11 replies to this topic

[T54]

Historic Indianapolis cars at AAA Speedway (formerly California Speedway)

We sure had a lot of fun last Friday and Saturday over four sessions on the big oval at the newly renamed AAA Auto-Club Speedway (WHAT???) at Fontana, California. Thanks to the generosity and kindness of sponsor Tom Malloy, himself a true fanatic of American racing cars, we had a great time at his museum on Friday evening, where food and wine were as terrific as the company. A little auction for CARA (what are they going to call it now that Tony G won the war by default?) and a great speech by Tom made things quite good.
Saturday PM, another speech with questions by IMS's historian Donald Davidson was quite entertaining, and he modestly admitted that he wanted to stay out of politics, that he did not know it all and was impressed by the audience's knowledge. Pretty cool.
On track, no stupid "pace car" crawling below idle speed on front of farting Offy's like at Indy, we are allowed to go as fast as we dare. And... we do! No one had any encounters with any wall except for one brief brain fade by an entrant with a freshly restored Offy "Big Car" who lost his brakes and decided to attempt a left turn to get back in the pits. He found a steel pole that was stronger than his front end. Fortunately he was not hurt beyond being a bit sore and quite embarrassed.

Below are a few pics I took there:



Denny Hulme's 1969 Eagle-Ford turbo Indy car being warmed up. It is now integral part of a new museum in Riverside, where there are two other Eagles being rebuilt at this time.



The whole bodywork at the back is sheet aluminum, another triumph in elegant fabrication by Phil Remington.



An amazing 1950's dragster powered by a 1924 Hispano-Suiza engine. This thing MOVED! Massive torque from the huge lump. Not so fast on track due to its limited top speed.



A scary sight but the thing actually worked...



Some of the cars present there. The yellow and red car is the rear-engine 1964 Watson-Offy driven by Johnnie Parsons.



The Simoniz Spl of Larry P.



One of the works Studebakers during the "junk formula" in the mid 1930's. This one belonging to Mike Leary of the "Tall People Club".



The green...blue... whatever Cooper T54 that has now run 2000 miles since its resurrection from the dead. I had great fun with it almost flat out while being careful not to smash it or blow its precious guts.



Roger Ward should have won the '64 race with this Watson-Ford. A.J. Foyt saw it otherwise and signed the last-ever win for the dinosaurs.



The McNamara Chiropractic Spl., perfect if you get a bit stiff driving the "500" in this car built for strong men with large biceps.



Yours Truly playing Paul Russo replica in the '57 Novi V8 replica.

All in all we had a great time and I look forward to get my new Eagle on track soon. It's still in the assembly stage... :

T54

[David M. Kane]

T54:

I was at Fontana about 3 years ago when you guys ran. Awesome! Good on Tom Molloy, he's very good driver too, I met him at the SFOS in New Zealand about 8 years ago. He had several cars down there with him a BT-21 and if I remember correctly his Lola T-70. You look great in that Novi, what a car!

[T54]

Thanks David. Tom Malloy is a true enthusiast and quite a good driver for a guy who picked up the sport when he was over 50...

[fines]

So there's still hope for me (41)!!!

Philippe, it's not very clear to see in your photos, but the Hisso isn't per chance a full V8? As everyone should know, most of these engines were "sawn" in half (actually, one block was removed and the crankcase sealed) to make for a very torquey Sprint Car engine of 5.9 litres; otoh the full monty would probably haul the mail just as well...

[T54]

It was and is a 4-banger. A BIG one. Please LOOK HERE , there is one of them showing.
Regards,

T54

[fines]

Nice site, but Hissos weren't "limited (...) to outlaw racetracks as few sanctioning bodies would allow Hissos to compete", actually they fitted exactly into AAA's 6-liter (366 CID) formula that was valid from 1930 until at least 1937. I always thought that the 3-liter supercharged (183 CID)/4.5-liter unsupercharged (274 CID) formula of 1938 would also have applied to the halfmiles, but the Della Torre/Hisso mentioned on that very web page competed in AAA until at least 1939! In 1941, the limit was finally lowered to 3360 cc (205 CID).

[RA Historian]

Originally posted by T54




Some of the cars present there. The yellow and red car is the rear-engine 1964 Watson-Offy driven by Johnnie Parsons.

Actually, Don Branson drove the yellow and red Watson powered by the Meyer-Drake four in 1964. Neither Parsons Sr or Jr drove Indy cars that year.

Regarding the rear-engine Watson-Ford that Ward drove in 1964, wasn't the engine set on full rich all race, thus necessitating extra pit stops which may have been the difference between first and second?

[T54]

You are correct in both counts. The fact that the name "Don Branson" is on the car should have been a clue for me all weekend!
"They all sound the same to me" is my excuse.

[Frank S]

Four more views of the Hisso Spl., these from Monterey 2004:

[rl1856]

Originally posted by RA Historian


Regarding the rear-engine Watson-Ford that Ward drove in 1964, wasn't the engine set on full rich all race, thus necessitating extra pit stops which may have been the difference between first and second?

Ward was one of the only drivers to run his Ford engine on gas instead of methanol. The methanol engines broke, the gas engines did not....but developed less HP and performance was somewhat lower than expected.

Refills may have played a part, but so did lower HP.

I recall all of this from reading the race report in Sports Car Graphic (Aug 64).

Best,

Ross

[aaron]

Great collection of cars actually running on the track. Keep up the good work! Regards, Aaron.

[cavvy]

Great stuff T54. Can you direct me to a site to allow me to plan to catch these 'monsters' in the flesh - not too many examples downunder.