1940's midget racer in grandpa's crawlspace....(link)

This is my article about my grandfather's midget racer that he kept in his crawlspace for some 55 years before I finally dragged it out.

http://jalopnik.com/5654492/the-midget-in-the-crawlspace

 

That is 1 cool story.. Thanks for sharing..

 

Awesome story. Great that you got to talk to your grandfather about his racing days! Document and record all that you can. It will be something that you can keep forever.

 

Thanks! I am fortunate enough to have spoken to him about it, but alas, he passed a while ago. So happy I heard the stories I did though.

 

I saw a lot of midget races in the late 40's. Thnaks for sharing your story.

 

Great story! Hope you get around to acquiring the missing parts and restore that old racer some day.

 

Me too. I've priced some of those parts...like a Ford 60. I still have sticker shock. It'll happen sometime.

 

That is great!

 

Kick ass!

 

That's a great line! I think they picked fast and cheap in the 40's.

 

Looks like the car pictured was never finished? No holes for fuel pump, gauges, hood tie downs, etc. If your grandfather built it himself, that is doubly impressive. Might be the last "NOS" midget kit anywhere...

 

You know, you are right. It never was assembled. It never got even so far as having motor mounts. I am pretty sure that someone he knew hand-crafted the frame and body for him. You can see the marks in the body from where it was shaped with a hammer.

I like the way you put it. I've never thought of it that way.

 

Hippodrome in SLC. The #108 car was owned by the track owner Vince Walton and the #4 car was driven by Lou Frew" have access to many pics that may include your grandpa .....drop me a line MD

 

That would be great! I'll shoot you a PM. Mail sent.

 

This article has gotten great response. Thanks to all of you who have commented.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

There weren't too many guys building those cars in that form at that time. I would say you have a really nice time capsule there, and it probably wouldn't be too hard to figure out who built it by it's trademark touches. There is a thread on here on cageless midgets, with quite a few knowledgable guys who may recognize it...By the way it may be worth even more from a historical perspective if you cleaned it up for display just as it is. maybe even build a crate for it. Sure is a cool piece.

 

Interesting thought. I have looked into making a faithful replica of the old time midgets, but I have never considered keeping it as is. It would be cool on a little trailer in a crate at the car show though, wouldn't it?

 

Digny in Burnaby led me to the Deseret News archives, which verified the story above. What a great find by Digny. Unfortunately, I didn't find my grandfather's name in the archive.

 

That's a great find. While the word recognition function helps (it got me to 1948) my version of "research" still goes back to slogging through the microfilm page by everlovin' page.

As a sidebar, the son of Stan Rock, midget racer from Salt Lake City, posted on another forum. Stan is 91 and still talks about his racing days.

Thread can be found here:

http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/showthread.php?t=955