114 replies to this topic

[Jerry Entin]

Forum member Paul Powell with Mystery Friend
I won't say who Paul's mystery friend is right now. I will tell you that his grandfather was a winner of the Indy 500.

I have just got back from a fantastic gathering of Vintage Indy cars held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I am going to show the forum members what they missed.

This site is for my friend Michael Ferner who lives in Germany and couldn't attend and for Mo Murray who due to work related issues was unable to come.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 15 May 2011 - 03:45.

[Jerry Entin]

Mystery Indy winners grandson and his other grandfather Don Schell.
I am going to show some pictures of the Mystery grandson in a couple of cars his grandfather drove in the day. That will be in a while.

The car behind them is the Ken-Paul Watson Roadster.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 15 May 2011 - 12:03.

[Jerry Entin]

Indy Museum


Indy race historian Donald Davidson and AJ Foyt
This is inside the Speedway museum. AJ Foyt came to the museum to greet the fans and also tagged along on Donald's tour of the museum.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 14 May 2011 - 04:28.

[Jerry Entin]

The Famous Borg-Warner Trophy Ron Mack next to trophy

AJ Foyt has won this 4 times as a driver. I was told some trivia about this trophy today.

In 1936 the trophy was first given to the winner of the Indy 500, this was also the same year the pace car was given to the winner and also the first year that Milk was drank by the winner in Victory Lane.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 29 May 2011 - 07:41.

[Jerry Entin]

Chuck Haines and Bill Wiswedel
This car in the day was called the Tomshe Special. This car was built in 1951 by Fred Tomshe and
Ray Knepper attempted to qualify the car in the 1951 Indy 500. This car ran a 270 cu in Offy.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 17 May 2011 - 19:58.

[Jerry Entin]

Henri Greuter and the Novi owned by Buck Boudeman
Buck Boudeman is seated behind the Novi in the white shirt.

Henri has written a great book on the History of the Novi race car called:
Novi The Legendary Indianapolis Race Car.

It comes in two volumes.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 17 May 2011 - 19:52.

[Jerry Entin]

Dick Dittman and his Hinkle Special
This car is called a Kurtis Kraft 4000 built in 1951 and was driven in the 1953 Indy 500 by Jack McGrath where it qualified 3rd and finished 5th in that race.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 17 May 2011 - 20:04.

[Jerry Entin]

AJ Watson talking to a friend.


AJ Watson next to the Watson Roadster of George Lyons.

This one is for my friend Heidi Allen. Her dad Donn Allen was great friends with AJ Watson in the day.


bottom photo: George Lyons collection

Edited by Jerry Entin, 20 May 2011 - 00:19.

[Collombin]

Great shots & information Jerry !
............we have a great selection of Indy cars & drivers coming to the UK in July for the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

As a English Indy fanatic, I was a bit disappointed by that list considering it's the centenary year of Indy until I noticed that that's the 2010 list!

[Jerry Entin]

Mark Donohue and his grandfather Don Schell in the Rick Dresang owned Eagle
The mystery grandson is Mark Donohue's grandson his namesake Mark Donohue. Next to them in the picture is crew chief Jacques Dresang.

Jacques Dresang and his new shoe Mark Donohue
I asked Mark if he wanted to be a race drive, He told me he did. We may be looking at a future Indy 500 winner here.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 15 May 2011 - 00:20.

[Jerry Entin]

Mark Donohue and John Darlington and Walter Goodwin
This is the John Darlington owned Lola that young Mark's grandfather, Mark Donohue drove in the day.
Walter Goodwin's crew brought 5 cars to the event. All perfectly presented.

John Darlington and Mark Donohue and Paul Powell and Walter Goodwin
Walter Goodwin did a beautiful job of restoring this car and young Mark enjoyed being able to sit in it.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 14 May 2011 - 17:50.

[Jerry Entin]

Sumar Special
This one is for Michael Ferner. This is one beautiful car. Looked more like a Land Speed record car then an Indy type car.

