Between turn one and two.
Brian....Spooker, Do you know how bad the 3x was after going out of the park at Trenton? I would have thought it would have been totalled but the restored car looks fine. I was there that day when Bennie crashed and actually caught it on 8mm film as a 12 year old. I don't know why I was focused on him as he was running by himself and I decided to follow him down the straight and into turn one when suddenly he drifted high caught the wall and flipped right over it!
Brian....Spooker, Do you know how bad the 3x was after going out of the park at Trenton? I would have thought it would have been totalled but the restored car looks fine. I was there that day when Bennie crashed and actually caught it on 8mm film as a 12 year old. I don't know why I was focused on him as he was running by himself and I decided to follow him down the straight and into turn one when suddenly he drifted high caught the wall and flipped right over it! If I can find it, someday I'll transfer it to DVD hopefully before the film splits to pieces! I know I burned the film in one spot as a kid by stopping it to analyse it frame by frame.
Also was the #28 Spooker the very first Gremlin bodied car? We were racing FMP when he started running that car and I don't remember seeing a Gremlin at any of the central NY tracks or seeing any in the trade papers before I saw that one. Here's a pic by L.O. Duncan of Cal Lane in one of his early cut-downs, "Bug" at Chemung Speedrome.
Dale---not to dispute you but I seem to recall the 3x going over the wall on the backstretch near the dog-leg---or am I getting it mixed up with someone else
Between turn one and two.
Thanks---my bad!!!!! I also was there and my foggy recall had it near the dog-leg----I'll be quiet now---lol
No problem. It was definately between one and two. We sat between the flagger and turn one at Trenton and I watched that film over and over. It was amazing how quick he went up and over almost like there wasn't a wall there! I also remember Dave Nichols going out of the park over the back straight wall on the 3/4 mile at Pocono during the race of Champions there. I believe he was driving a car of his own creation owned by Tom Ewing. That car was messed up, BIG TIME!!! Here's a pic of my Brother Darrell after a win in the John Fisher owned 98jr Big Block Dirt Modified whose cage was also built by Dave Nichols! Photo by Don Romeo.
Here's another one of the 98Jr cage and frame built by Dave Nichols. Darrell Welty has just won the hold over rained out feature at Weedsport Speedway circa 1977-78. This car had quarter eliptic jeep type springs all the way around. It was sorely behind the times and surprisingly fast everywhere it went!!!
What happened?
It looks like we lost a couple of pages.
i was wondering if the car with the half springs was the same that John Mc Ardale drove it was also no 98 jr , if so it was the chassis that was the 451 sedan that Sam Reaks drove it had i/2 springs all the way around
i was wondering if the car with the half springs was the same that John Mc Ardale drove it was also no 98 jr , if so it was the chassis that was the 451 sedan that Sam Reaks drove it had i/2 springs all the way around
I don't know the answer to that. Johnny mcCardle did drive for fisher, it was a
gremlin.
Perhaps KT could ask Bennie the Moth when he sees him, he should know if it is the same car.
I believe McArdell did drive that same 98Jr a some point but I'm pretty sure it's not the same chassis as the #451. I'm familar with pictures of that #451 coupe and I'm pretty sure it was a production frame car while the 98Jr that Darrell drove was a tube frame. The 98Jr was originally skinned as a Gremlin. I like the Chevette ......it has an ambiguity sorta like a certain car we used to call, "The Silver IT. Here's another shot of the 98Jr at speed.
John McArdell drove the 98Jr. as a sedan and a Gremlin. I am not sure if it was the same frame but with the Gremlin body or not. After Sam Reakes drove the 451, Cliff Norton 77x used it as a back up for the Genessee Trail.
The coach may have become the Gremlin but I think the 98Jr Chevette that my brother drove also began life as a Gremlin. They may have used the body over which was common back in the day. The chassis technology was improving quickly so old cars were often hard to sell so it was common to use parts like the rear end and hubs and sometimes the body to build the new car and the reat went to scrap. Man I'd like to have the old Greame Bolia Coupe and the Cordes coupe that we scraped out now. Both cars had considerable history and would have been great vintage racers now. Too bad we didn't live on a farm as they would probably be out behind a barn! Here's a pic of "The Family Car" #2x Coupe after a bad night. We often joke that we used up every FORD Model A front axle in a hundred mile radius when Darrell was still getting the hang of this Dirt Modified stuff! Photo by me.
Brian....Spooker, Do you know how bad the 3x was after going out of the park at Trenton? I would have thought it would have been totalled but the restored car looks fine. I was there that day when Bennie crashed and actually caught it on 8mm film as a 12 year old. I don't know why I was focused on him as he was running by himself and I decided to follow him down the straight and into turn one when suddenly he drifted high caught the wall and flipped right over it! If I can find it, someday I'll transfer it to DVD hopefully before the film splits to pieces! I know I burned the film in one spot as a kid by stopping it to analyse it frame by frame.
Also was the #28 Spooker the very first Gremlin bodied car? We were racing FMP when he started running that car and I don't remember seeing a Gremlin at any of the central NY tracks or seeing any in the trade papers before I saw that one.
Dale, sorry for the long wait for a reply! I'm swamped working on our new house, trying to get some important things wrapped up before the white stuff falls! Anyway, as I recall it, the top of the cage on the passenger side of the 3X took the hit on top of the wall, and I THINK Doug Rundell replaced the whole cage, I saw a partial cage at Larry Smith's garage shortly after that, rear hoop and door bars both sides, but no upper sides or top hoop, that Larry said was the remains of Benny's cage that he (Larry) was going to use to build his next late model. Next time I see Doug, I'll ask him, maybe he's got some pics, too. As far as the Pete Hulbert car being the first Gremlin ever built, I've always heard that, altho it was not the car that's my avatar, it was the previous one (1971) that he ran at Twin Valley and tied Red Harrington for the track championship with, it became Kenny Moore's yellow 60x in '72. Not sure how you could ever prove it was the first, but I hadn't seen another before that one, either. I have a pic of it that I'll post when I get home. I actually spent part of today working on my replica of the #28 (the avatar version) that I plan on running with the Mid-State club when finished. Worked on cleaning up the IH Scout frame & drilled out about 50 of the million spot-welds on the Gremlin body I'm using. Rusty Smith bent my cage tubing last Friday, so if the weather holds a little longer, I'll have some meaningful progress to show off!
Later,
Brian
Nice video. For some reason, I can’t get the sound to work. I’m guessing this was the California Roadster Association (C.R.A.) group that ran tracks like Carrell and Ascot Park. Cool shot of a young Jim Rathmann who would go on to win Indy.
These hot rods, or roadsters as they were sometimes called, were a fixture at a few upstate NY tracks for a very brief time in the late 1940’s – early 1950’s. Mainly in Eastern New York at tracks like Perth, Longmeadow and Pine Bowl and in the Rochester/Finger Lakes area at places like Hemlock, Naples, and Seneca Falls.
Somewhere on either 'oldies but goodies' or 'racing in the Southern Tier' I had posted stuff about Seneca Falls. That had a reference to the roadster club that ran @ Seneca Falls and Hemlock. If memory serves me right their club was called the Roaring Roadsters.
I have to apologize in that I wrote down but lost the name of the gentleman who sent me the following pictures. They are of Ennie Wright who's son shared them with me. If you are reading this Mr. Wright, please PM me.
first pic is of Ennie Wright @ Circular Hill...second pic is of Ennie Wright in roadster action @ an unidentified track...I'm sure on one of you old timers will be able to ID it......