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Bob Meli took his CRA sprinters into the turns so hard he was nicknamed “Back ‘Em In” Bob. But this time, on April 10, 1967, his entry at Ascot was really over the top. It cost him his spleen and several weeks in the crash house. (From Racing Pictorial, 1976 Summer Edition. Tom MacLaren Photo)
 
These are the age-old Nazareth half-mile Fairgrounds track and Nazareth National, the one and one-eighth mile dirt oval built alongside it by Jerry Fried in 1966. Fried was a grainy, carnie-type promoter who certainly had his detractors during his long run in Pennsylvania. No one, however, could ever question his vision. He even had plans to put a roof over Nazareth National. In later years the place was purchased by Roger Penske, but he couldn’t make a go of it, either. (Dale Snyder Photo)
 
Mark Martin first appeared in NASCAR in the early eighties, toting an impressive resume of championships in the Midwest. He didn’t look that fresh, however, after going the distance in the Wrangler 400 at Richmond. Here he pours in the pure oxygen. These days, at 51, he has been called the best driver never to win a Sprint Cup Championship – and certainly one of the most physically fit in the pit area. (From GRAND NATIONAL STOCK CAR RACING – the Other Side of the Fence, by Randy Hallman with Linda Vaughn.)
 
How about that Marcos Ambrose! He has taken the racing community by storm with his uncommon driving ability and his wry sense of humor. He says, “Being from Tasmania, a lot of people think I had a pet kangaroo growing up. I joke around and tell people that I did, and that I used to ride in its pouch to school when I was a little boy. But, in all honesty, my pets have been cats and dogs.” He’s shown here with his rescue pooch, Dora, a four-year-old mixed terrier. (From PIT ROAD PETS – NASCAR Stars and their Pets, by Wendy Belk. Photo by Karen Will Rogers.)
 
Bob Osiecki’s Dodge, piloted by dragster Art Malone, went around Daytona International at 181.561 mph in 1965, winning him $10,000 for a new closed-course speed record. He knew the car would really be flying. It had wings and a rudder. Remarkably, that same year, LeeRoy Yarbrough muscled a largely stock-bodied Dodge Coronet around the Tri-Oval at 181.818. (From PROVING GROUND – A History of Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth Racing by Jim Schild. Photographic Archives of C.A.R.S.)
 
Buddy Baker was looking pretty psyched up next to a 426 Hemi back in 1968. NASCAR was considering allowing dual Holley four-barrels on the superspeedways that year. They decided not to do so, even though the energy crisis was still a few years away. (From PROVING GROUND – A History of Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth Racing by Jim Schild. Photographic Archives of C.A.R.S.)
 
Kevin Buskirk is the musician behind Ron Hornaday. Kevin is Crew Chief of Delana Harvick’s #33 Camping World truck. He’s been making music for a long time, as shown here with his injected big block modified on his way to the 1977 Championship at the old Nazareth (PA) Raceway. Back then his name was “Kevin Collins.” (Boyd Collection)
 
How about those Coastal 181 drivers? A couple of weeks ago we had a photo of the day of Blake Shepard, wheelman of the Coastal 181 modified. Blake and his wife Ericka, the “Dzus Queen,” had just had twin daughters. Seems that Danny Douville, driver of the Sargent Service/Coastal 181 sprinter owned by Mike Kondrat, couldn’t stand being outdone. He had triplets. Over Labor Day weekend, SCoNE (Sprint Cars of New England) had a gala championship series at three separate tracks, Canaan, NH; Bear Ridge, VT; and Big Daddy’s Speedbowl in NH. Danny won all three of them.
(Don Mac Photo)
 
Timothy Peters cut some very fast laps a few years back at South Boston. He was track champ in 2004, and he did some near perfect ones with his bubbly, too, in celebration. Today he is a hittin’ his marks in the Red Horse Racing entry in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. From South Boston Speedway – The FIRST 50 Years.
(Alan Moore/Turn 1 Photography)
 
Now that Carl Edwards career has gone skyward, he has rock star status and a totally cosmopolitan aura. He started here on earth, though, and in the early days, as shown here at Missouri ‘s Capital Speedway in 2000, his image was a bit more understated. Same smile, though. (From Where Stars Are Born, Celebrating 25 Years of NASCAR Weekly Racing, by Paul Schaefer. NASCAR News Archive/Russ McCoy Photo)
 
 No sport for the weak-kneed or imbalanced! Here are competitors at the South Australian Sidecar Championship on the dirt of Raceway Park in 1973. (From Full Throttle, Images of Australian Speedway 1970-2009, by Tony Loxley. Group 4 Photo) 
 
One of the most popular and successful late model racers out of the Wisconsin area in the 1970s was Larry Detjens. He ran with great success against such notable gassers as Tom Reffner, Dick Trickle, and Alan Kulwicki. One of his most memorable wins was this one, the World Cup 400 at I-70 in 1977. He perished in a crash at Wisconsin International Speedway in 1981. (From Racing Pictorial Fall 1977)
 
Leading a race is an acquired skill. Waldo Barnett didn’t get it at all right while he was out front at the Valley County Fair in Ord, Nebraska in August 1947. He looked back to see who followed, sideswiped the wall, and flipped. Here he is tended to, lying on the straightaway, but he died on the way to the hospital. (From Valley County Thunder, The History Of Racing At Ord, Nebraska, by V. Ray Valasek and Bob Mays, Ed Swopes Photo)
 
John Smith “Jack” Zink said, “The man who wins is the man who tries.” That rang true for the talented Zink in business, in stock cars, supers, and Indy cars. It did not work so well in this effort, however. He hoped to set a world record with this bullet shaped two wheeler, but it turned out to be unstable at speed. (From To Indy and Beyond, The Life of Racing Legend Jack Zink,
by Dr. Bob L. Blackburn)
 
