History Vintage "Cageless" Midget Picture Thread

Here it is in 1966 with Ray brown as the # 14 with Johnny Coy in Mike Sheehan's # 3, at Islip NY. I have not decided on the year to restore it to.

 

Sprinter 2-I`m enjoying the show.

 

Tough choice. I've always been a big Ray Brown fan, but on the other hand I think of all the pictures I've seen so far, the best looking year was the of the picture I originally posted. Nuthin' for nuthin'.

Spike

 

When they streched a midget to make a sprint, where did they lengthen it? Did they use the same tail? A little OT but I've always wondered.

 

A lot of them streched a midget because it was light and the cheapest way to build a sprint car. Yes, they used the same tail. The Barzda 33 ran all those years and still used the midget rear as well.

Spike

 

I imagine they probably lengthened it just ahead of the motor, which, it seems to me would be the least complicated. Here's a couple of streched midgets with midget tails.

 

Joe Barzda lengthened his more or less by extending the front radius rods. Suicide front end. It was scary to look at, but it worked real well.

Jake Vargo had the Offy sprinter. he stretched the frame on his car ahead of the firewall.

Spike

 

The Caruso cars were stretched in the engine area. The frame was cut and extended 8 inches and the hood and other bodywork modified to fit.

The Caruso car we had still had a midget rear in it.

 

Here is Barzda's 33 at Danbury Ct. in 1947 on the bridge over the moat. That is Joe at the wheel.

 

Buildy, The Caruso car is in the Collings Foundation collection in Mass.

 

That`s a beauty.

Apparently there were Several Caruso Midgets stretched into Sprinters.

My Uncle drove and my Dad was his mechanic on this one. The stretch was where the word Speed is on the hood.



One year before this photo the car still had an Offy and was driven by Ron Lux at Allentown.

You can see that the car is still running a KK Midget Tail in the photo.

 

Hi Buildy,
Saw my brother in law at xmas [Midge Miller] and he tells me that he bought that car from Mr. Suborou of Hatsboro, PA with the intension of returning it to a midget again. Before he could start the project, Dutch found him a near new Kurtis with he bought. The car remained red and white #15 until he sold it. He can not remember who he sold it to! Sound familiar?

 

Yes,

That is what Midge told me at Latimore Valley. I`ve been told what is left of the car has been found. Whoever Midge sold the car to crashed the front clip off of it.
I believe the car was found somewhere around Harrisburg, PA. I have not seen the car since 1967.

I wonder if that Caruso the Collings foundation has is the original Supercharged car? I read and was told that the S.C. car was made from the Caruso # 3 Midget that Nazaruk drove.
The Caruso story is a tough one to figure out. Jerry told me he didn`t just have the Deuce,Mike Caruso had cars all over the place there in Hicksville......

 

To add a bit to the conundrum of "restored" Caruso cars .. the first one I ever saw was YEARS ago at the Thompson (CT) Speedway. The black duece & it was absolutely beautiful. I was with "Dutch" Schaefer and he told me that it actually wasn't the actual duece. .. "IF" memory serves me right, I "THINK" he told me that it was actually one of the Berginon (spelling?) cars, restored to look like the deuce.

 

Hey wynns #1

When youy saw Midge over Christmas, were you able to find any more about the history of that near new Kurtis (also a black #2) that Dutch found for Midge .. the one MIdge ran in the opening years of the SMRC (Super Midget Racing Club)?

 

"To add a bit to the conundrum of "restored" Caruso cars .. the first one I ever saw was YEARS ago at the Thompson (CT) Speedway. The black duece & it was absolutely beautiful. I was with "Dutch" Schaefer and he told me that it actually wasn't the actual duece. .. "IF" memory serves me right, I "THINK" he told me that it was actually one of the Berginon (spelling?) cars, restored to look like the deuce."

True,the Caruso Deuce that Mal Barlow had was not the real Deuce,although it sure did look nice.

 

What do you thing was going through Jiggs Peter's mind after he got wrecked at Danbury ?

 

Date: Friday, January 15, 2010, 10:34 PM


MILLER: Higgy’s Legacy
Written by: Robin Miller
01/14/2010
Indianapolis, IN
The list is as impressive as it is long. There are Indy 500 winners (Parnelli Jones, Dick Rathman, A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford and Mario Andretti ); USAC champions (Don Branson, Bob Tattersall, Mel Kenyon, Tom Bigelow, George Snider, Rollie Beale, Sammy Sessions, Larry Dickson, Chuck Gurney, Billy Engelhart, Rich Vogler, Stan Fox, Sleepy Tripp, Ken Schrader); versatile stars (Jim Hurtubise, Bob Grim, Bubby Jones, Bobby Marshman, Lee Kunzman, Bill Vukovich Jr., Johnny Parsons, Ronnie Shuman); bad ass brothers (Dana & Pancho Carter); father-son combos (Shorty & Clark Templeman, Jim & James McElreath and Roger McCluskey Jr. and Sr.) and the three guys he personally won USAC titles with (Bob Wente, Mike McGreevy and Larry Rice).

Bob Higman, shown at the 1990 USAC banquet. (John Mahoney) » More Photos
Chances are if you were somebody in open wheel racing from 1951 to 1990 you probably drove a midget prepared by Bob Higman.

The universally liked and benevolent farmer from Romney, Ind. whose cars excelled during USAC’s glory days, passed away on Wednesday at age 84.

And, for all the races he won or victories he shared, Higgy’s legacy was just as much for giving promising racers a shot.

“I really credit Bob with giving me my first big break in the midwest and it was a big deal to drive for him because he probably had the No. 1 midget back then,” recalled Foyt, who scored his initial win for Higman in 1957 at Galesburg, Mich.

