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

Hey Easter, I thought you would like these.

 

Jim - Thanks for the link to the Race of Two Worlds. Great account. Sounds like you had to be tough as hell to drive those cars on that track. I can't imagine Moss losing his steering on those banks. I think the original idea of IROC came from this event. But, it ended up being a NASCAR All Star event with a couple open wheelers thrown in. A true "World Driving Champion" would be interesting: dirt, asphalt, road course, banks, flat, different style cars - all of it. That would be fun.

Dick L - Jerry Richert was the best. I watched him as he ran asphalt at St. Paul, Anderson, Winchester, etc., but when he was on dirt he was the guy to watch. Opp looked fearless. Woodside, Dosher, Goodwyn, Adamson, Busson, etc., looked like fighters. But, Richert was the smoothest I ever saw. He sat so upright in the high sided Wagner #63 car. As a kid you knew it was a special car because it was painted the same colors as my favorite Indy car "Old Calhoun". I don't know if it was the car, the suspension, the tires, the line, the driver, or a combination of all - but it always looked at if Jerry was on a different track than everyone else. They'd be bouncing around, fighting the wheel and working the throttle, but Richert would be on one smooth line with an even throttle and very smooth wheel. He sat up in the seat a little higher than the others - like he was special. He was to me.

 

Easter, I was at Tampa in 66? when Richert broke Bobby Grim's track recoed, which was very old. I was standing in the infield going into turn one. He backed off just before the flagman and then stood on the gas- got to turn one backwards[I mean BACKWARDS], I turned my head because I did not to see him lan on the fair way at the fair. Came around and got the flag-NEW TRACK- RECORD! How he did that I will never know. Was sorry he broke Bobby's record because it stood for so long but that was a sight to see.

 

I remember the way he sat in the car also, I could have picked him out of a hundred drivers. I was fortunate to only live 25 miles from him and was able to see him race many times.

 

A couple more.

 

1965

 

I had to crop the hell out of this one.

 

BZ, Will do, Andy's working on the info............Rich

 

Thanks everyone for the Jerry Richert goodies and stories. He was like a happy cartoon character to me - a super hero cartoon character. He was always smiling, funny haircut, different car, different style, etc. I think all of IMCA was different.

As a young kid I had an odd way of catagorizing IMCA vs USAC: IMCA people were farmers and country people and USAC was full of "city folk" - IMCA drove pick ups and station wagons while USAC drove coupes, sedans, and sports cars - IMCA was enlisted personel and USAC was officers - IMCA guys were all happy, very competitive, but helpful to each other while USAC guys were pissed, very competitive, but cut-throat to each other - USAC had money - IMCA didn't - and finally: IMCA was pure racing and this was as far as these guys were going to go (and wanted to go) while USAC sprints were a "stepping stone" to the big cars and a "vacation or hobby" for the guys already at Indy.

Hell the crowds even seemed different: IMCA people grilled hot dogs and drank cool aid but the USAC people ate sausage with onions and mustard and drank beer. I'm sure this is all very far fetched, but that's how a little kid saw things in the '60s.

A couple more: they had the "Big 500" and we had "The Little 500", they had Dayton and we had Tampa in Febuary, etc... but, I knew in my heart that if you put all of these guys together on one track it was going to be one hell of a race. I would have bet on the IMCA guys on dirt and the USAC guys on asphalt. I felt the term "Barnstormers" actually meant IMCA farmers.

Oh yeah, we had The Joie Chitwood Thrill Show, too. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

jimg12 - My first year in Tampa was 1967 and I stood inside turn #1, too. You could hear the cars in the far turn echoing through the covered grandstand and then hear them screaming and straining down the front straight. They seemed to wait forever sometimes to get off the gas and when they came by me you could see their eyes. They were working the throttle and bouncing around - fighting the bucking horse - and then high on the outside was this long even sound and a constant rooster tail of dirt clearing the canvas - it was Richert on the gas! He was pushed forward in the seat and peering over the high side. Standing inside turn #1 at Tampa in 1967 with 24 IMCA sprint cars coming sidways 3 wide in the feature - that's perfect.

 

Thank you.

 

Love hearing your memories Easter. Great stuff.

 

I'm not sure if these pics of Benny Rapp have been posted before, my apologies if they already have. From Jimmies Old Time Racing.

 

Bobby Marvin in what looks to be a stretched midget in 1962. From Jimmies Old Time Racing Photos.

 

Spike Ruth, might be a year or two over the 1969 deadline.

 

A couple Kurtis ex-Indy cars. The #2 with Frank Burris was driven at Indy by Rodger Ward in 1952, and the Wilbur Hawthorne built, Bobby Adamson driven roadster, as owned by Dave Humpe in this pic. Not believed to be Humpe in the car in this picture, this car can be found elsewhere in this thread, broken in two.