Eddie Leavitt beat out Ron Shuman and Dick Tobias to win the USAC sprint show at Reading, PA, on April 22, 1978. Presenting him the laurels were Cindi Johnson, Miss Kenview Kompetition, and USAC Sprint Supervisor Don Peabody. The next day Don died in a plane crash with seven other USAC folks and the pilot. (Joe DeLong Photo – Racing Pictorial 1978 Summer)
 
Andrew Giangola’s new book The Weekend Starts on Wednesday (see Photo of the Day of Jim Cramer last week) sure is drawing attention. A recent admirer of his work is Miss USA, Kristen Dalton. We are of course delighted for our friend Andrew, NASCAR’s Director of Business Communications, but we have to ask ourselves where Kristen was when we launched Hot Cars Cool Drivers here at Coastal 181... (Giangola Collection, Getty Images)
 
Dean Thompson was arguably CRA’s all-time best with 103 victories. Fact is, the ultra-popular Deano simply was not bilaterally symmetrical. One arm was shorter than the other – and, no question, his right foot was heavier than his left. He got into the turn so deep it was like it was never there. He died in heart surgery in October 2003 at age 53. (Tom MacLaren Photo from Racing Pictorial 1982-83)
 
Jon Paquet captures Rip Williams tearing up dirt on the Left Coast as only he can do. (www.paquetphotography.com)
 
Bill Simpson put his legs where his mouth was. He showed up and off at Indy in 1970 with his latest in fire protection. From RACING SAFELY, LIVING DANGEROUSLY by Bill Simpson with Bones Bourcier. (IMS photo)
 
It looks like this old-time ice racer was a “cut-off” rather than a “cut-down.” In any case, it sure looked cold. (R.A. Silvia Collection)
 
 Have you ever wondered what how big some of those huge advertised purses actually are when they are described as “total posted awards?” Do you think New England Hall of Famer Red Cummings knew he had a Great Dane coming at the payoff window at Norwood Arena back in the early fifties? In any case, Red’s daughter Gael remembers that her Dad took it in stride. “Champ” became a beloved member of the family. (Cummings Family Scrapbook)
 
Paula Flemke Bouchard, Eddie’s daughter, hitches a ride to Victory Lane with her husband Ron after he snookered Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte to win the Talladega 500 in 1981. (Photo from Linda Vaughan’s 1982 collaboration, Grand National Stock Car Racing, The Other Side of the Fence)
 
Charlie Monk wadded up this early super at Palmetto, Florida. It was built by Gil Hearne, and it looks like Gil had a little more welding to do. (Bobby 5x5 Day Photo from Florida Motorsports Retrospective Pictorial, Volume 2, by Eddie Roche)
 
Korean War Veteran, Dewayne Louis “Tiny” Lund was one huge man. The 1963 Daytona winner ran over 300 Cup races before dying at Talladega on August 17, 1975. Two Vietnam vets watching in the infield rushed out and pulled him from his burning car, but it was too late. (Racing Pictorial, 1975 Summer Edition)
 
Fordham University graduate and racing PR guru Andrew Giangola has penned a new book called The Weekend Starts on Wednesdays – True Stories of Remarkable NASCAR Fans. You never know who’s going to show up next in the text. Who would have thought the super-caffeinated Wall Street stock picker, Jim Cramer?
(Getty Images for NASCAR Photo)
 
Florida’s Will Cagle has raced and won endlessly since the 1950s, all over the country, in every kind of hot rod imaginable. Here he is at Tampa, back before insurance companies knew what to look for. He was last seen on national TV following a podium run in one of the features in the recent Legends car fest at Charlotte. He was looking silvery-haired but very fast, and he is busily seeking a superspeedway ride.
(Brad Poulsen Collection)
 
Ed Clothier, a champion New York state boxer, took a fling at racing midgets in the 1960s. It lasted for eternity. In 1965, he came to the ultra-high banks of the old quarter-mile Westboro (MA) Speedway, right near Worcester, for a NEMA event. He flipped mightily along the top of the wooden guardrail and died. (Dave Dykes Photo)

 
Blake Shepard, our friend and driver of the Coastal 181 modified, and his wife Ericka (aka “the Dzus Queen”) sure have their hands full these days. Gracelyn and Colbie are doing great – so well, in fact, that Blake will have to be ordering a couple of pink quarter midgets in a month or so. They will be togged out in their one-eighty-onesies, designed by Dad.
 
Whatever a photo of Ascot may show, whatever cars were on the track, it will forever bring sadness deep to the heart of a dirt tracker.
(Earl Stubbs Photo, Brad Poulsen Collection)
 
The great Jim Hurtubise had one bad day on October 7, 1977. He got into turn three too hot on his first qualifying lap at the Salt City 100, a USAC Champ Dirt Car show, and flipped big time. Larry Dickson went on to grab the $6800 paid to the winner.
(Joe DeLong Photo, Racing Pictorial, 1977-78 Annual)
 
Open wheel and open air. That’s Tom York winning a qualifier at Sandusky, Ohio back in 1966. (Brad Poulsen Collection)
 
Other than the strong 50 year efforts by the Northeast Midget Association (NEMA), there hasn’t been that much open wheel racing in the Northeast. That’s changed this summer. The hottest thing in the area is SCONE, Sprint Cars of New England. Feisty, well-populated fields run quite regularly at tracks like Bear Ridge in Vermont and Canaan Fairgrounds and Big Daddy’s Speedway in New Hampshire. Guess it’s back to basics! (Don Mac photo)
 
Here he was, honing his manual skills in 1957 while sanding down a dragster. Johnny Rutherford got good behind the wheel, too. He would win Indy three times. From LONE STAR J.R., by Johnny Rutherford and David Craft.
 
