60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

Yes, my error, that's what you get for not getting out to the tracks any more and staying on top of the racing. This is about as close to it as I get now a day with an occasional trip to the Head.

 

JAWS ![/QUOTE]
JAWS ![/QUOTE]

Blewett bought that car, campaigned it at Wall Stadium (NJ) as the #76.

Who ran that car after that? <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
__________________
-Ken Schou ~ Long Island, NY

I believe a guy by the name of John White may have campaigned the car after that. I believe the car was metallic blue and was numbered 27. I believe he was the son of one of Charlie's former sponsors on the back of his coupes: J J White.

No, that was the other of the two original Jarzombek Vega's. That was the one without the holes drilled in the front part of the body.

Did Pete Grodski #4 ever campaign a former Jarzombek Vega or was it a clone, complete with the red bars sticking up by the front bumper.

Not that I'm aware of.

An interesting side note for those who were there at Riverhead. If you look at the top picture of Charlie's vega you'll notice the roof is a little scratched up and dented in. That happened after he crossed the finish line and received the checkered flag at Riverhead. Just as he crossed the finished line Herbie Hulse in the #12 vega decided to pull out of the pits into Charlie's path. The Jarzombek vega wound up on Herbie Hulse's roof. The two cars were roof to roof with Jarzombek upside down on top of Hulse...for one of the wildest finishes ever.

1974 or maybe '75? .. Herbie Hulse pulled unexpectedly out of the infield. .. Many say that Jarzombek actually won the race on his roof. .. Vinnie Moribito was the promoter then. He just had the front stretch wall poured .. it wasn't fully cured .. the concrete was still green. The roof of CJ's car took a good chunk out of the top of it, just past the finish line. If you look, that scar is still visible on the top track side of the wall today.

I'm counting on the Bullfather to come up with a picture of that as well as the John White and Pete Grodski cars.

My hats off again to him for posting all the great pictures that he does.

JBull
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Originally Posted by Ken_Schou
Who were the various people who tried their hand at promoting the Westhampton (NY) 1/2 mile?

I may not have them all .. but I'll give it a shot.

1- The Caricola (spelling?) family who owned the property. They ran the drag strip too, for many more years than they did the oval.
2- Larry Mendelsohn - more noted as the promoter of Islip Speedway
3- Bob Hager (now there was a REAL CHARACTER!!!)
4- Ray Plaktis very briefly tried his hand at promoting midgets there.

Modifieds, Street Stocks (Bombers), sprint cars (URC - United Racing Club) and midgets are among the classes of cars that ran there. Oh .. on an infield road course, go karts for many years too .. many more than race cars on the oval. Quite a few Long Island (NY) based stock car drivers got their start (as a kid) in go karts there.

The 1/2 mile was paper clip shaped .. with loooooong straights and very tight corners. A local town ordinance manditated that the track only run during the day. Fans not wanting to sit out and bake in the hot summers sun, plus the configuration of the track made it an almost impossible facility to successfully promote.

During Bob Hager's stint there, Adel Ambrose (Junior Ambrose's mom) had some REALLY GREAT food there in the concession stand.

Yes, SOMETIMES when they ran as 1/4 mile .. two turns were flat & the other two were banked corners of the 1/2 mile .. SOMETIMES they use the four flat corners of the 1/4 mile. Either way used the straights of the main track. One of those configurations (the totally flat one) was smaller than the other, but somehow both were refered to a 1/4 mile. Why I don't know?

 

Westhampton use to run on friday nights when I was a kid. I think it was the Early sixties. I remember the Eastern Bandits used to come and take the money away from the locals. I think Chuck Pecora has all the photos also.

 

George Peyton promoted Westhampton in the mid 60's, he owned a speed shop in Patchogue & was a Hoosier dealer. We saw the URC sprints there & Jimmy Maguire waxed the field in George Nesler's car.

In 1964 George scheduled a Sunday afternoon show but pulled the plug due to "high winds" which was a metaphor for no fans. I think that was the end of his tenure. I believe Dave Gomes (in Tom Prices old #42) in his 555 cut down won his only feature there around 64 or so.

One Friday night(they indeed had lights) Nick Cottone was there in his # 4U Chevy humpback coach and impressed the hell out of me.Coming off the
turns he was a rocket ship and absolutely blew by everyone like they were tied to a pole.

One issue that reared it's head was that he had a straight rear instead of a quickchange and was running his Islip gears so about 300 feet out he hit the RPM wall and it looked like HE was tied to a pole!!! That is a sight I will never forget.

 

My only trip to Westhampton was in the early 70's(71 or 72?). definately a sunday afternoon show. The thing that sticks in my mind most was that if a Mod wound up in the infield they seemed to sink in the sand. The season was very short lived if my memory is correct. I can't remember who was promoting at the time. Maybe Ken can verify some of this he seemed to be involveded heavily in the promotion biz at this time, I was just a kid in high school at the time

 

johnnyone & rjaustin421 .. MANY THANKS for the additional info.

