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Grady Wade drove one that belonged to Nance in 71 or 72 at Topeks Fairgrounds when I was running the track, He won the feature that night. It was black #99 & I think it had "Tennessee Stud" painted on it somewhere. I never saw the car again......Luther

Photo contributed by Brian Conn.
Grady Wade from Wichita in the Jelly Wilhelm #99, after a victory at Topeka on May 5, 1972.
Photo #369

I beleive this is also the last t-sprint car to race at Manzanita. Jelly took it out there and Harold Leep drove it. It is in a copy of Open Wheel. I believe it was the story on Harold. I have the magazine. Harold is standing next to it with one foot on the rear tire on the straight away.

Posted from Devine, TX

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Warren, (somewhere in Texas) ..This is the car, the race & the driver I was referring to. Thanks....Luther...I think this car was at the 64 Labor Day Meet at 81 Speedway except it was red.

Jelly told me he still has this car, although it's in peices now. But still buildable.

Dwane Wolf sent these, cool pics

This is a beautiful race car, it also reminds me of what I called a T-bodied modified during the early 1960's that ran here in Lawton. The car, I think was owned by R.D.Wright and driven by Johnny Winchester from Dallas. I remember it being painted baby blue with yellow numbers which was #45. It also had 1960 or 1961 Ford Falcon front fenders for the hood. It was sponsored by Pal Waffle Shops in the Dallas area. It was one of the first T-bodied modifieds in our area. I know it ran in 1964 here in Lawton. I wonder if any one in the Dallas arearemembers this car or has photos of it. The only photo I have is in my memory.

Mike

I remember a story on John and this car in hot Rod mag. mid to late 60's the car's color was 7up bottle green, and shine yes it did.

Curt Grogan

Jelly told me this car won a feature at every race track it ran but one, where it ran second. He won so many up at Lincoln, Neb. They said just send him the money so they won't have to drive up there. If their ever was a car that needed to be restored this one of them, maybe some day. That is Wylan Cantrell in the hat, Smith in track suit, Jack Walker & Grady Wade in Driver suit, Harold getting out of car. This car was built after Jelly seen the photo of the Twister in a Mag.

Welder,...Do you know if this car was black during the 72 season? The picture above is the race I was referring to except I thought it was a Nance. I had seen Jelly's car several years earlier and it was red. The night in Topeks, it was fast & he won by some distance. ...Luther

Luther; I will find out next week I will go down to Jelly's shop, I didn't think that car ran that late & I have heard of the ( Tennessee Stud ). TTYL, Dwane

Dwane, ....Anytime is OK. We will be in KC area 4/27 through 5/13 so likely won't be on the message board during that time. I always thought Jelly done real good work (fabrication & welding). Anything he built looked real solid. I just uploaded an icon to my profile. It is the roadster I built in the late 80s. Think I'll take it off & put the T Coupe on,....Luther

There were only a handful of kickbutt T-coupes back then, Luther yours was one of them.

Twister

Golden Greek

Jelly 99

LB 97

Payola

If one didn't know any better from the history, he'd be confused as to who started this style. Of course it's the car underneath that makes the difference.

Brian,...I know the Twister, Golden Greek & Jelly 99 cars were before mine & I thought that was the perfect super modified. A sprint car with a Model T replica body on it. Model Ts never ran so fast !! Mine was nearly all home made, the bird cages, brake system, front axle, radius rods, stablizer bar. It had Buick aluminum brakes on the rear. I made the tail of fiberglass by making a model tail out of a kerosene space heater the shape I wanted then the fiberglass. Would you believe the rear torsion bars were made from Ford passenger car drive shafts ? They were. I even made a wide wheel for the right rear with gussets you see in the picture on here. It broke the the first week & I purchased the Safety Racing bolt together aluminum wheels & never, ever ran another steel wheel. It was enjoyable to say the least.

When I sold the car to Jack Cunningham, the first thing he did was take the top wrap off. If you see the picture where it won the Knoxville Nationals, it is minus the top. ....Luther

Here's Johnny Capels 1966 Mopar powered super, from the HAMB

I guess that is the same car here

Went to Jelly's today asked about if his car was ever black he said no. Told him about the Black car you asked about, he said Nance bought that car but does not know where. Grady drove it several times have no idea what happened to it, so that is the car in the picture with Grady. His 99 car ran untill 70 or 71 he has a lot of stuff on the car but did not want to dig it out. He said it was dark blue the first time he built it, but Grady said it looked like a covered wagon. So he put a new cage on it, that frame is still behind his shop. The first time they took it out they broke a wheel, Harold piled into the wall coming out of turn 4. They came back the next week and won 3 in a row this was at 81 Speedway. Dwane

Here's another one of Jelly's from 1965

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Dwane,..That is nice to know. I knew the car at Topeks was #99, black & I thought I remembered Namce with the car. The remark sounds like something Grady would say. He was a lot of fun to be around.....Luther

Warren,..This car looks like the red T Coupe without the top panels. The nerf bars, rear bumper look like the T Coupe also.....Luther