Genes are something. Sometimes they seem to race through a generation using the same line. How about Kirk Douglas and his son Michael. Or George Bush Sr., our 41st President, and his boy “W”. Then, of course, at Eldora, there was Don Hewitt and his son “Do It”, aka Jack. From EARL!, by Earl Baltes with Dave Argabright. (John Mahoney Photo)
 
It’s Charlotte, way back in June of 1948. A novice driver named Lee Petty entered his first Grand National, “new car” race in a Buick Roadmaster loaned to him by a neighbor. The sway bar broke on the heavyweight four-door, and Petty barrel-rolled it four times. Probably a little explaining to do….. From THE CARS OF RICHARD PETTY, by Tim Bongard and Bill Coulter. (Photo from the Richard Petty Private Collection)
 
Look at that A.J. grin as he prepares to take a couple of laps at Michigan. And look at Chris Economaki along for the ride. Do you think he looks scared? He should. From LET ‘EM ALL GO, by Chris Economaki with Dave Argabright.
 
He looked like a typical 10-year-old when he won trophies showing quarter horses. But 15 years later, it was one flamboyant, dashing Tim Richmond who hauled hardware out of Winston Cup victory lanes. From TIM RICHMOND, THE LIFE AND REMARKABLE TIMES OF NASCAR’S TOP GUN, by David Poole. (Photo Courtesy of Sandy Welsh)
 
It’s Danny “Chocolate” Meyers in biker mode. Danny was Dale Sr.’s gas man for 15 years, retiring when Dale died. (Dick Berggren Collection)
 
June 30, 1968 at Thompson, Connecticut. Two big winners, Bill Slater and
Fats Caruso, crashed and burned in one of the most spectacular wrecks ever in the Northeast. Both were very seriously injured, but both would return to racing and both were eventually inducted into the New England Auto Racing Hall of Fame. This is what Fat’s car, the $ sign owned by Johnny Stygar, looked like when the smoke cleared. (Steve Dahl Collection)
 
Rubber moon over Selinsgrove. Frank Simek, the familiar “Guy with the Hat,” has been producing amazing images for decades. Here he captures gasser JJ Grasso, 2009 URC champion out of Pedricktown, NJ, shedding some parts.
(Frank Simek Photo)
 
A soft sunset over some hard racing. That’s the Ice Bowl goin’ on at the Dirt Track at Talladega a few Januarys back. The go-kart track is to the right, and the superspeedway looms in the background. (Preacher Phillips Collection)
 
Reno, Nevada’s Ed Evans ran this sprinter in California in the late seventies. Everything about the operation seemed over-sized. Maybe that’s because it was sponsored by a brothel. (From HISTORY OF SAN JOSE AUTO RACING,
by Dennis Mattish (Dennis Mattish Photo)
 
Here he is, the one and only, bodacious and bionic, Bentley Warren at his newest place of business, Bentley’s Saloon in Arundel, Maine. What more can you say? (Dick Berggren Photo)
 
Goober Scheidel was, bar none, one of dirt modified racing’s absolute favorites in the seventies. The affable Connecticut racer, a school bus mechanic by trade, raced on nearly 50 tracks, never spending a dime because he never had one. It’s hard to know whether the competitors in the pits or the kids in the grandstands cheered for him more loudly. Then leukemia took him away in September 1993. Thinking of you, Goob. (Dick Berggren Collection)
 
It was a hundred-lapper at Syracuse, N.Y., on September 28, 1958, one third of the way back to the Civil War. The conflict was still heated. On the pole from North Carolina was gentlemanly Ned Jarrett in Dink Widenhouse’s infamous B-29 coupe, while edgy Pete Corey out of Cohoes, NY, lined up on the outside in the equally notorious flaming #22. The trophy this day would go back to the Southlands. (Dick Berggren Collection)
 
Bob Bahre stands atop his lofty new grandstands at the (then) New Hampshire International Speedway. He opened the track during the huge boom in NASCAR racing in June of 1990. He sold it before the 2008 season. As they say, “timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.” No one could ever question Bob’s timing. (Dick Berggren Collection)
 
Allison-Kulwicki – That’s the late Davey Allison in High Plains Drifter garb talking to the late psychedelically-clad Alan Kulwicki. Off to the right in the background is Coastal 181’s great friend and associate, Karl Fredrickson. He was wearing that same shirt yesterday. (Dick Berggren Collection)
 
Richard gittin’ ’er dun. It was the Daytona 500 in 1968 and the King was out of his seat and the hammer out of the toolbox to repair a flapping vinyl roof. A lively NASCAR official joined him on the hood. (From NASCAR Then and Now, by Ben White with Photography by Nigel Kinrade and Smyle Media)
 
Sliced Bread on the way to the toaster. Joey Logano follows up a tangle with Reed Sorenson, Robby Gordon, and Martin Truex Jr. with several rollovers at Bristol, September 2009. (From NASCAR Then and Now, by Ben White with Photography by Nigel Kinrade and Smyle Media)
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How about this for an image – and a reflection? That’s the payoff sheet from Old Bridge (N.J.) Speedway on Sunday night, June 29, 1962. The track drew its first class modified field of 32 from five states, including Connecticut and Florida. It was one of the hottest venues around, but the TOTAL purse was $1650, with $350 going to the winner, Long Island’s very dapper Al DeAngelo. A third of the teams had to be contented with five bucks. (Ed Duncan Collection)
 
It hasn’t been just oval trackers who have experimented with motion lotions. Here Hank Westmoreland holds tight to a jug of special tire juice (red wine vinegar), while Don “Beachcomber” Johnson has the hammer down in his digger at Irwindale. (From KINGS OF THE QUARTER MILE, by Lou Hart, Tom West Photo)
 
Fresno, California’s Lloyd “Sprouts” Elder, a bike enthusiast, traveled to England, Australia, and South America on his way to becoming a World Champion speedway rider in the 1920s. In the early ’30s he returned to the States, becoming the father of flat-tracking in the US. He retired from racing in 1935 to join the California Highway Patrol, but suffered life-threatening injuries chasing a speeder the next year. After that, he relied on four wheels. (From SACRAMENTO, Dirt Capital of the West, by Tom Motter, Jim Chini Collection)
 
Supermodifieds have typically been individually constructed. Here Bobby Hyde works his kit in a February 1971 show at Manzanita. He won. Doubtful there was a catalogue part number for those headers. (From Thunder in the Desert, by Windy McDonald)
 
