22 replies to this topic

[Cogs]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to canvas the board for information on and any photos of War Bonnet Raceway outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. As a native Okie, I had never heard of this track until recently. I was surprised to learn that the track ownership managed to land one of the earlier Trans-Am races.

I asked my dad about it (he would've been in the prime of his racing career at that time) and he admitted that he had completely forgotten about War Bonnet. He was more of a dirt oval racer, but he said that he had always wanted to go up there and watch the races (it's about an hour and a half drive from our home). Once I got his memory hitting on all eight, he said it was definitely a big deal when they got the Trans-Am cars to come to Oklahoma. Dad also recalled one of the regular customers from his old engine shop that used to race up there.

I've seen the track map on racingcircuits.com and what's astonishing to me is that ,from the 1995 aerial photo that I was able to from that webpage, it looks as though the entire track is still intact, serving as a loopy road in a subdivision! See for yourself:

http://www.terraserv...y=5004&z=14&w=2

I live in Seattle now, but everytime I go back to OK my family goes on little day trips insearch of historic places and oddities. I'd definitely like to go there and get some ideas as to how it looked so I can compare it to how it looks now.

Anyone have photos, rememberences?

Cogs

[JB Miltonian]

Hello, Cogs:

I took a quick look through my library of old magazines, and came across a 3-page article on the 1968 War Bonnet Trans-Am in "Sports Car Graphic" July 1968. The heading: "A Live Theatrical Production, complete with comedy, near-tragedy, and extreme human pathos." There are three pictures, two on the track and one of a crew member shoveling mud in the pits!

If you are interested in this little tidbit, I can shoot you a copy. I'm near Seattle (nearer to Tacoma).

Regards, Jeff

[Cogs]

That would be great! I sent you a PM with my email so you can contact me--Thanks!

Any other folks out there with this kind of info?

Cogs

[WDH74]

The only thing I gleaned about War Bonnet is from Dave Friedman's Trans Am picture book. Apparently the race at WB was the only one that the Shelby team had a chance of winning, because they built their own engines. Ford didn't like that, and took away that privilege, and the Ford provided mills weren't very reliable.
-William

[driveral]

Cogs,

I'm sure you already tried it but just in case you didn't do a Google search. I got 8 sites returned. I didn't follow all the links from those sites. Interesting enough one of the pages was for a previous mention of WBR on Atlas F1.


ajb

[Cogs]

Thanks for your replies, fellas. The Friedman book was actually how I came to know about the War Bonnet Raceway--although I wasn't born 'til '69, I feel like I should've known about this place sooner!

JB Miltonian sent me an excellent three page article from Autoweek recapping the events of the Trans-Am there, and it also provides some fodder for prognosticating about why they didn't return the following years. Thanks!

I did do some cursory net searches and turned up a few websites chronicling some '60's SCCA racers whose home track it was. Other than that, there isn't much out there. I'm gonna keep snooping, though. JB Miltonian also had a recommendation of someone I should try to get in touch with to learn more.

Cogs

[Don Capps]

Don't forget that War Bonnet Raceway Park hosted rounds of the SCCA Grand Prix Championship in 1967 and 1968.

I was quite amazed and amused to see that the circuit was simply converted to the subdivision streets. That doesn't happen all that often. Interesting to see such minor change in the outline of the circuit over the years.

Nice to add it to the collection. I kept meaning to take a look, but somehow never got around to it.... ....the story of my life here.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by Don Capps
Don't forget that War Bonnet Raceway Park hosted rounds of the SCCA Grand Prix Championship in 1967 and 1968.

I was quite amazed and amused to see that the circuit was simply converted to the subdivision streets. That doesn't happen all that often. Interesting to see such minor change in the outline of the circuit over the years.

Nice to add it to the collection. I kept meaning to take a look, but somehow never got around to it.... ....the story of my life here.

I was going to mention War Bonnet also hosting the SCCA Formula Championship races, but Don beat me to it

It is interesting to see the roads used for subdivision streets. The Lynndale Farms circuit in Wisconsin is another example of that. And the Lake Tahoe GP circuit also used in the inaugural season for the SCCA Formula Championship, but that's a bit different as it was planned to be part of a development. I haven't got around to checking an aerial photo or map, but I imagine it's unchanged as well. I'll have to dig out the Autoweek with the diagram listing the streets.