I dumbly omitted that I knew that at one time they had night racing there .. even saw some pictures, but by the time Bob Hager tried his hand there the power of the very affluent nearby residential community had the town pass an ordinance that prevented any more night shows, plus (and I may well be wrong here) my old & sometimes foggy memory has me thinking that it also prevented any Sunday shows on the oval too.

By that time "NOISE" had become a big issue there too and the nearby affluent residents wielded A LOT of authority & power with the Town Board.

I certaily remember attending a couple of Westhampton (NY) Town Board meetings regarding noise .. doing my best to pass on what I learned dealing with the town of Riverhead (NY) to Dolores Caricola (who owned the facility) & her sons, plus the track "operator" Bob Hager. Putting it nice .. Mrs. Caricola & Bob Hager .. in there own very seperate & distinct ways were both REAL CHARACTERS!!!

BTW -- Jimmy Maguire is a very, very funny guy. He has an outstanding sense of humor I've said on the Cageless Sprint Car Thread here .. that if it wasn't for the USAC sprint car wreck in which he lost his arm, he most probably would have been at Indy before Mario Andretti. A very talented Maguire was solidly slated for his first ride in an Indy car, when he lost his arm. Chris Economaci of National Speed Sport News (NSSN) & TV announcing fame then very succesfsully promoted Mario into that very same ride.

I always admired Jimmy Maguire for his bravery .. climbing back into a regular ARDC (American Racing Drivers Club) midget ride after loosing his arm. A special device was bolted onto the steering wheel, to enable him to use his prostetic arm. ... Jimmy was a draftsman by trade.

Our Harold Seaman from here on Long Island, NY pals out with Jimmy Maguire at events like Hershey, Carlisle, the annual Stan Lobitz get togethers, the recent Valley Forge racing trade show (all in PA) and more. "Magoo" was also at the annual Warren, NJ / Ken Brenn show last September.

George Nesler always had top shelf equipment in the URC.

 

is this #o4 coorky cookman??

 

Airplane powered? Please tell us more....

 

Joy Fair is right,my memory failed I really didn't think it was Ruttman and forgot Fair's name completely.I do remember now,thanx ARCA ,Was that the same year that Benny Parsons was competing at Langhorne also?I believe he had an orange full bodied Ford.

 

bOB pARK

Bob Tester

Bob Van Fleet

 

Bob Cura

Bob Holmberg

Bob Janksy and Billy Sunderland

 

Bob Little

Bob Little

Bob Cura

 

neet shot



Bob Little

 

Heres a few my father took at Nazareth,year unknow....

 

Heres a few more of my fathers shots, from Reading.....

 

Cool c-dans and a Rambler too!! 666?? John

 

That Charland car with the aircraft engine I had never heard of. Ranger aircraft engines were popular in sprint cars and I've seen pictures of mario Andretti in a Ranger powered sprint car fhe drove in the early 60's.

I know little about them other than they were built at Republic/Fairchild in Farmingdale and date from the 30's. Some of them were pretty big, maybe this was a Ranger. With the low hood perhaps it was a flat (opposed) cylinder motor like a Lycoming.

Any current or former Mattituck Aviation employees out there?? Palmer Schade, Wes Zaleski, Gary Winters, Pete Luhrs are just a few who worked for Parker Wickham at Mattituck.

Sure has my interest piqued!!! Does anyone know what it could be?

 

While going through some of the old pages just incase I missed anything I came across the pictures from Len Callinoff's collection. This shot was listed as Chuck Williams. I'm pretty sure its not him though it is #60


Chuck Williams


Anybody know who this is?

 

Here are some pics of Charlie's car after blewett sold it. It was driven by John Baker as #23 modified at Wall & New Egypt.

 

Rabs32,

This is gold !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please post more if you can, I'm a Reading Fairgrounds nutcase !!!

 

The picture at Reading with the 427 Ford out of the car, was that Jackie Evans fatal wreck? I'll leave out the details.

 

At the Nazareth mile, the 21 in the fence is Ray Neary from my hometown Morrisville, Pa.
The 93 of Dick Havens owned by George Taylor from Fallsington, Pa., right next to Morrisville, Pa.

 

Hey SBuck ..

First WELCOME !!!!

MANY THANKS for the picture and info..

I'd be interested to see & maybe know more.

THANKS AGAIN !!!!

 

Spoke to noted racing photographer Ace Lane, Jr. today and was both saddened & angered to find out that he was ripped off AGAIN. This time his better cameras & lenses and his main computer were stolen from his New Jersey home.

 

You or someone might also try contacting former midget & modified driver Lenny Boyd at his aircraft business at the airport that is right next to Wall Stadium in New Jersey. I've forgotten the name of his business.

Just FYI .. Lenny & Parker Wickham were good friends.

 

How right you are. The infield there was almost like quicksand.

If the place ever had become half successful, someone would have had to add A LOT loam or something to the sand to stabilize it.

 

Bob Sprague drove that #42 but thats Jon Astle in that pic. Would love to see more old Seekonk Pics

 

By the paint on the R12 and 666 I would say 71-72. Best that I can remember

 

Thanks Bullfather for putting the name captions on your submittals again.
And thanks immeasurably for all the effort to post all those pics!