Forum: Racing From The Past (go)
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All this great talk about engines, and trivia, made me think we needed to combine both in a quiz

For over thirty years the offy motor dominated sprint car racing.

1 Name the first driver to win a USAC Sprint Car title driving a Chevy, and the year?

2 Name the first driver to win a IMCA Sprint Car title with a Chevy, and the year?

3 The block that Chet Wilson used in his first Chevy Sprint Car came from what

passenger car?

4 In the late 1960's what engine replaced the Offy as the most dominant engine in Midget racing?

5 In 1973, what engine would debut in midget racing, to later become the most dominate

midget engine of the 1970's?

6 Name the man who owned the first car to race with this motor, and his driver?

Hint (They won a USAC Midget race at 81 Speedway in 1973 and 74.)

7 Who was the first driver to race Chet and Jerry Wilson's V4 Midget engine?

8 The "Belle of Belleville" raced and won races in the 1950's with what

motor, against the vaunted Offies?

9 The Ranger motor, the only engine to win against the Offies in IMCA in

1955, (before the Chevy Motor came along in 1956), Was developed orginally for what purpose.?

10 What owner and driver won the last WOO title with a Ford Motor?

11 What was the name of AJ Foyt's racing engines that he ran with in the 1960's and 1970's

in Indy cars and Dirt Cars.?

Ray C

I will take a wild guess at a few

Chet Wilson got the first Chevy engine from a Corvette

The VW was the dominant midget engine in the 70s

Chet's first driver was either Frankie Lies or Walt Mcwhorter

Dave Blaney driving the Casey Luna Ford was the last WoO Ford Champ

AJ bought the 4 cam V-8 from Ford, were they called Foyt/Fords?

Ray

What was the name of AJ Foyt's racing engines that he ran with in the 1960's and 1970's

in Indy cars and Dirt Cars.?

Coyote

That is a lot of questions for our old minds to comprehend in one reading, LOL

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

Bkrc you did well on the ones you answered.

Chet Wilson did use the Chevy Corvette block for the Chevy Sprint Car Engine

that he first raced in 1956, with Walt McWhorter behind the wheel. They won the UMCA

title (Jack Merrick), and won the first major race for a Chevy at Belleville, KS in

a IMCA race.

The VW was the dominate midget racing engine of the 1970's. Will see if anybody

remembers who raced and won with it first in 1973. The Owner was from the

family that won 2 USAC midget titles that decade. The driver later won the

USAC dirt car title, and the CRA title.

Chet's first driver was Frankie Lies in his sprint car in 1953, when it used a Ford V8-

60 motor. But he wasn't the first driver to race with Chet's midget engine the V-4

in 1974.

Before Dave Blaney went to Nascar he did win the 1995 WOO title for Casey Luna

in his Ford Powered Sprinter. (You guys might remember that Sammy Swindell

was driving NASCAR Trucks, and Steve KInser started the year driving in the

Nascar Sprint Cup series before both drivers returned to the WOO during the 1995

season).

Yes, AJ Foyt bought, and then made some changes to the Ford motor, and later

changed the name to FOYT, his chassis design was called the COYOTE,

and when he won his fourth 500 in 1977, they called the car the Foyt Coyote.

No answers yet for some of the other questions, hints

The first driver to race the V4 Midget engine was a multi time NCRA Champ.

The first driver to win a USAC title in Sprint Cars with a Chevy, also won the Indy 500.

and won a IMCA race in Hutch, before crashing his car at Muskogee, Pete Forshee

helped fix his car in Wichita before he returning to Hutch, where he got beat by Dale Reed.

(Harold Leep won the Muskogee race I believe.)

The driver that won the first IMCA title for Chevy, was known as one of the original outlaws,

and hails from the great state of Texas, Waco Texas to be exact.

The Ranger motor was developed by the Ranger Company for a use other than in

cars.

The racing motor used by the Goodrichs in the "Belle of Belleville" wasn't a fat head

motor it was a................. For you guys from Oklahoma, the "Belle of Belleville"

in the 1960's won at OKC in 1960 with Jerry Shumaker, in 1964 with Dale Reed,

and in the team car, Clara's car in 1967 with same guy that won the first IMCA title

in a Chevy. (By the 1960's the Goodrich's had changed from the motor that

brought them so much success in the 50's with track roadsters and sprints,

to the Chevy like everyone else).

Ray C

Warren,

You guys are to good with the easy questions, thought I would turn it up a little.

Remember the Coyote logo? It was one of the coolest ones in racing.

Ray C

I had one on the back of my topper back glass on my 67 Chevy pick-up. They were made by Lowen Sign Company in Hutchinson, KS. Some I got were rejects but you really had to look to see the defect. At one time all of AJ's decals were made in Hutchinson.

