77 replies to this topic

[eldougo]

HI allen .These are pics of the Lola T- ? (i cant remember the number) it was restored out here in 1984/85 and this is it first outing at OranPark Sept 1985. Barry Lee and Phill Harris owners and drivers.i do not know the chassis number etc it was found in a garage her in Sydney and i helped on the restoration.

[Teddy Pilette]

To Allen Brown

I saw you missed me out from your original list but added me later.

For the record I raced with the VDS Lola 5000 (No 4) in 1976. You can recognise it by the narrow nose. The car was terrible and I only did one season.

Teddy Pilette

[AAA-Eagle]

Welcome Teddy!!! That's great that you've joined us!!!

Marko

[Frank de Jong]

OT: A warm welcome from the Netherlands too. Great to meet you here. Since my prime interest is in Touring Cars (but I must have seen you in F5000 too), I've checked my sources and found 25 races in which you participated, over the period 1964-1984, in cars from Abarth to Jaguar. If you ever need any details, just let me know.

[Ray Bell]

What a nice surprise!

Welcome Teddy, you sure gave a fresh face to our Tasman Cup races here in Australia, we remember the Baron and you very well...

Hope you hang around this forum a bit and add some insight as only one who was there really can!

Brian Redman and Vic Elford drop in occasionally... you won't be alone...

[Allen Brown]

Welcome Teddy

Hope you got my reply to your email.

Allen

[eldougo]

Welcome Teddy to TNF ,here are a couple of Pics of you in 1971. We meet many years ago , old friend,s of mine are Garry Simkin & Phill Harris and Steve Horne.Glad you found time to tune into to this Forum and in the last month we had Kevin Bartlett join also .




This is Sandown Park same year.



HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL TNFer's IAM OFF FOR A FEW DAYS.(See you all next Year);)

[philippe7]

Bienvenue sur ce forum, Monsieur Pilette !

Great to have another driver from the "glory years" joining in

I had already posted this picture in the "Paddock Shots" thread , but just to celebrate the occasion .......I have your signature on the program of that day at Mallory Park in 1974 by the way !

[philippe7]

Originally posted by philippe7
I have your signature on the program of that day at Mallory Park in 1974 by the way !

....and here it is

[Rob Ryder]

Welcome Teddy
1973 Silverstone International Trophy...

[Pils1989]

Welcome on TNF, Teddy!

[Disco Stu]

Keith Averill runs a prep shop/parts & equipment store near Detroit. He's usually set up at Waterford Hills during thier races and sometimes other SCCA events around the area. There's contact info at his store's website: racing-stuff.com

[Allen Brown]

Thanks Stu. I contacted Keith who explained his one F5000 appearance:

Allen,
The Chevron B24 F5000 car that I drove at Riverside, broke an oil pump belt during qualifing and we missed installing a new engine for the heat race by about 15 minutes. THey only started so many finishers from each heat.
This car was the X-Peter Gethin, Race of Champions car, later owned and driven by Roger Bighouse and then (when I drove it) Pat McGonnical (sp). I got the chance to drive the car (no testing) after Roger crashed at the 1st Long Beach during warm-up. My only job was to fix the damaged tub (get it back across country to Michigan) and then back to California 4 weeks later. During those days, it took 3 hard days, just to travel one way. And we had to build a trailer to haul it too.
Later, with the help of a GM Engineer that worked with Doug Sherison racing, we fixed it's inherent problems (understeer), got a rear cowl/air scoop from McLaren (F-1 reduced the intake height at that time) and it's last "Pro" race was Road America the next year (Pat drove).
The car is now back in England, Nick at Raceparts (UK) knows the owner.
I hope this helps.
Keith Averill

The car he's describing is Chevron B24 B24-73-02, owned by Anthony Taylor last time I heard of it. So another mystery solved. Just a few hundred left to go!

Anyone else got contact details for anyone on that list?

Cheers

Allen

[lanciaman]

Steve Yogi Behr, born 1938. Won 1973 Cannonball and one of only 5 people to run all events; GTU winner Sebring; Daytona 24 competitor; former GP moto winner; top US finisher with John Buffum in Monte Carlo; designer of innovative patented front suspension system; has been building a midget and Daytona Prototype for past several years in Indy.