Everyone move back! Don “the Snake” Prudhomme preps for a pass at Irwindale in his front engine slab-side top fuel in 1971. (From Snake vs. Mongoose, by Tom Madigan, Steve Reyes Photo)
 
Many great shoes have emerged from those Green Mountains in Vermont, often at such ovals as Thunder Road in Barre, Devil’s Bowl in West Haven, and Bear Ridge in Bradford. One of the most remarkable, though, is Clarence ”that’s why they call him Butch” Jelly. In the mid-‘70s Butch wheeled Austin Dickerman’s cool-looking station wagon, one of the last individualized body styles before the dirt mods went Gremlin – and cookie cutter.
(Jo Towns Collection)
 
Quain Moore ran pure stocks for years at South Boston Speedway in Virginia, finally grabbing a main in 2006. Pure joy. (From South Boston Speedway, the FIRST 50 Years, Alan Moore Photo)
 
The Full Sequence HERE of Photographer Scott Richardson's incredible shots of Mike Conway's wreck at The Indy 500 on 5/30/10.
 
New Jersey hot shoe Ron Passarella ran midgets and sprinters back in the sixties. He’s shown here on the hammer at Nazareth in 1967. Hair may have been big, but roll bars were small. (Ron Passarella Collection)
 
It’s a pre-war midget race at the old Pines Speedway in Groveland, Mass. The Nemo Russo team brought three cars. Hope they didn’t have a trailer tire blowout on the way home! (Ed Duncan Collection, and in Hot Cars Cool Drivers)
 
Dick Berggren captured gassers Ollie Silva (upstairs) and Don MacLaren during their intense, career-long rivalry in the supermodifieds. Ollie won from Canada to Florida, Connecticut to California, while Big Mac stayed in the Northeast. Were the two of them sawin’ the wheel or what? (Dick Berggren Photo, Russ Conway Collection)
 
The way they were. Dale and Theresa at New Hampshire in happier times. (Mike Adaskaveg Photo, Dick Berggren Collection)
 
He looked so down to earth, but he really liked it up high. The Pennsylvanian often ventured out beyond the cushion to rack up an all-time record for AAA and USAC sprint car wins at 103. Tommy Hinnershitz died of natural causes in 1999 at age 87. (Dale Snyder Collection)
 
Wolfgang von Trips had the look of aristocracy, and that he was. Count von Trips spoke four languages and managed his family’s estates during the week. On the weekend, he was focused on trying to become the only German F1 World Champion. In this image, he also has the look of unease. Maybe he had a premonition. On September 10, 1961, he started on the pole at Monza, but he collided with Jimmy Clark and plowed into the crowd, killing himself and many spectators. (From Grand Prix Racers, Portraits of Speed, by Xavier Chimits, Photo by Bernard and Paul Henri-Cahier)
 
It was 1956. Trigger Watson was out there somewhere with his Northeastern cutdown. Some things never change. (Watson Family collection)
 
Here’s a group that belongs on a Post Office wall. It’s the Norwood (Mass.) Arena Reunion a couple of years ago. Left to right: Mike McClelland, Bert McNamara, Jerry Capazzoli (kneeling), unknown, Bill Slater, Bugsy Stevens, Dave Dion (kneeling), Leo Cleary, George Summers, the late Ernie Gahan, the late Marty Bezema, George Savary, and Jim Buck. And that represents a ton of feature wins! (Mike McClelland photo)
 
Kevin and Allen Horcher, the racing-brother photography team, have recorded open wheel racing action all over the country. Here Donnie Gentry’s #2 sprinter gets one great bite off the catch fence in a race at St. Francois County Raceway in Farmington, MO, in August of 2002. Remarkably, Donnie was OK. (Kevin Horcher Photo)
 
Talented California lensman Jon Paquet captures the essence of USAC midget racing at Santa Maria Speedway this past May 15.
(Paquet Photography)
 
For years and years Long Island was a veritable hot bed of racing. One of the hottest family names was Brunnhoelzl. That’s Ma Brunnhoelzl in the coupe with her boys George and Eddie back in 1972. (Ken Spooner photo from LONG RIDE ON A SHORT TRACK by Ken Spooner.)
 
Floyd Davis and his relief driver, Mauri Rose, won the 1941 Indy 500. The day is, however, more widely remembered for a horrific garage-area fire the morning of the race. Photo by Bob Sheldon from SPEEDWAY PHOTOS- Early Auto Racing in Chicago and the Mid-West, by Bob Sheldon.
 
Thirty years ago, John Andretti went to the Dorney Park banquet to collect some hardware. Uncle Mario went, too. (Dale Snyder Collection)
 
It’s the height of the summer, June 24, 1966, and a young Floridian transplant, Bobby Allen, is already looking a little scruffy at Williams Grove. But he sure had a pretty early super. (Dale Snyder Collection)
 
You know Ryan and Krissie Newman, but how about the rest of their family? That’s Mopar on the left and Harley, Fred, Digger, Duncan, and Socks.
(Karen Will Rogers photo from PIT ROAD PETS, The Second Lap, NASCAR Stars and Their Pets)
 
Part of the Chaparral team, one of America’s greatest ever, in 1967. Left to right are Jim Hall, co-driver Hap Sharp, Sandy Hall, and Phil Hill.
(John Lamm photo from
PHIL HILL- A Driving Life, by Phil Hill.)
 
 It was Northern New Jersey, back in the early seventies. That’s Buzzie Reutimann with his bride Linda and their already famous Dover Brake #00. And you guessed it. The little guy is David. (Berggren Collection).
 
That’s one of New York’s state’s favorite racers, Kenny VanWert, giving Debbie Welch some instruction before she attacks the mile at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the Coastal 181 coupe at a Vintage event several years ago. Deb is a real trouper, as you can see. The two of them are attacking the altar on June 12, and everyone wishes them the very best. (Danny Wood Photo)
 
Harley Lafary looks a tad subdued before the start at Aledo, IL, in September of 1950. Someone may have been confused, too. His Dusty Offy is powered by a Ford Flathead. Harry Lafary collection from RACING THE HEARTLAND – A History of the MVARA, by Ken Paulsen.
 
