|
Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| Over
The Years by Norm Bogan |
|
|
|
Over the years, I have met and
talked with a number of other race fans in the stands about the “Good Old
Days”. Some of my really
cherished times have been reminiscing over tracks, races and drivers from out of
the past. As I prepared this story,
I went back to a number of friends, whom I have spoke with over the years, to
glean more background information, interesting stories and experiences.
These friends all started attending races well before World War II.
They came from different parts of the country and the common thread was
that they all enjoyed auto racing. I spoke with Don Zabel of
Tujunga, a spry 80 years young and two 76 year-old youngsters, John Smith of
Whittier and Jim Van Natta of Fullerton. What
spewed forth from these three gentlemen was a fountain of experiences with some
of the true racing heroes over the past six–plus decades. I am deeply indebted to these three for sharing their time
and knowledge with me. I must tell
you that it was such a pleasure to take notes as the tales unfolded about deeds
of daring-do by many famous drivers.
Don
Zabel is a native Southern Californian.
Like so many of his generation growing up in this locale, the automobile
played a significant part in his life. Starting
with the old Model T, they found ways to make it go faster and then found it
necessary to compete to prove who had been the most successful.
Don was part of the group, who before and especially after the war, took
Detroit’s finest and made it better. They
built their “Hot Rods” and then participated in street races to see who was
the best. Eventually with speeds
escalating, they needed more clear space, so they moved to Muroc and El Mirage
Dry Lakes. Sunday’s attendees at
the dry lakes, read like a “who’s who” of the Hot Rod Hall of Fame.
There was Ed Iskendarian, Doug Moon, Al Barnes, Don Zig and many more.
Don Zabel was there, running his ‘32 Ford roadster with the Mercury
flathead engine. Don was first introduced to auto
racing by one of his neighbors from Eagle Rock, who took him to the old Ascot
tracks and Gilmore. After returning
from the war, Don set up an automotive repair shop in Glendale, with partner,
Bruce Robinson. In the late forties
and early fifties, the area around Glendale was a “hot-bed” of auto-racers.
A close friend was A.J. Watson, whose nearby shop generated so many of
the famed Indy roadsters. Frank Kurtis also had a shop in Glendale, where the
first Novi Indy cars were developed. Racing
pioneer, Don Blair operated a speed shop in Pasadena. From this general area of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena,
came some of the heroes of that era, namely; Rex Mays, Jack McGrath, Rodger
Ward, Sam Hanks, Gordon Schroeder, Johnnie Parsons and Manny Ayulo. In addition to general repair
work, they did a lot of custom work, since the modern day kits had not yet been
invented. Don says he taught
himself to weld when he was about twelve.
They decided to build a track roadster, which they raced on Friday and
Saturday, then pulled the engine, put it into Don’s ‘32 Ford and went to El
Mirage on Sunday morning. On the
way home, they would stop off at the Fontana, Colton, Saugus or San Fernando
Drag Strip and compete. After drag
racing got somewhat organized, they would run the Santa Ana strip. Don and Bruce had a third
partner in the track roadster, Ruiy Whiting.
Ruiy and Don used to divide the driving chores, but Ruiy lost his life at
Carrell Speedway. Don continued to
race until 1951, about the time when the CRA converted from roadsters to sprint
cars. Chet Bingham drove the car
until his untimely death at Clovis, then Rodger McCluskey took over from 1953 to
1957, when he moved back east to run with USAC.
They continued to run the car until 1960 with drivers like Colby Scroggin,
Hal Logan, Red Amick, Bruce Jacobi, Ray Douglas and Chuck Hulse, each taking a
turn in the seat. Something
unique about the Robinson–Zabel
sprinter, was that when many of the teams were going to Chevy or Offy power,
they installed a DeSoto hemi engine to replace the old flathead.
Don wanted to acknowledge Bob Milliken, who functioned as the chief gofer
over the years on the racecar. Don says his heroes as racers
were Wilbur Shaw, Louie Meyer, Ted Horn, Rex Mays, Jimmy Bryan and Jud Larson.
He also named Lou Moore, longtime mechanic and car builder and Chickie
Hiroshima, an engine builder, who specialized in Offies.