Was War Bonnet on property owned by John Zink? I've heard that, but can't count on the veracity of it. If it was, it would explain a lot.

[Cogs]

Well, I did it!

I went back home to visit my home state, and took a side trip from my hometown of Norman, OK up to Mannford. The track was intact and easy to find. It is called "Keystone Loop" and the "subdivision" is actually a trailer park!

Judging from the few photos I have and considering the proximity of Old Highway 51, the track appears to have been run clockwise.

Some parts of it are newly paved (!) and other parts are badly potholed, with the worst part of the circuit being (what I believe is) the right hander on the short course that leads onto a short back-straight. Still, it is completely uninterrupted and appears to have been a pretty darned fun track with a surprising amount of elevation change (Oklahoma is actually quite rolling--not flat as most people think of it). The off-camber doglegs abound and the hairpins look pretty challenging, especially the one spilling back on to the main straight. There is a big gully (probably about a 40-50ft. drop) that has a little bridge over it as part of the course.

Pictures of all of this will soon follow. Naturally, the digital camera battery took a doo-doo and I had to finish out the trip with plain old film.

Stay tuned!

Cogs

[HistoricMustang]

Cogs, get those pictures up for others to enjoy. Nothing like visiting where the great ones raced (and socialized!).

Henry

[Jimmy Piget]

I beleft that this War Bonnet Raceway was still in use, but renamed "Hallet Raceway", and hosting current regional SCCA races.
I guess I was wrong.
Where is actually located the "Hallet Raceway" ?

[Lotus23]

Jimmy, Hallett (2 t's) is still alive and well. Has its own current website: www.hallettracing.com

[Cogs]

Originally posted by Jimmy Piget
I beleft that this War Bonnet Raceway was still in use, but renamed "Hallet Raceway", and hosting current regional SCCA races.
I guess I was wrong.
Where is actually located the "Hallet Raceway" ?

This is a common misconception as it turns out. The very-much-in-operation Hallett Raceway is only about 10 miles from the old War Bonnet. In fact, I would recommend consulting the TerraServer link at the beginning of this thread to see just how close the two sites are to each other! BTW, the actual outline of the Hallett course appears in the popular "Gazeteer" brand of atlases even though it is not public road!

Cogs

[Cogs]

Let's see if this works:

This is taken from what appears to be the starting grid. The pits are just to the left and my vantage point is with the pit entrance behind me and the track entrance just to the left edge of the pic.

Please somone let me know if this is not the proper way to use the ImageShack setup...I've never posted photos before here!



Cogs

[Cogs]

That seemed to work just fine, so I'll toss on a couple more!

Here's the first turn...assuming I'm going the right way!;)



The fork in the road is where you either turn left to go on the long course or right to do the short course:



I'll get some more pics up later. Hope you enjoy them!

Cogs

[ggnagy]

if you have not allready been there, you can find some pictures of War Bonnet "back in the day" at Charlene's Rouges Gallery

[Cogs]

Here's the left-hander where the long course splits away from the short one.


Meanwhile, the short course continues on with what appears to be a tricky double-apex situation. In the latter of these two pics you can see the long course reuniting with the back stretch.





Here's a reverse angle of the last turn...if you go to the link referred to by ggnagy, you'll see several action shots from this vantage point. Must've been pretty exciting as it is very much off-camber!


For some perspective, here's the link to the aerial again: http://www.terraserv...686&Y=20020&W=2

Can't wait to get the photos of the long course back!

Cogs

[Cogs]

Here are a few articles/clippings sent to me by JB Miltonian, who was nice enough to dig through his stash.

http://img7.exs.cx/m...article12kq.jpg
http://img7.exs.cx/m...article24oh.jpg
http://img7.exs.cx/m...article32ws.jpg
http://img127.exs.cx...narticle0zg.jpg
http://img7.exs.cx/m...narticle8tq.jpg

Cogs

[jfl99]

Great pictures of the old track. Cogs and I have been in contact since he found my wife's web site which has pictures of the old War Bonnet track.

I've got more pictures that need to be put up and with the air shots will do that in our next update. I've got several slides that need to be made into prints. Some show the start/finish straight going into the 1st turn of the "short" track real well. Yes, they went clockwise and I doubt very much they ever went counterclockwise with that hairpin turn the way it was (which was the last turn going clockwise). Way too narrow and uphill counterclockwise.

