20 replies to this topic

[raceannouncer2003]

Larry Webb has had an interesting career as a mechanic. This past weekend, he was, as usual, buried under the hood of a Corvette at the Pacific Northwest Historics at Pacific Raceways, Kent, Washington. He kindly passed on some photos to me at the Historics, which I will attempt to post over the next while.

The first is from the Deer Park (Spokane), Washington races in September of 1958. It shows Don Campbell (in car), Dean Geddes (leaning on car), Orvel Larson (head turned, in rear), and Lynn ?? (on the right). I believe the #213 car on the right is Dean Geddes'.



Phil Dauphinee (left in photo below) and I had breakfast with Dean (right) on the way to the races on Friday.



Dean served during WWII and was on the Missouri when the Japanese surrendered. As for racing, he was the 1959 west coast B Production champ in his Corvette. His racing career pretty much ended in 1961 when he and Larry were coming back from Riverside and crashed heavily. Later he was involved in organizing the Baja races when he lived in Mexico. At age 86, he is currently the oldest realtor in the state of Washington. He was recently reunited with his son after forty years through internet postings of a model of his Corvette that Phil did for him.

Campbell raced Corvettes successfully in the Northwest.

Larson went on to race the ex-Carstens/Ormsbee HWM-Chev Stovebolt in 1960.

More to come.

Vince H.

[raceannouncer2003]

By 1964, Larry Webb was working for the Alan Green Chevrolet team. At the May USRRC at Pacific Raceways, Kent, Washington, Larry was one of five injured when Bob Holbert's Cooper-Ford spun into the pits during qualifying. The others were Holbert, Stan Burnett, Ronnie Kaplan, and Trevor Harris.

The photo below is from the 1964 Riverside Times GP (I was there!), showing Jerry Grant's Bardahl Lotus 19 (chassis 357) w/Traco '377'. A note on the repaired right rear fender reads "Parnelli was here". A couple of Genies behind the Lotus:



And this photo is from Shelton, Washington, 1965. It could be March 21, when a debut was made by Gary Gove, now aboard the Alan Green Cheetah. From Martin Rudow's book, "After all these years and all this racing Gary Gove's favorite memory is the last turn at Shelton. 'You could take it flat out coming onto the main straightaway. I spun the Cheetah there at 120 mph and was heading backwards to the pits very rapidly--I could see them coming up behnd me in the rearview mirror. But I stopped in time.'"



And here is Gary Gove speaking at Martin Rudow's book launch last Friday night:

]

Vince H.

[Bjorn Kjer]

Great pics from the good old "Pro" time (just before the Can-Am)!!

[raceannouncer2003]

Larry's caption for photo below..."Waiting for 'DAN' prior to initial firing of Eagle 'INDY' car. Taken in back of All American Racers building in Santa Ana - me in maroon polo shirt." Is that Paul ??? beside the cockpit? Others????



...and Larry's caption for this photo..."Early April 1966 roll out of the Eagle Indy Car. We tried the car on the street next to AAR - I am in yellow jacket..." I believe others in the photo are:
- pushing car, Wayne Leary (left) and John Miller (middle)
- standing, third from left, Bill Fowler
- talking to Dan, Larry Stellings (and, of course, Dan in cockpit)
- others????



Vince H.

[fines]

Wow! Beautiful pictures!

Thnx for posting

[raceannouncer2003]

Larry's captions for photos below...1. "PR photo taken in Costa Mesa Park, Dan & 'friend'"; 2. "PR photo, Eagle Indy car nose, 1966"; 3. "w/nose 'off', PR photo:




Vince H.

[raceannouncer2003]

Larry's captions for photo below..."1st test of Eagle 'Indy' car Riverside Apr of 1966; D. Gurney behind the wheel; AAR team members left to right: Larry Stellings, Bill Fowler, John Miller, Wayne Leary, Dean ???, Paul ???"



and Larry's captions for these photos...left - "Throttle down, Riverside Test Session, Apr. 1966"; right - "'Dan' @ speed Riverside test #1"



Vince H.

[Option1]

Vince and Larry, fantastic, historically important photos! Thank you so much for letting us see them.

Neil

[raceannouncer2003]

Larry's caption for photo below: "In the shop @ All American Racers, Santa Ana, CA, prepping the 'Bardahl Lola'".