Favorite tracks named were Gilmore, the mile dirt tracks at San Jose,
Sacramento, Phoenix and Milwaukee and Winchester when it was an oiled dirt
track. Don applauds much of the modern
safety equipment, which has reduced the injury and loss of drivers in recent
years. He bemoans the fact that
nearly everyone runs the same engines now, not nearly the variety of years gone
by. Also, nobody builds their own
chassis anymore. All the parts and
pieces come from a speed shop, not designed and fabricated by the individual
racers or at least picked up at the local junk yard. Don has retired from his shop,
but still works on projects at his Tujunga home, where he resides with his wife
of 49 years, Barbara. His current
project is an early fifties Ford pickup.
John
Smith was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa and
later moved to the greater Chicago area. He
recalls going to the 24th Field Artillery Armory prior to World War
II and watching midgets race on the indoor track, with drivers like Wally Zale,
Shorty Sorenson, Harry McQuinn and Duke Nalon.
He also went to Hammond Speedway in Hammond, Indiana, where he saw the
AAA big cars and name drivers; Bill Holland, Lucky Teeter, Paul Russo and Joie
Chitwood. As a youngster, he
commuted by streetcar to area tracks, such as; Raceway Park in Blue Island,
Illinois, Riverview Speedway in Chicago and Roby Speedway in Roby Indiana.
Regular competitors were Tony Bettenhausen, Ronnie Householder, Emil
Andres and Myron Fohr. Another driver he saw in the mid-west was Lou Scally, who
later organized the UARA. An item
of interest is that while going to 87th St. Speedway, which was at a
softball park called Gill Stadium, the announcer was some up and comer named
Chick Hearn, who announced both the races and softball games.
From 1947 to 1952, John also made it to Indy each year for the 500.
As a kid in Chicago, John
lived near Warren Erwin, who built his own midget, #A3, after going to the track
and observing other cars and then going home and welding up parts and pieces.
The car raced at Raceway Park and was recently featured in an article
titled, “The Ugliest Racecars”. After the war, John worked
briefly with Bill Namovice on a V8-60 midget driven by Bob Myers and Larry
Johnson. Later, while living in
Phoenix, he worked for Bob Hornbrook, who was the Arizona State Midget Champion
and helped out on the racecar.
Car builder Myron Stevens was based in Tolleson, Arizona and John
witnessed the assembly of the Bell Auto Parts Midget for Roy Richter.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1955, John started attending races at Gardena
Stadium, watching the Jalopies, with drivers such as the Lopicolo brothers,
Termite Snyder and Billy Wilkerson. John eventually got involved
with the CRA sprinters at Ascot. He
helped out on a car driven by Jim Klemovich.
Here he met Walt Reif who worked for Louie Senter at Ansen Automotive.
Walt and Ace Noffsinger maintained a car owned by Bill Gatta. After sitting in the stands with me at Ascot, John’s
neighbor Dick Cleveland turned up with a sprint car in his driveway and soon
John was back in the pits, with drivers, Todd Noffsinger, Duane Feduska and
Roger Newell. He later worked with
John and Edie Grubb and driver Bob Meli. His
alliance with Meli was to last for ten years as they campaigned TQs, Midgets,
Sprints and Silver Crown cars. John
went on four of the CRA Midwest Tours, plus several forays into the mid-west
with Meli and the Senter Silver Crown car. John worked for a number of
years as a truck mechanic for Navajo Freight Lines.
He has resided in Whittier with his wife Anna for many years.
Away from the job, he spent much time devoted to his beloved auto racing.
He names Tony Bettenhausen and Teddy Duncan, both from the Chicago area,
as his driving heroes. His favorite
tracks are Ascot Park in Gardena, CA and Raceway Park in Blue Island, IL, when
it was dirt. Jim
Van Natta was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota and
moved out west as a youngster. Moving
to Fresno in the thirties, he first saw the midgets race at the Italian
Amusement Park, later known as Airport Speedway and even later, as Kearney Bowl.
In the early years, before the Offies became so dominant, many of the
“hot-dogs” ran a Drake midget engine. This
was a two-cylinder Harley (en-block) with water-cooled heads and cylinders,
which was mounted crosswise in the chassis.
Other engine combinations, like a straight eight cut in half and other
push-rod or flathead varieties, which ran on the U.R.A. Red circuit.
Some of the regular competitors were Perry Grimm, Gib Lilly, Johnnie
Parsons, Andy Linden, Jerry Piper, Bill & Eli Vukovich, Duane Carter, Norman
Gertz, Bill Zaring and Billy Cantrell. About 1947, Jim met Bill
Vukovich, who would run Bakersfield on Saturday night, then return home to
prepare the racecar to run at Fresno on Sunday night.
