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

I sit here now and wonder if it was this story of the #11 in the WalMart was after Davey Ross flipped the #11 at Liberal doing hot laps during intermission. This was in the 90's I think?? Oh yes I deleiverd to Ness City from Cargill in Abilene several times. The locals call him Davey not David, LOL! I had breakfast one morning on the house in Ness City. The guy I delivered to, his wife ran the cafe. The little cafe seats maybe 10 people if you squeezed them in.

I'm thinking how fun it was telling people about my racing from the past site. Now when I run into a racing fan. I start to tell them and they say your that guy I have been there and gone back from time to time. Or it's your fault I lost a whole nights worth of sleep and my wife was ready to file for divorce the next day, LOL. UT OH, I'm rambling again.

Oh yea I heard Roy Bryant also crash (#11) it at Norton one year.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Warren,

Thank you for sharing all these stories. I think sometimes it more fun to hear and

and read these stories, than what ever the truth happens to be in the end.

I also think there is a mystic around drivers that are killed during there

racing careers. There is also a irony to a great driver being killed in a

in auto accident, instead of when he raced in a car. Jim was so young when

he died, he is frozen in time as a 28 year old. He never grew old, and I can

still picture him in my mind blasting down the long straight at Hutch,

or blowing into the corners the way he did at 81, and D.C.

His memory is being relived with stories, and pictures on your site, and

is just one of the many examples of why RFTP has become

such a great site for racing fans from the Heartland.

The cars from that era also had a special mystic around them. Whether its

the cars Jim Harkness drove, or the many others that were unique in design,

or just became legendary because of the incredible wins they were associated

with, all of these cars were special to someone at sometime, and viewing them

again on this site brings you back to that time. In my mind I can smell the rubber, and the

oil again, as well as hear the roar, as the pack of snarling racers rumbles into the first

corner.

Ray C

Warren,

It was the Coachmen Inn, Hays, KS. I looked closely at the picture I took in 1975,

and that is the sponsors name on the side of the car.

Ray C

This car I think is out of the Estes/ Stewart stable. Max told me it had crashed twice in the 90's,once with Roy Bryant almost breaking the 1976 track record, so they put it back like it is now. They must have sold it recently. If you'll remember , all three cars from the Stewart/Estes corner were up for sale earlier this year.

There was a Steinert #11 super that ran in Oklahoma City a couple of times during the 1972 season with Jim Harkness as the driver. I was painted like a metal flake red with just only silver #11's on the side. This car I think was the old black #54 Davy Ross Bill's Speed Shop sponsored "T" bodied super that Davy Ross drove in 1970, There are a couple shots of the car in the 1872 Oklahoma Racer programs that were sold at the track during those days. Does anyone have photos of that car?

Mike

I thought this car became the Tom Garrett #55 Emmitt Hahn used in OkC. Shady would come in from Dallas and drive it in a few NCRA shows as well.

I believe Emmitt bundled it pretty bad one night.

I was under the impression the #97 was a Nance. Also, the Torrance car was a spaceframe, this is a mono-rail.

Brian 26,

The proof is in the pudding, Theres a Nance emblem on the side nex to #97,

and it looks like Jelly Wilhelm built the engine as it says Performance Engineering on the

tail. Of course Jelly built some of the greatest supers of the time including the Orange

99 that Harold Leep won so many races in. That had a sprint car wheel base, and fuel injection.

Also the Orange #24, that Harold, Jay Woodside, and Stoney all drove,

and won in. Where was this picture taken, possibly Dodge City? I notice a grain elevator in the

background, or maybe Muskogee?

Ray C

Muskogee. I got this copy from Mike Pogue.

The Torrance and Prather cars are 2 that I wish could found/cloned back to the pics on this page. Both were so unique.

Here's the confusion for me on this car

Jack Wickett of Tulsa had a modified that supposedly was this car, and then Emmitt Hahn used supposedly this car as a #55 TG super at OkC, at the same time.

I have it in my head Jackie built this car. Were there 2 or more of these cars specifically? I am not referring to the 4 bar cars Jackie brought in later, but the Del Torrance style super, and does any copy of these still exist?

You're wanting to do a tribute, or copy the cd? We can do either. There would be a lot of stuff in it we've never seen before.

This site has had more to do with Harkness being remembered than anything I've ever come across. A pic cd, tribute maybe , could take the story a bit higher perhaps.

If there is any film, that would be even sweeter.

There is a personal connection to me on this one- Ben Watson came by my house not long before he passed away from Cancer. The man was in tears almost when he saw a pic of the Prather 97 for the first time in 30 years!!. Ben worked with those guys until the car went to Lies. Bens son live 20 miles from me, and he was not even born when his Dad's favorite automotive adventure was going on. I met these people by total accident, but I'm sure they'd also like to see more of those times of Bens life.

I'm on board.

In your case and others it was a family sport. Just like you Ray. The many hours you spent with you dad you will never forget. Those are real memories, not the days you argued or such. We forget those, but the racing is embeded in your minds. He was a real RailBird as they call them.

I was not raised by my dad and we never had a bonding. Until I was 12 or 13 I was raised to believe he was my uncle and I never thought otherwise. I would give anything to have the chance to do things over and have more control. I would pay anything to just have a photo of his #X-15 yellow couple from the early 60's from the Salina area.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Oh and the Pizza chain in Hays was Pizza Inn and the Coachmen Inn.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

I'm really drawing a blank on this track. It looks like is has a wall around it? Dodge didn't have a wall, but it did have a metal fence on the outside. Dodge City had the elevator as you looked north across turns 3 & 4. It is a lot of photos taken from Dodge. The tire buried in the ground in front the 97 is in question. Many tracks buried tires to line the track. Dodge even had tires around the outside edge also. The opening in the wall to get to the track. It is not Liberal. It is not Wakenney. I'm not sure what Woodward looked like. I don't know if supers ran there. It is not Enid. It appears they were pitting on the outside. This maybe the question of the decade for the site. But I will bet someone knows what track it is. After I have typed this I'm going back to studied it more.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

It could be Muskogee. There appears to be some sort of elevator looking over turn 4. Also the entry to the track was on the backstretch going into turn 4. So it fits.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Wasn't the 97 car on the Nance catalog

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Warren,

I think as a kid I didn't understand the situation you grew up in. I remember my Dad

and I both really enjoyed going to the races with you. I remember my Dad always kidding

you, like he would me. I know he never understood why we liked the supers so much,

because he was such a big sprint car fan. But, over the years he warmed up to the

supers, and he drove many miles to watch them race. You were along for many of

those trips, and it was always a great time. I grew up without a brother, and I always

enjoyed you coming along. I remember many times asking my Dad if you were

going to come with us.

Ray C

Warren,

Not in the one I have. But, based on the cars represented. I believe this catalog,

which was the one featured in RFTP recently looks to be from around 1970.

The Schippert car in there is the one that was raced by Forest Coleman, and Grady Wade

('30 Model Victoria body) around 1969-70, before the new Edmunds bodied one.

And the #69 Z-Transfer car is in there, ('31 Ford Ducktail) as well as the

Dutton #16, and the Leep #2 Edmunds style.

Ray C

Warren,

Brian 26 says it was Muskogee, I believe it may have been from the NCRA race in

1971 there. In the NCRA yearbook it says that Jim Harkness finished third that night

behind Emmett Hahn, and Grady Wade, driving the Prather #97.

Ray C