Racing History Lives at Winchester Speedway

Winchester Speedway Old Timers Weekend is an annual event that brings together great vintage race cars and people who love them.

This post is devoted to showcasing some of the cars and stories from the 2010 event. Shown here are the famous Spider Webb #2 sprint car built by Hall of Fame owner Johnny Vance, Sr. and the 1934 #1 McDowell Spl. owned by Bob and Judy Moore. For more photos and information about these and other classic race cars, read on.

There have been Old Timers events at Winchester going back at least to the mid-1970's.  This year's event was held August 21 & 22 to coincide with a USAC Sprint Car Rich Vogler Classic. Nearly 40 vintage cars were present dating from the early 1920's to the 1980's. Many of the cars were on the track both Saturday and Sunday much to the delight of the race fans in attendance. Some are actual restored race cars from the period.  Others are modern recreations of those classic machines.  (Click here to go to the Winchester Old Timers site.  Click here for the Winchester Speedway site.)

Butch Fork heads his 1946 Kurtis Kraft Offy out onto the track while his wife, Alice, looks on. These cars do not have starters and must be pushed to get going.  Here Old Timers Weekend organizer Gene Ingram provides a little help. Driver Ralph Pratt drove the red #1 to 70 feature victories in the Detroit area during the late 1940's. Butch acquired the car in 2004 as a "basket case" and restored it to it's original condition over the course of four years. The car appeared also at the 2009 Old Timers Weekend. I hope to post a feature on Ralph Pratt in the future. 

If there was an award for the weekend's oldest race car and the oldest owner it would go to the 1921 Miller owned by Bill Castle of Speedway, Indiana. Bill celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year.  The car was originally driven by Tommy Milton, winner of the 1921 and 1923 Indianapolis 500s and is powered by a 183 cu.in. Miller engine. Bill brings tremendous knowledge about the early days of racing and this car in particular. 

Bill Castle, Al Blixt and Terry Castle pose (l-r) for a photo. It was a pleasure to hear Bill recount stories from one of the earliest eras in American auto racing. This car is fully restored and in running condition.  It appears at many vintage car meets including the Millers at Milwaukee event. 

Fred Johns and his wife Carolyn brought their rare 1958 Kurtis Kraft roadster midget from their home in Roanoake, Indiana.The yellow #29 was one of only six roadster midgets made by Kurtis.  Fred was a midget driver from 1949 to 1958. He competed in AAA and USAC events during that time including appearances at Motor City Speedway in 1956-58. 

The #2 Spider Webb car was designed by Hall of Fame owner Johnny Vance, Sr. It was driven to the 1948 AAA Midwest Sprint Car Championship by Travis "Spider" Webb. The car is powered by a special 4-cylinder overhead cam racing engine designed, developed and built by Vance. The car is owned by Johnny Vance, Jr., who has contined to own and race sprint cars on the USAC circuit after his father's death in 1963. Other famous drivers who have been behind the wheel of #2 are Indianapolis winners Wilbur Shaw and Mauri Rose.  The car was restored some years ago by Mutt Anderson, another racing legend who recently passed away.

The 1933 B.R. Rasor McDowell Spl. is a vintage big car owned by Bob and Judy Moore of New Carlisle, Indiana.  This race car was built in the North Hollywood shop of Ray McDowell over the winter of 1933 and began racing in 1934 in AAA competition on the East coast with drivers Bob Sall, Ed Staneck and Ted Horn behind the wheel. It was later acquired by B.R. Rasor. The engine is a rare 16 valve, dual overhead cam McDowell head on a Model B Ford block with dual Winfield updraft carburators. The body is hand-formed aluminum. The car was retired from racing in the mid-fifties. A 1950's radiator shell was installed in place of the upright original shell.

This is Mike Lynn's vintage 1947 Kurtis Kraft midget.

The combination of Frank Kurtis's aerodynamic design and the powerful Offenhauser engine make the Kurtis-Kraft Offy the state of the art in midget racing in the post-war years. Today this car is powered by a M.G.1500 engine but it still retains the classic lines that stood out at race tracks across America into the 1960's. Mike is from Greenwood, Indiana.

Another classic Kurtis Kraft Offy is the yellow #83 owned by Denny Motter of Maineville, Ohio.  This car was built in 1948. This car campaigned in both CSRA and USAC competition in the 1950's. The car was originally the Hoover Offy from Evansville, Indiana. At present it is powered by a Chevy II engine, a power plant that became popular with midget owners in the 1960s. 

