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Stretched Kurtis midget at Indy 1950


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#1 cabianca

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Posted 21 November 2010 - 04:11

Does anyone know the displacement of the supercharged Offy in the Belanger 99 Kurtis stretched midget in 1949 and 1950. It only made five appearances with this engine.

1949, all Bettenhausen. Retired at Springfield and Milwaukee. Won at DuQuoin and Detroit.

1950, Kenny Eaton and Emil Andres could not qualify the car at Indy. After Indy in 1950 it got a normally aspirated Offy 270 and a short stroke Offy of smaller displacement for Indy in 1951, when it won.

I'm only interested in the size of the engine in the 1949 championship trail races and 1950 Indy 500 which supposedly was based on a midget engine. This sounds possible as I don't believe Meyer-Drake introduced their full 3 liter supercharged engine until later.



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#2 Michael Ferner

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Posted 21 November 2010 - 10:01

107 cubic inches, according to the entry list, though the bore and stroke given (3*3 5/8) work out to 102.5 (1680 cc). Actually, the car ran a few more times in that form, although mostly in non-championship ("Sprint Car") events. I have:

1949:
Jun 5, Milwaukee, dnq Tony Bettenhausen http://news.google.d...A...ausen&hl=en
Aug 20, Springfield, ret (driver received burns from hot exhaust) Tony Bettenhausen
Aug 26, Milwaukee, dns (4th in consy) Tony Bettenhausen http://news.google.d...A...ausen&hl=en
Aug 28, Milwaukee, ret (supercharger) Tony Bettenhausen
Sep 3, Du Quoin, 1st Tony Bettenhausen
Sep 11, Detroit, 1st Tony Bettenhausen
Sep 25, Springfield, 9th Tony Bettenhausen
Oct 16, Langhorne, dnq Tony Bettenhausen (??)
Oct 30, Sacramento, dnq Tony Bettenhausen
Nov 6, Del Mar, ret Tony Bettenhausen
Nov 20, Gardena, 3rd Duane Carter
Dec 4, Gardena, 2nd Duane Carter

1950:
Mar 12, Gardena, 5th Duane Carter
May 30, Indy, dnq Kenny Eaton/Emil Andres
Jun 11, Milwaukee, dns (too slow) Duane Carter
Jun 25, Langhorne, dns (too slow) Harry Turner

After Langhorne, the supercharged engine was removed and later put into a Harry Turner/Fred Tomshe-built Sprint Car (which, as an aside, was then sold to Lee Elkins and won the 1952 Midwest Championship with a 220 Offy and Joe James driving, and very nearly repeated in 1957 with Andy Linden). The #99 "stretched Midget" first ran with the 270 Offy at Williams Grove on Aug 13 in 1950, again too slow to start the main event, then Carter crashed it at Springfield before Chuck Stevenson qualified it at Milwaukee with a new track record on Aug 27. The next race, Bettenhausen got his hands on it again and the rest is history, as they say.

Edited by Michael Ferner, 21 November 2010 - 10:12.