 

Virtually all of Smith's cars were mainly Poppy red with white #s

 

Frank Burris' car was the first sprint car I worked on and Gordon White ID the car as # 354. Wish I knew what happened to it, it was just an old car in the early 60's

 

My Friend Jodie Higbe sent me these photos she found that were her fathers, obviously the one photo is Billy Devore, but she would like to try to find out who the other people are, where the photo's were taken any info she can, she is trying to find what ties her father has with the pictures, his name was Dusty Thacker he was a long time sprint car owner, thanks in advance for any help

 

Kinda looks like Walt Faulkner in the midget in the first pic.

 

Roy, I agree With Rootie, that does bear a resemblance to Faulkner. In the third picture the guy in the dark shirt could be Lou Meyer. That third picture is obviously the big time and the car in the background I am fairly sure is the 1928 Miller that Ralph Hepburn drove. The rather distintive finned fairing over the front drive and the two little air scoops on the lower side of the grill are characteristics that make that car unique. It only raced a few times in 1928 with a best finish of second at the Rockingham board oval 10-12-1928. Pictures of the car can be found in "The Miller Dynasty" P-224-227, and "Indy Cars 1911-1939" Carl Ludvigsen. The car seems to have disappeared after that.

A little more research, Billy DeVore was the son of Earl DeVore. Earl Drove the Chromilite Miller in 1928 and seems to have appeared in the four board track races that the Ralph Hepburn "28" Miller appeared in. Soooo perhaps nothing but a very thin thread, Earl DeVore may be one of the drivers in the third photo.

Mike

 

The guy in the middle of the front row of the second pictures might be Maurie Rose, based on appearence.

 

That looks like Mauri Rose to me, too; the guy in the car could be Wilbur Shaw, and the dark-haired gent behind the car directly above "Mauri" possibly Bill Cummings...

 

I think you've got a good start to photo #3 Mike.
Looks very much like Altoona and if you notice the new section of boards in the middle - it was repaired in 1928 so I'm guessing this must have been the Aug 19, 1928 event.
I agree it's Louis Meyer in the dark shirt and if you look real close you can see what looks to be brother Eddie's face peering between the shoulders of the two drivers on the extreme right of the photo. (I see you live in Redlands-Is their old shop still standing in downtown Redlands?)
Not sure if Earl Devore is the tall driver on the left, but he and Norm Batten were both entered in this race and in just a few months were lost at sea on the way to Argentina.
"The car seems to have disappeared after that."
If you are talking about the '1928 Miller/Hepburn navy and white FD #16 then Michael Ferner has a description and history of that car '2816' at oldracingcars.info
"Hep' was its only driver in the US-bought by Leon Duray after it survived the 1929 Los Angeles Auto Show fire-he took it to Europe and together with the 1926 Duray FD was purchased by Bugatti then returned to US 30 years later by Borgeson and now in the Smithsonian." Michael Ferner oldracingcars.info

Look forward to hearing from others on driver id.

Best Regards
Carl Schulz

 

Thanks Butch, I agree with you as all the pictures I have found of the Smith car are Red with White lettering. I have found the new owner of the Smith Champ car and will be talking with him today. I do feel a little better about that as I would not have used that tail in restoring my old sprint car.
Thanks for your help.
Bob

 

Not positive but the driver on the far right in pic #3 looks like Kelly Petillo. I have a very large picture of Kelly in the Gilmore Spl at the old Ascot track in 1928. They look the same.

 

s55mercury66

this is the Earl Beal, Sam Traylor, Ken Hickey, Doug Stearly sprint car



Wherabouts unknown. I had talked to Bobby Marvins son about what happened to it but he never responded.

I do not think it was a stretched midget.

 

I don't know who the guy in the midget is, but I'm pretty sure it's not Walt Faulkner.



This is Woodbridge Speedway in New Jersey, September 18 in 1932, and the drivers are (standing, l-r) Freddie Winnai, Malcolm Fox, Joe Russo, Bob Sall, Ken Fowler, Bryan Saulpaugh (and Al Theisen in the original picture, cropped out here), (seated in or on car) Billy Winn and Stubby Stubblefield, (front row) Jimmy Patterson, Mauri Rose and Doc MacKenzie. The car is the (Eddie) Sejnost/Frontenac, formerly owned by Herman Schurch.

 

Definitely the Hepburn Miller FD, and the tall one is Cliff Bergere and next to him Lou Meyer. I am thinking that's Billy Arnold on the left, and Earl Devore next to Meyer. Not sure about the right one without checking other pics; definitely not Petillo, though.

 

For other "nuts and bolts" types- I came across a couple of pics on the HRM archives that I know very little about. It seems for the 1965 Indy, M/T returned with this rig with a "Novi-ish" looking mill that is actually a dohc conversion on a sbc. Apparently Bob Mathouser was the driver but was a DNQ due to a crash or blowing it up (?) Haven't been able to find out much else about it.