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

allstar i have a picture somewhere of tim kuhn,with spare frame chained to the station wagon and the spare motor in the back of the wagon!!!it was the first time the outlaws went to ransomville speedway,in western ny around 1992.everybody was ohhing and ahhing about all the big haulers,etc.we ran support that nite,and parked next to us was this green or brown station wagon with the 2 cents on the wing.nobody paid attention,but i knew who tim and his "crew" were.so i ran a litle scam with the guys and told em i bet this guy runs top ten.they actually had a lot of pa. cars run the deal that nite,so nobody ever thought that car could run with the big boys.details are a little fuzzy now but i made a little money that nite,i think tim ran sixth or seventh!!!afterwards he stayed real late in the pits and you wouldnt believe the crowd around that wagon!!!if he would of had tee-shirts,he would of made more money than the purse!!! it was a great nite,and one i will probably never see again.

livin on the coast of n.carolina,no dirt to be 
found,thank god for hoseheads!!!!!

I do believe it was 1980. They always ran Cheaters Day in October. I'm glad everyone likes the photo.

I was curious , I couldnt date cheaters day to my knowledge, I was a sprint car orfin , my beginnings were in a door car ( I know I know ) wisdom with age, right? sprints were just too dam over the top, but ALWAYS , respected in our family , the drivers, teams,cars, owners, sponsors, were just top shelf as far as we were concerned . A family member of mine was racing a jalopy (old heavy door car ) in the late 70's back then considered a modified here locally, while at the beer bust later one night he ran to the john to make a splash, while ther one of the sprinters told him "hey, you run one of them stockers ? " he polightly laghed and said "yep " while keeping his ears glued to some hopefull information from a upper classmen he said "I dont know how you guys dare drive one of them things? " ironically a month later he was killed in a incident where a stronger cage would have saved his life , sprinters are Just the true "cowboys" of the sport, nothing will ever change they way I see it ,

Tranny trouble , ha, ya, if you havent sat by the side of the road with a puked out hauler then you havent raced very long , sounds, oe so familiar , agreed, im enjoying this "old school" thread even if I was still wearing diapers at the time lol

I too miss the old open trailers. We still have a few around. "First In Class" - is what a lot of the drivers say.

... and then there was Billy Wertz. (I couldn't remember his name - and I hope I got it right). He would flat tow his sprint car behind his station wagon with the tires in the back - almost falling out of the back window of the wagon. He ran the tough Central Pennsylvania circuit back in the Opperman/Weld days. He would generally start at the front (inverted starts) and run great - but as soon as someone passed him he would pull over and let them all go by. Being from Texas, I didn't get to see him much - and I never talked with him - but I always admired him. I understand that during the "wing wars" he came to the track with a humongous wing - and then they made some rules about wing size. He died at the wheel of his sprint car... I think in the 90's. Not sure. Billy Wertz is really what racing is all about. He was the back bone of racing.

FYI - for you youngun's - flat towing is pulling the car - on it's wheels - with only a tow bar. No trailer.

My dad always says the only thing not terrible about the 1970s were sprint cars. Certainly very cool pic. Many thanks!

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

I've heard Billy didn't even have electric in his house when he started racing.

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

Was Billy the guy I remember hearing about who had built his Racecar in His Moble Homes (Trailer) Living room,and had to cut out a wall to get the car out after it was finished? I seen a photo of this maybe 3 of 4 years ago.

This photo is the rig in line to sign in on Sunday September 30th, 1979. Wolfgang arrived at the track late from an overnight flight from a WoO run in California and had to tag the back of the B main. He finished in second and started the Cheaters Day 25 lapper in 21st position and finished in second to winner Bobby Layne. John Stevenson was third, Keith Frantsen fourth and Eddie Leavitt fifth

The firt WoO race I went to was in 79 and Steve and Karl had a old Ford pickup with a single axel trailer. By the looks of it I wouldnt have trusted that rig to make it back to the motel.

I believe Robert Bell (Knoxville) was the one that did that, I remember seeing those photos also.

After some thought, the trailer wasn't lettered in '79, just plain white, truck and car were the same, so '80 is probably accurate.

I didn't return to the team in '80, Singer started off, but I don't think he finished the season, for whatever reasons. Don't recall who had it after that.

Whenever we were traveling through Lincoln, we'd stop at Speedy's. They had grocery carts in the stock room and we'd run through there loading up what parts we needed. They'd mark'em down on a list and we'd put'em in the trailer! COOL!

Speedway Motors, Wolf and Jon Singer. What a dream job that was, the best in the business at the time, and I was thankful to be involved.

Yes, those were some fun times.

www.teamwmotorsports.webs.com

Greg, is one of these the car the Wolf won the Jackson Nationals with in 93'?

Doug Wolfgang drove one of my cars in 1993. This photo was taken in 1996 so answer to your question is no. 1993 and 1996 cars looked almost the same. Smiles.

The reason Speedway Bill got out of racing was when motor costs/parts started the upward spiral:  "once it became a revenue loss and not a revenue stream, that was it for me".  From his book. (back when motor costs were minor)  Think he quit full-time racing with his own team in about 1974, would have to look back at the book to find exactly when.  He continued to sponsor and but seldom ran his own team/car,  a good book but like all these racing books, not all 100% true and a somewhat cocky attitude like most drivers/owners had.  87 different drivers drove for him in at least one race.  

PS  if I saw that rig coming into the track back in about 1967, 68 or 69, that would have been a thrill.  They all had flat open trailers.  Actually about that time, Jerry Lepinski pulled into Red River Valley Speedway with a trailer that had a neat rack for tires and tools and sheetmetal on the sides going back over the car about 1/3rd of the car under the sheetmetal and painted nice.  Nothing like the 4x pictured here though.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Justin Henderson won a MSTS 360 race at Jackson Aug 17th this year driving a black car #64 from I think the Minneapolis area which was hauled on an open trailer with a single row tire rack above the tool box pulled by a 1/2 ton pickup.  

It can happen!