Vintage shots from days gone by!

It almost seemed that the Gilmore Oil Company was as focused on delivery of needed entertainment to Depression-weary Americans as it was to fueling them up in their chain of service stations. And much of their attention was on auto-racing promotions and racing cars. It’s said that organized Midget racing in Southern California was just a year old when Earl Gilmore erected the Gilmore Stadium in L.A. in 1934. Gilmore’s enormous crowd must have been thrilled the October night in ’38 that Fred Friday got all fired up – and relieved big time when he scampered out uninjured. FromROAR WITH GILMORE: The Story of America’s Most Unusual Oil Company, by Charles Seims and Alan Darr.

 

Looks like the Jensen-Healey engine i had in my roadster.

 

Exhausts big enough to stuff a coffee can up!

Suggested caption:
"Although the new engine did not win the race, it produced 1200 foot pounds of torque at 240 RPM and was used successfully for many years in a house moving truck."

 

Several spectators were killed in the incident, but Helle Nice was in a coma and recovered. She died 1984 (appr)

 

Here’s the mind-numbing rear end of one of the Skirrow Specials. The cars were built in the late 1930s by Harry Skirrow in London. He produced popular, hot setup chassis for early British Midgeteers. Eventually his designs developed into the configuration above – way ahead of its time with all-around independent suspension and four-wheel drive. FromMIDGET CAR SPEEDWAY: Following the Stories of Stoke Potters, by Derek Bridgett

 

There seemed to be a strange foreboding at the Brickyard early in the day of the 1941 500. Maybe it was due to the cold drizzle that had met incoming fans the night before or maybe it was the national worry about Hitler’s action in Europe. In any case, just as lines formed at the ticket booths, a huge fire swept through the garages. Apparently fumes from fuel in George Barringer’s car were ignited by a torch being used in the next stall. Fire trucks were unable to access the inferno quickly because of the huge crowds, and half of one of the two garage structures was completely destroyed. The event, down two cars, started an hour late, and Mauri Rose eventually won the show. FromINDY: The Race and Ritual of the Indianapolis 500, by Terry Reed. (Ed Hitze Photo)

 

Things were fairly uneventful at the Fifth International Grand Prix in Santa Monica, CA, 100 years ago last month. That was until the 35th lap. John Marquis and his mechanic, Harry Hough, were leading and lookin’ good. They had fueled their Sunbeam big time, hoping to run the event non-stop. However, they caught a rut, and the flipping began. Hough was tossed aside and was uninjured. Meanwhile Marquis rode it out with the car, which ended up right on top of him. He was assumed dead, but was taken to the hospital, where, remarkably, he was revived and found unbroken. He would race again. FromRACING CARS RACING CARS, by Paul Hamlyn. (Petersen Publishing Company Photo)

 

From a 1954 match race at Roosevelt, NJ, Stadium that served as publicity for the forthcoming 100-mile NASCAR event at the road formed at the Linden Airport. Popular Al Keller went on to win at Linden, wheeling a Jaguar fielded by band leader Paul Whiteman. A couple of weeks later Keller was on the dirt at the circular mile at Langhorne. That didn’t go so well. Keller dumped the Sam Traylor Offy big time and donated one of his thumbs in the process. (Ken Edsell Collection)

 

In June of 1954 quite the contingent of racers towed into the Garden State. A major road race was planned for the Linden, NJ, Airport, promoted by Ed Otto. It was NASCAR’s Grand National Division’s first road race, and the field of 43 was almost equally mixed with American and foreign-car entries. As part of the pre-event publicity, a match race was held at Roosevelt Stadium, and a very healthy crowd watched dirt-track ace Frank Schneider in a Jaguar XK120 take on Lee Petty in a Dodge. (Ken Edsell Collection)

 

