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

What is the story of the no. 25 Sachs Shrike? I saw it at Indy in at least 12 years ago. Why would that car be redone?

 

Brian,

Thanks for posting the excellent footage of Jackie. One of the all-time greats!

Offy 220

 

Nice!

 

LF- no I really don't know much of the history after Retzloff but it may have become The City of Syracuse car (?) A bit of trivia though, I'm pretty sure that car attempted to qualify for the Indy 500 in 1964 with Cliff Griffith up. In fact it may have been qualified at one point and got bumped, not really sure.

 

Hello, Well guys I have ran into A problem. I am missing part of my oil pump assembly, For my dry sump. I don’t know what kind it is? Or even where to start looking to find what I need? I am putting up some photos. If you can help me, I will be very thankful! Thanks,Tom

 

I thought the Don Branson Leader Card car became the Retzloff car and then the Bardahl car. I guess not?

I just realized I was thinking of the Rislone car!

 

Is it just me or have the last 24 days posts been the best part of the year?Great photos guys

 

Hello, Well besides the pump problem. The rebuild is going good. If I can get the piece I need. I will be one step closer to finishing the car. The photos lately are to much for words! Here are A couple of the rebuild. Thanks, Tom

 

Gotta be a custom made deal.......GM (Chev) gears by the looks.
Buy a block of aluminum and start carvin" !
Jim

 

So an idea just popped into my head...Would there be enough interest in the vintage community to have a Lindsey Hopkins shirt? Does anybody own the rights to Thurston? I think it would be kind of neat to have a shirt with a Hopkins midget, sprint, champ car, and roadster, no?

 

nice show josh, now show them my old ranger. russ

 

Absolutely correct Rootie. It's kind of ironic because Hank sold the car to Skeet Gibson in Phoenix in 1963 and who ran it with many of the best Manzanita drivers in the seat until 1966 when Skeet purchased a Don Edmunds sprinter to replace it and called it Twister II and that car went on to be one of the most successful cars at Manzanita.

Jerry McClung at the wheel on his way to a track record at Sacramento in 1967 (Photo courtesy of Billy Gibson)

This original Twister is now on display at the Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, IA

 

Isn't the Grizzly Brake car the same Kurtis Kraft 500D driven at the Speedway in 1955 and 1956 by Pat O'Connor and in 1957 by Don Freeland? Wonder what ever became of it?

 

Don't think so, it is listed as a 500G with a right side engine placement. Only ran 1 season and never qual. for a race but did run in a consi at Millwaukee. Probably got drafted and sent off to the supermodified wars.

 

Not sure where this is. Looks like a supermodified show, probably in the south, and sure is high banked. Maybe somebody will recognize the track. Maybe Macon?

 

.....'noresore, 'Anytime you would like to post more pictures of "The Termite," is fine with me!

 

Looks like an engine rebuilt/replacement.

 

Rootie,
Cliff Griffith did drive that car. I do not think he made a qal. attemt tgough. He could get it up to speed to make the show if the wind was not blowing. He was the fastest ever in an upright dirt car at Indy [unofficially] They told him if he stayed in the car all month and try to make the show he could drive it the rest of the year. He turned down a ride in the Dean Van Lines light weight roadster so he could drive the dirt car all season. Right after Indy they fired him and put Jud Larson in it. That is when Cliff quit.
Jim

 

On the subject of XXX chassis I have seen 2 wrecked
very badly and they came apart like any other chassis
But I am a 40 + year machinist and we are fighting
China on material quality I quoted a big job and lost
It to China they did it for the cost of the Aluminum
Then my costumer gave it back for us to rework right
They said after all that it still was a lot cheaper then if
We did it all ourselves, you know when I face milled the
Material it looked patchwork similar to cast alum.
Now in the industry we have something called ROHS
That was started I think in England that says you have to
Use certified material for all-big companies.
…Lumpy

 

McClung was a classic for sure. Do you know of any driver that had more fun racing than Jerry McClung - I didn't think so. I had the pleasure of living in the Phoenix area and watching the "Termite" rise through the ranks to become one of the best Arizona produced (he's in my top 5 for sure, after the 3 Bs - Bryan, Ball & Brown).
I hadn't heard that "Willie the Shoe" had possession of the Twister II but it is great news if he does. I'll check and see if I can find out if Billy still has the car or where it might be now. By the time Billy started driving for the Gibsons there was a fleet of "Twisters" so he might have one of those. I was told by Billy Gibson, Skeet's grandson, that the Twister II faded away and that no one knows where it is now. But I will check with Billy Gibson to see if Shuman does have the original Edmunds car or one of the. models that came later
I do recall the last time that I saw it run was at Ascot in 1977. It was during qualifying and I was standing on the left-rear tire of Gary Stanton's #75 car and Lealand McSpadden was on the right-rear. It was still painted orange in the same livery of R.L. "Leo" Ruggles Trucking (Ruggles bought the car from Skeet in 1969) as when Lealand bent it up real bad in turn four at Manzy in 1972. The car was "shooting ducks" and smoking really badly and Lealand turned to me and said, "not much has changed."
The Twister II may have been the most successful car in Manzy history (at least before the production line cars of today) McClung won a championship in it before taking on the USAC midget bunch back east; Bob Huebner won the 2nd edition of the Western World in 1969 in it and Jan Opperman followed suit the next year. Opp told me that the car handled like it was on "crushed ice" but it was sure fast, due in part to Billy Gibson, Sr's engine building. Lealand said that the car had very little side-bite but man it had a ton of forward traction which suited the driving styles of McClung, Opperman, Huebner and McSpadden a lot. Haul it into the corner, give it a huge pitch and then stand on the throttle and see ya' later - I can still see it in my mind today!
Finally, who would of thought that a Chevy-powered sprint car couldn't turn a lap faster than a 100-inch Championship car with a 255-inch Offy under the hood. Shorty must have cut one spectacular lap that day!