...and for this photo..."1st USRRC race, 1966 - note the group behind the car. With back turned, Teddy Mayer, McLaren Racing, right, Dan Gurney, facing, Juan Manuel Fangio!! @ Las Vegas, Nevada"



...and for this one..."Mosport, 1966, note: The gentleman in the red jacket is a 'young' Mark Donohue!!"; That's me in the yellow Goodyear 'T' shirt and sun glasses"



Vince H.

[bradbury west]

Vince, just brilliant, perfect archive stuff. Many thanks
Roger Lund.

[ZOOOM]

GREAT STUFF!
Thanks for shareing.
Geez.... are we gett'in old?

ZOOOM

[raceannouncer2003]

The second item, the Valley Times article, talks about Larry Webb, as well as Jerry Grant:



Larry's caption for the photo below: "Notice the very race 58 mm downdraft Webers on the 305 Gurney-Weslake engine."



Vince H.

[raceannouncer2003]

Pacific Northwest Historics, Pacific Raceways, Kent, Washington, 2005 and 2006...Larry working on Corvettes:



Vince H.

[raceannouncer2003]

2007, "Grant-O-Rama" (hosted by Allen Grant), Sequim, Washington...

Dean Geddes and Larry Webb:



Vince H.

[raceannouncer2003]

2007, "Grant-O-Rama"

1st photo - Larry Webb and Ron Dykes (note Larry's treasured jacket!); 2nd photo - Larry holding my diecast of the Bardahl Lola:



Vince H.

[raceannouncer2003]

From Gary Gove:

"Vince:
Thanks for sending me the link to the Nostalgia sight. Those are great photos. I have often wondered what happened to Dean, as I used to watch him race the Corvettes, in the days of Tad Davies, Dave Troffer, and Bob Kongleback. (!)
The shots taken at AAR are wonderful, as to my eye, the first AAR Indy Ford is the prettiest Indy car of all time. The shot of the Lotus 19, with all the pipes and hoses is so typical of that car, at that time.
The picture of the Cheetah at Shelton has Larry Webb behind the wheel, in the spring of 1965, as he used the car in the novice race to get his National License. Same day I spun the thing 740 degrees! Larry crewed the car for me that year, and did a fine job, as I never had a DNF with it, and we ended up making the car go fairly quickly.
One of my fonder memories is when Larry and I took the Cheetah and the Lotus 19 to Mosport, in '65, for Jerry Grant and I to drive. We worked on Jerry's car at Indy, then drove up to Mosport, but we stopped in Chicago, and had lunch with Jim Hurtibise, a real treat.
Thanks again
Gary Gove"

[raceannouncer2003]

This from Larry Webb:

"....We (Larry crewing on Dean Geddes' Corvette) had the opportunity to race against Jim Jeffords during his championship season of 1958 and did quite well. As I remember it we finished second to him in a race at Aurora, CO. IN September of 1958. His mechanic, Ronny Kaplan, and I became good friends and I had the pleasure of working. on the Nickey Scarab at Riverside. I put a new clutch in it to help get it race ready. (This was when I was strong enough to lift a four speed up and slip it into place with out having to use a jack..."

Vince H.

[barbara143]

Hi, Does anyone remember Jim Smart (good or bad) who use to travel with Dean Geddes? They were cousins.

[raceannouncer2003]

There is a nice photo of the Larry Webb driving Fred Yeakel's Cheetah at the Westwood Reunion, Mission, B.C., Canada, July 18, 2009, on Fred's website. There are two photos of the car that alternate on this page...the Mission photo is one of them. I think Larry looks like Jerry Titus in that photo! That is Tony Morris, Jr. looking on. Here is the link:

http://www.cheetahcars.com/index.htm

Vince H

[raceannouncer2003]

On the way to the Columbia River Classic Historic races at Portland last weekend, I had breakfast in Sequim, Washington (on north end of the Olympic peninsula) with Ron Dykes, Dean Geddes, Allen Grant, and respective lady friends. Dean told me that he has learned he is not the oldest realtor in Washington state. He will be 89 on October 18, but apparently the oldest guy is 96! But I think he still has Joe Playan beat for oldest living driver to race at Riverside! Any other contenders?



Dean said he usually doesn't get up early on Saturday mornings but I said it was worth it for him to have the strawberry pancakes!

Vince H.

[Jerry Entin]

Vince: You are right, Joe Playan is 88 his birthday is April 16, he was born in 1922. He won't be 89 until April of 2011.

Very nice seeing pictures of Larry Webb and his friends. I remember him from his crew cut days.