60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

That's a great thing to build a tribute car to Jimmy. Can't wait for you to put up the photos when its done. We're long time fans of Jimmy's starting when we were kids. He even drove us to the races in his white jeep and then would drop us off at the end of the nite. Please tell him Bob Drake and his sons send him their best!

 

Can't remember the number (or letter, which I think it was) I think it was the "Y"
My dad drives for Eddie Allen hauls gas to Butch's BP stations.
The 357 was the first car I ever saw up close and personal. My parents were friends with Austin (Tricky-Dick as I often heard him referred) and the Scarboroughs (Norm and Curt). I went to school with little Vince Quenneville and Ed Foley's kids.

 

Wow, Real hot rod type, that reminds me of a car Richie Salentin built a couple of years before that. I think the number was R- 27, anybody remember it.

 

I remember Richie's radical car well. He took it to Langhorne when they still allowed cut downs and the inspectors wouldn't let it run. So Richie went back to LI and returned with his Limited Sportsman flathead and took time!!! I remember he turned 60 seconds flat...60 MPH; he never lifted!!!

Around 1967 or 1968 Richie went to Langhorne with his helmet and picked up a ride at the track then he proceeded to put it in the show. The heartbreak occurred when it came time to start the big race and the car would not start. As I remember the car was brown had a Willy's body.

Richie Sellentin was a real character and extremely intelligent...he was one of those people who could do equations that took up a few blackboards.

 

The white No. 9 coupe is Chuck Boos, from Lewiston, N.Y. -- probably 1966. I have the stencil he used for those signature red numerals in my office.

 

I lived in Wainscott and the fist car I worked on was Silias Hiscock #7 he had a cut down car also, I help Buzz Hedges build three cars after that. we all help Richie, Silias, RogerMurry,Bertt,Buzzy also Carl Zey work out there so I would see him all the time. I was with Buzz at Langhorne and Richie asked for a ride, the reason was Juinor Ambrose wrecked a car at Westhamption and Richie was second place in the qualifer at Riverhead and got the starting spot. That is what I was told don't know how true it is.

 

Boy do I ever remember Silas' cut down. Not only was the body low as all get out it had the axles fastened solid to the chassis which made it a real fast kart...that was just too cool!!! As you probably well remember when tSilas' race car was at the end of the entry road from Rte 58 the crew would get on the trailer and ride up to the pit gate like knights in waiting. What a memory!!!

And I gotta' tell ya...Buzzy Hedges cars were always cutting edge. He would build one that was as good as anyones for the time and then be gone for quite a while then come out with another top notch car. Chris Young's first modified was the last Buzzy built and Chris ran real well for quite a while with that car.

 

The last car had torshen bars in it when we first built it we change to leef springs after the fist few weeks, we also had overheating the fist few weeks. Tom Tillinghast had his off set car and Danny McManner had one.

 

Who ran an "X83" Coupe at Riverhead with a Pontiac overhead cam six with a Weber side draft carb on it ?? Does anybody remember when Teddy Werner ran his slant six powered Freeport Open Cockpit Modified at Riverhead and held off the big block Chevys ?

 

Charlie Sebert ran the x83, Freeport had a drivers strike and they all came to Riverhead and ran with there cars.

 

The glianni brothers joe 80 vinny 15 wall track welders
owned cousions auto body supply in red bank nj

 

My father built the OHC for Charlie, that sucker had no limit to the RPM's since it had such a light valve train and made a ton of power as compared to what everyone else was running. It had to make as much power as possible- I would estimate that car weighed 3500 lbs at the least That is NOT an exaggeration!!! Both frame rails were fisplated on both sides and don't even get me started on the bumpers...it was built like a bridge!!!

When Charlie sold the car a lady bought it (Joan something I think) and ran in the limited sportsman class for a while.

 

wow got 3 Hiscock 's racing Legends now, Silas Sr., Jr. and Wild Bill. Didn't know they went that far back! Got to talk to them when racing season starts about that!

 

As far as the Hiscock's, I think Silas Sr. started running in the late 50's. I think either Silas or his brother John either owned or worked at a propane company in Sag Harbor and they had propane bottles that were used to fill their tires at the track.

I always wondered if they were purged and had air or if it was just a bottle of propane.

Hit the wall big time and BOOM!!!

 

There father had Hampton tank in Bridgehampton now Silias Sr and Jr, yes he did put propane in the tires at the track. John also did drive at Riverhead.

 

Silias father also had a race car it was a Mercer, John lost it in a divorce, Silias got it back at a auction 700,000$ I think that was the price.

 

You really know how to hurt a guy son. You were just about 8 years old when they shut down Islip. I've got a photo or two with you and me in the stands back then. I had won the ticket prize two weeks ina row, one week was a carton of Winston and an Islip cap and the next week a pair of tickets to Pocono. We had a great time.

No track could ever replace Islip. Sorry guys, Islip was pure magic.