Don’t you wish you could have seen him drive? Juan Manuel Fangio negotiates the French Grand Prix in Reims, July 1, 1951 in a classic drift. The Klemantaski Collection from THE EYE OF KLEMANTASKI.
 
That’s a high school senior who said he was “facing the big ol’ world without a clue.” He was Doug Wolfgang. Wolfgang Collection, from LONE WOLF by Doug Wolfgang with Dave Argabright.
 
Joe Nemechek was noticeably and understandably emotional after his Busch win at Homestead on November 9, 1997. His brother had died in a truck race at that track eight months earlier. Phil Cavali Photo from SECOND TO NONE – the History of the NASCAR Busch Series, by Rick Houston
 
In the Spring Talladega race in 1993, Rusty Wallace tangled with Dale Earnhardt and took this heart-stopping tumble across the line for a sixth-place finish. He flipped about ten times, and the violence of the wreck inspired Don Miller of Penske South to launch the project that resulted in roof flaps for Winston Cup cars.  From Miller’s Time – A Lifetime at Speed.
(Jeff Robinson Photo).
On and off during the course of the next few months we will be posting photos taken by Coastal 181 writer Joyce Standridge (GOTTA RACE! with Ken Schrader), INSIDE HERMAN’S WORLD with Kenny Wallace, WIN IT OR WEAR IT on sprint car racing) and her ultra-competent racer husband Rick.  These are informal but informative candid shots of all kinds of racing, and we are grateful to have and be able to share them.
 

In March 1972, the USAC sprint cars opened the season at Queen City Speedway near Cincinnati. The half-mile track was wicked fast that afternoon, even as the cars struggled to warm up to good operating temperatures in the very cold air. Little did we know that only two months later the dirt would be paved over. By the end of the 80s, the track disappeared altogether. (Joyce Standridge photo)

 

When late models went crazy in the early 1980s with the Wedge and all sorts of alien aftermarket parts, a number of efforts were made to try to rein in the technological binge–and the attendant costs. One of the few that was successful was the United Midwestern Promoters (UMP), who hired Bob Memmer of Evansville, Indiana, (pictured in 1988) to be the face and voice for the organization. For a long time, Bob traveled from track to track, taking no pay and often sleeping in his car. In spite of constantly being caught between racers (the rock) and promoters (the hard place), Bob earned respect from day one and went on to be regarded as a genuine voice of reason. Eventually, poor health sidelined him and, at the relatively young age of 69, Bob passed away on July 8, 2004. (Joyce Standridge photo)

 
Sprint car chassis companies come and go, but Maxim has managed to not only hang around, they've been among the top-tier builders since 1989 when they opened their doors to customers. Here Springfield, Illinois, Mayor Ossie Langenfelter (sans his 10 children) congratulates Maxim owner Chuck Merrill at the grand opening. Merrill had made a tidy fortune building roads, but he went from a car owner to car builder because he believed he could do it better than most were doing it at the time. Clearly, he was correct. And he knew how to get a little fanfare for his business, unlike most back-of-the-garage constructors. (Joyce Standridge photo)
 
Sidney, Ohio's Duke Cook was a real character. On and off track his wild-man ways garnered him lots of attention, and few race drivers were more fun, but it probably hampered his career. And it meant that he took rides other people steered away from. Here, he is readying to qualify at DuQuoin in 1971, and yes, that roll bar was legal at the time. Full cages had become the norm, although many of them were still bolted-on to older chassis rather than welded on, but a few stubborn car owners did no more than was required–hence the roll bar rather than a cage. Flips on the one-mile dirt track were not uncommon, which is why there have been several fatalities and a lot of injuries over the years. It's still one of the very best tracks in America to watch 100 miles of dirt champ or stock car action while the unmuffled engine noise rattles your brain under the roof of the grandstand. (Joyce Standridge Photo)
 
Speed Weeks 1980 was one of the coldest, wettest ever. Somehow, Daytona got every race in without delay, but not without a lot of breath-holding. Buddy Baker donned a coat and nervously paced prior to the Twin 125s, understandably since he was driving Harry Ranier's Gray Ghost, clearly the fastest in the field. And the following Sunday, Baker finally had a car that held up under his relentless, heavy right foot. Not only did Baker win the 500, but set a speed record (2:48:55; 177.602 mph) that stands until today. And every one of the frozen chosen who were there that day was forever grateful to Baker for the blistering pace! (Joyce Standridge photo)
 
Before there was Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi as the preeminent powers of Indy car racing, there were Parnelli Jones and Vel Melitich, who were partners rather than adversaries. Melitich was a very successful California car dealer who decided to go Indy car racing. With Parnelli, they won the 500 and went on to be business partners in a number of ventures in and out of racing. Even in a successful car-owning career, the duo exceeded everyone's expectations by not only winning but also figuring out one of the all-time great marketing schemes–the Johnny Lightning Special, which launched Matchbox cars in the early 1970s. With Al Unser behind the wheel, they were the team to beat, and every little racing boy's idols. (Joyce Standridge Photo)
 
The Copper World Classic dates back to 1976, and these days is held in November, but for many years the Phoenix International Raceway multi-class racing event was a late-winter excuse to escape the snow banks and bask in the sun for a long weekend. During most of its history the event has been a four-class, USAC-sanctioned opportunity to see youngsters on their way to the big time and nearly always one or two who ran more than one class at a time. The midgets, dirt champ cars, supermodifieds and stock cars promised that if one race was a stinkeroo, another one would be a great old barnburner. You could count on getting your money's worth. If you could get to the track, because in 1993, flooding in the area was so bad that there was only one road in and out to the remote track, and the entire parking lot next to the track was under water. (Look off to the upper right of the grandstand photo.) Yes, it did affect the crowd as a lot of locals had to stay home and bail water.
(Joyce Standridge photo)
 