[Allen Brown]

Keith Averill Born July 4, 1948, Royal Oak, Michigan

[john glenn printz]

Ed Kasprowicz was born on 8 April 1941 and is my best friend. Ed is a successful sculptor and now resides in Apollo Beach, FL. Kasprowicz was in a support race for the 1973 U.S. Grand Prix, at Watkins Glen, on October 6 and I was then his entire "pit crew".

Francois Cervert (1944-1973) had been killed in practice earlier on that day and Ed and I had to wait well over an hour, on the track itself and where the cars were lined up for the start, because our support race was delayed by the Cervert accident. Elliott Forbes-Robinson, if my memory is correct, won the event that Ed competed in that day.

The 1969, 1971, and 1973 World Grand Prix Champion, Jackie Stewart (Cervert's teammate on the Ken Tyrrell cars) retired as a driver on October 6, electing not to run in the next day's U.S. Grand Prix where he was scheduled to drive.

Later that night (i.e. Oct. 6), I met and talked to the 1962 and 1968 World Grand Prix Champion, Graham Hill (1929-1975) , in the garage area, where the Grand Prix cars were housed. It was only time I ever talked to Hill. The next day Ed and myself watched Ronnie Peterson (1944-1978) win the U.S. Grand Prix in a Lotus.

Ed became a good friend of Louis "Lou" Rassey, who was mixed up with the AAA Championship circuit in the 1930's, 1940's, and the 1950's. Shorty Cantlon was driving a Lou Rassey entry at Indianapolis in 1947, when he was killed because of a Bill Holland spin. Mauri Rose kept in contact with Rassey in his later years and would occasionally stop at Rassey's east Detroit machine shop when Ed happened to be working there either for Rassey, or on his own racing car. Sprint car great Larry Rice was also long associated with and worked with Rassey. Lou was even trying to built a new racing motor for Champ cars. It appeared at both Indianapolis and at the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) but it was not yet functional. Larry Rice was its driver when it was at MIS, I being in the pits on that qualification day.

I was talking to Louie Meyer one time about the history of the Miller-Offenhauser "4" and Lou told me, "There was a guy in Detroit, Rassey I think his name was, who started using modified White truck bearings, in the rods c. 1933/34, instead of babbitting them. Soon everyone adopted what Rassey was doing. Before that everyone had hand babbitted all the rod and engine bearings, which was a tedious process."

I was in Rassey's shop three or four times when Ed had to go over there for one thing or another. Rassey never liked me, thinking I was a young "smart aleck". First of all we got into a debate about what year the big ASPAR strike had occurred at Indy. I said 1947, but Rassey said 1946. And then the subject about Rassey's 16 cylinder Indy racing engine came up, I saying that it was basically a Miller. Rassey didn't go for that either, saying that he both built and designed it himself. Anyway Kasprowicz and I attended together the funeral memorial service for Lou, when he died.

Kasprowicz also was, strictly by pure chance, acquainted with Tommy Milton. Milton used to spend his retirement summers, with his boat, on Harsens Island in Lake St. Clair, MI, at a resort known as the "Idle Hour". Ed had the job of securing, docking, and the tying up of the boats there, during the summer months. Ed said that Milton was always a "very good tipper". However Ed did not know that Milton had been a race car driver, at the time. It was only after meeting me in either 1961 or 1962, when the same name came up, and by Ed looking at photographs, did it developed that it was the same man. Meanwhile Milton had died about that time, on 11 July 1962, a suicide. I myself never met Milton.

And there is an interesting story about all that. On one occasion Ed got into an argument with Milton about how fast a stock Chevrolet Corvette could go. Ed said it was capable of 135 mph and Milton said it was not. Ed did not know, of course, that he was talking to a man who had once held the Land Speed Record at 156.045 mph for automobiles! I have often wondered if incidents like this, led to Milton blowing his brains out. Anyway Milton never mentioned to Kasprowicz that he was a two time winner of the Indianapolis 500 or anything about his 1920 AAA Land Speed Record with a special twin engined Duesenberg at Daytona Beach.


Ed and myself have attended many Indianapolis 500's together, beginning with the 1963 event. By that time I had already seen seven Indy 500's live, my first being in 1953. We will be going to the race together this year also. It will be my 51st "live" Indianapolis event. Ed and myself also attended together Formula 1 events at Mosport and Watkins Glen.