War Bonnet was NOT on Zink property as far as I know. Almost positive someone else owned it.

John Zink, who owned and sponsored several Indy cars back in 60s and had a big "heater/furnace" company in Tulsa, had a practice track on north side of Tulsa near Skiatook on what was called "Zink Ranch". The local SCCA held autocrosses there. I've got several pictures of that place also on my wife's web site. It was a long way off from War Bonnet track. It was too small to hold any races but was great for tuning cars and autocrosses.

I also knew the guy who built John Zink's motors. An old fella who lived in, of all places, Arkansas City, Kansas, which is located about 30 miles or less north of Ponca City...which also had a real good track which was a county park, like Garnett and Lake Afton, Kansas. He did engine work for my brother and I in the 70s.

In fact some fella has Lake Afton and Hallett set up for one of the hot computer race games and you can drive those old tracks. We've told him he ought to do Ponca City. Now I'll tell him about War Bonnet. I've driven them and the Lake Afton software gives a very close/realistic feel to the track as I remember it.

Hallett is a completely different track which was built in mid 70s (about 77 or 78). I went to the first two pro races there...back to back weekends of Trans Am and IMSA with people like Peter Gregg.
It is out on Cimarron Turnpike a distance west of Tulsa. I need to look on map to see where it is in relationship to Manford and War Bonnet. I have a gut feeling it is norwest of there.

Hallett was started, I believe, by a friend of a friend of mine, Anatoly (Toly) Arutunoff, who owned the foreign car dealership (Lotus etc) in Tulsa. Either that, or he bought it later. I think he sold it to someone later but maybe he still owns it and leases it out. I've heard several stories on that.

Toly and I would run into each other at different races over the years. The last time I saw him was at a Wichita Grand Prix at Lake Afton in the 80s. But he is still racing. Saw that he was running an Opal GT this past year at an SCCA race in Ft. Worth at Texas Motor Speedway. Toly won the national SCCA Championship in H production in his Morgan in the 70s. During the early 80s Toly raced a Lancia Stratos (better known for rally wins) in IMSA races, including the Miami GP and Riverside GP where we saw him a couple of different times when we lived out there.

The city of New Manford is putting together a tourist stop/museum of sorts and has been in contact with me about my letting them use a letter that was written to me by a friend of mine, Allan Girlder, a noted auto and motorcylce author, about the famous War Bonnet race where a tornado went through the track. It's up on my wife's web site, too. Allan was the friend of Toly's I was talking about earlier.

I ran War Bonnet's first driver's school and regional race. I used two borrowed cars, a Lotus Super 7 (owned by Allan) and another Lotus 7 America. That first school had a number of new drivers who later became moderately famous. I believe one even ran Indy once...if I'm not mistaken. A couple became National SCCA champions. I think an entry list is up on the web site. If not, I'll post it later.

Yes, the track does have a decent amount of elevation change. You really noticed it going into the last turn which was a hairpin onto the start/finish straight. The first turn was fun and then there was what was generally considered a decreasing radius right turn which was tricky and then a blind, off camber left hand turn that was "interesting" to say the least. If you went off there you'd tumble downhill towards the start/finish straight and timing and scoring. I saw a couple of cars do that.

The track, from the air view, looks long but in reality was just over a mile and very short when you drove it. The only time there was to even blink a bit and look at instruments was down the long front start/finish straight. Otherwise, you were extremely busy the rest of the way. It didn't feel anything like it looks from the air. Believe me.

I had a heck of a race in the Lotus 7 against Mrs. Dick Durant who was driving a fuel injected Corvette powered C Modified (A sports racer). She'd pull me big time down straight but I'd catch her in the turns and we'd be neck and neck going into the final turn. Fun. Her husband's car was built like the Lotus 7 (tube chasis with aluminum and fiberglass body) but 2+ times bigger and heavier of course. And not near as sophisticated. Very short wheelbase for its size/width.

It was also a track that was fun because, in the Lotus 7, I was competitive with the Cobras and Corvettes. Beat several of them. I was gridded on 2nd row with Corvettes and Cobras all around me. I was 2nd in the first turn, however. We had standing starts back then. Man, those Cobras and Vettes looked HUGE when sitting in a Lotus 7.