Donald Davidson, the official historian of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway  confers with Old Timers Weekend organizer Gene Ingram. At right is Winchester Speedway owner Charlie Shaw. Charlie purchased the track about a dozen years ago when it was in deep financial trouble and has since restored it to its former glory. He is a former stock car mechanic and raced dirt cars in the 1980s and 1990s. Charlie is the person who makes the Winchester Old Timers Weekend possible through the support he and his professional staff provide.

Rich Vogler notched 170 USAC victories before his tragic death in 1989. This is one of the cars he raced in 1986. It is currently owned by Jim Graybeal of Shelbyville, KY and was driven on this day by Andy Root. After Vogler's death, Rich's family began a scholarship fund to encourage members of the racing community to further their education. The Rich Vogler Classic is held each year in his honor.

Replica cars have in important place in the vintage scene. Robert Dicks, M.D. commissioned this replica of the #98 "Ol Calhoun" driven by Parnelli Jones to his 1963 victory at the Indianapolis 500. The car was built in 2005 by Tom McGriff and Hank Henry. Bob is a long-time race fan and former track physician at the Indianapolis Speedway. That is Bob at the wheel conferring to Gene Ingram just before taking the flag around the track during the national anthem.  He says he wanted to recreate this car because he believes Parnelli is one of the greatest drivers of all time and wanted to honor him.
This fabulous, street-legal replica 1940's sprint car went from a Christmas gift idea to a business for Joshua Shaw. Josh told me that he decided to build the Shaw Spl. for his dad, Dan Shaw. While it was under construction, to his surprise, people coming to his shop started asking how they could order one. Josh now sells kits and builds complete race cars that come with a starter, headlights and an automatic transmisstion ready to drive. 

Donald Davidson interviewed former drivers and owners just before the vintage cars went on the track. Here he interviews Chick Hale who came from his room at a local nursing home to celebrate his 83rd birthday at the track. Chick spend more than 50 years behind the wheel of many kinds of race cars ("Anything that would turn left", one person said) starting in 1949. Chick raced primarily in Ohio and Indiana. When asked the secret of his longevity as a driver, Chick replied, "Be very careful".  Others interviewed on track were Elden Rasmussen, Bob Harkey, L.J. Lines and Don Skaggs.

This replica of Ray Harroun's Marmon Wasp that won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 was also on hand. It comes from the collection of the Northeast Indiana Racing Museum located in Auburn, Indiana. This reproduction was built about 1995 and gives us a glimpse of what racing was like a century ago.  Imagine racing on Indy's rumble-strip brick surface for 500 miles with balloon tires and artillery wheels averaging 75 mph. Our hats are of to the early pioneers of racing.

Race fans stand and cheer as the vintage cars take their "wave lap" coming down the front stretch. Pictured here are (from left) #7 Steve Perkins in the Pat O'Connor Tribute Spl., #1 Robert Dicks Fike Plumbing Spl., #39 Jim Graybeal Vogler champ car, #8 Garrity Spl owned by Dave and Reba Weir, #24 Pat York's silver supermodified, #7 Chad Freeman. Apologies to those with cars that could not be identified. Photo credit: Gene Ingram.

Old Timers Weekend was capped by some very exciting modern sprint car racing. North Carolina native Shane Hmiel took the lead on lap 11 of the Rich Vogler Classic for the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series and went on to get the win. There was lots of wheel-to-wheel action as Hmiel dueled with pole sitter Levi Jones for the lead and later had to survive a couple of restarts to beat Damon Gardner and Indiana native Tracy Hines to get the win. Click here to find out more about USAC Sprint car racing.

Finally, Eleanor Vogler, mother of Rich Vogler greets the crowd and expresses her appreciation to the fans for honoring her son. Eleanor presented the winner's plaque at the finish of the race.

My apologies to those owners whose cars are not chrnonicled here. Special thanks to Gene Ingram, Dale Fairfax and all those who helped make the Winchester Old Timers Weekend a success.

Your comments about the Weekend are, as always, welcome.

Comments

[Projector Headlights]

Some vintage cars may be gone sometime soon but the love of fans will never die out. This was a great event.

[emily]

Cool cars, you can say what you like about modern motor racing, but it has to be said that you can never beat the style and finese of a true classic racing car.

[Change Rules F1]

It's good to know something like this vintage car races still exist. We only hope they're still environment-friendly and safe-to-drive, though.

[jerry sdpalding sr]

al,i m glad you posted a picture of donald davidson and chick hale ! chick passedaway january 11 th 2011