Vintage East Coast Dirt Trackers, from my father's scrap book

Great post!! I love that stuff.

Your lucky to have had that kind of history preserved.

Joel

 

Just remembered why I like the #84 on a racer, My number.

 

Cool lookin' Chev.... I've always run #6 or a derivitive, as in 06, 60 and 76. The reason we got started with the #6 deal was that my buddy ran #99 on his '59 Ford. The night before we took my '53 to the track for the first time, we just borrowed his #9 stencil and flipped it....

Jan

 

I sat in the stands many a nite in Freeport, L.I. then Middletown, NY and now in Accord NY. Nothing today like the scream of the Flatheads and Sixes . The yellow line or fence area was always a thrill. In Middletown occasionally a car would make it through the turn 1 wooden fence.
I remember lots of good times and the common fistfight in the pits, often on the track and usually at least once a night in the stands between rival "family clan" fans.
I still get a kick out of the novice-fans who will park in the area close to the entrance near the # 2 or 4 turns. Leaving the track they find their cars covered with a thick layer of clay/dirt from the night's venue as the veteran fans hike to the cleaner parking areas - wayyy over thar.


Powerband

 

When I found this and restore her my 64 Harley was yelling at me for a rebuild. I debated because I parked the Harley, several years before, due to the fact I felt either it was going to kill me or my other half was because of the things I was doing at the time. I decided to go with the racer. I picked the number 84 because of the 8th and 4th letter of the alphabet, just to satisify the yearning in my head for my bike. I chose a 250 ci 6 cylinder because thats what my cousin ran in his 55 back in the 60's. I still love it altough the 6 bannger is hard to keep together trying to compete and push the weight of the 55.

I went in halves with a guy to build a replica of his dad's car, a 55 Ford #44, Don Ward Special, from up in Chicago. last year I picked up and old school 56 Ford racer, 406 ci. and split the difference between the two numbers so it became #64. But I'm fixen to paint the 56 pink and put the #K-2 on her after Earndthart's ole Ford.

Just a little history, or reason behing a car number. Now you want to hear more about Billy Bob, Billie Jean, and Bubba?

 

Make sure that you post a pic of that '56.... I'm going SBF in my '63 unless I find enough pieces to build me a good 300 Ford. I've got a couple of decent 460s sitting around, but I'd never be able to make that turkey handle with 700 lbs over the front wheels. Now, let's hear more about Billie Jean, Billy Bob and Bubba, please. I dig race track gossip.....

Jan

 

for old east coast photos check out.. 3widespicturevault.com

 

Go with the 300. We have several, in our group, and they are hard to beat. Lots of tricks can be done to them. Now about Billy Bob.



Billy Bob wanted to expand his business, he figured septic tank cleaning wasn’t keeping him in enough beer money. He got this bright ideal for starting a BBQ catering service. After all, Uncle Hershel and Aunt May (the Duke and Duchess of pig farming) had all he needed for supplies. Billy Bob took one of his old “Honey bucket tankers” and filled it with hog manure. Then he built a grill, on the back, out of a couple of old drums they used to use at the still. Billy Bob took an exhaust pipe, off of one of Bubba’s old pulp wood trucks, and ran it from the top of the poop truck down to the newly attached grill on the back. He had this theory, that he could use the methane gas as a fuel for his cooker.



Well it didn’t work as planned. There was an explosion that shook windows for three miles when he tried lighting the grill. The tank split down the middle and opened up like a giant clam shell. Hog crap was thrown out for 200 yards in every direction coating everything. The only thing that kept Billy Bob from getting burned badly was getting a six inch coating of pig poop an instance after the flash.



The explosion knocked three of his neighbors’ houses off their cinder blocks. No big deal, except Bubba’s still had its wheels under it and it started rolling down the hill. Bubba’s house rolled down the road and straight off the curve, through the fence and into Uncle Hershel’s Hog barn. It was about this time Bubba realized something was wrong. Bubba and Billie Jean were in the bedroom being intimate and Bubba just thought Billie Jean was rocking his world.



When the fire truck came, they served, at the curve to avoid one of the 150 hogs that were loose now, and lost control because of the slick coating of pig poop that had been scattered from the explosion. The fire truck ended up knee deep in the hog waller.



