Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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Luther, I am limited on engines,I could change the plugs, set timing, adjust the float and change the jets on a Holley carb. etc. What would replacing the coolant with oil do and could you run 50 laps?

Ray

I don't know about Crosleys rearends, but I think Earnest Lee Jennings tried an Opel at one time.

HM

hi guys im looking for pics or info from willowrun in choctaw about the super/stock class in 1966 or 67 ,mainly on the winner in 67s/s class driver lelan shelton,im trying to get pics or info for a friend of mine he is restoring the car his dad raced at willowrun in 67 ,its a white 66 fairlane thunderbolt.any info or pics would be great thanks

Ray,...I think the problem was water leaking into a cylinder & replacing the water with oil was the only chance they had. The features were 30 laps then instead of 50. It would likely cause the cylinder to mis-fire with oil on the plug. ...Luther

Easy now, That kind of response has me thinking of that as an option!

Actually I have done that, fill the coolant passages in an engine with oil. Not on purpose though! We were changing an engine out that had a warranty, and part of the deal was to prefill the engine with a pressurized contraption that pushed five quarts into the engine thus oiling everything as if it was running.

I plugged into the wrong hole.................................. There was gray coolant in that engine for the longest time no matter how much we changed out the mix!

i thought of something a few days ago that i really miss about the years gone by: i miss hand lettered race cars. even if they werent as perfect and cookie cutter like todays cars (dont get me wrong-there are some impressive lookin cars now) theold cars had personality. people like Harold Leep Jr, Jim Chesnutt, Tony Armstrong, Bob Rick, Gordon Moseley, Rick Reavis plus many others who did their own cars, made the cars look good. it would be a cool deal to see a car with brushstrokes in the numbers again. and remenber the NCRA shows where instead of a duct tape number by the original number, teams would bolt a pre-lettered number on?

"its useless to put on the brakes when you are upside 
down"   -Paul Newman

Was just talking about that last Sunday at SFS practice when noticing Joe Wood Jr. #03 ASCS Sprint Car has a hand lettered tail tank done by no other than uncle a himself who does frequent this board, It looked really sweet and made me think of having mine hand lettered again in the future.

Oh yeah, Uncle a! When my car is actually painted, Uncle a is the only man to do the lettering. He did this car, I don't think there is a stitch of vinyl on this project.

I think he also did some work for this guy too during these years,

Can't beat the gold leaf lettering!

John Stewart

Retro Racing Custom Model Cars
405.922.6163
[email protected]
Oklahoma City, OK

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Retro-
Racing-Custom-Model-Cars/235624429834292#!/pages/Retro-
Racing-Custom-Model-Cars/23562442983429

From the looks of it, that rabbit must have been putting a lot of time into the race car too! Doesn't look like he's ate in a while there.

To All,

In '85 we started the year with the Rich car but shortly after the Spring Nationals at Dallas and Okc we were able to get the Gambler deal up and going, Shorty, Sandy & I went over to Gambler's and picked the car up, we put the motor in over there so if we needed to change anything we could, we used the same front motor plate as the Rich car so we had to reweld on some differant tabs for that and the sump tank was under the LS of the seat so it was plumbed a little differant but other then that the 2 cars were very similiar in PU points and heights, The biggest difference was #1 Frame wgt the Rich frame weighed 215# after all of the bracing we had put in it, the Gambler weighed 145# give or take, #2 the Rich car had full length rear RR rods mounting at the center of the U-joint, the Gambler used the same rear RR rods as there sprint cars, #3 the front tube split was 2.5" wider then the Rich car so you could use straight arms on the front with the Rich car we used that 30% angle broach RF arm. Other then that both cars were pretty close and used almost idenical set-ups so we hit the ground running right up front from the start. We continued to run the Rich car also Wooley drove it a couple of times and almost won the A-Fea at OKC on the friday before the USAC/NCRA race but blew up leading with about 6-7 laps to go. Peter's also drove it and did very well and that is what this story is about.