[hipperson]

Fast forward a year !

100 Years of the Indianapolis 500:

Goodwood is staging the biggest celebration of Indianapolis outside America. To date over 30 cars have been confirmed, all of which played a significant role at the Brickyard, including nine outright winning chassis, to be driven by drivers with a dozen wins between them. Many of the cars will be appearing at the Festival for the first time. The cars will all be displayed together, creating a mini Gasoline Alley within the F1 Paddock. On track, the unique pageantry of the Indy 500 will be recreated with a Goodwood twist.

To honour the centenary of ‘The Greatest Spectacle In Racing’, the Indianapolis 500, a fantastic array of Indy 500 champions will gather in the West Sussex countryside to create the largest celebration of Indianapolis outside the United States. Drivers present will include Emerson Fittipaldi, in action in a Penske PC23, Bobby Unser in his 1981 Indy 500-winning Penske PC9B,and Bobby Rahal in his 1986 Indy 500-winning March 86C. Gil de Ferran will also take to the hill in his 2003 Indy-winning Penske,with Dario Franchitti driving the Lotus 38 that Jim Clark drove to second place in the 1966 race.

Edited by hipperson, 14 May 2011 - 18:05.

[David M. Kane]

As usual great stuff Jerry. Lynn St. James is there this month too; she was over to a Party Shairon had recently. He looks like he is enjoying himself!

The Sumar Special is my all-time favorite.

Edited by David M. Kane, 14 May 2011 - 18:03.

[David M. Kane]

Did you and Henri get to speak to A.J. Watson?

[ZOOOM]

Sumar Special
This one is for Michael Ferner. This is one beautiful car. Looked more like a Land Speed record car then an Indy type car.

Jerry, I think this is the recreation comissioned by Don Smith, the guy from Tere Hote who was partner with Chapman Root in the Sumar racing team. The car was built by "Hammer Art" in Gasoline Ally near INDY.
The workmanship is just stunning! And, it runs!

ZOOOM

[paulhooft]

Henri Greuter and the Novi
Henri has written a great book on the History of the Novi race car called- Novi The Legendary Indianapolis Race Car. It comes in two volumes.

Great to see that Henri is there with you in the US.
loved to be there,
Paul

[Jerry Entin]

Jerry Entin and Mo Murray and Bill Wiswedel and Rick Knapp
in back row are Ben Scheiwe and Ron Mack.

This is in Front of the Crown Plaza in Indy. I ran into Mo Murray at breakfast and we tried to get him to come out to the Speedway with us.

Hipperson: I have done this thread a little backwards. I will start at the beginning now. I wanted to show the mystery grandson first to get it rolling. The Indy Museum has every winner from the first to the last in order on display. I will show most of those cars and I will explain the whole Vintage Indy Gathering to the Forum members.

Zoom: I didn't speak to the owners of the Sumar. I didn't mean to state any car I am going to show is a recreation or the real car or a clone or a fake. I am only showing the Forum members what I saw.

I know they will enjoy this. I believe all the cars in the Museum to be real. If you say any are Fakes or recreations I believe you.

I am not judging any of these cars. Just putting them up for the Forum members to enjoy.

Paul: Henri came up to me and said he was my friend Henri and you could have floored me also. What a great surprise.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 18 May 2011 - 12:05.

[Tim Murray]

I know they will enjoy this.

Absolutely, Jerry - this is already a great thread. Thank you so much. Very nice to see 'young' Mark Donohue having ane experience he'll never forget.

[B Squared]

Absolutely, Jerry - this is already a great thread. Thank you so much. Very nice to see 'young' Mark Donohue having ane experience he'll never forget.

I agree, thanks for sharing Jerry.

