Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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ttt

LETS RACE BOYS

I think that you meant back in the 1970's. Roger Larson lost his life in a racing accident at Knoxville on 7-7-79.

North Star Speedway closed its gates for good after the 1979 season as well.

The Hall of Fame has a list, my copy shows 104. Jeff Gordon is among them as are nine who also drove in the Indy 500: Jack Hewitt, Steve Kinser, Lee Kunxman, Jan Opperman, Roger Rager, Joe Saldana, Rich Vogler, Greg Weld and Carl Williams. 304 Open Sprint Wins, 48 360 wins. Nine of his drivers have also won the Knoxville Nationals and 25 are in the Sprint Car Hall of Fame. He started the careers of many great drivers and helped many owners and drivers keep going by fixing their cars, or loaning them his spares. Then when you count all the mechanics who worked on his cars who went on to work on others the Trostle legacy spreads all through sprint car racing today. The tube heights and pickup points for the bars and radius rods on today's cars are the same as on the 1980 Vise Grip car. And, every "innovation" you see, you can bet Bob tried it. Half bars, 1967. Stacked tube, half-stacked tubes, reverse bars; he took coils and made them work everywhere, had cars he could switch from 4-bar to coil in a motel lot. The only place he lacked was in money for the high dollar engines - which is why he built the first lightweight car in 77,. If I remember right it weighed in the high 1400s with a lot of fuel in it. No Ti, only aluminum heads, big radiator, in-out box. Put today's components in that car and it would be right there with any outlaw car. I don't race anymore but it's amazing how many times I find myself telling a young driver something Bob told me, or trying to keep the chassis setup simple, like Bob tried to teach me. He can see ability in a driver, like Opp, Wolfie or Shane and his approach to car building/design changes is simple. Watching him on a tubing bender is like watching a great artist. I never saw a drawing on his bench, it's all in his head. His twin tube chassis for his 32 roadster pickup is the coolest thing, he did the same thing for a late 50s Chevy pickup, two parallel tubes that match the shape of the factory chassis. Really irritated him that he missed his calculation on one rail and came out a few inches too long or short, but he was able to save all but about a foot of it and use it for other parts of the chassis.

Bob's ideas are still seen on cars of today.

I imagine alot of people already know this, but....

I remember when CK Spurlock came on the scene, the Kenny Rogers Special, he bought cars from Bob.

Shortly after that he started Gambler. Their first cars were direct copies of a Trostle. Was hard to tell them apart.

EVERYTHING since has just been a spin-off of that.

Sprint cars USED to be about men with ideas and that talent make them happen.

www.teamwmotorsports.webs.com

When did the car stop racing?

Thangangis will be a long one. in 78, carson drove the 20. In 79 wolfgang started the year in it and shane was in another trostle owned by ck spulock, the founder of gambler. he managed loretta lynn and kenny rogers. it was the loretta lynn special. About may, wolfie left trostle and went to speedway motors 4x and shane got back in the 20. At the nationals in 79, i had to sit on the backstraight. There were no grandstands, just bleachers that went about 15 rows. Right behind where i was sitting, there was a patched hole where Dub May, Van's brother had gone through the year before. You need to understand, there were no wings and Daryl Dawley, Roger Larson, and Dick Stoneking had already been killed there that year. Dawley and Larson in one crash. Well, I'm sitting there and everyone wanted the top row and were talking about the best place to dive if a car came over. All they had done was put up chicken wire. When they came out for hot laps, before the first lap was over, I knew there was no way to get out of there so if it was my time, I was gonna' die. In 80 Shane Started the season in the trostle car but before the nationals, wolfegang was back and shane was in his ride, the 4x speedway motors car. Around memorial Day There was a big ride switch again. Wolfie left Trostle and went to the Howell's #4 that Don mack had brrn in forever. Tim Green Got the Trostle ride and Shane was somewhere.  In those days All the heavies wanted to qualify on Wed night. The rules said if you didn't like your point total, you could come back in an unqualified car and try again Thursday. Wed night, Kinser crashed the #11 and they didn't have a backup. He had destroyed it at eldora the wknd before. Tim Green was in The Trostle 20 and blew an engine in hot laps, so they scratched. Since Carl had a motor and no car and trostle had a car and no motor, steve came back and won thursday in the trostle 20 with the gearte out of steve's #11. Sammy was starting saturday night on the front row. He was in the #91 federal express car owned by aj jeffries from memphis. As the story goes, on friday night, one of the big shots from fedx disrespected amy and told her to make herself useful and fix him a sandwinch or get a drink or something. Sammy, being his diplomatic self, told them to blow it out their butt and left. That is one of the few times Have agreed with Sammy 100%.  Saturday night, after raining on and off all week, the race got fogged out and run on Sunday afternoon. Back then, all they ran on Sat were 3 features and 3 trophy dashes. The video is on youtube and Steve wins. Opperman got hurt for the second time so he never drove for Trostle again. A few days after the nationals I was back home in Tulsa and was going to eat. The Nance sprinter was in the parking lot with Sammy's name on it. Everyone in Oklahoma had met LaVerne Nance at least once and respected him enough to call him mr. Nance. Wow, this is like weaving a rug. I went in and Sammy and Mr. Nance were there, he introduced me to Sammy. He couldn't remember my name but heck it didn't matter. Now, the reason the Nance car was available is a story itself. Sonny Smyser had driven it at the nationals. Mike Peters from wichita, as was nance had started the year running with the outlaws in the 1n. Vern left things at the shop to his son Carroll (spelling, doesn't matter. it's like capital letters. If the shift key is handy, I use it.) Well, either Mike's (who happens to be one of the finest people I have ever met)wife or carroll decided to start seeing eachother so Mike left and actually refused to drive a Nance car for several years. Ok, mike leaves and  ends up in the musatta #28 Trostle. Right after Sammy started driving for nance, people actually liked him. He really wasn't an a hole at all. I think Tat mr nance understood how good he was and was willing to let sammy have imput. The Jensen Construction team  ends up in new nance cars and jeff is the driver. Wow!!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I could probably go another 10 years but i think after this, nobody really wants to hear anymore about any of them.

Mike Sweeney and Jac Haudenschild!  Australia....

I think there is a book on Trostle in the works.  Bob was a very hard worker.  If you asked him what you should do he would grab the wrench out of your hand and do it.  Bob built cars but somehow found the time to race all over from coast to coast.  How did he do it??????

Seems to me like at one time (or multiple times) that over HALF of the pit area in Knoxville will Trostle built cars (in the 360's and the 410's), plus you had Wolfgang in them in the Wiekert 29 in PA at that time too.

Bob's last 410 win at Knoxville was Brent Antill in the Jordan Brothers #1. Bob teamed with the Jordans for a couple seasons after he retired. The book has been in the works for years. Wish someone would either take it over or light a fire to get it finished. There are few if any individuals in sprint car racing that have accomplished more than Bob. 

Have the complete list. Was posted on here last year. 

SUPPORT WILDLIFE, go to a sprint car race! 

Leroy Van Connett drove a Trostle coil-over @ Calistoga for Zootis Performance just before he retired.

So in 1980, who qualified the Trostle car on Wednesday night? And was it a back up car that Kinser put the motor in or the same one that was run on Wednesday?