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Topic: Gambler 100"er Email this topic to a friend | Subscribe to this TopicReport this Topic to Moderator
Page 1 of 6   of  104 replies
jlstew25
April 18, 2010 at 08:57:15 AM
Joined: 06/25/2005
Posts: 407
Reply

Anyone ever see this car or know who's it is?


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


jdsprint71
April 19, 2010 at 09:31:15 AM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

John, From looking around the car , looks like Da Bowl in Dallas with the sinking ruts and gray gumbo clay in the infield.



DGM 7620
April 20, 2010 at 01:01:20 PM
Joined: 07/18/2007
Posts: 377
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: jlstew25 on April 18 2010 at 08:57:15 AM

Anyone ever see this car or know who's it is?



John,

This shot is in the spring of '85 at the bowl, Sammy drove TB Sr's Challenger, Wolfie drove King's 88, Shorty was in the #76 Rich car, Gambler had this car on display it would become the #76s that we ran in '85, they made several changes to this car so the parts off the Rich would work on this car, it had the same motor placement and rear tube heights as the Rich but the big thing it was way lighter then the Rich. If I remember right Wolfie won with Sammy 2nd and Shorty 3rd.




jdsprint71
April 20, 2010 at 04:07:16 PM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

David, So this car was built specifically for the ability to run your Jack Rich parts on it?

Billy Turner had a Gambler 100" car that was sold to Gene Whitaker and his dad back in 87 or 88 in OKC ,he ran it a couple of years and then he got out of the sport and Jack Claxton bought it and Tommy Holder drove it on the 1/4 mile till they quit running the 100" cars and I believe Paul Martens in Fairview , Ok. has the frame now, this car in the pic above who wound up running it?, It was not Gary Flatt in the Sonic #2 car and then a guy from El Reno (cannot remember his name) drove a Gambler with a Mopar in it and they struggled with motor issues about the whole time he ran and it was a # 91, blue and white. Just Curious?



txracinfireman
April 20, 2010 at 04:17:33 PM
Joined: 09/30/2008
Posts: 74
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: jlstew25 on April 18 2010 at 08:57:15 AM

Anyone ever see this car or know who's it is?



Does anyone have, or know where we can pick up a hood like that? We need one for our Barnett



brian26
April 20, 2010 at 06:09:11 PM
Joined: 12/03/2006
Posts: 7918
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: jdsprint71 on April 20 2010 at 04:07:16 PM

David, So this car was built specifically for the ability to run your Jack Rich parts on it?

Billy Turner had a Gambler 100" car that was sold to Gene Whitaker and his dad back in 87 or 88 in OKC ,he ran it a couple of years and then he got out of the sport and Jack Claxton bought it and Tommy Holder drove it on the 1/4 mile till they quit running the 100" cars and I believe Paul Martens in Fairview , Ok. has the frame now, this car in the pic above who wound up running it?, It was not Gary Flatt in the Sonic #2 car and then a guy from El Reno (cannot remember his name) drove a Gambler with a Mopar in it and they struggled with motor issues about the whole time he ran and it was a # 91, blue and white. Just Curious?



The 91 is still with us, --last year at Wichita Falls

 

SANY3120.jpg picture by brian26_photos_2007





Bkcr
MyWebsite
April 20, 2010 at 08:13:42 PM
Joined: 12/12/2008
Posts: 599
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: DGM 7620 on April 20 2010 at 01:01:20 PM

John,

This shot is in the spring of '85 at the bowl, Sammy drove TB Sr's Challenger, Wolfie drove King's 88, Shorty was in the #76 Rich car, Gambler had this car on display it would become the #76s that we ran in '85, they made several changes to this car so the parts off the Rich would work on this car, it had the same motor placement and rear tube heights as the Rich but the big thing it was way lighter then the Rich. If I remember right Wolfie won with Sammy 2nd and Shorty 3rd.



David didn't Mike Peters win a feature in the Tony Bruce Sr car that Sammy drove then get DQ for too big of an engine?

 

Ray



jdsprint71
April 21, 2010 at 07:48:18 AM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

Brian, That is the car I am talking about , Rob Irions was who was driving it last with the Mopar on the 1/4 mile at OKC.



Trammel
April 21, 2010 at 08:51:19 AM
Joined: 10/07/2008
Posts: 86
Reply

The 91 car will be running in WichitaFalls in May. The engine issues have been fixed. The car is faster than I expected. I bought the car in El Reno ,Okla. It was sitting on sack stands in Gene Irons old shop in downtown El Reno. I bought everything he had in the shop. It was amaxing all the extra parts he had. It was good to get it running again. The car is unrestored and will remain the way it came off the OKC track in 1988.




jdsprint71
April 21, 2010 at 04:49:42 PM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

It ran on a racetrack later than 88 , it ran well into the 90's on the 1/4 mile at OKC.



DGM 7620
April 21, 2010 at 10:22:12 PM
Joined: 07/18/2007
Posts: 377
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: jdsprint71 on April 20 2010 at 04:07:16 PM

David, So this car was built specifically for the ability to run your Jack Rich parts on it?