At the end of July we had won Hutch and Shorty was off to Knoxville for the Nationals so we loaded the Gambler up and went to Tulsa with Peter's and he smoked um bad we had just put in the MoTown Missle and it was a bad SOB we came home and Shorty was calling whining about us running the Gambler, so we took the Missle out and put it in the Rich car and went back to Tulsa 2 weeks later. We showed up real late just me, Janelle, MP & his girl friend we parked down along that East fence by where the scale used to be. We barely made the Heat but won it easily off the back the track was fast early but by A-FEA. time it was slow and slick top to bottom, MP wanted to make some major bar and shock changes so we thrashed right up until time to go out, we had put on an M-20 RR on a 16/6 off wheel with a 90" M-16 LR which gave us about 12" stagger only had about 5# air in the RR, stood the wing way up it was just a big airbrake with a low gear, that Rich car had super brakes and would stop on a dime. We started 16th and man it took for ever to get the first 5-6 laps in everybody was spinning out, when it finally got going we were running 12th and how he took the lead is hard to explain, everybody dove to the bottom going into turn 1 and MP just rolled her in on the outside of them and came off 2 running 6th, by the 8th lap he was leading and just going away right in the middle in the black shiny stuff. That old Rich car just squatted down on the rear and drove off the turns almost doing wheelie's. There was a yellow with about 5 to go and that put Ewell, Werthen & a couple of others right behind us but on the restart MP just drove off winning by a straight away. I knew that there would be problems so when the check's came out I told sis you better go get the money while we load up. MP came in and surprisingly it was quiet at first, MP started changing cloth's I looked up on the hill and could see about 25-30 of the guys gathered around the Offixco & Heckel / Jeckel cars. Pretty soon 1 guy came walking down and started talking to MP everything seemed to be going well when MP puffed up and said Mister I'll whip your ass, I jumped between them and told MP get in the trailer and get your cloth's on, he looked at me and said David he says we're cheating and ought to stay home I said MP get in the trailer and get dressed!!!!! As I turned around to face this guy who was pretty good size I hit him right in the sterium with the end of the tire bar we used, his eyes poped out about 2 " and he couldn't catch his breath and he couldn't move I told him I didn't have time to mess with him so he better leave, he turned around and stumbled up the hill I don't think he caught his breath until he got back up there but it must have worked because nobody else came down. Janelle showed up with the money and we beat foot out of there. For several weeks after that if we raced there i had 1 eye behind me just in case that guy came back but I don't remember ever seeing him again.

Luther'

I read in one off your posts earlier that you used a master cylinder off a piece of construction equipment, would it have been called a MICO cylinder? We used them on the Old Mans cars from '76 through'84 it was on the Bi-Centenial car and on the 2nd Parson car plus all of our Rich cars, it had 2 caps but just 1 common chamber, you filled it through the front cap and it had a pressure adjustor under the 2nd cap. We used a 19" long pedal on the cars with a 1" and 2" adjustment hole to change pedal ratio. When Shorty started driving for us he used the brakes a ton and actually killed the motor a couple of times until he got the feel for it. He would tell you to this day he never drove a car that had brakes as good as that Rich car.

DGM,...The adjustable master cylinder is in the 72 car I built for Stan Borofsky and is restored & pictures of it is on the message. I think it had only one cap, but was large and the adjustment was directly in the center of the bottom. You could lock up the whels very easy. The cylinder was still in the car when I last looked. Luther

Brian, J.D., and John thanks for the kind words. I learned allot from Harold Lloyd and Jim Chestnut. Here is an example of my first race car art. I must have started out with a 86" car but then had to compensate for the 100"wheel base. lol

From the Steve Foster collection

Uncle a,

What ever happened to Jim Chestnut? I see Bob & Milford Light ever now and then but haven't seen Jim in years. The pic of TA outside the park with Jim standing on the car made me think of him, I had forgotten that he lettered cars until you mentioned it.

David, the last time I spoke with Jim Chestnut was about '91 or '92. He called me when I was living in Pheonix. His wife was enlisted in the Air Force and they had just been transfered to a remote location.

I think something like Guam but can't remember. I haven't heard from him since. Another guy I learned allot from that we haven't heard from in years is Jerry Smith (Speedway Graphics). Jerry did some phenominal t-shirts and designed logos and printed decals for Jim Gilliam, Bishop Racing, and Pro Starters just to name a few. I designed the first Airflow logo and Jerry Smith printed them.

I guess I'm about the only Sign painter left in OKC for ya'll to kick around except for Rick Knight. Troy Matchen was also a heck of a sign painter. He lettered alot of the cars from Taft Stadium to the original Fairgrounds to Fairgrounds Speedway.

hi everyone, does anybody outthere have any info or pics of willowrun dragway in choctaw,okla in 1966 or 1967 or anytime . thanks

Look up Rob Ragland in Ardmore, Oklahoma. I don't have his number, but he is a bonafide drag racing nut. He might know somebody that does have some pics.

Just read where Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix ,Ariz. will cease to run in Apr. , bought out to develop the land, Never been to the place but have read about it's long history and the Western World and all , I always went up to the Northeast part of the country and watched, I guess it is just another sign of the tough times of today.