57Tbird

Saw this notice in the Temple newspaper yesterday evening.

Mark, You're right on. That's how Bill described the business that Delmar was in.

I just got off the phone with Bill. I described the picture to him and he remembered the car and said '70 - '72 sounds about right. He said the name on the hood was CHEVY A-GOGO. He said it was owned by a fellow in Dallas whose name was Belmar. Might have been Delmar.

Here's a view of Arrowhead at the upper left. This photo was taken in the early 50's. Your memory of the location is very good. That's OST to the south; Old Main/Fannin to the east; S. Main to the west; Holcombe to the north.

Here is the monorail model you mentioned that was erected sometime in 1956 after Arrowhead was gone.

This is the only fatality listed for Meyer. Maybe it's not complete, but I've found it's a pretty good source.

T-Bird

I could have sworn the accident was 1965 from what I remember..

85

In the background, the man on the right appears to be Tony Foyt. Billy Wade is in the middle. Not sure about the one on the left.

 

4PROP to the rescue! (Archie senior's grand-son.) "Thx, 57."

 

Silvia,

First, let me extend a welcome to the USA and a welcome back to your husband. Thanks for sharing this photo with the forum. It was taken in front of the Playland Speedway ticket booth. Hey 57Tbird, does the concession stand at the right of the picture look familiar?

I'll get with you off line, but to clear one thing up, Archie senior pictured here was your husband's great grand-dad. He passed away in 1981 from age related illness. His envolvement with local stock racing came to an end shortly after Bill Wade left for NASCAR. I'll provide more information about your husband's grand-dad off line.

 

I'll be in touch soon.

You're welcome! Glad you got connected.

I don't remember any tree near the concession stand like that right behind the car. Also, what would that lighted building be in the background just over Archie's head? You got me, 4PROP. After all, it's only been about 50 years.

He lives in Buffalo Texas I sent you and Email with his address.

Mark,

Unless he's moved in the last few months, this is not where Archie's grandson who sent me the pictures lives. Are you referring to someone else?

I think this is a legitmate request... BUT... Do not provide information about anyone without getting that person's specific OK to do so.

 

The best thing to do in a case like this is to notify the person who is being sought and let him/her contact the people doing the seeking themselves...

 

Thanks.

 

Nick Holt

Done

Is that an 8th street address? You're right about that part of Temple. 8th street was always off limits to GIs. Of course, when you're in the service, the Off Limits Roster was the first place you looked before going on week end pass. Few times I wished we had stayed off 8th Street.......

Close. It's on 4th Street

T-Bird,

 

Me and Rodlea haven't seen that car in over 40 years! Wonder what it would take to get it out of that garage some Saturday night next season and let us all have a look at it at THR some night?

I found the place in near-downtown Temple. I had the name misspelled. It should be Matush, not Matous, as I originally had it. Bill told me the name, and I misunderstood. The garage appears to be in the back of an apparently abandoned auto parts store. It was locked up and parts are scattered around on the floor. There is no listing in the Temple phone book for it. I'll get back with Bill after Christmas and see what we can find out. That car may have been moved somewhere else. I don't think I would leave it in that location.

BTW... Bill really appreciates all these old pictures y'all are coming up with. I print them and take them to him.

Mr. TBird, if you get back to see Bill and his wife, please ask if Bill has any pictures of the 2 car when he first bought it. Budman and I have been looking high and low to find a pic of the car as when Wade had it. thanks for all you have done.

Jim

Just got back from Bill's. He says about the only difference is that he lowered the top when he got it. He is going to look for some pictures he thinks he has. I'll post, if he finds them.

Here's a picture of Bill White's #3 roadster that he drove for awhile after he started driving the #2 that he purchased from Billy Wade. For some reason, he switched back to #2 and I don't know what ever happened to this #3. I think the #2 was probably a better car. Anyone remember #3?

Bill says the #3 was restored to its Indy configuration and has been sitting in Jody Matous's garage in Temple for years. I'll check into this and see if I can get a picture.

That sure was a pretty car that Cowboy had. Wonder where it wound up??? I have a friend that has been in the paint & body/restoration business for 50 years. He would like to get the old 2 car from Bill White and restore it. He wanted George's old 24 car but have exhausted any possibilities of finding it. I told him we could run up to Temple one day to see Bill.

Bill said he's hanging on to old #2. He doesn't know if he'll ever get around to restoring it, but he's keeping it.

