SURVIVORS...

     There are plenty of sites on the web that feature vintage race cars, and it was never my intention to add current photos of survivor race cars here.  On the other hand, you have to respect the machines and the men and women who pour countless hours and often mountains of money into keeping the vintage machines alive and kicking.

     Only July 18, 2008 I attended "Open Wheel Nite" at Kil-Kare Speedway near Xenia, Ohio.  It's a once a year event that features midgets, modifieds, winged sprint cars, Thunder Roadsters...you name it.  On this particular occasion there were a half-dozen vintage cars on display in the pits and on the track.  It occured to me that the cars themselves deserve as least some of the respect that we pay our drivers, owners, and crews who have survived from an earlier time.

     With that in mind, I present those vintage cars from the Kil-Kare event that could have raced at Dayton Speedway.  (For those of you who would like to see all my photos, both vintage and modern, from the Kil-Kare event, please visit www.public.fotki.com/foggygoggles and look for the album with the appropriate label.  Feel free to download any photos that appeal to you and use them however you wish.)

                                                                           ---Mickey

                                                                           July 19, 2008

     On September 28, 2008, I attended the Oldtimers' Reunion at Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Indiana.  What a treat it was to get to see the restored (and unrestored) race cars.  Loyal FODS Gene Ingram was there as well, and provided some of the photos he took at the event.  He agreed to let me share them with you.  (Please note that the photos of Mike Swains' Mutual roadster were not taken at the Oldtimers' Reunion, but were taken somewhere else.) Gene's photos are the ones below down to the line breaks.  You can see the photos I took at the event by visiting www.public.fotki.com/foggygoggles and looking for the appropriately labeled album.

     Thanks, Gene !

                                                   ---Mickey

                                                   October 15, 2008

     (Below) Here are four photos of the Anthony's midget after they had a chance to do some polishing!

     Mel Anthony, the 85 year-young racer who started out in roaring roadsters back in the '30s in the Northwest, just purchased a new old midget with his son Dennis for vintage racing.  We don't know very much about the car, and none of its history, but I'm betting that Mel has already tried the cockpit on for size.

---Photos courtesy Mel Anthony 

     Mel also sent along the photo below that shows four vintage race cars gathered somewhere in Washington state.  The red #4 (the third car from the camera) is the famous Engle-Stanko sprint car.  The car was built in Dayton and in 1951 Jimmy Daywalt behind the wheel it finished second to Troy Ruttman at Dayton Speedway.  Unfortunately, tragedy followed.  Gordon Reid was driving the car when it went into the crowd at Dayton killing four, including Reid.  It was rebuilt, but Larry Crockett died at Langhorne in the car in 1955.

     We have no idea how the car got to Washington.

     The five photographs below show Mike Swains' Mutual roadster.  This car actually competed at Dayton Speedway for several years and Pete Allen drove the car for most of its career.  Swain purchased the car as a basket case from Don Anderson and restored it to its present condition.  Notice that the car has a lot of original body parts that have been preserved in "as found" condition.

     It's a beautiful car that speaks to the way things used to be, and to the dedication and determination of today's vintage preservationists.

                                              ---Photos by Gene Ingram

                                    ---All photos above provided by Gene Ingram

     Mike Swain of Lebanon, Ohio owns this 1940 Ford powered by a flathead motor.  Cars like this raced under a variety of class names, but the one that I remember best from the mid-1960's was "Sportsmen."  Check out the interior with its period-perfect vast array of "safety equipment."  It's a wonder than any of us survived racing in that era!

                                                ---Photo from Mickey's collection

     The black #65 is an honest-to-goodness Kurtis Kraft midget with an Offenhauser engine.  Cars like this one dominated midget racing after World War II and at some events every car in the field was a Kurtis Kraft product.  The Kurtis Kraft cars were common entries at Dayton Speedway.                                   ---Photo from Mickey's collection

     Mel Anthony (methanolmel@msn.com) and his son, Dennis, have finally taken delivery of that new vintage midget.  Mel is shown here seeing if the seat feels right to him.  Son Dennis is shown standing next to the car in the photo below.  No word yet on whether dad will let his son have the keys to the car anytime soon.  And isn't that a heck of view from their driveway?

     The photos were provided by Mel by way of Rick Patterson.

     The car shown below was built and driven by Tom Cherry of Muncie, Indiana, who used it to compete at Dayton Speedway.  (See if you can find the original photos of the car configured as a Mutual roadster on the 1940s/1950's page of this site!)  The car is now owned by Don Anderson.

     Cherry later started the All American Racers sanctioning body.  He changed the tail section of the roadster to make it a sprint car.  It was later modified to race in the short lived NASCAR Speedway division.  The car is restored today as it was raced in the NASCAR series.

     The photo was taken by Gene Ingram who's gotten to drive the car several times!

     In the photo above, driver Chuck Smith poses with his restored sprint car.

                     ---All photos above provided by Gene Ingram

The blue and white 1960's era sprint car #21 shown in the three photos below is owned by Chuck and Joan Dillion of Garrettsville, Ohio.  It's even better looking in person than in photographs!                 ---Photo from Mickey's collection

          The photos below were taken by Rand Thompson (caprirand@comcast.net) at a vintage salute at Toledo Speedway during the 2009 racing season.

          (Top) That's veteran Rollie Beale with (center) his 1973 sprint car.

          (Bottom) FODS Steve Estes owns one of the nicest vintage sprint cars around.

          Our Rand Thompson (caprirand@comcast.net) visited a car show in the Michigan International Speedway infield during the 2009 season and took these photos of the Benny Parsons' Ford Torino.  More than any other car he drove during his career, including the King's Row #72 in NASCAR Cup racing, this is the car that serves as the icon for Parsons' racing career.