LITTLE YELLOW CAR

     The Little Yellow Car showed up on one of the photos that came in the Surges/Richardson collection of slides.  (Check them out here.)

     Sometime in 1958 Dayton Speedway promoted an "International 300" that was open to foreign cars as well as the usual Detroit iron.  What we are calling the Little Yellow Car was one of the entrants we believe.

     Here's that photo, and the Little Yellow Car blown up.

     Notice that the tail section looks remarkably like the Indy roadster driven by Don Freeland.  See the photo below:

     Our mission, simply enough, is to identify the car and driver. 

January 24, 2009

Foggy

Well I found the International 300 info at the Library today.

It was scheduled for June 2, 1958. It rained.......... and was rescheduled

for June 9th, 1958.  It rained,.............. again.  It was rescheduled for

June 22, 1958.  We have the info from that race from the "high banked" Slide.  I have not seen any cars

listed that looked foreign in the results. Not were there any cars that looked foreign in the Slide.

(Insert trumpet with plunger sound Wahnt, wahn, wahhhhhh).

(June 22 also happens to be the date of the 1958 Lemans).

The papers did mention possible entries for the race.  Each week they changed.

*********** 

Below are the Drive / Car  followed by a note and a link to photo of said car (if possible) to compare to the #77.

June 1 paper

D-Jaguar / Herschel White http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_D-Type

White Destroyed his car four laps from the end of the July 28, 1957 Dayton race (finished 3rd).

August 10 1958, while relief driving for Bobby Hunter at Toledo he DESTROYED Hunter's car.

I have seen no more results for White after August 1957.

Don Schisler in an Allard:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1954-osca-mt4-racer.htm

The grill on this one is the closest. And it was a surprisingly powerful car.

BUT he is listed as having finished 6th in a '57 Chevy.

Loyal Katskee in a Monza Ferrari (not exactly sure what that means)

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/ferrari-750-monza.htm

(His first results are up Sept 7 1958 in a Ferrari 2900(cc?) #24)

"There will also be Thunderbirds and Corvettes"

"Dick Passwater will have a Corvette engine in a Kurtis-Kraft."

The KK is pretty close.  With a 'Vette motor it could "hang with the big dogs". But it is not the same.

He was active in 1958.

http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/282533,15420,0,0/photo.aspx --58 Roadster note Headrest

http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/83824,9636,0,0/1954-Kurtis-KK-500_Photo.aspx NICE CAR '54

June 8 paper

Herb Swan in a Bristol

http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/133647,12244,0,0/1958-AC-Ace-Bristol_Photo.aspx

Loyal Katskee in a Monza Ferrari (AGAIN)

Gene Spencer In a T-Bird

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/series.aspx?seriesID=6&modelID=64

Maybe. G.C. Spencer had One result for '58 in September NASCAR. Then a long NASCAR career ending in 1977.

That is it.

The copy is AWFUL.  It was so bad it took three pages to get each section readable.  I will have to do some fancy scanning, copy/paste before I can send it to you.

Summary: Three drivers, a woman and a boy were injured.  You were correct about Farris, he joined the "over the wall" club in the June 22 race.  He was still recovering from his injuries when the photo was taken at the "Monza 300".  I think that crash was the beginning of the end for him.

No foreign makes in final results.

http://www.ultimateracinghistory.com/race.php?raceid=2389

Rick