Features VINTAGE SPRINT CAR PIC THREAD, 1965 and older only please.

DUE TO THE EXTREME WEATHER
The POWRi midget races scheduled for FRIDAY June 29th and SATURDAY June 30th, at BELLEVILLE Il. have been canceled.

The VINTAGE RACE CAR display will also be re-scheduled.

Thank you to all vintage racers that were headed to BELLEVILLE Il.

David J. Kovac
314-220-0699

 

Our very own "DOC PARSONS" took a HARD ride tonight on an openwheel car. Minisprint I think... Anyways, cracked ribs, broken collar bone.. Got hit in the top while flipping down the back stretch. Got his bell rung pretty good. From the reports I'm getting, he took a rude in the bambulance, but he's released and heading home. Gonna get checked out by his own doc tomorrow.

Heal fast buddy.. Shit happens.


Reports also say he was lapping 3rd place!!!

 

Thanks Rootie

 

Does anyone know why they called his crash "mysterious"?

 

Pretty much went straight into the wall without lifting. Some speculate he had a heart attack, others thought he got K.O. by a kicked up rock or his throttle stuck. They really didn't have cause to do a autopsy or investigate too much. Just wrote it off as a racing deal and as you know, in those days, racers getting killed didn't warrant a lot of investigation.

 

Actually, that was to be Branson's last race ever before going to work, full time, for Goodyear's racing division.

 

Hardly. There were two more races to be run before the season was over, and I can't see a consummate professional like Branson missing those. He had already entered for Altamont the next day, same as Atkins. It's just another myth.

 

Technically Ascot would have been his last sprint car race but Altamont was rained out and rescheduled for the 13th. There was still the Phx. champ car race on the 20th but I don't know if he had a ride for that or not.

 

AH..... That's good news. I feel better now. I always felt bad for a guy who died in his last race before retirement. Good to know that wasn't the case with Don.

 

Also, Roger Branson is quoted in the Aug., '88 Open Wheel saying they did perform an autopsy and found no evidence of a heart attack.

 

Thanks everybody - and so the mystery remains.

 

Came across a couple more shots of Aggies #97 Stoody car, engine and chassis.

 

Ah, forgot the Champ Car race (yes, he had a ride - Bobby U took over and finished 4th). There was also a USAC Sprint Car race at Manzanita the next week.

 

The Caddy powered Cal Connell Spl. Nice looking race car and I can dig that hauler too. Wonder what became of it?

 

Still another theory of the mystery of that horrendous crash is the mud covered and splattered wall in the #1 turn. Some speculate that so much mud was stuck to the wall that Branson could not tell the dirt surface of the track from the wall and misjudged his entry. Maybe that is the reason that many tracks now have WHITE painted walls with BLACK painted hash marks and the walls are kept clean between events by scraping the dirt covering off the walls ?

 

Not likely. He was a pro.

many tracks were worse than that in that era.

 

I've seen at some tracks, the officials and drivers working side by side before the feature, taking shovels and making diagonal stripes on the walls through the mud. I've even seen where the drivers knock the dirt off the wall and make a little bank against the fence and during the race they actually put their right rear up on there. The worst thing at any track (I think) are those damn tractor tires around the inside of the track. Might as well park a bulldozer down there.

 

heard they had to cut the cage off

 

You can see in the shot that Ascot had the striped walls, and you can see Ascot's notoriously tacky clay almost obscuring the white portion.
I wan't there, and I don't remember from attending CRA races back then if they scraped the walls before the main, but the track was usually so heavy, especially in a late-season race when the ocean air was so moist, that it may not have made much difference.
In Ascot's later years there was a stack of white-painted tires placed above the wall in the turns and covered with heavy viz-cleen. it served two purposes; a bit more safety, and also as additional visual reference. The plastic would flap in the wind of the passing cars, and was therefore somewhat self-cleaning, so even when the shovel-scraped wall became caked again, there was still plenty of the white tire wall visible above to give the drivers warning.

 

Couple pics of the DVL hemi effort of 55: Bryan taking it out for some laps, and after Christie lunched the motor and tagged the fence.

 

"The worst thing at any track (I think) are those damn tractor tires around the inside of the track. Might as well park a bulldozer down there."

I agree! Those tires have cost our 305 sprinter a couple of axles. Show me a driver that doesn't believe in the shortest way around a dirt track!

 

Didn't blow up and survived Damn handy when you want to grill up some burgers after the races too.

 

Josh I was driving a Open Lete Model, it was a big 1/2 mile in Miss. set fast time 16.310, won heat, trophy and it was a 50 lapper, on the 48th lap I was lapping 3rd place and his right rear came off and I got on top of it and it barrell rolled 11 times they said,it came down in front of 2nd place and he hit me in the top of the car, pushed the cage down on top of me, they used a jaws to get the cage off me, all I needed was 2 more laps! just some broken ribs and collar bone, I'll be ready for Houston texas on July 14 in the Midgets! My car owner Sandra flew me back from Miss. to Austin Texas to her Doctor for a good check up and then on back To Tulsa, sorry I didn't mean to write a book
"Doc" Parsons

 

[QUOTE="Doc" Parsons;7925190]Josh I was driving a Open Lete Model, it was a big 1/2 mile in Miss. set fast time 16.310, won heat, trophy and it was a 50 lapper, on the 48th lap I was lapping 3rd place and his right rear came off and I got on top of it and it barrell rolled 11 times they said,it came down in front of 2nd place and he hit me in the top of the car, pushed the cage down on top of me, they used a jaws to get the cage off me, all I needed was 2 more laps! just some broken ribs and collar bone, I'll be ready for Houston texas on July 14 in the Midgets! My car owner Sandra flew me back from Miss. to Austin Texas to her Doctor for a good check up and then on back To Tulsa, sorry I didn't mean to write a book
"Doc" Parsons[/QUOTE]

"All I needed was 2 more laps!"... as they cut you out of the car. Now that's a racer. Glad to know you're ok
PK

 

Doc, where are you running in Houston?

 

These type cars is what got me as a kid interested in cars. Dad had a 3/4 midget (Bob "RIP" Thoren) and the neighbor had a full midget I believe (Duane Telly / Phillips 66 on Lowry Ave & University). I know they were not sprint cars, but smaller less powerful versions. I just LOVE the body style, and remember dad bring me to the state fair races, even back when it was dirt. I'm fairly sure some of those were sprint cars.

 

Jim it is actually in Willis just No of Houston July 14, stop by!

 

Rootie, the more I look at that first photo I think that's a young Bob Christie in the cockpit instead of Bryan. Bryan was bigger and the helmet is wrong for Bryan at that point as well. What do you think?

 

Yeah, now that I look at it closer, I believe you're right, does kinda look more like Christie. Here's a comparison from 54:

 

So, "Doc" Parsons - according to your profile page you are a "Retired Race Car Driver" and "you quit driving in 2001"? Hmmmmm. But, you were driving a Late Model and will be driving a midget? That's freakin' awesome! You need to change your profile page to: "I Thought I was a Retired Race Car Driver - but I'm no Quitter!" Where in Mississippi were you running? Do you ever bring those old cars to "Crusin' the Coast?" The Crusin' deal is huge - usually 5000+ cars (depending on how many actually register). Congratulations on your retirement from retirement.