I was at Walter's shop on Tuesday with my Dad and Jerry Kroninger, Mark's 2nd place Lola was one of many being prepped. I really wanted to return Friday, but work kept me away. The museum collection was great to see. Jerry hadn't been to the track since 1982, Sun Oil's last last of sponsorship for Team Penske. It was a lot of fun sharing his days working for team at the track. A really good day.

Paul Powell shared with me a few weeks ago that young Mark was going to visit the museum with him. Very exciting to see.

To the best of my knowledge, the original Sumar Streamliner is in the collection of the Root family in Florida. I believe the photo illustrates the excellent recreation that Mr. Smith had commissioned, as mentioned by Zoom. I'm fairly confident that it has the proper Offenhauser engine.

Looking forward to the additional photos.

[JacnGille]

Lynn St. James is there this month too; she was over to a Party Shairon had recently.

Did you give Lynn a big wet one for me?????????????????????

[Jerry Entin]

Railcars called Pullman Sleepers inside the Crown Plaza Hotel.
This is something you don't see everyday inside your average hotel.

My friend Bill Wiswedel has a collection of Vintage Indy cars, and every year he goes to Indy for Carburation Day. They allow the Vintage Indy cars to run a few laps usually on the Thursday before the 500.

This year they allowed the Vintage cars to run on the Friday before opening day for practice at the track. Bill Wiswedel asked me would I like to attend it with him and see some of the restoration shops in Indy. My friend Ron Mack was also coming along and his son in law Rick Knapp was coming also. Ron invited his friend Bill Scheiwe to join us and that is the group we had for the Vintage Gathering.

At breakfast at the hotel I ran into Forum member Mo Murray. We would have loved him to come with us, but he had work commitments. Thus our adventure began.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 15 May 2011 - 00:02.

[E1pix]

This is wonderful, Jerry!

To see another Mark Donohue out there is news to me, and Good News indeed! Fingers Crossed.

[Jerry Entin]

Rudi Caracciola collection
This is on display inside the Indy Museum.

[Jerry Entin]

Lotus Indy racer
This is inside Walter Goodwin's restoration shop, where we visited on Thursday.


John Darlington owned Indy Lola being worked on in Walter Goodwin's shop

photos: Rick Knapp

Edited by Jerry Entin, 11 December 2011 - 13:46.

[Jerry Entin]

Jerry Entin and Jerry Weeks Baker
Another shop we visited on Thursday was the Metal Shaping and Fabricating shop of Jerry Weeks Baker. He kindly told us of the various Indy cars he had helped to restore and showed us his shop. He also drove one of the Vintage Indy Roadsters at the track for the Vintage Gathering.

Kurtis Midget in Jerry Weeks Baker's shop
Jerry is putting the finishing touches on this chassis.

photos: Rick Knapp

Edited by Jerry Entin, 20 May 2011 - 23:57.

[Jerry Entin]

A few of the Indy 500 winning roadsters on display in the Indy Museum

More of the past Indy 500 winners
You could spend days in the museum looking at these beautiful cars.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 15 May 2011 - 03:28.

[Michael Ferner]

Wonderful stuff, Jerry - keep it coming!

Do you have pictures of my friend, Tom Barbour in the Frank Lockhart "Perfect Circle" Miller?

[Jerry Entin]

Ralph's Muffler
This was the Kurtis race car distributor for the mid west. Kurtis cars were made in Glendale, California. When midgets were popular and later Indy type cars, Ralph's Muffler was where you could get spares or a whole car or repair your car while you were in Indy. The fellows name who ran it was Ralph Potter. He also sold quater midgets made by Kurtis in the 50's and 60's. This was pre go-karts and was a class for kids to start racing. They were powered by West Bend and Kohler lawn mower type engines.

Michael: As we say over here you have seen nothing yet!
I am doing this site for you. As I figured I could save you a little travel expense on this one. I have everything that was there and I am going to show them running on the track in a bit.

There also were Vintage passenger cars there and they were allowed on the track. I will show them.

There were Duesenburg's and Stutz's and Marmon's and MG's and Jags and many others. I will show them in a bit.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 18 May 2011 - 18:49.

