txtom

If you need help with scanning let me know, I am doing a lot of that right now.

Thanks Bart, I have a profound interest in anything that relates to this track, due to the involvement my father and grand father had with it. If you look at page 3 of the 1948 program, you will see that the race was presented by a group called Racing International of Texas. The president, Allen Guiberson, was a well noted Dallas/Chicago business man that developed lots of oil field tooling. He also designed and sold diesel radial engines for Army tanks. In the very early 40's, Guiberson had one of his 1020 radials installed on a Stinson Reliant, and my Grandfather was the pilot for the program. The diesel program was suspended during WWII, and dropped when it became apparent that jet engines were the future. Guiberson was also a sports car enthusiast who entered a few races in the World Sportscar Championships with various drivers that included Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, Ernie Triplett and Richie Ginther. He also had an interest in Indianapolis racing. My Grandfather's Association with Guiberson set the stone for my families involvement to this day. The vice president of the sanctioning group was a man named E. Fred Lockwood, and I don't have any real history of him. The Secretary/Treasurer, E. Babe Stapp, was a driver with a checkered history as a driver, but he also was the technical advisor for the movie "To Please a Lady" with Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck, which was partially filmed at Arlington Downs. My Mother has a picture of my Grandparents and the Stapps having dinner somewhere in the late 40's. Babe Stapp's son Stephen is the noted Indy/sprint builder and mechanic. Notable also is the Chief Starter for the race, Les Butler of Dallas. He needs no introduction to anyone even remotely familiar with Dallas racing history.. I will pull out a few things about all this in the next couple weeks,

Arlington Downs raceway was located in Arlington, Texas. This facility started life as a horse racing track located on property owned by W.T. Waggoner, the same person responsible for the huge North Texas Waggoner ranch. It opened for business in November 1929. It featured a 6,000 seat grandstand. The first auto race was a 100 mile AAA Championship race held on November 2, 1947, and won by Ted Horn with Paul Russo, Emil Andres, Eddie Zalucki and Milt Fankhouser rounding out the top 5. In the coming weeks I will have a couple more for this track, as well as a couple other collections of some historical significance. Here are programs from 3 events from 1948 to 1950. https://public.fotki.com/txtom/racing-programs/arlington-downs-raceway/

Josh, from all the years I have gone there, get your cash before you leave home. There are places to get cash but none that I would stop at. This is not a bashing of anything with the track; rather the hood that surrounds it.

That driver that finished 2nd was George Eaton in a McLaren. He was the only other driver to finish on the lead lap. Eaton was a mostly SCCA racer with some starts in other series.

Hello Ed, There are still a few around who would like to see any history of the area tracks. Any stories, pictures, news articles, etc. There does not seem to much out there about Pan American # 1 anymore; and very early Pan Am# 2 is getting hard to find also. Speaking for several others, I would relish seeing any other pictures you may have from that era. If you need help scanning pics or news articles, i can help with that also. Thanks, Tom

What was left of the Hood collection was given to given to the Ware Family upon Teds' passing. It was a hodgepodge of different pics, negatives, proof sheets, etc. Several years back, all of it was scanned, but the person scanning loaded up a scanner bed and copied them that way. That resulted in the scans having anywhere from 1 to 10 individual pics in them. Some of the years are just proof sheets which will be difficult to expand to a decent size. There are 5900+ scans in the collection. I have disk copies of the scans, and I am working on organizing them as I find time. A few years and some assorted pics are already on my FOTKI site. Another year ((1968 pics) will be added in the very near future once I finish it. When I say finish, I am separating the scans into individual pics, then correcting the contrast or color. The originals are stored away from the public. Here is a link to the 1967 pics. It starts out with pics from an ARCA race. I will be going back to id as many pics as possible. https://public.fotki.com/txtom/auto-racing/pan-american-speedway/pan-american-1967/ Hers is a link to some early 60's coupes. https://public.fotki.com/txtom/auto-racing/pan-american-speedway/early-60s-coupes/ Glad to see you back here Buddy. how have you been?