Warren Vincent
Cans 4 Kansas Heroes

The first V-4 midget could only be the great Harold Leep

I think the first Chevy USAC champ was Parnelli Jones

Ray

Bkrc,

Your right again, Parnelli Jones won the first USAC Sprint Car title in 1960

with a Chevy, winning the midwest title. The next year he won the first national

championship for USAC Sprint Cars in 1961 when they combined the East and Midwest Titles

together. He raced in IMCA in 1959, and thats when he came back and raced all across the

heartland in his Fike Plumbing Sprinter. Parnelli would late win the Indy 500 in

1963, and almost win in 1967 in the STP Turbine. Both of his sons raced in the Chili

Bowl, and his son Page won the Belleville Midget Nationals in 1993.

The driver that raced the first V-4, raced for Lloyd Stephens in the OFIXCO Super

Modified.

Ray C

It has to be Jerry Stone in the Jelly midget, they won a USAC indoor race at the Seattle Kingdome in January or February of 1977. I still have the speed sport with their picture of that win in the garage

Ray

Driver that won the first Chevy title for IMCA Sprint Cars ,,could that be Gordon Wooley,,maybe 1963 i dont think it was 62..

Win as if you are use to it.And lose as if you enjoyed 
it for a change.Its hard to get to the top and alot 
harder to stay there.

Yes,

It was Gordon Woolley in 1963, Johnny White won the last IMCA title for the Offies

in 1962 driving for Dizz Wilson. In 1963 Gordon won races in three different Chevy Sprint

Cars on his way to the IMCA title. Gordon won in Chet Wilson's Offy Killer, the Calvin/Young

Sprinter, and the Weinberger Mobile Homes car.

Ray C

Yes,

It was Jerry Stone that first raced the V4 engine in his midget in 1974 in USAC .

He best finish would be a third place run at 81 Speedway that year in a USAC race.

In 1975 they took Stoney's Pony to the Indy Speedrome, where they finished in second place

in a USAC race. During the 1976 season Stoney's midget owned by his father Melvin was destroyed

in a wreck at Belleville.

For the 1977 season a brand new chassis was built for the V4 by Jelly Wilhelm.

They travelled to the Seattle Kingdom in March where Stoney would win won of the biggest

races of his career taking the 100 lap USAC feature over the best midget drivers of the day,

including, Mel Kenyon, Sleepy Tripp, Johnny Parsons, and Gary Bettenhausen.

Stoney told me they won over 2,000 dollars for the win, which was a big pay day in 1977.

Ray C

The answers

1 Parnelli Jones 1960

2 Gordon Woolley 1963

3 Corvette

4 SESCO

5 VW

6 "Red Caruthers" owner, Bobby Olivero driver

7 Jerry Stone

8 Mercury Flathead V8

9 Airplanes, including fighter planes for WW II

10 Casey Luna and Dave Blaney 1995

11 Foyt engine, Coyote chassis, Foyt/Coyote

#3 What difference would it have made had it been from a Corvette? No difference in performance between an Impalla block and a Corvette block. Blocks are blocks. Heads, cam, induction would be a different story.

#9 God help a pilot flying combat in an "fighter plane from WWII" powered by a Ranger aircraft engine. They were used in PT19 (Primary) Trainers.

#10 Question could have read "only" WoO championship won by a Ford.

Yard Fun,

Sounds like your a true engine man. The block question was just for the purpose of

a simple trivia question.

(Here's a paragraph from the new book, coming out in December of 2011)

The Offy Killer

Chet Wilson - The Man Behind The Legend

Written by Chet's daughter Donna, from Chet's son Jerry Wilson's reflections

on their Dad's very first version of his sprint car engine.

" He was able to locate a 265 cubic inch Chevy V-8 block from a 1955 Corvette,

at a local iron yard that had been scrapped by a Chevy dealership. "

Later stating, " He ground one of his special grind cams, over-bored the cylinders

to 272 cubic-inches, and ported & polished the heads. It was then assembled with

Jahns high compression domed racing pistons, three stromberg 97 carburetors,

and Edelbrock intake manifold. Chet fabricated his own headers, and with a Harmon Collins

magneto (salvaged from the Ford 60), and Corvette valve covers, it was ready for the car."

Chet would later win that year (1956) at Belleville, KS in a IMCA, race with Walt McWhorter.

The first major win for the Chevy Engine, that would later lead to the car being

called "The Offy Killer". Of course over time the engine would change as they added

fuel injection among other things.

On the Ranger question, poor choice of words calling it a Fighter plane engine.

The V-770 was used for the Fairchild At - 21 Gunnery School trainer aircraft

from 1941-44, 175 were produced during that time.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Ray C

I made a delivery to Stone trucking when they were at 51st and Union in west Tulsa behind the Warehouse Market, sometime in the 70s and that old car was in the shop corner. It came out to the old track one time and somebody tried to make a few laps in it. I don't know what happened to the car.

When was it built? It looked old

Ray

Tommy Vardeman that is a name I have not heard in a long time. I remember the car hot laping and his son doing it but I did not start going to the races until 1968 so it must have been after that. I remember the cage and it did not look like it would do any good and the wire wheels. it looked very crude.

Ray

I was thinking about the Stone Trucking car. The cage looked like it had been added on and was made out of angle iron, I think it was painted yellow.

I have some questions about it: When and where did it compete? Who drove it? Wasn't Tommy Vardeman SR good friend of Raymond Cates?

Ray