Maybe racing's most interesting–and prolific–winner, Dick Trickle in the mid-1980s at Nashville at the All-Pro 400. Within a couple of years, NASCAR would beckon, and while Trickle would never enjoy the success there that he did on the way to an estimated 1,000 short track outlaw wins, he would always be one of the great guys on and off the track. He lent his name to a bad-movie character (Cole Trickle in "Days of Thunder") and a thousand really bad jokes (c'mon, who can't come up with bathroom humor), but the fact that he never won a NASCAR race was a cruel coda to a brilliant career. Note also the name "Dillon" over the rear tire cut-out. That's Mike Dillon, who was one of just a couple incredibly successful pavement chassis builders of the era. Mike is now general manager for father-in-law's Richard Childress Racing, and father of promising young driver Austin Dillon. (Joyce Standridge photo)
 

You have to be of a certain age to remember when nearly everybody at all the race tracks was wearing a cowboy hat. Drat that "Urban Cowboy" movie, but coming off the disco look, it worked a whole lot better at the track. Nobody at any track wore a hat bigger than Cale Yarborough's, and we don't think it was because he was one of the shorter drivers around either. Or trying to make up for any other deficiencies, either because, frankly, he didn't appear to have any. Yarborough was the only NASCAR driver to run off three straight championships (1976-1978) prior to Jimmie Johnson's recent string. Yarborough also won 83 races (5th all-time); four Daytona 500s (1968, 1977, 1983 and 1984), and took on Donnie and Bobby Allison in a fist fight at the conclusion of the 1979 live Daytona 500 telecast to launch the modern era. It was a fair fight because Yarborough had been a real boxer. Yarborough was a forerunner of drivers like Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch in racing all kinds of cars throughout his career, including Indy cars and dirt late models. Today, he is a very successful businessman in his native South Carolina. (Joyce Standridge photo)

 
It was 1983 at the Dirt Track World Championship in Pennsboro, West Virginia, and it was already clear that wherever Scott Bloomquist (center in driver's suit) shows up, so will lots of rubberneckers. Bloomquist had moved from California to Tennessee less than five years earlier but was already a traveling late model star. And he has been consistent through the years–he had no more patience for most of the press and the other rubberneckers then than he does today. Whether you love 'im or not, you have to admit that few people have ever figured out race cars more thoroughly or driven more intensely. (Joyce Standridge photo)
 
The only race driver to come out of tiny Guttenberg, Iowa, Lee Kunzman was on the way to a brilliant Indy career when he suffered horrific third-degree burns in a sprint car crash at I-70 Speedway. After excruciating rehab, Kunzman fooled all the naysayers by coming back to racing, here in 1971 at DuQuoin. But the scars from the fire were still a clear reminder of what can happen in racing. Kunzman went on to race at Indy, although not at the level that the early promise had shown. Smart as a whip, he became a team manager and today is vice-president at Hemelgarn Racing.
(Joyce Standridge photo)
 
Mike Hiss wasn't the first pretty boy at Indy, but he was the first to take his looks in a direction no other race driver before him had done: Hiss took off his clothes and was the first centerfold for Playgirl's preview issue in January 1973. Fully dressed here, Hiss was nervously attempting to make his first Indy 500 in 1972. He made it, starting 25th and finishing 7th. He didn't look so nervous in Playgirl. Or so I'm told.
(Joyce Standridge photo)
 

One of the finest human beings to ever walk into a race track, Anton "Tony" Hulman. On this day, he was a guest at DuQuoin's dirt track, and even though it was a typically dusty day, Mr. Hulman remained neat as a pin. As then-owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, especially with the Indy cars as the premier league of racing in that day, Tony Hulman was the most powerful man in auto racing. And yet, he was not only accessible, he actually sought out unimportant folks for conversations about what they enjoyed most in racing. I was one of those people, and I will always treasure that 15-minute conversation. (Joyce Standridge photo)

 
By the end of 1980, Dale Earnhardt Sr. would pocket the first of his seven NASCAR championships, but that February he and girl friend Teresa Houston were still pretty much flying under the radar. After this photo was taken, he actually came over to the pit wall and allowed himself to be interviewed, something that would never have happened even a couple of years later. But from the beginning, he was a tough interview, although it seemed to me to be from shyness and insecurity in the early days. Not long after, he realized that he was as smart as anybody, more capable than most of coming up with an intelligent question, and a lot of same (dumb) questions got asked over and over, so what was the point? In early 1980, he wore his hunger for success like a badge–and it was immensely likable. (Joyce Standridge photo)
 

In 2000, Bruton Smith innovated once more–and only once, in this case–putting over 8,000 cubic feet of red clay dirt on the Bristol Motor Speedway. Late models came from everywhere to have the chance to say they'd driven the track's high banks, even though the dirt was at 22-24 degrees instead of the pavement's then-36 degrees (it's 24-30 degrees since repaving). The track was so incredibly tacky that many late models could not keep wheels under the cars and axles were snapping almost every lap. Eventually, a full field was pulled together for a feature, but most racers had dug deep into the trailers for sturdier suspension assemblies. Sprint cars ran there twice, in 2000 and again in 2001, but the too-fast track was just too much for the short trackers, and even with excellent crowds on hand it hasn't been repeated. (Joyce Standridge photo)

 
Racing has always been home to characters. Few short trackers have been more colorful than Jungle Jim Davison, who was better known in the Midwest in the 1970s and 1980s for his antics than for wins. He has said he regrets that he didn't try harder to put together winning combinations or get better rides, but he has never regretted having more fun than almost anybody–and dragging his unsuspecting friends into many an ornery practical trick. Like spritzing people with water from a fire extinguisher when they were worried about rain moving into a track, and then sitting back to laugh as they would hurriedly load up–only to find out the rain was phony. Jungle now owns a very popular racing-themed restaurant in Springfield, Illinois, where many, many bench races are run every day. Oh, and his jack technique never really caught on, for some reason. (Joyce Standridge photo)
 
 Rick Standridge at “Little Springfield” back in the early ‘70s. That’s one special CAE car. Just ask Rick’s wife, writer Joyce Standridge. She’s a good sport. They spent their courtship rebuilding it with Rick in a garage that didn’t know about heat. Photo – Standridge Collection. (See WIN IT OR WEAR IT – All-Time Great Sprint Car Stories by Joyce Standridge)
 
Linda Vaughn at Daytona a year ago. Still the best! (Bill Harman photo)
 
Jim Hurtubise, looking calm as a cucumber, has his sprint car all jacked up at Williams Grove in 1961.  There is some great footage of Herk on Dale Snyder’s video, Open Cockpit Classics. Dale Snyder Collection and his life story is told well in Herk Hurtubise, by Bob Gates.
 