“I remember going up and asking him for a ride and he said he’d get back me and thankfully he did.”

It was during that time A.J. developed his love for tractors, sort of.

“I’d never been on a tractor before but he said we couldn’t go racing until we plowed the fields so that’s what we did,” said USAC’s all-time winner. “One night I ran out of fuel out in the middle of a field at 1 in the morning and it was real dark. He got a good laugh at that one.

“But Bob let me and my wife (Lucy) stay in his house and he fed us and he was just a super guy. He helped everybody.”

That he did, whether you were a national number or a clueless midget owner trying to find a spare part for your gearbox.

“His shop was open to anyone and everyone, he was such a good hearted man,” said Jigger Sirois, who drove Higman’s midget in the ‘60s and ‘70s in addition to their unforgettable try at Indianapolis.

“It really didn’t matter if you came from USAC or were a total stranger, he’d always help you.”

Inducted into the National Midget Hall of Fame in 1995, Bob captured three USAC titles as owner/chief mechanic with Wente (1963), McGreevy (1966) and Rice (1973).

That championship with Rice might have been his favorite since Larry was a modest farm boy from nearby Linden who helped Bob tow their car all over the country and they forged an indelible friendship.

Higman also spent a decade wrenching cars at the Indianapolis 500, where in 1969 he was involved in one of the most memorable pole day stories in IMS history.

Working for Myron Caves on a car driven by old buddy Sirois, Higman was told by his car owner to wave the yellow flag and abort the run as the rookie came out of Turn 4. But, a few minutes later it rained out the rest of the day and had they accepted the time, Sirois would have won the pole position because the speed held up through time trials.

“I always got blamed for that one, but I always felt for Jigger,” Higman use to say.

Larry Rice (R) was but one of many drivers Higgy helped throughout many decades of involvement with Midgets. (John Mahoney) » More Photos
But midgets were his love and his life and he maintained a fleet of them for the better part of 30 years. Once in the annual Hut Hundred at Terre Haute, 12 of the 33 starters were cars prepared by Bob.

When he switched to a bulkier Cosworth engine in the mid-70s, his cars lost their sleek look and became much heavier than the VWs so they became known as “Higgy’s Piggys” but they damn sure ran well.

Bob’s health deteriorated during the past decade and he could only get around with a motorized wheelchair, which was purchased by Rice and Gary Irvin before Tony Stewart bought him the latest, greatest model a couple years ago.

Despite that handicap, Higman still attended USAC races and remained a fixture at the Chili Bowl, which is running this week in Tulsa.

He always had a smile, a story and a captive audience.




The funeral arrangements for Bob Higman will be held at the Soller-Baker Funeral home located at 400 Twyckenham Blvd. in Lafayette, Indiana. This is located on the south side of Lafayette not far from the Purdue University Airport. A map of location is on the funeral home website. For more information you may call the funeral home at (765) 474-1111.

The visitation will be held from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. on Wednesday January 20th, 2010. The funeral service will be at 2 p.m. on Thursday January 21 with visitation from 1 p.m. until time of the service.

The family is requesting donations in memory of Bob be made to:
USAC Foundation, Inc.
Attn: Mr. Bill Marvel
4910 W. 16th St.
Speedway, IN 46224.
Be sure to mark your check for Bob Higman.

 

Posted this on the Vintage Sprint thread a while back and got no response, so I thought I'd try here-anybody recognize this poster?

Went Goodwilling with the Missus out in Avon yesterday- usually not one of my favorite activities (except bein' with you, Buttercup ), and certainly not usually on topic for this thread, BUT:
I found this poster and figured somebody on here must have seen it in someone's shop, or garage, or living room.
It commemorates 25 years of the Gilmore Roars Again party in 1996 and is signed in the bottom right by the artist, Joe Henning (someone who's work I've admired for years) as #223 of an edition of 750. This leads me to believe it belonged to someone hard-core, possibly one of the attendees of the party. The individual pictures are apparently the invitiations, and the guest list was made up of "Gilmore participants, their spouses and specially invited guests".
Anyone have any idea who this might have belonged to, and what it was doing in a Goodwill?
P.S.; Sorry for the blur- just got the camera, and no tripod yet.

 

Here are a few pics of one of the midgets my Grandpa built in the late 40's I am not sure but I think Dad told me the track was in southern Ill. A guy by the name of Gene Alldredge from Princeton In. drove the car for Grandpa.
Thats my Grandma in the pic so be nice.

 

Look like sprint cars KDxer. Wheels are too big.

 

You are probably right. It was way before my time I have a few pics and a bunch of stories from my Grandma and Dad. I know they told me Grandpa started building midgets and ended up building champ cars and running in the indy 500 in the early and mid 50's.

 

Alright folks,today at York Dirt Trackin show I found a box of old photos for sale. I got this one for 30 cents.

It is a northeast driver-photo stamp is from a photog on L I

Who is this-when and where.
I don`t know the answer,so if anyone does,thanks!




Could this be Wally Campbell??

 

This is Georgie Rice, not sure of the location or the car. it could be Avon CT.

 

Yup, if you go back to page 24, #478, I posted a photo of the same car, thinking it was Mr, Rice.

 

What era midget is this and what engine might it have run?

 

Bit of a hodgepodge, I'd guess forties, maybe even pre war, are you going to rebuild it?

 

Bit of a hodgepodge, I'd guess forties, maybe even pre war, are you going to rebuild it?

 

"This is Georgie Rice, not sure of the location or the car. it could be Avon CT."



Thanks Hugh and Sprinter 2.

I see a C welded in the front bumper. Could it be the Caccia Offy?

 

Hugh M-
My brother found the midget last week. No luck contacting owner/seller yet. It's rough not sure if he'll drag it home or not. So is this a TQ or regular midget?