Such then is some Kasprowicz - Printz "nostalgia" and Kasprowicz' birth date.

[Allen Brown]

While finding old threads to renew my subscriptions, I found John's post above. My belated thanks to him.

The intervening years have found many answers but some new questions too. The complete list of US F5000 drivers for whom I have no home town is now this:

Bob Betts (LeGrand Mk7) - one race in 1968
Dick Guldstrand (LeGrand Mk7A) - one race in 1968 - Manhattan Beach, CA
"Hoppy" Hopkins (Lotus-Climax) - one race in 1967
Ed Kasprowicz (Chevron B24) - one race in 1976 - Detroit, Michigan
Jack Millikan (Lotus 22-Olds) - one race in 1967 - San Diego, CA
Dick Parsons (Talon MR1A) - one race in 1975 - English
Bill Seeley (Vulcan) - one race in 1970
Dennis Suter (Scarab-FPF) - one race in 1967 - Playa del Rey, CA
Vic Todia (McLaren M22) - two races in 1976 - Parma Heights, OH
Franz Weis (Chapparal) - two races in 1971 - Midland, TX
Monty Winkler (Alfa Special) - one race in 1969 - Washington, DC

Edited by Allen Brown, 09 May 2009 - 10:11.

[raceannouncer2003]

The intervening years have found many answers but some new questions too. The complete list of US F5000 drivers for whom I have no home town is now this:

Dick Guldstrand (LeGrand Mk7A) - one race in 1968

There is contact info for Dick Guldstrand here:

http://www.corvettethunder.com/

Vince H.

[Allen Brown]

My thanks to all those that have helped. Of the 293 US drivers to appear in that series, I now have the home towns of all but these three:

Bob Betts drove Pete Botsford's LeGrand Mk7 at Thomson in 1968. I don't have the entry list for this race.
"Hoppy" Hopkins drove an unidentified Lotus-Climax St Jovite in 1967. He appears on the entry list as Tom Hoppy.
Bill Seeley drove a Vulcan at Road America in 1970 but does not appear on the entry list. He also appeared in a couple of SCCA Nationals.

[GD66]

293 !! You poor soul. I consider myself something of an F5000 fan, and I haven't heard of nearly half of them, so hats off to you for your passion and perserverance in battling on to finalise that list. For us South Sea poms, the FA/F5000 armada was led at Bay Park 1968 by Ron Grable, Stew McMillan, Rex Ramsay and Pierre Phillips, with Leo Geoghegan's Lotus 39 Repco keeping them honest, and after the Tasman Series had tailed off, to describe this as an eye-opener would be something of an understatement....

[ensign14]

Is Dick Parsons the one who was killed in F3 in about 1987?

[Allen Brown]

Is Dick Parsons the one who was killed in F3 in about 1987?

Yes he is. I only had one result in my database for him which was a guest drive in 1975 so I'd mistaken him for a SCCA driver. I think it was 1986 he died.

Edited by Allen Brown, 09 May 2009 - 12:00.

[Bloggsworth]

Is the Greg Hodges mentioned the same GH who raced the Merlyn Mk11A he shared with Paul Rendle, in the UK in the late 60s early 70s (I should remember, I was there mechanicing) and rolled it at the Snetterton esses losing a finger or two in the process? The most memorable thing about the incident was the help given by Gerry Marshall in looking after our girlfriends while we cleared up the aftermath.

10th Dec 10

Apparently it is, and IIRC he also made unsuccessful attempts to qualify for the Indy 500.

Edited by Bloggsworth, 10 December 2010 - 22:23.

[a01butal]

Dick DeJarld (Joliet, Illinois) born 5 NOV 1929 - died 15 SEP 1987

[Allen Brown]

Dick DeJarld (Joliet, Illinois) born 5 NOV 1929 - died 15 SEP 1987

Thank you.

[Ray Bell]

I see no mention of Rex Ramsey on there...

He ran F5000 in a couple of SCCA races, which is why he was invited to New Zealand in 1968. Or is 1968 too early?

[Allen Brown]

This was not a list of all F5000 drivers; it was list of only those American F5000 for which I didn't have dates of birth ten years ago.

[Ray Bell]

Good to see that clarified...

I knew it was an old thread, I didn't realise it wasn't about all the drivers.