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

Concours d'Elegance Announces Track Event

- 2011-04-13


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April 13, 2011<O></O>
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Concours d'Elegance of America Announces Track Event<O></O>
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TROY, MI--The Concours d'Elegance of America at St. John’s (formerly held at Meadow Brook Hall) is pleased to announce the First Annual Concours Track Event at Michigan International Speedway (MIS). Owners of classic cars from around the country are invited to bring their machines to MIS on Friday, July 29, 2011 to experience thrill of driving on a high speed raceway. <O></O>
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“We are very happy to introduce a track event to the Concours,” said James McCarter, Executive Director of the Concours d’Elegance of America. “Driving vintage cars and high performance vehicles on a professional track is an important part of owning them—it’s no fun just keeping them in the garage. We are planning for this to become an annual part of the Concours d’Elegance of America at St. John’s. Each year will feature a different type of racing.”<O></O>
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A special “100 Years of Indy” class of 33 vintage Indy cars will be on the field at the Concours at St John <O></O>
Sunday, July 31. Priority participation in the driving event will be given to the vintage Indy race cars.<O></O>
Many of the pre-1964 cars that raced in the Indianapolis 500 are expected to participate as well as other vintage racers, also on display at the Concours d'Elegance of America at St John’s.<O></O>
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Spaces in the track event are limited, so McCarter encourages those interested to sign up as soon as possible. Registration Forms are available at the Concours website (click here) or call the Concours office at (248) 643-8645 and one can be mailed or faxed. <O></O>
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Classes will be developed based the car’s capability, preparation and safety. Each group of cars to hit the track will be of similar vintage and performance levels. Groups will range from 8 to 15 cars. Each registered car is expected to get at least four separate runs on the raceway.<O></O>
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After 32 years at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester, Michigan, the Concours d'Elegance of America will move to The Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, Michigan on Sunday July 31, 2011. The new location will facilitate a larger show field, an on-site luxury hotel and plenty of opportunities for a robust menu of ancillary events. <O></O>
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More information on the Concours d'Elegance of America and all ancillary events please refer to our webpage at www.concoursusa.org.<O></O>
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James McCarter<O></O>
Executive Director<O></O>
Concours d'Elegance of America at St John’s (formerly held at Meadow Brook Hall)<O></O>
1728 Maplelawn Drive<O></O>
Troy, MI 48084<O></O>
Tel: (248) 643-8645<O></O>
Email: jimmccarter@concoursusa.org<O></O>
Website: www.concoursusa.org<O></O>
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Thank you. I will see you Sunday; unfortunately I have a high-level meeting every Friday afternoon so I can't attend the MIS event, but I thank you for your prompt and thorough reply.

 

Fri, July 29 ..... Michigan Intl. Speedway ..... vintage track day
approx. 40 cars.
We'll be there with the #15 Boyle Valve Spl.

 

Hi guys, this is Racerjim. I just got on here and found some great threads. Regarding the #19 Trevis car that was on e-bay last week...I sent the gentleman some info on that car because he knew nothing at all about it and it was killing me seeing it advertised like that, as a 1950's.

That was the old Bill Thomas Trevis that Ralph Quarterson drove back around 1964. Groves Transmission shop in Clarksburg, WV bought it and had Gene Tallman and Gary McCauley in for a while in later years.

I actually went up there and looked at the car back in late 60's. It was at the transmission shop. When I got there the fuel injection and mag was missing plus a few other minor parts. I think it sat for a while and disappeared. At that time the car was worth $4000-5000 by my standards but with the parts missing I passed for the Trevis car Freddie Johnson had instead.

$20,000? Is it worth that? Too rich for my blood.

 

It is great to see you on this thread Jim. I'm really looking forward to your posts.

 

Less hair in Scrivanni's car...


Here is the Strapoli car with Johnny Mann. I saw Johnny in Loudon in may still driving the former Ken Schrader VW Midget.

 

This is a nice looking car. Who's the Goliath up front? My dad would check the front wheel weight on his sprint by lifting each front wheel. He'd go back and forth, stick a "T" wrench down in one of two holes in the nose, give it a certain twist, and then go back and forth lifting the wheels again. As a little kid, I thought he was Superman. He eventually found a bumper jack with a weight gauge on it. And that was as high tech as we ever got.

 

a bumper jack with a wieght gauge ,never saw one of those but that was a cool tool !! grabin' torsion bars on other cars was a trick a buddy of mine used & he would get the old hairy eyeball from some car owners ,the wolfgang /wiekert combo was the funnyest i saw ,he just smiled and kept walking back to his pit !!

 

Hair is overrated,anyhow!

 

That bumper jack with weight gauge was ok, but it had some problems that really upset pops. One thing was the base was offset so it would clear the tire at the floor, so sometimes it wanted to "scoot" away from the car. The second thing added to that problem. The lift point would "hook" inside the top of the wheel to lift the car. However, back then front wheels/tires were so narrow there was very little horizontal surface for the jack to catch. Sometimes he would start to lift the wheel and the jack would pop out and smack him on the knee. I lot of the words and phrases I learned at that time helped me in the Marine Corps.