That’s Benny Howard on his way out of the park in a 50-lapper at Twin Oaks Speedway in Gulfport, Mississippi, back in 1975. Sammy Swindell is sneaking by on the inside. Photo by Chuck Hendricks from the collection of Gerald Hodges (author of Southern Super Modifieds).
 
Rick Mears’ brother Roger snagged the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in his first shot at it. He blew all the V-8s away with this VW-motivated machine. From
RICK MEARS – THANKS, The Story of Rick Mears and the Mears Gang,
by Gordon Kirby. (Mears Family Collection)
 
Junior confers with Steve Hmiel back in Bud days. From DALE EARNHARDT JR. – Inside the Rise of a NASCAR Superstar, by Ron Lemasters and
Al Pearce. (Nigel Kinrade Photo)
 
It was tiny – just a fifth-mile, but Kansas City’s Olympic Stadium is huge in midget history. It was dirt, carved out of the Blue River bottomlands. A.J. Foyt captured his very first USAC win there in the spring of 1957. From LOST RACE TRACKS – Treasures of Automobile Racing, by Gordon Eliot White. (Bill Hill Photo)
 
Hemmings Senior Editor Jim Donnelly just finished a memoir of Don Miller for Coastal 181. That Don is one serious car guy. Other than starting Penske Racing South, developing the roof flap, and mentoring drivers like Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman, Miller did some racing of his own. Early on he was a professional drag racer. In the nineties he adapted this street rod for Bonneville. He set a land speed record for flatheads at over 150mph, still spinnin’ the tires. From MILLER’S TIME – a Lifetime at Speed, by Don Miller with Jim Donnelly. (Miller Collection)
 
Bill France Jr. seemed much more down to earth than some of NASCAR’s current management. Here he’s feasting on his birthday on what Herb Branham calls “his favorite delicacy – the hot dog.” From  BILL FRANCE JR. - THE MAN WHO MADE NASCAR, by H.A. Branham.
 
Remarkably, Australian Sprint Car driver Steve Henderson escaped this over-heated scene at Perth’s Kwinana Motorplex with minor injuries in 2005. From FULL THROTTLE – Images of Australian Speedway 1970-2009 by Tony Loxley. (Bruce Russell Photo)
 
Junior Johnson got all dressed up for Victory Circle at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in August of 1961. Looks like the track conditions were not to spiffy, either. From REAL NASCAR by Daniel S. Pierce (Don Hunter Photo)
 
James Hylton, 72, observes qualifying for the Daytona 500 in February of 2007. He missed the show by a couple of spots. He had won Richmond in 1970 and Talladega in 1972. From THEN TONY SAID TO JUNIOR – the Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told, by Mike Hembree.
 

Ben Affleck and Whoopi Goldberg were grand marshal and honorary starter for the 2004 Daytona 500. From ONE HELLUVA RIDE – How NASCAR Swept the Nation by Liz Clarke. (Getty Images Photo)

 

The roaring roadsters were essentially early supers, quick and open-aired.  As this image from the third mile San Jose Stadium in 1949 would indicate, they did not necessarily handle like a go kart.  Look at those guys wrestling with the steering wheels! From HISTORY OF SAN JOSE AUTO RACING 1903-2007.  (Reginald McGovern Photo)

 

San Jose Speedway in 1981 was the home of huge wings.  That year the track was also said to have the largest weekly attendance west of the Mississippi. From HISTORY OF SAN JOSE AUTO RACING 1903-2007.
(Dennis Mattish Photo)
 

 

It took big engines and big human parts to run the East Coast dirt modifieds in the early ‘70s.  Here are Lee Hendrickson (inside) and Eddie Delmolino parade-lapping before a 100-mile race.  Check out the fuel tank in Delmolino’s coach. (Dick Berggren Photo)

 
Brad, Bart, and Todd Noffsinger, the three famous racing brothers, started out with the California Racing Association. Sadly, Todd, just 20, was killed in a sprint car mishap at Ascot on Memorial Day weekend, 1983. From RACERS AT REST – the Checkered Flag 1905-2008, by Buzz Rose, Joe Heisler, Fred Chaparro, and Jeff Sharpe. (Noffsinger Collection Photo)
 
Busy Al Robinson, one of America’s favorite announcer/journalists, really had his hands full back at “Beef Night” at Port Royal (PA) Speedway in 1993. That’s Robin Johnson on his right and Kim Hurley to the left.
(Arthur Ruppert Photo, Robinson Collection)
 

It’s Frankie Schneider in his legendary coach at Dover, of all places, in 1969.  Frankie raced the All Star League shows that year and ran quite a few asphalt shows, as far North as the old Norwood Arena.  And, of course, along the way he ran every East Coast dirt track imaginable. (Dale Snyder Collection)

 
New York lensman Chris Burgess captures a stunning shot for the ages. That’s the great, bionic, 69-year-old Bentley Warren, comfortably settled in the seat of a super, just as he has been for close to 50 seasons. The only thing missing is that impish, teenaged smile.
 