I was there watching the Trans Am race and have a couple of bad pictures of it from spectator area that overlooked pits and turn where the long track takes off from the short track. If I remember correctly, it was darn cold and wet...or maybe just wet...because I stayed in my car the entire day watching the race. I never ventured out to see the new, long addition. It just went off into the distance and couldn't be seen from my location.

I never did run or even see the "new" part of the track before I went off to Vietnam. The track folded pretty quickly, before I got back from Vietnam in 1970 and started racing again in my TR4. I did my first "refresher" driver's school at Texas World Speedway in the summer of 70. I drove Ponca City in July 71. So, if War Bonnet had been running, I think I would have gone. But I was stationed in Texas, so maybe it was just too far to go. I ran Ponca because my parents had moved there and it had been the very first sports car races I'd ever seen...when I was in college in the early to mid 60s.

I also have never run Hallett because, right after it was built, we moved to California and then, by the time we arrived in Texas in 1980, I was out of racing. My brother has driven it several times in my old TR4 and even held a track record for a while in the 80s...or maybe still does since it was while running the track "backwards". I have been there for some vintage races in the past year or so and I hope to run my vintage Mini Cooper there this year...or even my brother's TR4 which he's just restored.

Anyways, too bad the old track isn't still in use. Too bad someone doesn't patch it up and run it at least once a year for vintage racing. That'd be cool. They could use it as some sort of fund raiser for someone like the local rural fire department. Doesn't look like many, if any, houses on the short course.

[Cogs]

Great post, 99!

Just the kind of stuff I was hoping to hear about. Having seen the track now I can echo your statement about how busy the short course would have been. It really doesn't even feel like a mile.

I did get ahold of Toly Arutunoff who was nice enough to provide a few reminiscences. JB Miltonian told me that among Toly's experiences were also a couple of runs at the Targa Florio, which is another thing I'd love to hear about from someone who's done it firsthand. At any rate, here are the few tidbits he furnished me:

--he only ran there once (on the long course) in his Abarth 2000sp
--the track was owned by someone named "Bob"
--the financial situation under which the track was built was so dicey that the owner actually tried
homesteading it while living in the scoring tower!
--the track provided the name for the Corvette's "War Bonnet Yellow" paint color

Perhaps the best thing that Mr. Arutunoff did for this pursuit was to forward the email addresses of the folks who actually ran the track. I will be contacting them soon.

I also found a cool AMC advertisement which ran in prominent car mags. After the AMC Javelin finished an astonishing second (and fourth) at War Bonnet the ad mildly boasted "In Only Our Second Trans-Am Race, We Almost Finished First".

A John Zink connection didn't seem likely being that Zink was so successful and well-financed (precisely the opposite of poor old War Bonnet).

It's funny, 99, that you brought up the "Zink Ranch". My dad just told me about how Zink had a 1/2 mile dirt oval on his land. Zink and his drivers could tweak and tune Zink's cars making them almost impossible for a guy like my dad to beat! Speaking of Zink, Supers, and War Bonnet, I ran across a photo that showed Super Modifieds actually running at War Bonnet. I'll try to find it and post a link here.

I have read the story about the tornado-interrupted race (how Oklahoma is that!) and I seem to recall some language about lap times on the short course being in the 55-60 second range. What about in the dry? Also, I'd like to hear more about the interest that the town of New Mannford has in preserving the site. I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that.

Cogs

[jfl99]

As I remember, from the get go, War Bonnet was on "iffy" ground. I think most of us were not sure an event was really going on until we got there, especially later...like in 67/68. Of course we were happy to have a track near us and really hoped it would go.

New Manford isn't trying to "preserve" the track but rather at least put up a small display at their info/tourist HQ. I'm just surprised that, since it does actually exist, someone hasn't tried to preserve it a bit more. Of couse that costs money.

I've got a photo (I think up on my wife's site) of Toly at Riverside and have video tapes of him in the very first two Miami Grand Prixs (aired only on Hispanic channel for several years here in SA anyways). This was long before Speed Channel.

Interesting other tidbits you've come across.

Actually, the Zink ranch test track included a figure 8 in the oval. I've got pictures that show that if one looks in the background. That's how it could be used as an autocross track.

