60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

The only thing that makes a full face helmet better is taking it off and still having your full face! Otherwise, we would still be wearing those old school helmets.

 

Oh, I know. Especially appreciated when the face belongs to you.

During a race, I got hit in the face with a 1/2" diameter by 6" long bolt. Came off a car in front of me, bounced once, and smacked me right in the kisser.

Luckily it happened at the end of the straight, where we were already into the corner, so I was woed down to ~50 MPH, but even that was one hell of a lick.

If I'd have had an open face helmet on, I wouldn't have a jaw or nose anymore.

As it stood, I got my bell rung, and I had to replace my shield.

BIG difference in outcome.

 

Well I can appreciate where your coming from.......... I guess

It just that back in the day it was nice to see who was driving the car

where as today it looks like you have astronauts behind the wheel ,with
there "air conditioning" and "refreshment stand"

I guess it's me......I hate change

I suppose it wont be long b/4 they have SIRUS in the capsules

 

Go to a dirt track some night and walk the pits. Look at the fronts of the cars and the helmets the drivers are wearing.
When I started riding flattrack I had an old Bell open helmet. It didn't take long to go out and find a full face helmet. What I ended up with wasn't as good a helmet as what I had, but at least I wasn't getting beat up every Friday night.
I couldn't see as well, and I sure as hell couldn't breath as well inside that "egg", but I wasn't dodging rocks and chain links and junk.
I believe that for most of the drivers, it's more about protection than comfort because open face helmets weigh less, are cooler, and you can sure see better.
Part of loosing the "romance" of racing to keep from getting hurt.

 

Exactly.

There is a not so fine line between bravery and stupidity, especially when you consider that most of those guys don't race for a living.

That means they've got other jobs they've gotta be healthy to work at, and more than likely, their insurance won't cover them if they get hurt on the race track.

I know my insurance guy told me straight up (once he found out I was driving) that if I got killed in a race car, there was no chance for an insurance claim. Risky activities not covered, so solly.

 

My avatar (lil pic thingy) is Slopoke Rodriguez, got that name because Im Mexican and not usually the fastest car on the track, but then the fastest doesnt always win.... & Ive painted that picture on nearly all my racecars, and my number is 21m.

 

Well here is one solution....painted this for a buddy of mine....




This is the car he raced....that the helmet theme had to match, i designed and built the body and did the graphics to look like a 57 Chevy....IMCA outlawed it because of the simulated fins on the tail.




Instead of BelAir it said his last name, Baptista. Thanks for the compiment. Louie

 

Question. How can IMCA outlaw a car for a paint job that is not vulgar? Allstarracing

 

My experience tells me that it was because of the way the quarter panels extend past the rear filler panel and above the deck behind the sail panel window area. I'm sure that if those areas where flush where they meet the decals wouldn't be a problem.

 

Yeah, that's likely what it was. The rules say no extensions (or they used to, haven't read a set since they've started charging for them).

IME, the IMCA can stuff it.

I'd rather race NASCAR or UMP before I run IMCA. The former will let you run a night or two if you're just passing through without buying a $XXX license, while every IMCA track I've been to wanted the license fee before they'd even sell you a pit pass. And don't even get me started on "claimer" motors.

Hell, around us in Missouri, nearly every track has gone independent. No sanctioning body at all. Amazingly, the racing is just as good or better, and nobody burst into flames or anything for getting into a racecar without NASCAR or IMCA's blessing.

 

that helmet and car look awesome. nice work!

 

Yes, I was so busy bitching about sanctioning bodies that I forgot the reason I clicked "reply" in the first place.

The paint job on that helmet is bitchin'.

 

DITTO on the Helmet comps

What a great idea and really sharp looking

 

Yea, excellent excellent paint job on the helmet and car and I can see where they want flat decks. It is funny they would say something about the little extensions and yet let cavieler and pontiac 6000 bodys that go all the way to the end of the trunk run. I agree I don't like a lot of the IMCA rules. I especially don't like that you have to run a Chevy in the cheap class. There are those that don't run chevys that would like to run cheaper but don't tell me I have to run a certain make. I quit going to ASA racesbecause you could only run Chevy motors. Sorry that is an IROC race. Didn't like them either. If you are a real racer it doesn't have to be expensive long as you have the same chance as everyone else. It is easy to make rules that money can't circumvent. Costs can be controlled by shock prices, suspension rules and a tire hardness rule. You can have an eight hundred horse motor but if the suspension, shocks and tires won't let you use but 400 horses the rest is money waisted. IMCA started as stock suspension pieces then started letting the swing arms, four link, cantlever and then any suspension you wanted. It drove the price right out for the little guy. Said you couldn't run coil overs but could run coil over sliders, Duh just more money. Then cars started showing up with thousand dollar penske double adjustable shocks. Now a good IMCA car is $25,000- $35,000 dollars. I can buy competitive one year old late models for that. allstarracing

 

I with you on that, in spades.

It happened around here when the late models got so expensive that the car counts dropped to the point that no track could afford to put on a show. Six cars does not a feature race make.

So, those guys dropped back to open modified (where I run/ran), and brought their penchant for spending stupid amounts of money with them.

This is when the aluminum blocks and third members started to show up. They also lobbied to have the minimum weight lowered to 2100 LBS, down from 2,600 LBS. It costs a ton to drop 500 LBS off an already light car like that. You couldn't do it without running a single core radiator, an alum block, a magnesium Bert trans (clutchless) and bellhousing, and an alum third member.