That’s another Coastal 181 author, Bones Bourcier, on the left, partying with Bill Simpson. Yesterday we featured our author Susan Kelly Hearn. Who do you think is prettier? From RACING SAFELY, LIVING DANGEROUSLY, by Bill Simpson with Bones Bourcier. (Bourcier Collection)
 
That’s Susan Kelly Hearn, author of Coastal 181’s favorite children’s book, MARTIN AND T.J.'s – RACE CAR REPAIR. (Dick Berggren Collection)
 
We hear so much about Danica and Milka these days, and it seems so new. How about the original “Lady Leadfoots” who barnstormed across Southern California back in Jalopy days? In front row (right) is their leader, Hila Paulson, and on left is Vicky Jones. In back on right is Lorraine Gwynne and on left is the quickest of them all, Mary Jo Erikson. From MEMORIES OF THE CALFORNIA JALOPY ASSOCIATION, by Thomas D. Luce. (Hila Sweet Collection)
 
Stan Fox is airborne near the start of the Indy 500 in 1995. Remarkably, the eight-time Indianapolis veteran survived. From INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY (100 Years of Racing) by Ralph Kramer. (Photo Indianapolis Motor Speedway Archives)
 
Folks didn’t have much of a clue about the real dangers of smoking back in 1980. How about the dude in the hat, cigarette hangin’ out of his mouth, unbuckling Eddie Leavitt after a crash at DuQuoin. Look at the fuel tank! From WIN IT OR WEAR IT – All-time Great Sprint Car Tales, by Joyce Standridge. (Kevin Horcher photo)
 
It was the Snow Bird Classic, November 19, 1989, an open-comp Late Model show at the now shuttered Manzanita Speedway. Jim Clifton won it in his #1c after a rousing duel with Robbie Unser. Did Clifton have the aero workin’ or what! From MANZANITA SPEEDWAY’S DESERT THUNDER 1981-2005, by Windy McDonald. (CIG photo)
 
Monza! Can you imagine? Tony Bettenhausen once qualified at 177mph in an Indy car on those haunting high banks that sit today idle under the Italian sun. From Speedway - Auto Racing’s Ghost Tracks, by SS Collins and Gavin D. Ireland.
(Gavin D. Ireland photo)
 

Those boys were lookin’ intense in the Dade City (FL) soap box derby in 1950.  They still are.  It’s Will Cagle and Wayne Reutimann. From FLORIDA MOTORSPORTS RETROSPECTIVE PICTORIAL, by Eddie Roche. (Bruce Craig Collection)

 

That Caddy was pretty neat.  So was that Midwest UDRA rail-job driven by Duane Nichols.  But coolest of all is what they called the dragster – “Nitroholic.” From KINGS OF THE QUARTER MILE, by Lou Hart. (Don McReynolds photo)

 

Happier times.  Left to right, it was Peter Lazzaro; the legendary Lou “Monks” Lazzaro; Lou’s long time wrench, Junior Bianco; Melissa Lazzaro, and Dave Lape.  One of the greatest East Coast modified drivers ever, Louie died after a race at Fonda (NY) Speedway ten years ago.  On Saturday, May 15, the track will host a major memorial event for him.  Dave Lape will be on hand, hoping for that checkered flag.  Along with it will come the Coastal 181 Cup. (Dick Berggren Collection)

 
Rit Patchen, a big star at the old Danbury (CT) Speedway, used to come up to Thompson Speedway for the big extra-distance shows. Rit and his crew sure were ready, but what would Chad Knaus have said about this pit layout?
(Dick Berggren Collection)
 
Humpy Wheeler really has been the consummate showman. It didn’t matter to him that there were no fans – just press – at Charlotte in 2001 for this demonstration. From GROWING UP NASCAR – RACING’S MOST OUTRAGEOUS PROMOTER TELLS ALL, by Humpy Wheeler and Peter Golenbock.
 

Out sideways, right rear smoking.  The guy was amazing.  That’s Paul Newman in 1997, hardly then a kid, in Ron Shuman’s sprinter at Perris (CA)Speedway. From WINNING – The Racing Life of Paul Newman, by Matt Stone and Preston Lermer   (Mike Arthur Photo)

 
A jolly band, not so long ago.  (L-R, Top) Kyle Petty, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Ernie Irvin, (L-R Bottom) Marc Reno, Davey Allison, Ken Schrader, and Dale Jarrett  
(Dick Berggren Collection)
 
In 2004, when this photo was taken, John Force was keeping a close eye on his daughter Ashley. At the season-ending NHRA event that year, they each won their class, becoming the first father-daughter event winners in drag racing history.
From JOHN FORCE, the Straight Story of Drag Racing’s 300mph Superstar,
by Erik Arneson  (Jon Asher photo)
 
Red Riegel and his family, following a fifth place finish at the Hoosier Hundred in 1965. On June 10 of the following year he and Jud Larsen were in a dual sprint car fatal at Reading, (PA) Speedway. From DAMN FEW DIED IN BED by Andy Dunlop and Thomas Saal (Bruce Craig photo)
 
Niki Lauda suffered horrific burns in his Ferrari at Nurburgring in 1976. He was read his last rites on the way to the hospital. Five weeks later, he was back in a race car.
From GRAND PRIX RACERS, Portraits of Speed, by Bernard Cahier and Xavier Chimits  (Bernard Cahier photo)
 
You don’t hear J.J. Yeley’s name that much these days, but he is one remarkable racer. He’s had some pleasing days at the track, including this one at the Sacramento Silver Crown 100 in 1998. From SACRAMENTO, Dirt Capital of the West, by Tom Motter
(Dennis Mattish photo)


It’s 1989 at Kentucky Motor Speedway, and Jimmy Spencer is not a happy cowboy. He has just been blackflagged from the Granger Select 200 for roughhousing with Robert Pressley. From SECOND TO NONE – The History of the NASCAR Busch Series,
by Rick Houston. (Ray Shough photo)

We bet you did not immediately recognize Kyle and Kurt Busch’s Dad, Tom.  This unusual image is from Anita Rich and Robin Dallenbach’s book,  PORTRAITS OF NASCAR.

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