Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
Moderators: Racing From The Past

too bad the situation with lanny, we can't go back to the good day's when we had like u said tulsa, oc, muskogee, wichita. hell here in river city sprint racin is almost done, needs to promoted and reserected. but who will do it ???? closing the tulsa track was a BIG mistake , and racin on the paper clip n. of town was a joke. now the fair board at okie city and lanny will screw up another . from what i hear from some sprint racers lanny and his troops have just about ruined the devel's bowl, guess his interest in providing good race venue's has disappeared, i can remember when he really tried to have a good track, he put wet water on devel's bowl and u could walk out on the track after the feature and have your shoe's pulled off your feet... but that was 29 years ago!!!!!

sorry buswacker,,,,,, i messed the post with the phone number..I am in Central Kansas today and wont be back to Joplin area untill Monday..but i will call you.

Its not who you think who might have this car. The guy doesnt want everybody knowing what all he has because people wont leave him along...He keeps his to get to later cars were its hard to get to them..Its been so rainy that its not easy to get there unless you walk along way.The weather looked like it might get up to 70 this week and be dry.. So i am going to go out there and look for a number. This car may not have a number because i think it is a mid 70s car ot later

But iwill call you in the next few days and see what all we can get done on this..It aint going anywhere.....If ihave to i will call you while i am at the car.....Tim.

Win as if you are use to it.And lose as if you enjoyed 
it for a change.Its hard to get to the top and alot 
harder to stay there.

Hey Luther how is the move coming back to the Heart of America..

Win as if you are use to it.And lose as if you enjoyed 
it for a change.Its hard to get to the top and alot 
harder to stay there.

Tim,...The prospective buyers purchased another house in Port Orange..We are still on the market & did lower the price $20,000 & will consider any reasonable offer....Interested?.....Luther

Wonder why the old track on the SE side of Ada has 3 or 4 light poles that are on? Is there something there I couldn't see at night? Was this the track that was built in the late 70's by the Estes'? Did Ada have two tracks operating at the same time or did this track never open?

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

One of the spoils of operating an agricultural enterprise on the site of an old race track, you can leave the lightpoles up I guess.

Warren, My Wife is from Ada and her brother ran a 6 Cyl. Modified at the old Ada Raceway north of town in the late 60's by the Airport and then ran at Echo Ranch Raceway down southeast of Ada on Hwy. 99 in the early 70's and then I believe the Ada Raceway southeast of Ada on 3W was opened and then shut down by the community of Ahloso in the mid 80's was at that place to watch about 2 times when they ran Champ Dirt Cars there in the mid 80's,(Is this the track your referring to with the light poles still up?), then Echo Ranch reopened in 88 or 89 under Bubba Todd , We ran a 100" car there for the 89 season, then it went under and never reopened, then Oklahoma Sports Park with promoter George Welch opened his track in the early 90's and still runs it today and from what I understand I don't believe there was ever 2 tracks open at the same time in Ada.

My wife has got a lot of old photos of her brother racing back then at Ada Raceway and Echo Ranch and even got some shots of the country singer Blake Shelton's dad in his Modified #99 which was called the "Widow Maker" and he was pretty good shoe from what I have heard and read in programs and paper clippings.

What is the story about peanuts and the colour green being bad luck? Thee first night that I helped Mike and Norman I bought some peanuts and was told not to do it again.

i was watching a race on TV and the only way that you could pass another car wa with a slide job. Back in the old days this was not acceptable, if you were not faster it was dirt y to slide another driver. In 1969 Raymond Dates told Benny Taylor to quit sliding Harold, That was the only way that you could pass Harold in 69, well Harold got tired of it and ran his car on to the top of Benny's's tail section as they were pulling into the pits and Raymond got suspended for hitting Benny, but they got their point across

Ray

JD:

What is you wife's brothers name. I raced at the old track north of Ada on Dog House Road and later at Echo Ranch. Echo Ranch was an operating horse ranch when first started and the owner decided to build an oval track for race cars. Blake Shelton's dad's name is Dick and he started out as a mechanic on race cars and actually had a repair/mechanic shop in Ada strictly for racers, drag, circle or whatever you brought in the door. I knew Dick well and he did work on my car and later I raced with him. If your wife's brother is from there, I am sure I would know him. I have one brother and a sister that still live in Ada.