That all costs, big time, and I just couldn't afford it (still can't), so we were a minimum of 500 LBS heavy at all times. That's an incredible handicap, especially on softened gumball skins. You'd be amazed how soft those crappy IMCA spec tires can be made with the application of the proper chemicals. And don't even get me started on the engines. We would spend ~$12,000 on an engine, and we'd make sure that mill lasted all season. I raced with guys who ran Triple-R motors at ~$30,000 per, and they'd pop three of them in a season.

I could have run two more cars for what those guys spent on engines in a year.

So, basically, the late model pogues spent their class and themselves right out of racing, then they dropped down a class and started doing it all over again.

That's really what prompted me to stop running a few years back. I couldn't run to win because I didn't have the money to match them late model guys, and I didn't want to race if I didn't have at least a chance at winning.

I mean, I ain't Dale Earnhardt by any stretch, but I ain't no slouch either. It just awful hard for a driver to overcome a car that's 500-600 LBS heavy, I don't care how great you are.

Honestly, I'd love to see a crate motor class for the modifieds like FasTrak did with the late models.

Both Chevy and Ford make a crate motor that can be bought sealed and ready to race for ~$3,500, and it comes with a warranty. That's trips me out, BTW, a racing engine with a warranty. lol

Allow fabricated stubs ('cause those metric stubs suck, and I'm pretty sure every 68-72 Chevelle stub ever made has already been built into a modified ), set the minimum weight around 3,000 LBS, and ban those adjustable shocks, allow small springs and coil-overs (which are usually cheaper than the big springs plus CO eliminators) and you're well on your way to a dandy and competitive class that don't break the bank.

Chances of all that happening?

~0.01%

 

Thanks for all the compliments, and sorry for hijacking one the best picture threads on this site

So here are some pics to get us back on track...

 

Yvan: Thanks for the pics!! I live just south of you in Vt. About 2 miles from Catamount. We went to Airborne for the Big Block race--rained out...then last week we went for a weekly show. The Super Trucks were there/ All Star Trucks...Great looking old mod!! Neal

 

Hi
What a great collection of photos and menories just great , I have a few from the sixties of stock car racing a in OZ at Archerfield speedway .

 

Stopped by my buddie Moon Burgess's house the other day to take some photos of his GMC 302 powered'39 Chevy. Gonna be listing it for him in the classifieds soon, and thought you guys would like to see it. Moon ran all over New England, late forties, and early fifties, winning over 60 races, becoming a member of the New England Antique Racers hall of fame in the process. Moon and his Jimmie are pretty famous around these parts.

 

please note that this weekend is the WGOT/EMMR weekend at the Latimore Valley Fairgrounds in York Springs, Penna. please see the WGOT/EMMR thread just started for info. - track time for vintage stock cars! -

 

I finally got the 92 car on the 1/4 mile track last Friday at Lakeport, CA. I believe the last time it ran was on a 1/4 track, but the 5.88's were way too low at Lakeport. Ran 3 sessions 10 laps or so each, second session rpm recall was 7500 (motor is built to 6500). The best ratio I could come up with was 5.26 with the gears I had, tach said 7000 which was better than 7500 for the previous session. Also have to fix an oil leak near the fuel pump, and still having problems with the power steering pump (2000 rpm/warmup pushes fluid out of the sealed system, using all teflon lines, but on track seemed to be okay, I suspect the bypass valve). Here's a link (video taken by a professional, NOT!)

Barry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXOrGN4z4IQ&feature=channel_page

 

My hero! 302 GMC gotta love it....
Got more photos?

 

Here you go. That Jimmy pulls like a V/8. There's another guy around here, Walt Smith, has a 302 in a modern Nascar modified, ran right with the newer cars on the tour, until a few years ago. (Walt's in his 80's and pretty busy, doesn't run the car much these days.) By the way, that 92 looks like Bob Pringle's old Jap Membrino car?

 

"By the way, that 92 looks like Bob Pringle's old Jap Membrino car?"

Probably because it is <G>. It was built as a tribute to Leo Matte, Jack Lecuyer drove it in the same color scheme prior to Jap.

Barry

 

Here's a picture of my current 'vintage' build, which is loosely based on Southern New England modifieds of the late '60s - mid '70s (BKHRS, your video gives me a woodrow):

 

...and here's a picture of another loosely based vintage car from Rhode Island. I never heard of this car until I started building mine. The car was built by Dave Tourigny, the same guy that built all of Koszela's 15 coupes from the old days. (This car is ineligible for New England Antique Racers because of a 2X3 chassis):

Doug

 

Slippery - your mod is looking very nice!
I haven't seen that Tourigny coupe before at any NEAR events is that a newer build?

Here are a couple of pics of another lesser know Tourigny build for the Koszela Woodchopper crew. Cool looking Corvair, I believe Leo Cleary really wrecked it at Martinsville.

 

How'bout some 70's Pintos. #15 Woodchopper Spl.-Bugsy Stevens, #61 B.R. Dewitt - Richie Evans, #7 M&H - Ronnie Bouchard.
All very fast and good looking. All shots from Stafford Speedway in CT

 

As I said in my previous post, this car is not NEAR legal. He does run it with STAR, although only occasionally, because he also has a Maynard Troyer Pinto (authentic) that he runs sometimes. There's an open vintage show at Thompson Saturday; maybe he'll have it there.

Doug

 

I was able to spend a few minutes with Mike Joy on Friday. He said that the pics weren't taken at Riverside Park, but he didn't know where they taken. He helped provide more history on both my cars. The key now is to locate and contact Jack Lecuyer. Can anyone help? If so please email me at: bkhrs@sbcglobal.net.

I've asked about the chassis picture before, I'm asking again in case any new people might recognize it. I'd like to identify the chassis builder. The car is a Czarnecki brothers #20 driven by Jack Lecuyer and the last car they built before Jake started building their cars.
Thanks, Barry