 

Spectators should call the track # listed below before making plans to attend - not sure if you can gain entry.

 

Stan I remember those movie parties at Bruce's house. It was great to meet and talk to Tommy and also Jiggs Peters attended quite a few.

 

I remember as a kid in the early 60's you would read the racing paper and be amazed when there was no fatality over a given weekend. Now you're upset when you read of one in an entire year.

 

Use to have one of these chingas's. Worked ok and was better than guesstimates but probably not all that accurate. The best way is, of course, scaling the whole car. Back in those days only the $$$$ guys (and that was never me) had a set of scales though.

 

Rootie - That's cooler looking than the one dad had. Did your's ever slip out of the wheel?

 

Not that I recall, but this was back in the 70s on a pavement car with serious wide/offset wheels so there was plenty of meat to grab.

 

This was probably the widest front wheel/tire dad ever ran on a sprint car. Besides the small bead lip, the rest of the rim slopes in towards center. Not much to grab.

 

Jim Hines told me at a car show a few years ago that he was the one who came up with the jack scale and made the first one. He gave the idea to a friend,(I can't remember who that was), who then started manufacturing them for speedway motors to sell. Not sure if it is true but that is what he told me.

 

Actually, the guy who made them was Dick Etcheson(DECO Mfg Co.)in Anderson IN. When Dick died, "Speedy Bill" bought the DECO Mfg Co. and continued to make and sell the weight checkers under the DECO brand name.
DECO made several other gadgets including coil spring rate checkers and engine valve spring rate checkers.
"Speedy" is still selling the weight checkers and several other wheel alignment tools under the DECO brand name.

mac miller in INDY

 

Back together.. ready for Michigan.

 

Compadre!
get there Thursday for early reg and safety inspect
Friday morn will be chaos

 

Probably the same vocabulary additions that I learned as a result of using a computer!!!

 

An old buddy of mine used a "DECO" weight checker in the mid 1990's. He was the track champ for a couple of years,so it must work ok!

 

Deco was a good cheap tool but they won't work with todays dirt tires. You have to lift them too far to get them off the ground which screws up the actual wheel weight. Still works on pavement stuff for quick referance at the track.

 

You are so correct and in fact one Senator by the name of Richard Neuberger of Oregon actually introduced on the floor of the senate a bill to abolish auto racing in the United States. This came in 1955 following he Vukovich fatal at Indianapolis and the mess at LeMans. The bill never made it to any committee but to think that it happened is chilling.

 

...

 

"In my state, last week, a bicycle stunt artist , who leaped his bicycle over a number of automobiles, died hideously when he failed to clear the cars..."

So, we should've banned bicycles at the same time? What's that got to do with auto racing? How DO these people get elected?

 

Game show question, how many people were killed sky diving last year?? Ans. 21. If there had been 21 drivers killed last year we would playing with R/C cars!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

What little driving I did do, and thinking about where I wanted to go in racing, made me think about what scared me the most.

I was more concerned with being paralyzed than getting killed. It terrified me to think about someone having to help me get dressed, take bath, and so on. Reading about Johnny White's years after his accident pretty much summed up the worst case scenario in my opinion. My first night I did run a car, Brad Doty had his accident at Eldora, and that stuck in my brain too. Then reality came in, and I had to work to eat, and buy race car parts for a car that life would not let me run. All that, and I was with a cage.

I've noticed most of the REAL Legends these days, have humility like I never expected to find. The loss of friends and associates over the years catches up with you, and common sense says cages were necessary. Belts and nomex were as well.

The move to wings in general, was a business decision. These days even that is backfiring on racing in the south. The crowds are down considerably every year, and the ideas for using air to apply downforce pretty much have stayed the same- helping the cars to all look the same. I get attacked with boredom these days at a regular weekly show. Hate to say it, but I do.

I do think dirt track racing is in need of a redefiniton of what it is, and should be. The newer style seats have made some people claim wingless cars are much safer now, and could possibly help in the argument of removing them more often.

I ALSO think open wheel cars look much better with old curvy lines seen in the 1960's , and early 70's. Furthermore I like them painted, not vinyl wrapped. Then, I also like them going into a track on OPEN trailers.

We can move our views of reality where ever we want to.

 

For Bob Easter.

That #54 that your dad drove started out life looking like this. Paul Clark who is shown in this pic at Sandusky crashed this car one night around 1965 at Ohio Valley Speedway in West Virginia. Demolished the front end and put Paul in the hospital for a few days if I remember right. At the time this car was a dark blue 4 bar car....quite a beauty.

Next time I saw it.....had been converted to the spring front I believe and was red/white. The Howell Tranportation team had 2 cars and Dean Mast another top notch Ohio driver drove it.