GRC35

Not to but in but I'm sure it was Jimmy Lancaster: Ada OK (1948-1977)

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Jimmy was a good friend of mine. He was killed in a highway traffic accident at a very early age. His family had a plumbing business in Ada and was very into racing. His family sold the race car pictured to Tommy Estes, Sr. for his son Tommy Estes, Jr. to drive for his first car. Tommy didn't leave the 6 cylinder in very long before he switched to V-8's and went on from there to be a heck of a sprint car driver.

GRC35

Thanks for posting that pic Warren.

GRC35 , Jimmy Lancaster is my Wife's brother, I did not know you ran against him back then, need to tell my wife that you did, yes her brother was killed in a car accident in 77 west of Ada.

My Wife's dad B.F. Lancaster owned the 7 car and was sponsored by Lancaster Plumbing , Yep Dick Shelton, Glen Owens , Boots Holder , Charlie Mayhue and so on, heck we might have some pics of your old car , they have abunch of them along with a year or so of old programs from back in Echo Ranch days of the early 70's , the Race Program was called the Spark Plugger, it was also put together by my Sister in Law (Jimmy's Wife) whose is in the pic above.

They did sell the car to Tommy Estes Sr. and guess that was the start of that guys career and my wife's whole family still lives in and around Ada, Shelton did some work on Jimmy's car as well and Jimmy had some good pieces on the car at that time , B.F. was not afraid to spend the money to make the car good as possible.

JD:

I was raised in Stratford. Have known Glen Owens since high school. He and I both started dirt track racing at the same time. When I raced at Ada, my number was 15.

GRC35

GRC35 , I lived in Ada for about 3 yrs. in the early 90's and worked in Stratford during that time, bet it has'nt grown much since you left , was through there this past summer and not much has changed in that town, I will check out some of those spark pluggers programs and see if I see your car sometime and see if I can spot a #15 in any pics.

To All,

Been pretty hectic past couple weeks, haven't had time to post on here but this morning had a chance to catch up a little. Warren posted a good pic of Lyndon Moss late model #94 in another thread on here, Lyndon was a pretty good LM driver besides being pretty good in a Super Modified & Sprint. I remember my first trip to Albequerque SPDY, it was in late '76 or '77 David Maxwell, Jack Davis, Charles Jarvis & Myself drove out to Amarillo and picked Moss up went on out as Lyndon was driving Behiji Hindi's Sprinter it was a big race Wolfgang,Ferkel,Amati,Billy&Ron Shuman,Chuck Brown,Shawkeet Hindi, and several others were there. Hell I never dreamed it would be anything but warm and it was in the high '80s during the day but man that night it got cold as shit, all we had were t-shirts and it was about 40 degrees at night and we all liked to froze to death.

That was my first meeting with Shawkeet he is a great guy and was a pretty good racer also they ran Albequerque Cab Co. and maybe still do haven't seen them in years his son Dion developed into a pretty good racer also.

Perry Tripp was in town last week and came by with Shorty to visit they spent a couple days running around trying to find out more about the #94 Hampton car that he is restoring, Brian posted some new pic's that show the engine detail pretty good and Perry has had some concerns about some of the engine stuff.

Went to Chatham La. for a WOO test last Thursday&Friday it went well and it appears GDYR is getting back into the dirt business. Made it back in time Saturday afternoon 4:45 PM that I decided to go ahead and run up to Enid for the OCRS race they had 40 cars and Enid hasen't changed much track wise over the years. I stayed for all of the Heats and ran out of steam so drove back home and rested got up Sunday AM and picked up Gary Flatt and went back to Enid for Sundays races, I had some fun just went up in the stands and watched all of the Heats and b-features it started rubbering up and getting hard on tires, I ran into Bobby Kraft and we reminniced about some of the old days there and we decided a Jaloney and rain tire or a pair of Diamonds could still win this race on a sprint car. I can remember going there for Winter Nationals in the 70's and we would smoke those RR's for 40 laps of a 50 lap race, these OCRS guys just ran 25 laps and just smoked um a little but still wore them out, to bad they didn't run 50 laps as we would have seen pit stops.

Will try to post a story tomorrow night, I've been thinking about a couple of good ones you guys might enjoy!!!!

 

David, Bushwacker, redbandana or whoever else wants to chime in, been reading a lot of posts on message boards and motors and tires are all the rage/talk of why Sprint Car Racing is so expensive to afford these days, just wondering from you all who built motors and bought and in David's case sold them as well

1.What did a motor cost to build in a Super Modified say in 75 and what did tires run then from Goodyear or Firestone a Diamond RR or Driag 500?

