Heres one of Bucky Dew of Ithaca. This was also from 1951 and Mr. Dew was cleaning up at Chemung...nice to put a face to a name I've heard much of my life. (my step-father raced with him and quite frankly reveared him...with good reason!)
This is an advertisement for the first race (I think..I'm still researching) held in Elmira. The ad is from the May 26, 1916 Elmira Star-Gazette. The race was held at the Maple Avenue Driving Park and was a multi-vehicle event as they ran motorcycles and automobiles. It was sanctioned by the AAA and amazingly held partially at night with "thousands of arc lamps placed around the racecourse" to illuminate it...not sure if this was the first night race or not? I'd be interested if anyone could shed some light on this (pardon the pun).
Larry756 asked if I had any pictures from when my Uncles raced there at Chemung and other tracks. Larry 756 it so happens I'm in South Carolina for awhile and only a hour from my Aunts house. I had stopped by a few weeks ago and asked about some pictures she has, she is going to look them up and show them to me again in a few weeks. Any good pictures from the area tracks from the 50's and early 60's I will try and send them on. Hows everything going Larry, cold down here but snow free.
Another article by Bob Fuller...This is from the October 5th, 1958 Elmira Star-Gazette
WITH THE STOCK CARS
Meet Chemung's Chubby Chandler
Art (Chubby) Chandler, the hard working owner of a 130 acre farm in Chemung N.Y. is better known for his ability on local stock car tracks.
A veteran of eight years at tracks such as Chemung, Southport, Towanda, Glen Aubery, Five-Mile Point, Doty Hill and Owego's Shangri-La circuit, Art won the Chemung Class A point title last year, but had to be content with second honors behind Jackie Soper in points at Southport. He still has accumulated 18 winners trophies.
At almost every race in which Art competes, you'll find his wife Phyliss and their three sons, aged three, 10 and 11 years. He's driving No. 112 for the sixth year. The car is a 1934 Ford Coupe with a 1955 Thunderbird engine, and he uses a mixture of alcohol and gas for fuel.
Art is a driver-owner, but he's decided to sell his car at the end of the season. The car is being offered for $1000 including equipment, but Art is willing to drive for the new owner if the car is maintained in it's present condition.
PENN-YORK Atlantic Women's Racing assn. will hold it's banquet Oct. 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the Elmira VFW Home. Trophies will be presented, movies will be shown and the program will be followed by dancing...Chemung Speedrome held it's final season race Saturday...Promoter Jack Markos says he may blacktop the track next year.
Qualifying heats will be run at 1:30 this afternoon as Glider City Sports Arena runs it's 100 lap Modern Car championship. Thirty-six cars from a field of 80 cars will be eligible after heat races. There also will be qualifying heat races and a consolidation race in the Class B sportsman division for next Sundays 100-lap "B" championship race.
Ernie June will have two modified cars next year... Jack Soper still holds a one point lead over Jackie Baldwin at Glider City.... Bobby Jaynes will be driving in three classes next year. He'll drive No. 1 in Modified, a 1957 Fury Plymouth has been bought for him to drive in Modern Class, and a Class B car will be constructed during the winter.
Billy Rafters, the driver that dominated feature races at Corning Stadium a few years ago, lost a tough race last Sunday at the Syracuse State Fair. He led the feature for 90 of the 100 lap NASCAR event, then developed motor trouble which dropped him back to an eventual fourth place finish...Dutch Hoag of Bath finished second... in the same race, Glen WQagner of long island was killed in a roll-over on the 16th lap.
FYI...The typo for Wagner is my bad..everything else is verbatim from the articles, warts and all...but thanks for the spelling lesson
Picture of Bob Fuller from Elmira Star-Gazette
Ad from Shangri-La..not sure of the date as I discovered this one when I was cleaning out my computer
Blackjackracing,
You can always count on Mark for a spelling or Grammar lesson...he's just the bomb-diggety that way. The rest of us should be so fortunate!
Hi Mr. Shamrock...the last thing I would want is to turn this into is some kind of pi$$in' match... better to let it go which I should have done in the first place...
Ad from Shangri-La..not sure of the date as I discovered this one when I was cleaning out my computer
I'm guessing this ad was from the week of Sept., 8 1963. Nelson Ward was killed in a wreck at Shangri-La in August of that year, and Sept. 27, 1963 fell on a Friday. The next time Sept. 27th fell on a Friday was 1968.
Another article by Bob Fuller from the September 14th, 1958 edition of the Elmira Star-Gazette...
WITH THE STOCK CARS....Remembering the Late Hal Hoose.
Today the Glider City Sports Arena will hold a benefit race for one of the best-liked drivers the local area has known... Harold Hoose. To those of us who knew him well, he was more than just a good driver. He was full of fun, excitement and considerate of others on and off the track. He was an all -around good athlete, an excellent truckman, a talented salesman and a honorable soldier.
When some of you read this, you may say that if he hadn't gotten mixed in with the stock cars he would be alive today. Perhaps. But, lets look at it this way:
Just how much of a risk is there in driving a pleasure car when every corner and turn finds death waiting or the pilot who leaves the ground not knowing whether he will land safely again or
the person who walks up and downstairs 20 or 30 times a day and then one day slips with tragic consequences. There is an element of risk in nearly everything we do today.
Yet, when someone gets killed driving a racer, immediately some try putting the blame on the sport of racing. No, the racing game is not always at fault, and I cannot say if anyone or anything is to blame. Here was a man who loved the roar of an engine, the high speed thrills and the cheers of the crowd.
