60'-70's Vintage Oval Track Modifieds

More great Plainville photos. Thanks BF

 

Bob Santos -- "Frito Bandito" -- from the Feb. 15, 1974 issue of New England Speedway Scene.

 

dover1977

 

Posted on Facebook by .. The Himes Museum of Motor Racing Nostalgia
Bruno Brackey, the winningest driver in Long Island history died on February 3rd from complications from pneumonia. He was ninety years old. Born in Italy, his family name Bracchi was butchered when he arrived at Ellis Island. A long time resident of Far Rockaway, N.Y, he leaves three children and several grandchildren. He was predeased by his wife Carolyn.

 

Ken, Sad to hear about Bruno. I do genealogy as another hobby and want to add this: It is a great wide spread myth or folklore that names were changed by Immigration Officials when many of our ancestors came to this country. Fact: Everyone that came through Ellis Island had to have papers before they left their home country.

Those papers and the ship manifests were the documents that allowed them entry. It did not matter if they could read, write or spell their name, their name was their name and was recorded as such. Many, many immigrants immediately changed the spelling of their names on their own so that phonetically they sounded the same, but the English spelling was different.

The other reasons our ancestors made changes in their names was so they could fit into this new nation and seemingly remove themselves from the hard lives that they had in their old countries.

Back to racing.....

 

Yup my Father changed his from Zimmermann to Zimmerman, one letter shorter. Denny Z

 

Boy, he sure simplified things by dropping that "n", eh Denny? My great-great grandfather decided to make hisself more impotent by capitalizing the "S" (Fitzsimmons----->FitzSimmons)....go figure!

 

is that dover?

 

Paging leadfoot4... Leadfoot4 to the black and gold courtesy phone...

The car was built by Dave Nichols and the driver was Lon Boyer, aka leadfoot4 here at HAMB.

 

Several people have asked for photos of my recently completed 1936 Chevy modified. This was a 3 year project that was completed with a lot of help from friends and former modified drivers/owners/builders. A special thanks to Modified Driver Frank Hager, who still campaigns a 1936 Chevy vintage modified in the Carolinas and Georgia. Frank designed and helped build the chassis and roll cage using dimensions from his '36 as well as other frames he had fabricated in the past. We partnered up with Mike Matheny of Pelzer who used his frame jig to weld/fabricate the custom racing chassis and roll cage. I will probably do 3 or 4 postings as I am having trouble loading some of the files because they are too large. These photos show Franks original sketch and original body being cut up.

 

I need to give credit where it is due.....Along with Dave Nichols, Stan May and Doug Ferrin were also heavily involved with the construction of the car....

 

Definitely looks like Dover. Pocono has/had the boilerplate walls in turn 1.

That's Geoff Bodine on the pole and Maynard Troyer on the outside. These 2 also raced for the win in these same cars at the Race of Champions on the 2.5 mile track at Pocono later that year. Troyer won it.

 

This is the second series of photos on the '36 modified build. Photo shows floor pans and fiewall installed on painted chassis. Wheel weel tubs and quarter filler panels installed. Engine drive train was offset 1" to passenger side to allow room for brake/clutch/acell pedals. 348 "W" engine being assembled by Hager. ATL 20 gal fuel cell with stainless mounting straps and stainless braided line. Initial body prep photos. More to come.

 

I need help finding a Picture of Denny Z's #66 car of 1960 & 61. He needs a frontal picture of it. He believes it was a Norwood Arena picture. I have contacted KGM video to see if he had anything. The name Judith Anne is on the car. Please help Denny and my sanity. Thanks RD

 

This is the third photo series of the '36 build. The car was painted as tribute to the late Dale Earnhardt (1951-2001)....10th anniversary of his tragic death at Daytona. Color is PPG silver, black and red. Hood is a 1938 Ford that was shortened and widened to fit the Chevy cowl; Hood emblem is a 1932 Chevy modified to fit the Ford hood. Original dash was retained, original guages rebuilt, 7000rpm tach added. All door and trunk panels are bead rolled aluminum. All Chevy original wood was removed and replaced with 3/4" square steel tube. Door skins were attached to 1/4" steel plate with Bearclaw latches. Floor pans, trans tunnel and firewall were fab with 16 ga. steel. Body was channelled 4" and welded to chassis/roll cage. A willwood 3 Master cylinder/reverse mount was mounted between firewall and dash. Zoom 12" clutch is activated by a Quartermaster hydraulic throwout bearing. Engine fuel is feed through an Offy dual quad 500cfm. Cam id Isky 262 .488 lift. Headers are Sanderson custom Sprint car style. Tranny is a Richmond T10 4 speed built by Hightower racing. Rear end is a Winters Quick change suspended on Landrum leaf springs. Front axle is 1947 Ford, supported by ProShocks with 225# Carrera coils .Vintage Howe finned alum calipers are used to stop the 12" vented rotors on the front. Rear drums are vintage finned alum Buick drums machined to fit wide five Frankland hubs.

 

This is hopefully the last....Whew! This car was built to capture the legendary period of Modified racing in the late 60's. I followed drivers like Dutch Hoag, Lee Ozborne, Will Cagel, Richie Evans, Bugsy Stevens, and Ray Hendricks to dirt tracks throughout the Northeast. I never raced, but always considered this period to be one of the most exciting forms of racing. While this car was built to recreate the technical specs and look of vintage cars from this period....it is totally streetable. Radiator is by Griffin. You can see the rear licence plate folds out of way, Headlights are plug -in removable. Seats are Procar Racing with RCI 5 pont racing harness. Nerf bars were custom fab by M Matheny. Bassett wide five wheels are 12" in rear/10" front sporting Hoosier Pro Street Radials. Still need to finish rear nerf bar. What a trip....drives better than a vintage modified. It was worth it. Again, thanks to the many who helped. Terry

 

Very impressive neo-mod. I can think of a few other numbers that would suit it better though.

 

Thanks for sharing pics of the car. Goodyear or Avon makes a treaded tire that fits 917 porsche and GT-40 vintage racecars that have the tread pattern from back in the day, and are a good width for early modifieds.

Barry

 

I'm not for sure but I think Dover has higher banking & the track surface doesn't realy look like concrete to me

 

I thought maybe Daytona at 1st. because of the banks and wall

 

Anyone got a line on where I can find 12" wide x ~26" OD high performance radial street tires to fit a 15" wheel? I'd like them to be Z speed rated, and the obviously must be legal to run on the street. Hoosier makes some dandy slicks in the size I need, but that doesn't do me much good on the street.

Firestone makes an S rated tire (only good to 112 mph) in a size that's close (305/50R15), but the OD is 27.5", which is awful big, and the speed rating makes me nervous. The car they're going on will easily exceed 112 mph when it's finished.

I'd bump up to like an 18" dia wheel, but the hubs I'm using are the 3/4 ton Wide 5 like these modifieds run, and the only sizes I can get wider than 8" are 15" dia. So, if I want to run tires wider than about 10", I gotta find them to fit 15" wheels, and I'm having precious little luck.

Any help would be appreciated.

Also, I don't think that the bank is steep enough for that pic to have been taken at Daytona.