 

Brettski: love those pics of yer Dad racing!! Is he restoring the old sedan? Thanks!! Neal in Vermont

 

RJAustin,,Charlie's X83 . A woman showed up at Weissglass Stadium on Staten Island with the car one night but the promoter would not let her run . Women drivers were not allowed in the Sportsman division at the time. Besides that, the car "Looked" too fast.

 

Where's that guy that was gonna post pics from Riverside Park ? The NY guys have taken over this thread... And how about some pics from the NH tracks ? We have a bunch of them. Star Speedway, Claremont, Canaan, Norway Pines for dirt modifieds, Lee Speedway, Monadnock, White Mtn Motorsort Park, as well as the old days in Loudon before it was NH Motor Speedway back when they raced on Wed nights on the 1/4 mile oval. Love those modifieds and still go out of my way to watch them whenever I can. Stock Car Racing magazine did an article a few years ago about the most action & best bang for your bucks of all kinds of racing and the number 1 choice was watching the Featherlite modifieds at NHIS. I have to agree.

 

Kinda like how the NY guys dominated Modified racing huh?

 

They were good, I'll give them that but I remember one night at Canaan NH on the dirt track when they had a special dirt modified race for big bucks. A couple NY guys showed up with their hotrods complete with enclosed trailers that cost more than my house, etc. The NH boys gave them a driving lesson they won't soon forget.. Made them the meat in the sandwich so to speak.... It's hard to be fast when you're in the wall facing the wrong way.. You don't mess with northern hillbillies. Sure it was wrong but any racers from anywhere in the country would have been welcomed if they came every week to bang fenders with us for 500 bucks & a plastic trophy but to just show up to try to take the big bucks wasn't appreciated. Even the flagman became blind and didn't see what was going on.. Truth be told the NY guys had more money to build better stuff. The payoffs were crap here. I owned an asphalt Pro-Stock in the late 90s and even with 7 sponsors I lost a bunch of money and not because we weren't fast. Racing for $1000 to win, $750 for 2nd, and on down from there. Now you spend $500 a week on tires, $100 on fuel for the car, $100 for fuel to get there, $25 each to get in times 4 guys... not to mention the 25k you spent to build the car. You might as well light all your money on fire & stay home instead.. It's the old saying..The only way to end up with a million bucks from racing is to start with 2 million. They have actually changed the rules in the last couple of years to make it mre afordable for the racers. Everyone has to use an unmodified GM "fast burn" crate engine, you can only buy 1 new tire a week, etc.

 

NHBandit
Norway Pines is now just "The Pines Speedway "It's still a great track and cheap to go to I think I paid7$ last year to get in.Norman and Wayne "Nor-Way" bought a racing facility farther south but I forget which one I know the one they bought has both a paved and dirt track.They bought the second track several years ago when the owners of the fairground the pines is on wouldn't allow them to do a bunch of upgrades.A family friend used to race in the 6 cylinder modified coupes when it was Norway Pines and it was like stepping right back into the 50s going there it's a great little track!

 

On the pavement I agree New York and New England teams were as good or better as anyone back in the day and as time has gone on has dominated with Whelan, etc.

But on dirt I would have to put in my vote for Pa and New Jersey. New York had Wimble, Shoemaker, Johnson, Narducci, Murdock, Charland, Corey, Gahan, Lazzaro, Cagle, etc. who were great great drivers. But they had not as much success when they ventured to Reading, Flemington, Nazareth, Statewide, Penn National, etc.

On the other hand, when Brightbill, Horton, Hearn, Weld, Ploski, Osmun, Tobias, Beavers, Balough, Botz, Kozak, Chamberlain, Taznady, Schneider, Carter, Collins, Adams, etc. ventured into New York they were normally very competitive and won their fair share.

With the creation of the Troyer Mud Buss and the Weld cars of Delmolino, Johnson, Cagle that did change somewhat along with CD Coville, Gary Ilug and others.

At Langhorne and Syracuse I think it was pretty even through the years and still is today.

The great thing for those of us who were around in the late 50's and early sixties, it was just great times to see all those drivers form all up and down the east coast get together at Trenton, Langhorne, Syracuse, Nazareth National and some of the big races at Allentown, Lebanon Valley, Middletown, etc.

Which group was better to me today matters not at all, as we all have our valid opinions. But those were days of fantastic fields of cars, sometimes 200 plus that unfortunately todays generation will never be able to experience.

They all contributed to what I feel, the 60's and 70's, which were the best of times.

 

I actually have a book called Speedway Stars from 1973 that profiles Charlie Jarzombek, Fred Desarro and Geoff Bodine among others. The article by Don Hubbard actually says Charlie got his start in 1962 with "a '39 Chevy powered by a 301 engine that they got from Wes Waite". Apparently the boys told Ma Jarzombek they were going to look at a calf...and they came back with a racecar....and a calf too so they wouldn't get in too much trouble...After a less than sensational first season, they bought the "Bug" in 1963 and things started to take off with 3 wins including the Annual 100 lap championship...

JBull

 

Must be talking about the track in Rumney,NH?.. It's now "Big Daddy's Speedbowl" The new owner Mike Rivers has rebuilt the track and redesigned it to include a dog leg on the front straight and more banking in the turns.