars as famous as they became.

 

Mac,

Interesting. A few years ago a current West Coast sprint car driver was asking me at Perris Speedway when we had the Foyt/Watson Bowes Seal Fast car on display if I had any spare parts, such as International spindles, Halibrand steering gear or any related parts that could be used on the #56 Sterling Plumbing - Hank Henry sprint car.

Thanks for correcting the information regarding the car.

Offy 220

 

Johnny Pawl bought the Kurtis tooling and sold cars and kits for many years. I saw the tooling last January at VanCraft in Gasoline Alley. Latest word is Van has retired and the tooling has a new caretaker. Perhaps someone in Indy can update the story.
Somewhere in my files I have a Johnny Pawl price list from 1959/60. Maybe I got it on here but if anyone is interested I can post it.

So the short answer is: Yes your frame could be a Kurtis kit.

Chuck Schultz
Winfield, Illinois

 

Interesting, I had no idea Kurtis ever made a rail frame midget.

 

Kurtis built a number of midgets before the war that were all rail frame. There were two I understand that were finished and delivered after the war. To my knowledge these were complete cars, not offerred as kits.

He built the famous and beautiful Charlie Allen midget pre-war which you will see described as a rail frame and as a tube frame. The frame was in fact made of square tubing.

The first round tube frame midgets were being made in the mid to late '30's by the Marchese Brothers, and Pete Nielsen in Milwaukee, and the Reichenbach Brothers in Chicago. There may have been some collaboration going on amongst them. Kurtis did not build a tube frame midget until after the war

Your rail frame would be easy to identify as a Solar if it were made out of stainless steel.

Beyond that Dreyer, Hillegas, Wohfiel, Richter, Adams, and all the other major builders may have had some unique features to their frames but there was a lot of similarity. For each of them, there were 25 or 50 guys building their own one off cars duplicating what they saw winning at the track. Many of them were accomplished fabricators and welders with war production experience.

My first midget I bought in 1989 was advertised in Hemmings as a 1938 Kurtis rail frame car. It was a running V8-60. I spent much time trying to research and identify the car. I ran it for 13 years in Vintage and best I could figure, it may have been a Dreyer nose and cowl, the rail frame was built like a Dreyer but not of that quality, and the tail was one of a kind, fairly pleasing, that someone tried to make like a Hillegas.

There are so many midgets like that out there that have been put together from collecting parts that it becomes a dead end to find a history or identify.

Regarding the "engine mounts are Kurtis", I don't know what that means. They might be for a Ford V8-60, or Offy, or Ferguson. Is he inferring that he can tell that Kurtis built them or they are of a design like Kurtis used and may have been duplicated by someone. I have a Shilala front spring mount on my current car that I duplicated.

Would like to see a picture posted of what you have.

 

He didn't. Frank worked on some pre war rail frame midgets for customers, and rebodied some rail frame cars. If the rail frame looks "Professionally built", it may be a Solar.

 

Sorry, I missed the rail part. Although according to the Kurtis Kraft story he did build some midget cars before the big war; no word on whether they were tube frames.
My friend Tom Arthur was trying to track down the origins of the first tube frame midget just before he died in 2008. Apparently the Marchese Brothers built one very early on, say 1936.
Weren't Solars built with conventional rails?

Chuck Schultz
Winfield, Illinois

 

Solar frames were made of stainless steel, as were the wheels.

The frames were very prone to cracking and many were replaced with conventional steel rails either purchased or modified from a Model A or similar.

I suspect the wheels may have been a problem also.

 

I purchased a 1941 Ray Kuhns Racing Annual earlier this year. Mr. Kuhns offered plan sets and buliding instructions for three different size dirt track cars: midgets, 3/4 or sprint cars, and full size cars. That would be another place to look for "identifying features."
The K-8 design was widely duplicated so it is probable that many of his midgets were made also.

 

Offy, The #56 Sterling was built by the Hurtubise Bros. I believe that the #55 Sterling(pictured in Rootie Kazoootie's post #12622) is the Hank Henry car.
Interesting photo with the two Sterling cars ganging up on your Bowes #1. Great photo!