The last I saw of Billy Bob our local Barney Fife had him in cuffs and was hosing him down before loading him in the patrol car. He looked pretty pissed after seeing Billie Jean and Bubba come out of Bubba’s trailer naked. He was a sight. It’s hard to look threatening when you’ve got your hands cuffed behind your back, all your hair in singed off and you’re covered with pig poop.



Spent the last couple of days out trying to find all of Uncle Hershel and Aunt Mays hogs.

 

Yeah, those Ford 300 6's have 7 main bearings, good rods with 3/8" bolts and a good oiling system. A few speed parts will wake these engines up, and they're not too far behind the 350 V8s on cubic inches. Not uncommon to turn these engines 7,500 rpm.


Oh yeah, Billy Bob and Bubba, the saga continues. Just heard about Billy Bobs invention at the dirt track races last night. (Kinda' boring, I figured a full moon would've done more good for the entertainment. They only had one patrol car there, didn't put the cuffs on a single person and I saw just one full beer can thrown at the flagger).

Seems like Billy Bob is now in deep shit, in more ways than one!

I was told that methane gas generator explosion ranked up there pretty high on the Richter Scale. Like a small earthquake. They heard it all the way over to Possum Kingdom!

Didn't hear who was resetting those mobile homes back on the cinder block foundations. Do ya' think Stump over at Shorty's Mobile Home repair will get the job?

Who's gonna' take over the BBQ business while Billy Bob is incarcerated?

That must've been a hoot to see Bubba and Millie Jean scramblin' around. Did ya' finally get to see Bubba without a ball cap on? I've always wondered if there's hair on that head. Ya' know, the same way with Dirty Doug.

Gotta' go.

 

Didn't really look at Bubba too much, was distracted looking at Billie Jean. Now I can tell you she ain't got no hair and I ain't talking about her head.

Stump said he would reset the houses, but he's going to wait until we've had a couple of hard rains first.

I think the BBQ catering got off the ground as far as it goes. Billy Bob is going to have to come up with another ideal for more beer money. I'm pulling for them to crank the still back up, it didn't taste as good as Junior's but it sure made my racer run faster.

 

Keep me posted.

 

Drag racing is cool, but theres's nothing like throwin' some dirt to get your blood flowing. We really should put some thought into a dirt race.

 

Ditto...!

 

A guy that wrenches on our race cars once in a while used to pit crew for BC Wood when he drove for the Favres of Rockland County NY. It was a blue #39 big block modified during the mid 70's.

 

You got me thinking about Flemington again.Made me cry.Jan did you used to go to Flemington?

 

a claimer rule is the answer to the hamb circle track deal. you could have a few different price classes and chose. just like claimer horse racing.maybe the next hamb drag meet could be held a a dual facility that had a dirt track and see if any dirt cars showed up for fun runs.dirt track racing is the heart of the car racing deal in the usa just think how many dirt tracks there are compaired to drag strips.

 

Here's a link to a local Connectucut track that I went to as a kid. Some great pics on this one

http://members.tripod.com/plainville_stadium/

 

flatdog, hadn't been past flemington till this spring. knew it was closed for years, now saw it flattened. man the good old days, tasnady, schneider, ploski, reutimann, van horn, beavers. spent many a saturday night there. theres a guy up the street that restores whats left of those cars, always busy. lets take em to latimore.

 

way cool pictures,my grandpop drove the pace car at hatfeild speedway and at langhorn

 

yes ido rember these cars and more how about arichie arshambuilts 54 car lee alards1 quater car bud crottys 41 jr yep those are the good oll days when drivers wore t shrits not 500.00fire suits thank god for vintage auto racing so we can re live some thoughts from the past i am gathering parts to build aclone of arichies black no.54 car wayne

 

Fellas,
If you are really into old (50s & 60s) dirt tracking (primarily NY), check out my club's site at www.midstateantiquestockcarclub.com - and pack a lunch. Enjoy

 

Dad ran Flemington,Middletown, NewEgypt,Langhorn,and Harmony 1955 thru 1962 car 7p 1937 Chevy coupe, 7 partners all around Little Falls,Totowa,Great Notch,Paterson, and Clifton New Jersey,The Driver Jack Bellanada, also was the promoter of Pine Brook Speedway, which ran TQ's before it closed and a Home Depot was built there.......

 

My grandfather raced in the 50s to 59 at Seekonk. His name was George Smaldone. #24 car to begin with and then became the #2 car aka “Deuces Wild”. He was track champion a bunch of times and I have the trophies!