History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Mike Caruso is a great guy, and the collection he has on display is really nice. If you ever get to So Cal, be sure and check out the Justice Brother's Racing Museum. The collection Ed Sr. put together is mind boggling.

 

Dean - I take it you have been up to Vegas to see it?
Brian, stopped everything he was doing in the shop and took me, my friend and my son through the museum.
I thought it was the most incredible thing for him to do to share his family history with us.
You could see the pride in his eyes and actions.
Nest time I am down your way I will check out your recommendation.

Thanks,
N8

 

Jan's Elto:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=512050&highlight=elto

 

DocF,
That is Coxie Bowman beside the left front wheel. Monkaz I spent a couple of weekends with Ted Hartley when I drove for him and went thru several of his scrapbooks but that is the only picture I ever remember seeing of the roadster.
Ted told me the reason intake and ex. were reversed was because after all the years of racing the noise would hurt his right ear if the ex. was on that side so he changed it. Never did say anything about the roadster.
Jim Graybeal

 

Yeah Jim, Gene was driving that day. Pardon the lousy picture but this is Gene in Red Marley's car at Milwaukee in 1958.

 

Hey Jim, Coxie was never that young

His other upright (red #4), which he was as likely to drive, had the engine set in it normally. I know he told us the engine had been put together reversed for the roadster and he just never turned the block around. It would make sense for him to prefer that arrangement for his ears sake. By the time he was nearing the end of his long career, Ted was deaf as a post.

Unless I am mistaken, Ted was running the roadster on the old quarter mile at the Grand Rapids Speedrome when another driver was killed account running over a wheel of that car. Gene was there in Red Marley's car that night too. The reason Ted ran 77 on the roadster was because Gene ran Red's 88 for so long he became identified with it.

Doc

 

Doc,

Gene's widow said the upright #4 Bohlander Offy was given to Ted Hartley for work he did for Bohlander.
She said Ted sold the car to a driver named "Brown". Based on a photo in Ed Watson's 1970 USAC Yearbook I believe the purchaser might have been Danny Brown(?).

 

In the post above, by carl s, I've made a couple of postings on the link he supplied about the Eltos

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...highlight=elto

 

More Hartley:
Gene Hartley at Trenton 1957 in the Bohlander Offy, Ted Hartley and Len Duncan in background look on while Chuck Weyant, leaning against the pickup, talks to Ashley Wright, owner of Hardwood Door cars .
A picture of Gene that I took at Freeport in 1957.

 

Here are a few more of the Caruso Collection I wanted to share.
Big cars this time.

 

monkaz,
The Bolander caris the car Gene did most of his driving in 59 when he won the championship. Ted kept the car running that season and Bolander owed Ted some money and never did pay him so he kept the car for several years. When I got hurt in 67 indoors in the 47 car Ted was dricing the #4 Bolander car. He ran it in all the indoor races that year and said it was his. I see Gene's widow 2 or 3 times a year, one of the nicest people I know. She is married to Fred Johns now. He owns the Saylor Kurtis roadster midget and one of Tuff's Offy midget, they look better than when they were new[Fred is a super nice guy too.
Jim

 

monkaz,
Gene told me the Bolander car was one of the best he ever drove. Drewrys was a beer[I have drank a few] and they also sponsored an Indy car. I did not remember Gene eas in the 100 mph club. Ihave a 100 mph jacket that Cliff Griffith gave me that he got in 1952, wonder how many of them are still around?
Jim

 

Here is one of the "Tuffy" Offys when Jimmy Knight first bought it from Carmine Tuffanelli. It looked as good as some of the restored cars of today. The guy leaning on the tail is Charlie Pritchard.

 

I'm sure a lot of you guys go to vintage meets and listen to offy's all the time but I haven't heard one since I was a child and I don't remember what they sounded like. My dad switched to a Ford SESCO in 1976. Last night I found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT2wxTZFCtY&feature=related I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks they sound absolutely bad ass!

 

110 cubic inches never sounded better! Thanks for posting that.

 

Gene Hartley made the 100mph club for fifnishing 10th in 1957, 131.3 mph

 

The picture I took of Gene Hartley, at Freeport L.I., was taken in September of 1957 so the time line works.

 

Hi monkaz, by any chance do you have a photo of Jimmy Knight in his "Lite Knight" Offy? Jimmy was a brakeman for the C&O and ran out of Chicago to Grand Rapids, where I lived sometimes. I got to know him fairly well. I especially liked that fly-weight car he built or had built.

Doc

 

Doc,
Jimmy Knight (Randerson) in his home made roadster at W.16th. St. 1958. Hope this is the car you wanted to see?

 

Actually, I was thinking of his ultra-light true space frame upright. We weighed it at Jackson, MI during the first year he raced it. 510 lb with water and oil, but no fuel.

Doc

 

Doc,
The driver who was killed at Grand Rapids was Al Alpern on 6/20/1957. Billy Garrett won the 50 Lap main.

 

Yes! I was not at that race as we were off on a boat trip to the Soo. I could not remember (not an unusual circumstance these days) the details. Ted's roadster looked suspiciously like the Doug Craig roadster. Might have been the same or built from the same plans.

Doc

 

monkaz,
Just got off the phone with Carolyn Hartley Johns. The car that Fred Johns restored is the #25 Tuffys Offy. Do you have any pictures of it with Tuffys name on it at a race track or in the pits? Fred needs one.
Jim

 

DocF,
I was at Jackson in 65,what a track. High banked in 1 and 2, flat in 3 and 4. 4/10th? in size. I was looking for a ride and was with Sonny Ates.
The Lite-Knight semi roadster that Jimmy had in 66 he built from the ground up[and was told he built the steering box]. It had a different steering drag link. It was 2 pieces with a plate in the middle that one rod went to the steering arm and the other end to the front axle.

 

Jimmy was a clever guy. I believe he built the roadster in the picture I posted. Leroy Byers made a note on the back of that photo stating that Jimmy out qualified all the K.K. roadsters midgets that night.

 

Jim,

This is the only photo I have of the #25 car with the "Tuffy" legend on the side of the car.

If anyone is interested the gentlemen from left to right are: Curly McBride, Jimmy Sommers, Phil Hansen, Emil Andres and Charlie Pritchard 1948 Chicago.

 

Beutiful car, great picture!!!!!