[Jerry Entin]

Another Indy 500 Winner
All the cars on display in the Museum were restored to the highest degree.

Rear engined Indy Winners

Edited by Jerry Entin, 15 May 2011 - 12:29.

[Jerry Entin]

Tom Malloy's 1935 Indy Miller Ford
Rick Knapp standing behind it. I had told Rick how beautiful this car was on our trip up.

[Flat Black 84]

I'm gratified to see that the discovery, salvage and restoration of Indy cars is still going strong. As far as I'm concerned this sort of "living" history is invaluable.

Relatedly, I wonder if the Shrike-Offy Parnelli drove in 1966 still exists. Judging by pictures alone, it is the most beautiful racing car I've ever seen.

[David M. Kane]

Jerry I was lucky enough to go on that Gasoline Alley Shop Tour a few years. For future reference how can members find out the details for next year's tour?

Great Stuff!

[David M. Kane]

Flat Black 84:

I swear I saw Shrike Offy at the same display at the Speedway about 6 years ago; but I can't remember whose car it was. I was just impressed that one was on display. The Museum has a basement full of goodies as well as other storage garages all over Indy.

Again my info is six years old.

[Flat Black 84]

Thanks, David. Do you recall if it was light blue on white?

[David M. Kane]

Jerry:

The guy who did the recreation of the Sumar Special in Denny Jamison of Automotive Hammer Art in Indianapolis. His Shop is part of the Shop Tour that I think runs the whole month of May. I think I introduced you to him at Road America one year at the Brian Redman Challenge.

He has a full pictorial essay on his website of the recreation process with 15-20 photos.

Google Automotive Hammer Art, he is a true artisan!

[Jerry Entin]

Indy Pace car is a 2011 Camaro convertible
This Pace car led the Vintage Indy groups around with Indy driver Stephan Gregoire driving, and let me tell you he had that baby humming. The oldest cars got to go first, then the roadsters and then the rear engined group. They each had about 20 minutes of track time.

Stephan Gregoire in the Indy Pace Car leading the roadster group
David and Forum members: This whole Vintage Indy Gathering was completley unknown by any sanctioning effort. It was only known by the owners of the Vintage Indy cars and the Museum.

The track didn't inform anyone of the existence of this event. It wasn't mentioned in any of the month of May scheduling for the events. It was run by Ellen Bireley and Dianna Crain. They did a wonderful job of organizing the event. Maybe less is more. No red tape, just have fun.

The track announcer for this event was Donald Davidson, and he did a great job telling everyone at the event the history of each Vintage Indy car as it rolled out. The weather was perfect and they broke up the running of the Vintage Indy cars into 3 groups. They ran behind the Camaro Pace car.

Bottom photo: Rick Knapp

Edited by Jerry Entin, 20 May 2011 - 14:49.

[ZOOOM]

Jerry,
I wasn't trying to call you out on the provinance of the Sumar, just wanted to add some info that I had. I saw it in the building stages several years ago.
Yes, it does have a period correct Offy in it. I think Don Smith bought it from Pop Dreyer IIRC..

ZOOOM

[Heidi Allen]

AJ Watson talking to a friend.

This one is for my friend Heidi Allen. Her dad Donn Allen was great friends with AJ Watson in the day.

Thanks Jerry! Love the pic! Joyce Watson, bless her heart, has been emailing me all the press releases, etc., from the Brickyard.

I'm sure my Dad is enjoying all the festivities!

[Jerry Entin]

Bobby Unser's 1968 Eagle Offy and AJ Foyt's 1967 Coyote Ford Indy car
Rick Knapp and Ron Mack and Bill Wiswedel behind the race cars


Inside the museum all the Indy winners shown by year.

Zoom: I know you were just telling the forum members about the history of the car.

Heidi: Welcome to the Forum.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 16 May 2011 - 12:07.