Would be great to see more from Mr Bowles. Very interesting stuff to help clear up and fill some holes in the history.

Lets all wish Nick a very Happy Birthday! Do it quick, before he forgets that this is his special day!

William G, In some of my research, I have found the location of the Lloyd Smith track called Texas Speedway. It was off Greenwood Road, and was basically in the same place at the Riverside track that came along later. the location of Riverside would be just due west of the Texas Speedway location, and you could throw a rock from the center of one to the center of where the other one was. There is some kind of industrial yard at the end of greenwood before it detours at OSO Creek; The equipment yard is directly over where Texas Speedway was, and Riverside is behind the equipment yard backed up to the creek.

Pontiac, none of them are around. Right now, Heart of Texas Speedway in Waco is probably the longest continually running track in the state, having started in it's current location in April, 1966. There was a previous Heart of Texas that ran for 10 years in a different location. The only track I know of that was active in the 50's and is still around is the Corpus Christi Speedway that opened in 1946 and has been both dirt and asphalt, but it is currently been closed the past couple or three years. The property is currently being leased for non racing business, and the future of the track is still a little up in the air.

Gonna edit here to mix a mixup in my notes---- There was a track in in Rockdale located at 274 CR 308A. About a half mile north of US 79 on the west side of Rockdale. On certain maps you can see the outline. Two possible tracks in Thorndale. One was located at 1090 Sandoval Road about a half mile west of North 3rd Street. Certain maps still show an outline. This first one may have been a horsetrack due to size. The other one which seems more promising was located at 498 CR 443 North of Town. On certain maps you can see the outline. Track in Belton located at 9084 Prairie View Avenue. Just North of Prairie view and Just east of SR 317. You can see where it once was. There was also a half mile dirt track in Taylor about 1910 to 1919, but I have not found a record on location Nathan and Lester, There have been tracks in places I aint even heard of. I am slowly compiling stuff like this. There were a few dirt tracks in Austin also, and i am trying to compile some locations. Austin Speedway was one located at the corner of Ben White and South Lamar. Another one, name unknown, was two different size tracks located just south of HWY 183, and east of SR 1closer to Burnet Road. A street named Melshire was the basic location of it; The Austin Antique Mall and Playland Skate Center just off 183 is about the north end of the track.

With all that has gone on in 2017, I have not had much time to devote to our racing history. But I spent some time this past week to organize some pictures and and scan them to my FOTKI Site. It is a kinda hodgepodge mixture of just under 12,000 pics that includes Pan American and other area tracks, USRA, ROMCO, TSRS, and several other classes. Some of the album are very large , some only have a few enrties. I might add that I have another large group of pictures coming that centers around Kyle, and I am working on, and will have most of it posted in the next few weeks,. When I say large, it is 20,000+ pics. A collection from Pan American is in the works; that one is taking a lot of time due to the work involved in restoring the prints and separating multiple scans into individual files. There are 5900+ scans in that collection to go through. Most are not my pictures, but I did not get photographer information with them. If I can find out, I will credit the photographers. I do know that almost all the Pan American stuff was taken by the late Ted Hood. Click this link to see what is new: http://public.fotki.com/txtom/

Mike, There is one of Wayne's old Supers in the Pensacola/Mobile area.I would guess this is the car you are asking about. It was restored some time back, and while I do not know the present owner, I am friends with Wayne's daughter Waynetta and his son Junior, and they know all about it. I can get with her about it's current status and post it here. I do know from talking with Waynetta that it has changed hands a time or two. When I get home from work, I can post a pic of the car with Waynetta and Wayne JR posing beside it.

Ochiltree is an unincorporated hamlet in the county of the same name. It is basically the Perryton, Texas area. The 2 mile track mentioned held two race events; the first was a 2 day show June 16 and 17, 1916. The Friday race had 7 entries for a 150 Mile race, the winner was a man named either B.A or R.A Pitman of Shattuck, Oklahoma. Saturday saw two events; the first was a 50 mile Ford race, won by an unknown Texas driver. The second race was a 200 mile event won again by Pitman. The track held an event again on September 16, 1916. It was a 50 mile motorcycle race, and a 150 mile auto race. I have never seen any results listed for this event. Think about 7 entries on a two mile track; in that era, it was common for an event to have 4 to 8 entries in the field. Now that we are talking about big tracks in Texas; Given your handle "OldGalveston", do you have any information on the races held in Galveston around 1910 to 1914? Held at Denver Beach, although I can't find a reference stating its' location. There was a 5 mile oval and a 2 1/2 mile oval at the basic same location. Share anything ya know about this location!