It all happened on the 181st lap. It was September 30, 1956, and NASCAR’s Convertible Race #46 was scheduled to go 200 rounds on the half-mile dirt at Asheville-Weaverville, NC. 4,500 spectators watched as Jimmy Massey broke a hub and plowed into the side of Possum Jones going into the third turn. They locked up, went end for end in parallel, and landed on their sides, right in the groove. From then on it was more hearing than seeing. Literally, the whole field plowed into a dusty pile of mechanical carnage. Curtis Turner, who had been just barely in the lead, won the trophy with his “Margin of Victory” labeled “Red Flag.” Meanwhile Art Binkley, Glen Wood, and Jimmy Massey won trips to the crash house. FromRAMBLIN’ RAGTOPS – the history of NASCAR’s fabulous convertible division and the speedway division, by Greg Fielden

 

Denise McCluggage climbs aboard a Louts XI at Nassau in 1958, as she did do many times. The racer/journalist won the 1961 Grand Touring category at Sebring in 1958 and her class at the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964. She later became the founding editor of AUTOWEEK. FromFAST WOMEN: the Legendary Ladies of Racing, by Todd McCarthy. (Bahamas News Agency Photo)
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It was 1947 in the cornfields of Iowa that this used car salesman first went racing in this hot rod. Sure, he had the need for speed, but, apparently he had the need for dollars even more. Somehow it all worked out for him, and in 1959, Johnny Beauchamp was unofficial winner of the Daytona 500 until a review of the finish dropped him back to second, behind Lee Petty. FromTHE GHOSTS OF NASCAR – The Harlan Boys and the First Daytona 500, by John Havick (Dale Swanson Jr. Collection)

 

Harry Miller and the Gulf Oil Company had the pit area buzzing at the Brickyard in 1938 and 1939. Here’s Ralph Hepburn perched way up front in a supercharged creation with 4-wheel drive and very early disc brakes. Unfortunately, despite the innovative design, Hepburn was unable to coax it up to qualifying speed. Photo fromTHE MARVELOUS MECHANICAL DESIGNS OF HARRY A. MILLER, by Gordon Eliot White

 

Jeffrey Hardifer, majordomo of the coolwww.WallyCampbell.comsite, sent along this photo from Yellow Jacket Speedway in Philadelphia from 1949. That would be Tommy Coates in the #91 coupe roughing up Roscoe “Pappy” Hough in heavy traffic, while Pepper Cunningham wisely looks to a higher groove. Take a close look at Coates and Hough, both of whom are working their neck muscles seriously. Head rests weren’t in fashion yet, let alone HANS Devices. (Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club Collection, Boyd Harnell Photo)

 

You can always tell it’s Juan Manuel Fangio, wherever, whenever the image was taken. Here he is shown at the ultra-fast Pescara (Italy) Grand Prix in 1957 in his Maserati 250F. There was something about the way the Argentine sat so seamlessly with a race car, upright, head slightly cocked, implying extreme calm and confidence. No question he was one of the greatest Formula One competitors ever. In the 1950s, he won the World Championship of Drivers five times. FromTHE GOLDEN AGE: Images from the Klemantaski Collection(Edward Eves Photo)

 

Aftermath of the 1941 Indy garage fire.

 

One of the cars Briggs Cunningham took to Europe in 1959 for his first visit to Le Mans was this unlikely, near-stock Caddy coupe. Cunningham enlisted his buddies Miles and Sam Collier to drive it, and they responded with style. Attired in business suits, ties and all, they muscled it to a tenth-place finish. FromAMERICANS AT LE MANS, by Albert R. Bochroch.

 

A frightening incident shocked a springtime crowd (at Old Bridge, NJ, Stadium) on May 16, the fourth Sunday afternoon of 1954. Jamesburg’s John Peroni was charging out of turn two and his #14 Sportsman suddenly lit up in a blaze. Peroni unbuckled, himself afire, and leapt out onto the backstretch. Track workers smothered the flamers as he rolled on the ground. Meanwhile, his car continued to motor on, now engulfed, circling scarily around the infield until it stopped and burned to a crisp. Peroni suffered terrible burns to his neck and hands. Years later he told Area Auto Racing News journalist Earl Kraus, “I was a young guy with a family. I said to myself, ‘Okay. I see a message here. It’s time to quit.’ He later became police chief of Helmetta, NJ. Photo and Caption fromPAVED TRACK DIRT TRACK – Racing at Old Bridge Stadium and Nazareth Raceway, by Lew Boyd. (Danny Rhein Collection)