[Jerry Entin]

This is a complete Indy Gasoline Alley garage as it was used in the day.
To say the Indy Museum is fabulous, is an understatement.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 16 May 2011 - 12:31.

[Jerry Entin]

Indy 500 winning roadsters

Edited by Jerry Entin, 16 May 2011 - 20:38.

[Flat Black 84]

If I'm ever fortunate enough to visit the Indy 500 museum I will need to wear a very large and absorbent bib.

[biercemountain]

Macy's in New York has two Indy cars on display in their windows. One is Mario Andretti's 1981 car and the other is from the '64 race. IIRC it's number 48. Haven't had a chance to look up who drove it.

[B Squared]

From Aaron Lewis: "Hi Brian, pity I am not there this year and one of my cars is." Another beautiful restoration by Walter Goodwin; 1973 Patrick Eagle - Offy of Graham McRae. It looked gorgeous when I saw it at Walter's last Tuesday.

photos: courtesy of Aaron Lewis

[paulhooft]

Great pictures...
Paul

Macy's in New York has two Indy cars on display in their windows. One is Mario Andretti's 1981 car and the other is from the '64 race. IIRC it's number 48. Haven't had a chance to look up who drove it.

[Gokart Mozart]

Jerry,

It was great to see you on Friday, you are always a delight to see! It was a pleasure meeting your friend Rick as well. As well, it was great having Mark Donohue in the car his grandfather raced at Indianapolis in 1973. We need to get him started in a kart...

Since I don't really post much on the forums anymore (life is pulling me 1823 different directions) and I never in all of my years ever managed to figure out how to post photos, I'll give you the link to the photos I took Friday and Saturday: http://www.flickr.co...ith/5726500509/

Paul Jay had #7225 up to around 130 on the straights, so we can't say that we were being restricted too badly by the pacecar, as it lapped us with Stephan Gregoire driving.

We were lucky enough to have Chip Mead's cousin, Jamie Priest, visit us on Saturday and rewind back to 1981 and 1982 when Chip ran the car. John Barnes also stopped by twice to say hello, and John O'Gara, who was a wrench on the car during those years, came by twice, once with his son Andy and his wife, Sarah Fisher. All wonderful people.

It was our first time at the Speedway when cars were running. The only time I had ever visited was to visit the archives for our various projects, and I found it to be astonishing how long the corners are when you watch a current Dallara-Honda sweep by. Truely a legendary place to visit.

Respectfully Yours,

Jacques N. Dresang
UMW

[biercemountain]

Great pictures...
Paul

I took photos with my cell phone but don't have a clue how to get them out of the stupid thing. Once I figure it out, I'll post them.

[Jerry Entin]

Aaron Lewis's 1972 Eagle-Offy
Beautifully restored by Walter Goodwin.
Graham McRae drove it in 1973 and qualified 13th and finished 16th.


Rick Muther driven 1972 Coyote
I know this car looks like an Eagle. It had Eagle uprights and an Eagle front end added to it. It is very good looking in this configuration. This is the car AJ Foyt drove at the Speedway in 1972 and Rick Muther ran this car in the 1974 Indy 500.

The car was owned by Lee Brayton when Rick Muther drove it in 1974, he only ran 11 laps before retiring and was credited with 27th place.


all research: Bill Wiswedel

Edited by Jerry Entin, 17 May 2011 - 20:19.

[Gokart Mozart]

Aaron Lewis's 1973 Eagle-Offy
Beautifully restored by Walter Goodwin\

Rick Muther driven Coyote
I know this car looks like an Eagle. It had Eagle uprights and an Eagle front end added to it. It is very good looking in this configuration.

Jerry, on a historical note, both our Eagle (#7225) and Aaron Lewis's (#7219) are 1972 models that debuted in 1973. There were only six 1973 Eagles manufactured, run by AAR's factory team until late in 1973, when some were sold off to privateers.

Thanks!

Jacques N. Dresang