hey Tony,Any more pictures of Tom Nejas 57?That 57 along with Alreads 57 are some of my favorite wagons of the time!
In the engine shot of Archambaults 57, I dont think Ive ever seen a distributor like that before, is it a mag? if it is a mag were they legal?
As I recall, that was a Spalding or Grant "Flamethrower" distributor. You can Google it and find out a lot more about it. It was more of a '50's piece than a Junior Stock item. They were pretty exotic for their time and I don't recall seeing many of them on stockers. Check out that vacuum advance canister on the upper portion of the housing! I was at the limit of my expertise just setting the dwell on a dual point Corvette distributor! That thing would have put me in early retirement! c
I have a bunch of stuff from John Archambault's Hydrophobia car which I purchased from him to use in my 57 O/SA car around 69 or 70. I sold the car but know where additional parts are located. Currently I have a set of 520 heads, single 4 barrel cast iron intake, 2 WCFB carbs and a General Kinetics #7 cam. Archie's Power Glide and Stahl headers may still be available. I used a Marv Ripes converter and that is probably still around as well. If anyone is interested in these parts, send an email to my work... jim@centechwire.com. I'll make some calls for you. Maybe I can round these up for someone trying to build a real junior stocker.
First off, I'd like to echo the sentiments of my old pal and mentor, Jere Stahl, on how much I've enjoyed the Jr. Stock thread all of you guys have assembled. It's been a fun trip back in time, and I'm not half way through reading all of your posts. My old racing buddy Gary Glover forwarded this thread to me, and I'm glad he did. Your comments and all of the information you've taken so much time to include, even the not so factual bits of my own shenanigans...have been entertaining, and worth the time. On one post, TMcCrea spoke of his visit to Alex and Jeanette's farm, musing on how I stayed the weekend--to do a story--and thought Alex weird for eating crunched up saltines in sugar and milk. That's only the tip of the iceberg--I spent many a night out on the farm. You see, I grew up on the East coast, and cut my racing teeth out in Alex's dirt floor garage--I didn't have one of my own--that's the kind of guy Alex was. As a young man I learned a lot from the ole' farmer, and largely credit him for the path I have taken. Eventually I moved to SoCal so that I could race all year, even perhaps work in high-performance. The saga does take a turn fitting a Seinfield skit; unbeknownst to the two of us, we both built '56 Chevy 9-passenger wagons to run the 225 and 245 hp engine (a simple cam change). We laughed big time, and when I would take my car East, Alex would change class so that we both had a chance to get beyond class eliminations, which as you know in a 3-speed car was as much a wish as it was talent, even with a Lenco slider. I've been fortunate in that I had good racing friends on both coasts, Division 1 and the San Fernando Valley Boys--Joe Alread, Marv Ripes, John Barkley, Gary Glover and Bob Lambeck. We all lived within a few miles of one another, and that made for some spirited bench racing, as well as keen strategies. And thanks to good friends like Jere Stahl and Dick Moroso I not only had good input, and what I always considered the best parts, but great friendships along the way. And as Jere mentioned about adjustable headers and setting the record straight; I remember spending days at his shop prior to Englishtown, so he could build and fit the new adjustable headers on the car, and fit the adjustable segments and the various collectors. He made a lot of adjustable headers after that. I never ran anything but Stahl headers on my Jr. Stockers, and never once thought I had lost out when contingencies came into play. They were fun times, and again, I thank all you guys for the trip back down memory lane. I've never posted anything in my life, but felt compelled to tell you what a good thing you are doing here.--JOHN DIANNA
This is a great thread and it seems to get better by the day. Historically it is an asset to the memory of the great days of drag racing. Looking forward to where it is going. Thanks to all-Jim
ollie volpe is a cool dude and that car was very important in chevrolet racing history , thanks for posting
Greeting John, Welcome to our little group. And thanks for the very-nice and down-to-earth post. Funny, but it's almost as if you (and some other fine folks we've yet to hear from) have been here all along! Don't be a stranger.
While stock sports cars did not run in Stock Eliminator, they did meet the same class requirements as Stockers. My collection of NHRA rulebooks starting with 1961 show Stock Sports Car classes up through 1969. While the wording changed slightly year to year, the rulebooks basically stated the following: "CLASS REQUIREMENTS....Cars competing in Stock Sports Car classes must follow the same requirements outlined in Stock Car Section." Stock Sports Car classes were run in Street Eliminator with Gassers, Modified Production, Street Roadster, Factory Experimental, and Modified Sports Cars.
That's pretty much the way I remember it except that, at some point, Corvettes began to appear in Stock Eliminator. I remember tearing down for class at the 1964 Winternationals right next to Judy Lily who had won B/SP in a '61 Corvette. I thought her teardown was the same as ours except she was in a different eliminator category. Then, only a couple of years later, Larry Lombardo won Stock (or Junior Stock) at Indy in "Buckshot" as a C/S? Which Corvettes were Stockers and which ones were ?/SP? If you've got the books, can you refresh my memory? c
Looks like all these shots were taken at Vargo Dragway in Perkasie, Pa. along with the previous shots of "Archie" and our wagon. I think the Hostage was driven by Joe Cox. I don't recognize the Nomad (maybe a modified car).The red 57 as you can see belonged to Gerry Robinson from near buy Dublin, Pa who also built his own headers as we did early on. The white 57 wagon belonged to LaVerne Benner who campained this car till he teamed up with Jere Stahl to run the white 57 150 fuel injected coupe, then a Valiant. Laverne was a good guy who unfortunately passed away a few years ago. After his racing days he was always there to help good friend Ronnie Evans with his 62 409. They were the good days I will never forget.
Some really good shots there, Colesy, Tony Janes, Bob Rice and others. Thanks for sharing! John, Welcome to the forum! As a very young teen in the very early 1970s, I really enjoyed reading your articles in Hot Rod magazine. Ditto for earlier issues which I later purchased at swap meets. Being a car-crazy, Mopar fan back then (still am), I especially enjoyed your E/MP 340 Duster build-up series.* Again, welcome to the forum! All the best, Pete *Whatever happened to that car?
John, It is great to see you posting. I hope you have time to read through all that has been said and will continue to participate. You and Dave Bishop have many stories to tell.
If you have checked lately Les Welch has added a few more old Junior Stock pictures from Indy in '71. http://www.leswelch.com/oldstuff/880/index.html
Forgive me if I missed it but is there a time and place for a Jr Stock get together @ York this weekend ? There's a HAMB meet-n-greet Saturday in the lobby by the wooden horse at 1 PM.
The Jalopy Journal
