Dick Tobias - Syracuse - 1974
Sorry to back up a few pics, but Dale's pic of the #12 Champ car at Syracuse has a guy with a helmet on. I was not there that day, but the helmet looks like the famous paint scheme that Mario Andretti always used. I don't even know if Mario was entered in the race, but it would make sense if all of the other USAC guys were there.
Just to answer some questions. Yes that is a beer in Herks hand but it's after the race! If you look close you can see it's his deformed burned hand from his bad accident. He said he had it shaped to fit the steering wheel but you could push a beer can in very tightly....he didn't have to squeese it to hold it! In the Champ car pic I can't believe Mario would have driven the LONGHORN car. By that time I believe he was driving the Vels-Parnelli double over-head cammer cars. I can't remember who his teamates were but there were three cars in the stable. Here's a photo I shot of Tobias at Syracuse coming onto pit lane. I think it's 1974. I had written on the back that it's Paul Lotier who I think was toby's Son in Law so I'm not sure which one is driving..
In the Champ car pic I can't believe Mario would have driven the LONGHORN car. By that time I believe he was driving the Vels-Parnelli double over-head cammer cars. I can't remember who his teamates were but there were three cars in the stable. Here's a photo I shot of Tobias at Syracuse coming onto pit lane. I think it's 1974. I had written on the back that it's Paul Lotier who I think was toby's Son in Law so I'm not sure which one is driving..
Mario Andretti was teammates with…(wait for it)…Al Unser Sr. on the Vels-Parenlli team for four seasons (’72-’75). While on that team, both drivers were sponsored by Viceroy Cigarettes and had matching white helmets with red stripes down the center.
Vels-Parnelli abandoned the USAC dirt car side of their operation after the 1974 season. Mario stopped racing on dirt right after that.
I gotta believe that's Al Unser in your pic standing next to the Longhorn dirt car. It's possible that he could have brought along his old Viceroy helmet for running on dirt. However, I was incorrect with my previous post about Syracuse being Al Unser’s last attempt at racing on dirt. He did drive in one more dirt car race after that which was DuQuoin, Illinois the following year, 1977. Unser would later go on and race Indy cars for Bobby Hillin and Longhorn Racing beginning in 1980.
Re: the Modified #1K, I believe the driver was Jim Keppley.
I remember one Sunday afternoon at Shangri-la I think it was a Sunday, Frank Chapman flipped about half the lenght of the backstretch and ended up out of the ballpark down by this big oak tree behind turn 3 . People used to climb up that big tree and watch the races from out behind turn 3. Man that was a bad one . I think he walked away from it. Anyone remember that one ?
I don't remember that one. It could have been before my time. I did find a few other famous...or "infamous" ...Shangri-la "exits". The first one is the very first wreck I can ever remember: Chuck Frisbee out of turn one in 1969...
Here's one of Gordie Isham after he took it out of the ballpark at Shangri-la in 1969...
And a night at Shangri-la I still remember was in 1975 when three cars went over the wall in turn one in two seperate incidents: Larry Edwards and Bob Lurcock, and Graeme Bolia.
There were double features that night. Richie Evans won the make-up feature and George Kent won the nightcap. One of the features was a Trenton Qualifier and Dutch Hoag was awarded the spot for Trenton. He was driving a car spray painted with a "?" . Also, streaking was popular in 1975 and in between the features, Shangri-la's first ever streaker was spotted running down the backstretch, climbed the dirt bank in turn two and disappeared into the night.
Here's the end result of the Edwards #5/Lurcock #123 crash....
And on the very same night, Graeme Bolia got together with Tommy Gush and took out it out of the ballbark in the exact same spot...
Here is a photo of the first Cole 24. This is the same Plymouth Coupe body that is in all the previous photos. My uncle Al and a very young Welly Locke started with this car. Somehow my father Nick became involved, and then car owner. Now almost 50 years later my cousin Joe and I both field a 24 at 5 Mile Point.
Al and Nick fielded a figure 8 car for a couple of years at 5 Mile. This looks like a very early picture of the first car. This car was purchased for $20 a rollcage put in and off to the races. The features were figure 8 but the heats were on the oval. This car was unbeaten on the oval.
Later in the year. A little more battle scars. Look closely at the hood. The exhaust manifolds were cut and turned so they exited through the top of the hood. The sole purpose of doing this was to launch Black Label cans skyward when the car was started.
The modified that was purchased from Ronnie Williams before it was re-painted and re-lettered.
Hi KC....Man that #27 looks really low for that era. Must have been ahead of it's time! Great pics!!!
This is a five mile point photo by Russ Mills of my Cousin Jim King with his Vega bodied #0x. He never drove much and later in the year had a number of guys try the car out. Geoff Bodine drove it in a heat I was in at Canadaguia. John Podolak drove it quite a few times at Weedsport. I believe this was around 1976. It was the former Kneisel built #26 car that Frank Mears had so much success in at Five Mile. Frank Mears was driving it for my cousin at Rolling Wheels for a Syracuse qualifier and went for a horrible end over end ride at the end of the front stretch! The cage was bent down and Frank got a few compression fractured vertibrae from it. This was the same wreck that caused about a 12 car pile up that resulted in a raging alcohol fire which badly burned Jackie Wilson in the #16. I don't believe Jackie or Frank ever really ran well again after that crash. This photo is of the car after it was repaired from that crash. Cousin Jim later ran Dave Kneisel's parts truck business and sold the car to Skip Neuman who put a coupe body on it and had Billy Schroth drive it. I drove it a couple times when Billy wasn't available when I was first starting out. I was one spot out of qualifying in the Consi for the Southern Tier 100 the second time I was in it. After that a guy named Dale Reynolds bought it and I drove it at Rolling Wheels once for him. After that I guess it eventually went to the scrap pile. It was a narrow cramped little cockpit on a scout frame with a ton of engine set-back. Kneisel and Norm Norton both had ones that were almost identical.