His car was one of the safest built cars ever to race on the track. That was the only way the owner, Al McClure, would have it. He and Hoose were a team that was very hard to beat. Al told me that if Hoose was intending to quit racing this year, it was news to him. In fact, he and Hoose talked many times of going into "new car" racing next year.
I know if Hal Hoose could relive his life, he would certainly be in the racing game. I say these things because I really knew him. We came from the same neck of the woods, went to
school together, trucked together, drove in competition against each other and were the best of friends. I am not up to date on his financial status, but whatever it was, it is never enough to take care of a distressed wife and three children.
We who are in the racing game are going to give our best to put on a great benefit show for the fans and we hope the fans will turn out in a big way to see it because all the proceeds will go to his family. A huge trophy has been donated by a local merchant and it will be awarded to the winner of the modified class today. Hoose drove in the modified class. Any driver winning the trophy three years in a row gets to keep it.
Towanda VFW Speedway put on a Hoose benefit race Friday night with cars and drivers coming from Angelica, Elmira and Port Royal to put on a terrific show. Port Royal will have a benefit in about two weeks. Chemung Speedrome fans contributed $477 to the family at a collection one week ago.
Car No. 104 certainly was a familiar sight at Towanda Speedway a week ago Friday. Bucky Buchanan won the heat races with it, then Van DeBogart won the the novice race in it. Ethel Buchanan used it to win the Powder Puff championship and then Bucky came back to take the checkered flag in the feature.
There's also a No. 104jr...Actually Bob Depews's old No. 22 which was bought by Jim Hamilton. Driver (or drivers) for it hasn't been decided yet.... Art Chandler is within stricking distance of Jackie Soper at two tracks. Jackie mentioned a few weeks ago that he'd take some iron off to lighten the car if Art got to close. Maybe this is the time.
Towanda Speedway drivers are pleased with the local promotion. A week ago 219 persons paid for admission yet the drivers received a purse of $255....
Gil Frisbie and Jackie Soper have made appearances at the Pennsylvania track since it switched to Friday nights.
I'm a little bit of an outsider in this history discussion, but many of the Towanda and Chemung drivers names do really ring bells from my childhood. My parents, Joe and Esther Birney from Sayre, owned many early cars, raced all over the northeast and were associated with many drivers and owners of this era being mentioned in this thread.
I was extremely fortunate to have spent much of my childhood in the middle of all of this history. Of course memory becomes faded with the passing years and I am not sure anybody will find this interesting. But for what it is worth...
In no particular order. George Dickman, Pete Shaffer, Frank Jennings (mechanic on many top cars), Jackie Baldwin, Jim Leonard, Popeye Vincent, Harry Benjamin, Vern Coyle, Frank Chapman, Eddie Kakitus (spelling on that one could be wrong, he drove a bug with the Pontiac Indian head logo on the side), Bill Crane, Stubby Crane, Jo-Jo McKernan, Kenny Townsend, Herbie Green, Reese Green, Bob Whitaker, Dick Karlnoski (spelling on that one could be wrong), Vern and Bryan Osgood, Scotty Kocanivitch (spelling again, genius engineman for Jackie Soper's stuff of legends 283's), Mac Davenport, Jackie Soper, Lucky Cornish, Earl Bodine, Cecil Keister, Don Moyer (legendary owner of many major early dirt cars), Hal Green, Bobby Jaynes, Percy Brown, Fred Brink, Ernie June, Harry Carlyle, Gil Frisbie, Art Chandler, Dave Curren, "Hoot' Gibson, Artie McLaughlin and so many, many wonderful names from the mists of that magical time. Anybody remember Bernie Foster's name and escapades? How about Fred Meyer's name.
Daddy and Mother always had great drivers. Jackie Soper, Bryan Osgood, Billy Schroth and Frank Chapman come to mind. Daddy also built cars or helped maintain cars especially for Vern Osgood. Bryan always got much of the glory, but it was Vern calling all the shots that their success was predicated on. Vern truly was one of the major components of the Osgood Brother's outstanding racing legacy, but few people recognize his name.
Odd is it may sound today, my mother Esther Birney had quite a racing career of her own. She always had the best equipment for her powder puff racing - certainly Osgood's cars, daddy's cars and even Walt Bostwick owned cars. She even drove a "modern" once owned by Mac Davenport. Spindle broke and she took a wild ride off the first turn at Towanda in Mac's car. I can't really recall the years it all happened, but it must have been the late 1950's through early 1960 era. She raced, if my memory hasn't failed me, at Towanda and Chemung, but there may have been others. Perhaps Ithaca-Dryden also. Mother is alive and well living in West Virginia at age 92! She gets a kick when people remember her racing. She and Jackie Soper met again recently for the first time in nearly 45 years and had quite a time recalling their lives in racing. They still speak by phone.
I was extremely fortunate to have reconnected with Jackie Soper after nearly 43 years. I've mentioned before on this list that as a child I simply loved Jackie. I still do. Anybody who is seriously looking into the racing history of the souther tier should talk with Jackie. He is a living legend of that era and his recollections are just outstanding. He can be reached at soperjackie@aol.com and his telephone number is 352.6.25.3546. The depths of his racing memories, the stories of different people, northeast tracks and specific race events is absolutely second to none.
Thank you for your consideration in reading my memories...
Candy Dolin
Shoestring Motorsports
Seagrove, North Carolina
Candy, Thanks for sharing!! I've said it before, and Jackie Soper is indeed a treasure trove full of memories of things like they had just happened yesterday!