2.. What did a motor cost to build in a Champ Dirt Car in 85 and what did tires run at that time?

Kind of have an idea of motor cost for a Modified 100" car that I ran in 95 , I believe I had about $4,500 in it , 291 double hump heads and stock crank and rods, FT Pistons and 2 Bar. carb and most of the money was in the machine work on the rods and crank and block.Tires were the M65 Goodyear or McCreary block tire and both were in the $140 to $160 range

Nowadays it is $10,000 to $50,000 just depending on if it's a 305,360 or 410 and all our built by an Engine shop and dynoed and all that.

Just was wondering costs back then, I know they were built in a garage/shop back then , guess just wondering what parts and such ran. Just be interested to know the scoop and hear your answers.

I built my first car in 1961. I had an experienced guy helping me. We were planning to install a flat head Ford. When I went to Kansas City to buy pistons at Carl's Speed Shop, the counter sales man (Vito Callia, a retired midget driver) told me he had one flat head stroker kit left & I bought it for $150.00 A used block, bored, a set of aluminum heads, manifold, cam, carb, flywheel & the kit cost around $500.00 I switched to Chev from then on and purchased new, in the crate 327 cu in Corvette short blocks (11 1/4 comp) for $225.00 at the local Chev dealership. I used power pack heads, roller cams, stock rockers. I had the crank turned to .010 under + additional clearance. A complete Chev small block with Hilborn Injectors, Vortex max, roller cam, roller rockers (no clutch) was under $1,500.00 Most tracks paid $300 to $500 to win. Fair dates & special events would pay a little more. It was more cost effective to build a winning car ...Luther

Like Luther said a crate 327 was 225.00 back in 1961,, now the crate motors they are trying to get into the IMCA Mods are around 3200.00.and thats for the small one.And with a carb you got another 600 00 or so ,,or if you send the carb off and have it worked on with a flow box. It can be while over a 1000.00 just in the carb to be fast.And heads can be 2000.00 or more .

I was setting here trying deside if i was going to spend 2000.00 for a crank in a Bmod or just go with the 1000.00 one i got. Or buy a crate motor and try to drop my cost.Its a hair puller.

Some tracks pay about the same and most pay less than back then.,,,no tow money anymore ether.

To many classes to divide the purse up between. Back in the good ol days there were only 2 or 3 classes at the most and not 5 or 6 like today.

That biggest problem i see today with the cars i run are if you got the money you can spend up to 5000.00 or more just to get a light crank.And many other things. Its a night mare for the tracks to tech or keep a class afordable or equal..The parts back then could not be got like today,, like with the high dollar lightened stuff...Racing was better back then and more affordable and it kept the claasses more equal.

Win as if you are use to it.And lose as if you enjoyed 
it for a change.Its hard to get to the top and alot 
harder to stay there.

In 1975 with the 6 cyl modified engine that Norman and Mike peters ran were pretty basic and were not very expensive. Norman told me that he would take the block head and Crank to Jerry Wilson and it cost him $800 for an assembled engine. This did not include any bolt on items, Intake carb,etc. He had trouble finding enough good blocks and heads to keep 3 cars running all the time. He told me that he spent a little over $50,000 in 1975 for expense on the 3 cars, not including the car price. The biggest expense was tires.The modifieds got 25% of the purse so he did not make very much after giving the drivers their cut. We went to supers in 1976 with Mike in the 71 and ran Gene See still in the Modifieds in the 117. Norman never told me what a good 305 v-8 cost at Wilsons but I know that we blew so many up that Jerry Wilson loaned Norman the engine out of his own car and Mike had a sweep at Tulsa in 1977 and won over $900. Jim Morris built an engine for us in 1978, it was the first one with aluminium heads and cost between $3,000 and $4,000. That was a high dollar engine in 1978. Doug Johnson had the first crate engine that I remember being purchased by any racer in Tulsa in ,76 or '77. The rumour had it that they paid over $7,000 for a Schneider engine and it turned the cam bearings the first night out at Dewey. Rumour had it that the 289 Ford that Raymond Cates ran with Harold Leep in 1969 was built by Bud Moore. Tulsa paid the most of any track in this area, you could win any where from $800 to $1500. OKC paid $500 for a sweep. Dewey paid $200-$400.

Ray