Billy Turner had a Gambler 100" car that was sold to Gene Whitaker and his dad back in 87 or 88 in OKC ,he ran it a couple of years and then he got out of the sport and Jack Claxton bought it and Tommy Holder drove it on the 1/4 mile till they quit running the 100" cars and I believe Paul Martens in Fairview , Ok. has the frame now, this car in the pic above who wound up running it?, It was not Gary Flatt in the Sonic #2 car and then a guy from El Reno (cannot remember his name) drove a Gambler with a Mopar in it and they struggled with motor issues about the whole time he ran and it was a # 91, blue and white. Just Curious?



JD,

The rear tube heights, crank height, motor angle were all the same as the Rich Car, The rear arms, jacobs ladder were the same, we were already running a modified Gambler bird cage on the Rich Car so all of the rear stuff was changeable, The rear radius rods were shorter on the Gambler and while I really wanted to put longer rods on it we never did. Everything on the front end would interchange, radius rods, sway bar, drag link were all the same. The Gambler used straight torsion arms on the front while the Rich had the orginial 30 degree angle arm on the RF but the Gambler had more tube split in the front so an angle arm would not work. This car even used the orginial Rich Front motor plate which was a full plate that bolted on to the frame top and bottom, all of the bracing in the front of the frame was the same as the Rich car, it was neat you could unbolt the motor (10) bolts pull it and bolt it straight into the Gambler (10) bolts. We used the same flywheel and clutch set-up in both cars. The big difference was the weight, that Rich frame weighted 215# the Gambler 65# less. The next big difference in weight was the brake system, it was about 20# lighter then the stuff we had on the Rich car. The Rich car was perfect for the 1650# rule as it weighed 1605 dry, the Ganbler we had to add 100# to make wet weight. The main reason we went so fast quick in this car were the set-up's were very similar. We also had our motor program pretty well sorted out and we moved the motors around quite abit so nobody could figure out what we were running. None of the other Gamblers were built like this one, our 2nd and 3rd Gamblers were built alike with just componet changes, they were all good cars my favorite being this car it is the one we won Hutch with but winning the USAC/NCRA race with the 2nd car wasn't to shabby either.



Trammel
April 22, 2010 at 07:50:33 AM
Joined: 10/07/2008
Posts: 86
Reply

I was wrong about the last year the car was on the track. The last statefair inspection sticker is 1990. It is good to here about the histery and the input of the car racing and the owners and drivers. Again thanks.




jdsprint71
April 22, 2010 at 08:43:33 AM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

That is a bunch of difference in weight between frames, must have used thinner tubing throughout the car as well as technology which I see one in the pic with the tubing for only wrap around style seat belts , which most back then had 1/4" fairly large tabs welded on for bolt in style seat belts , what was the biggest difference in brake weight? , were you all using the inboard style then?

Got some questions about the Rich Car , If I remember right when it was black body and orange frame , you all used a white wing and it was made of a cardboard type material and ran it some, but don't remember you all running it a lot or for very long, what type of material was it and who come up with that idea/deal and if I remember that was about the only wing that had the set back/wedge style sideboards back then, it sure was different.

Believe it or not , I have a couple of Front Torsion Arms like those in the pic, straight ones that have the Gambler name milled into the arms , got them when I purchased a 92 Gambler frame and sold it to a 305 racer in Ks. and it had those straight arms and he did not want them , he wanted the offset ones and so I kept them and use them for spares if needed. Guess I should not run them and keep em for nostalgia purposes.



jlstew25
April 22, 2010 at 08:21:28 PM
Joined: 06/25/2005
Posts: 407
Reply
Reply to:
Posted By: brian26 on April 20 2010 at 06:09:11 PM

The 91 is still with us, --last year at Wichita Falls

 

SANY3120.jpg picture by brian26_photos_2007



Didn't Gerald Smith and Bruce Jennings drive this car, too?


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

Trammel
April 25, 2010 at 02:57:39 PM
Joined: 10/07/2008
Posts: 86
Reply

JD I would like to buy thr Gambler arms if you are willing to sell them. Trammel 405 2626721 thanks.




jdsprint71
April 26, 2010 at 07:51:11 AM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

Trammel, I might down the road , but right now they are my back up arms in the trailer, in case of a crash. They are not to run , just get it into the trailer if needed. But will keep you in mind when I get another set of them.

I thought Gerald Smith Sr. had a Gambler Non Down Tube car , it was the last car he owned I believe.



Trammel
April 26, 2010 at 08:29:28 AM
Joined: 10/07/2008
Posts: 86
Reply

JD thanks for the response. I have alot of arms extra some are new pairs. If you might be willing to work out some type of trade let me know. Thanks again Trammel

 



jdsprint71
April 27, 2010 at 04:32:43 PM
Joined: 05/02/2005
Posts: 1337
Reply

Trammel, I will give you a call soon and see what we can work out. J.D.




Trammel
April 29, 2010 at 03:29:05 PM
Joined: 10/07/2008
Posts: 86
Reply

If there is anyonr with extra gambler parts for sale let me know. Also anyone with running cars let's keep in touch.



Trammel
May 01, 2010 at 07:35:33 AM
Joined: 10/07/2008
Posts: 86
Reply

I know a little about the Gambler story and was wondering if someone help tell the story about the beginning? I think it would great to learn from someone who mabey worked at the shop in the beginning. Any help out there. Thanks Trammel





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