Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

This car, believed to be built by Bob Trostle, raced at the Boomfield speedway and Knoxville Raceway. Possibly in the early 60's. It was found along with many of the original parts and will be restored to the picture seen with this post. We know it was ran by Johnny Babb from Ottumwa (pictured) but possibly may have had other drivers in it's history. If anyone knows any more about this car, please contact me. We are trying to put together the history of the car as well as the car itself. 

Thanks!

On Facebook go to Trostle Sprint Cars. I would ask on there. Also Contact Larry Weeks he wrote Bob's Biography and Bob keept track of all his cars many of them are in the book.

The top photo is the car that was featured in Hot Rod Magazine. I dont think it was Chassis #001. I think the Hot Rod car was destroyed but I am not 100% sure on that.

You need to get the book Life's Tough On The Circut.

001 is in the HoF. The car in the photo appears to be the one Bob called the Hot Rod Magazine car. That chassis was destroyed. People have said they found it over the years but Bob had kept track of it and knew it was junked. It was the second car he built for himself. He built others in between. Hot Rod magazine, March 1966 has the article.

I was wrong. The Hot Rod magazine car was NOT destroyed! These folks do appear to have the real car. Pretty cool! It has been altered but that can be fixed. The blue hood could well be original. Bob had two bodies, the red one he ran as a Super modified at Knoxville, and a blue one he put on for IMCA sprint car races. Apparently IMCA didn't like guys running the same car both ways - different body made it look like two different cars.

Bolt on roll cages were a common feature back in the early 60's.  They'd remove the cage and run IMCA and bolt the cage on for Supermodified races.  Depending on rules my cousin used to add a wing and sometimes a Speedway Motors body.  I remember them running with and without injection sometimes as well but I was too young to pickup on where they were going after making those changes.  I'd have to wait for them to come back to town so I could watch them run as a Supermodified at the local track.

Stan Meissner

How can something that looked so badass to us when we were kids end up looking like the piece on the trailer?  You've got your work cut out for you but you'll have a piece of history when you're done with the restoration.  Please post photos when you're done which from the looks of things might be a year or two. 

Stan Meissner

Heck, post pictures anytime you want.  It would be neat to see this car being put back together.

It will be a pretty massive undertaking, but it does look like we will be able to tie some history to this car. The body on the car in the photo was one of 3 that were stored with it.

Thanks to all who have posted, and I do hope to revive the thread from time to time as the process gets started. Right now we are gathering information and having the experts check it out.

The ultimate end goal is "one more lap" for this car under it's own power. 

The Trostle book the best racing book I ever read. He and wife and daughter must have kept a great log/diary of his 40 or 50 years in racing or else he had an unbelievable memory.  Better than Speedy Bill's great book (Mr. Ego), better than Wolfgangs (a very good book itself), and the 4 Jimmy Johnson books via Sprint Car and Midget magazine by Argabright(again, all 4 of those are excellent).  Wish I could have let Trostle know how great it was via letter before he passed, read it twice. 

 Lawlessness and liberalism equals Hell.  NY City, 
Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Minnepolis, etc. We saw it. 
Burning hundreds of buildings, a thousand assaults and 
dozens of murders. Getting worser and worser.

Good luck with the project and please keep us updated on your progress with it. The Trostle book is just wonderful. I have about 40 books in my small racing library and Life's Tough on the Circuit is one of my favorites. Its a thick book and its hard to put down once you start reading it.