The track/ranch was actually several miles north of Skiatook. One took some major highway out of Skiatook due north for some distance and, if memory serves, we took a left (west) for a while and then took another left (south) into the ranch. This may be off but I do know we went north of Skiatook. There was a huge pecan orchard being put in on the east side of the road not too far out of Skiatook at that time.

The track was a bit of a distance back into the ranch. The ranch was, and I bet still is, mostly used for Boy Scouts. Wonder if it can be located on one of the maps like you located War Bonnet? Bet it might still be there. Why tear it up? Would cost too much.

Yes, I believe I heard that they ran the Super Modifieds there. But by that time I was living in Joplin going to college in Pittsburg, Kansas, and working 60 hours a week at two different jobs and didn't have time to go to the race.

I did go to a War Bonnet race, probably in very late 1967 or early 1968, where a friend of mine was racing my TR4. I had lent him the car to go to Daytona Beach for the 1967 SCCA runoffs in November and let him keep it aftwards and he later ran a race at War Bonnet.

I've got a photo of him going down the start/finish straight. He kept the car while I went into the service and to Vietnam and bought his own TR4 while I was there. I picked my car up when I got back from Vietnam and started racing again while still in the service as an enlisted man. Later, in the early 80s I believe, my brother, who was then racing my old TR4, bought this guy's TR4 (from another owner) for parts etc. The fellow who raced my car was H. R. "Red" Stanford out of Bartlesville.

BTW, when I was about 15, probably about 1961, I bought an old 1930s bodied stock car from a guy who had won the Tulsa stock car championships years before. The car had been sitting for a long time at a body shop downtown. It was something like a 1938 Ford Coupe. Was set up perfect. First time out, with a real young friend of mine driving it, we nearly won whatever class the car would have been running at that time. Not the "hot dog" class of course. It was an old flathead. I never raced it, selling it not long after buying it...which pleased my mother at the time.

[Cogs]

The Zink Ranch is indeed still used for Boy Scouts--one of my brothers is involved with scouting as well as racing, and he took the kids to the Ranch. He didn't get to see the track, but he verified that it is still there.

Here are some more morsels:


Jerry Titus & "The Wall" in the War Bonnet 250


Super Modifieds of Pete York and Buddy Cagle dicing it up at War Bonnet. Pic is courtesy of www.racercity.com which has an incredible collection of photos from the heyday of these thundering beasts.


Cheeky AMC ad mentioned earlier. The copy illustrates just how fierce the competition between the factories was and epitomizes the 'win on Sunday, sell on Monday' ethos.

It's not hard to imagine how your Lotus 7 could gobble up those Vettes on that short course. It's kinda the same with my good ol' Honda CB160 vs. BSA's, Matchless, and anything else in the 500cc class running on a tighter course. Not much time for those things to stretch their legs.

I have an email in to a woman who used to work the track. Hopefully that will turn up some more bits.

While visiting my folks, I also had my dad take me up to the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds where he used to drag race and later run his Super. The strip is still there and according to dad, the OKCPD occasionally uses it to practice squad car manuvers. He also attended the roadrace that was held there in the late 50's which was mentioned in this thread:

http://forums.atlasf...&threadid=15129

He pointed out a vague description of how the course was laid out through the streets of the OKC fairgrounds.

Cogs

[Cogs]

Thanks to my brother, Ryan, I have more photos on the way.

These two should pretty much round out the short course.



Here's the back stretch after the hairpin righty with the rutted, potholed tarmac that I posted before.




This is the the entry to the last turn--the descending hairpin with the off-camber exit onto the straightaway. I posted a view of this turn as seen from the pits earlier. I'd say it's about a 10-15 foot drop from where I'm standing to the straight which begins just beyond the little slice of fencing you see in the extreme right corner of the picture.

Also of note in this photo the close proximity of old State Highway 51 as described by the stop sign and the utility wires in the background. The grassy area beyond the turn is the pit area. There used to be a big concrete wall dividing the pits from the track (see Jerry Titus photo). The magazine article account posted before tells the tale of how the hard charging Trans-Am drivers would get within mere inches of this wall as they hung the arse-end of the car out to power their way on to the straight. That must have been a helluva sight!

I must admit that it was hard to resist the temptation to throw my dad's ol' Cadillac in there one time, but I don't think my mom and Ryan who were in the car with me would have appreciated it much.

Cogs