Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

Well? They say I'm okay with words, but I ain't got nuthin on you. Got anything rattling around to write about? I dig Zink History.

Thanks for the ego boost, but I am pretty much "retired." I did do a little bit on Cody Brewer for the latest FastLane, and I'm following the go karts at Norman for fun. As far as Jack Zink is concerned, there's a new bio out on him called "To Indy and Beyond." Check it out at your local library, but don't buy it. Some of the photos are neat, but there are so many errors in it that it's worthless as far as history is concerned. Just little things, like totally omitting Jackie Howerton from the super modified years, claiming Jimmy Reece was back in the Army in 1953 so he couldn't drive for Zink, when in fact he had quit to join another team, etc. Denny Moore and I were both supposed to look at the proof sheets before it went to press, and Denny did actually tell them there were errors. I never got to see it, but I know whatever Denny told them was ignored. Sad, really...it coulda been a contenda. 20 years from now, when those of us who know better are gone, people will think it's all true.

I do have an article I tried to place in the Oklahoman about an Indy car race in OKC in 1915...they apparently weren't interested, but I'll find a market for it. How many people know Barney Oldfield and friends actually tore around what's now the Linwood neighborhood, or that the engine that became the Offenhauser actually won its first race there? Fun stuff.

The Miller/Offy/Drake-Meyer/TRACO lineage got it's first win in OKC?!

Oddly it seems as if 'new' history itself wants to forget that Howerton drove a super here at all. For the sake of protecting the truth, any chance you guys could put together a 'correction sheet' for the book?

Not to leave a story hanging, Eddie Rickenbacker had a Peugeot, about the fastest thing going at the time. It was also terribly unreliable, especially the connecting rods. After numerous failures, he got disgusted and sold the car to Bob Burman. Burman took it to Harry Miller, and the two of them reworked the connecting rods and did several other modifications to the straight 4 cylinder, overhead valve, integral head Peugeot, creating the first Miller engine. Burman brought the car here in April of 1915 and cleaned house with it. He was killed in the car the next year at a race in Corona, California, but Miller continued to develop the engine. Rickenbacker later described the sale of the Peugeot to Burman as "the worst mistake I ever made in racing." By selling the car, Rickenbacker also left himself without a ride, which is why he didn't run in the OKC race. This is Bob Burman, winner of the only Indy Car race ever run in OKC

cool!

Hey Galen............Why don't you do a book on Oklahoma racing history?

I'd buy it!

Chunk's Racing Images
Yukon,OK

The Offy/Miller gets it's first win here, and the small block Chevy is introduced to sprint car racing just 150 miles to the north in Wichita.

That is a big deal.

You guys have GOT to collaborate on a Oklahoma racing history paper of some kind. Every time one of you post these history snippets it is great. For anyone who loves racing this is food for the soul. You might be surprised at how many people would snap up a book or paper about this. I've read American Speed by Life Books so many times I've got it memorized. I suspect you all could get together and put a work together that's every bit as good. You have a treasure and you should figure out a way to get it all recorded somehow.

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