The first San Antonio Speedway. Built in 1920 between Pleasanton Road and South Flores on the south side of Military. Sanctioned by the old AAA group, and the first race was January, 1921 with car and motorcycle races in front of an estimated 18-20,000 spectators. Average speed around the course was a whopping 60 MPH. There is record of this track holding events until the late 20's; it may have run longer. The article also refers to New Braunfels. There was a limited number of events held on the horsetrack that is part of the Comal County fair complex on Common Street. They were held in the late 20's.

Danny, Is that pic of the Stock Car taken at Saugus?

I think how you see it is how the owner got it, both cars. They belong to Ronnie Burke there in Houston; he bought them earlier this year as a package deal. Think he told me they were somewhere in the Houston area. The event was at Texas World Speedway; part of the Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing (CVAR) meet this past weekend. They invited the VTOW group to be a part of their race weekend.

Saw this one this past weekend,; not sure if you have seen it. Was told it is a Wahlborg. This is it's big brother, has an Offy.

I used to use paint, but i have been saving myself time this way: Scan your pictures and save them to a folder. Right click on the folder, and go to "send to" , and then mail receipiant. it will bring up a window asking if you want to resize the pics, or keep the original. Click resize, Medium. When your email comes up with the pics already attached, email them back to yourself. Your email to yourself will have the pics resized for ya. I use this when I am scanning large quantities. i have emailed as many as 100 pics back to myself, and it took about 5-7 minutes. You can't do it that quick manually.

Nick, you are right about thst being a long time ago. The Rapper actually has a full head of hair...........................

Ya'll may be both interested and saddened to learn of the passing of George McBride, Doug's Father. Here is a link to the Obit: Obit

I'd ID this one, but that wouldn't be fair, since I saw it on Randy's forum...! Don't remember the exact post it is on, but there is a pic of a restored plowman Mustang on this forum. It did not say which car it was, but I do know the last car I saw him in was a Mustang built by Bobby Allison, and he brought it to San Antonio, maybe 1981 or so.

That has to be an Olds. What size depends on the year. The Olds Rocket was introduced in 1949, as the first mass-produced V8 in America. The engine size was 303 until 1953. Bore was 3.73 inches, and Stroke was 3.3475 inches. In 1954, when they brought out the 324. This engine had a bore increase to 3.875. Stroke remained the same. In 1957, it grew to 371. The bore was 4.00 inches, with a stroke of 3.6875 inches. This engine was the basis for the popular J2 Golden Rocket that is so popular with Rodders. This is the one that came with 3 2 bbl carbs with vacuum on the front and rear carbs. In 1959, the largest first generation Rocket came out at 391 inches. It had a bore of 4.124 with the 3.6875 stroke. You could get this one through 1964. Would be interesting to know which one that sprinter has in it. Or if it is a modified version of the above. Answer from a reliable source below: The sprint car was first built in 1957 in the San Fransisco area by a builder named Mattis. It was owned by Mr Maidt of Half Moon Bay, Ca. Drivers were Ted Griffith of San Fransisco, Bob Veith and Mike Johnson. Cub Barnett built the engine. Ken Holder of Concord built the roll cage in 1961 and Hank Marsh worked on the car. The car always ran in the NARC series in Northern California at tracks in Calistoga, Watsonville, and Chico. Originally the car was painted gold metalflake. It has a ’56 Pontiac V8 with (4) 97 carbs, and Vertex Mag. Info provided by Ken Pylant

Buddy, here is the basics: Here is a couple links with more information: Historical Indy Cars and: CVAR Pops, meself, and the little shadow (Michael) will be there.