Jim started going by Vuky’s house on Sunday mornings.
He would ask the somewhat reticent Vuky how he had done at Bakersfield.
There would be a few grunts and then Jim would just say goodbye and
leave. After going through this
routine for some time, Vuky asked him if he would like to go for coffee.
They did and this started a relationship, which lasted until Indy in
1955. Jim started to go with Vuky
to races. It was Vukovich who first
introduced Jim to Len Faas Sr. and started Jim’s longtime friendship with the
Faas family. Len Sr. stopped by
Vuky’s place in Fresno on the way to a race at Bay Meadows.
Faas was alone, so Vukovich asked if Jim would ride with him and keep him
company. In 1952, the Agajanian
driver, Troy Ruttman had been injured in a sprint car crash, so Aggie asked
Vukovich to substitute in the #98 Dirt Champ car.
Jim traveled with Vuky to Denver, where he set fast time and won the
hundred-miler. Jim related a couple of
interesting races he attended over the years.
First, in 1939, he was living at Project City, near Redding, California.
A couple of friends had acquired an old Chevy.
They stripped it down and replaced the stock Chevy head with a three port
Oldsmobile head, Grant rods and a down draft Chrysler carburetor.
They were going to the nearby Anderson Fairgrounds half-mile horse track
to race. A broken piston ended the
day for this racer, but the driver was able to secure a ride in a Chrysler,
which was stripped down to a seat, cowl and steering.
As the race got underway, it was so dusty that you couldn’t see the
front stretch. They lost track of
their driver and eventually found him, as he had exited the track and ended up
out in the parking lot. The
second recollection was in the early sixties near San Juan Bautista in central
California. He said he noticed a
small flyer tacked to a fence post advertising a race. It turned out to be on some farmer’s land in a little dry
wash, which Jim related, was a “taco shell” shape.
The cars would go down the front straight, around the corner and up the
bank to the peak of the taco shell, then diamond down and around the other
corner. Spectators lined up
their cars at a safe distance or just stood around the perimeter of the track. Jim says that one of the most
exciting races he ever witnessed was at Ascot in the early sixties.
It was a USAC sprint car show. Hurtibise
was in the #56 Barnett car, with Foyt in the #1 Bowes car and Parnelli in the
Fike car. Herk was quick and
started up front. He went hard into
turn one, got into the marbles and saw his pursuers go by running a little
lower. Herk continued to run high
up to the wall with about one-foot of dirt against the wall.
He ran high in turns one and two and a little lower in three and four.
He kept closing the gap with Foyt and Jones, eventually passing them on
the top in turn one and going on to win. Jim was transferred to the Bay
area in 1963 and soon started to attend races at the old high banked paved track
at the San Jose Fairgrounds. The
modifieds were king at that time and he saw many close dices between the likes
of Marshall Sargent, Al Pombo, Howard Kaeding and Clyde Palmer. Jim moved to southern California
in 1974 and started attending races at Ascot.
Jim used to shoot a lot of photos and make copies to give to the drivers.
When Cary Faas started racing, Jim stopped by and related that long ago
ride to Bay Meadows. Soon Jim met
Cary’s mom and dad and they have been close friends ever since. Jim says his only driving
experience, was some hot laps in the famous Vukovich #45 midget at the old
Madera track in the early fifties. He
says his favorite tracks are the old high-banked paved track at San Jose, Ascot,
Manzanita and now Perris. He names
Bill Vukovich, Jim Hurtibise, Rodger McCluskey and Bill Vukovich Jr as his
driving heroes. Jim currently resides in
Fullerton with his wife, Doris and has just returned to racing after going
through a triple bypass heart surgery. In
real life, he spent 25 years as the Western Regional Service Manager for Wayne
Gas Pumps, hydraulic lifts and other service station equipment. I can’t express the pleasure I
have experienced in spending time over the years talking with these three
gentlemen. They have enjoyed racing
for so many years and have had the opportunity to watch some of the greatest
drivers ever on the track. If you
can spend a little while with any of these folks, they can enlighten you with
some great stories about some of the old tracks of yore and some of the bravest
souls ever to strap into a race car. I
am indeed grateful to them for sharing their time with me. |