Buddy,

Now that you mentioned the 2 brothers I remember them - Cook brothers. Pretty sure they were engine builders.The wheels and tires on the #3 car look the same as the #2 car - pretty sure they were the same wheels.

Rodney

Cook brothers... Ernie and Eddie

Appears to be Bill White standing behind a Modified/Super Modified Car in the late 60s at Meyer Speedway/Houston with turn three in the background. I don't recall ever seeing Bill White drive the car pictured, but it is possibly the car that was driven by Jackie Woosley that was in a serious crash that also involved a car driven by Bill White in/near Meyer Speedway turn two.

 

No bill never drove that car for sure, you can tell by the look on his face what he thought of it. The more I think about it the more I think it was that ugly yellow super Clyde Johnson drove. Clyde lived up around the WACO area I'm pretty sure. If T-Bird sees Bill again on his next trip to Temple he could ask him.

Actually, Bill thinks he did drive that car, but he's not absolutely sure. He doesn't think Clyde Johnson was the driver. He said Clyde was from Abilene.

He does remember the crash mentioned. Said he separated the engine from Woosley's car.

That sure was a pretty car that Cowboy had. Wonder where it wound up??? I have a friend that has been in the paint & body/restoration business for 50 years. He would like to get the old 2 car from Bill White and restore it. He wanted George's old 24 car but have exhausted any possibilities of finding it. I told him we could run up to Temple one day to see Bill.

I've been trying to call Bill for the last week and no answer. I went by his place last Thursday, and the gate was closed and locked. I have the questions that have been posted here to ask him, but I can't get in touch with him. Will try again next week. Let me know when you plan on coming up.

I wonder if the track shown in some of the pictures on this website is the Bellaire Speedway? It says it's in the1920's and located south of town.

I had hoped that the Houston Speed Bowl would show up on this cropped version of an old 1941 map of Houston, but all that shows in the area is Buff Stadium where I show the yellow arrow. Sorry I couldn't make it any bigger, but it gets blurred if I try to enlarge it. I found some other info that shows the Houston Speedbowl existed 1937-1942. The Houston Speed Bowl doesn't show near the "Ball Park" (Buff Stadium) in this 1935 map either.

While looking for the Houston Speed Bowl, I came across this website that mentions a Bellaire Speedway in Houston that existed from 1924-1929. Does anyone know where the Bellaire Speedway was? This is a neat website that has a lot of track and driver/fan fatality information. Take a look at it. Click on the options at the start for fatalities by Circuit, Name, Year, etc.

Here is a fatality listed for the Houston Speed Bowl.

I was almost age four when the '50 Thanksgiving pictures were made and had probably not attended an auto race yet, but I do recall seeing Stock Car Races there when Playland Speedway was still dirt in the early 50s. Even had a Steeplechase Race, and possibly an Australian Pursuit. The picture on the left appears to be the turn 3/4 area and the turn 2 exit in the right picture, from what I remember.

You are correct! Good memory for being so young at the time. That last section or two of the tall fence in the background of the picture on the right is where Blackie Lothringer went through in his 1959 accident.

I had a '51... my first car. The '52's were just like the '51 except they added the ribs to the center horizontal bar in the grill that you can see in the picture.

Here's an old ad for a '52...

My '51...

I think that's a '52 Chevy doing the towing.

57Tbird - thanks for posting the picture of my dad with Billy Wade/Archie Lacy - that was one I didn't have! It's also nice to be able to show the picture of the coaster I grew up on to my 5 grandchildren - I started riding that thing when I was 5 (almost 6) and just barely tall enough. Sam Slusky(one of the owners with his brother Louis) used to give me and the other track brats rolls of tickets to use in the park after the races while they were doing the payoffs for the races. Needless to say, it made me "best friend" to a lot of track brat kids. I remember dad being friends for many years with the Lacy's and seeing him quite a bit in the press box at Meyer - Seems like I was in my late teens or early 20's the last time I saw him - anymore info you get from his grandson would be appreciated - thanks Track Brat

I posted several photos of Billy and Archie back in April under the topics Houston Photos 50's-60's and Houston Photos 50's-60's (cont'd).

Here is a picture, taken at Playland, of Ed Hamblen, on the left, with Billy Wade in the Archie Lacy Special that I posted elsewhere in this forum. This picture was sent to me by Archie's grandson. That's Archie on the far right. I think that's Joseph Meyer in the middle. I don't know who the other two are.

Here's an old program.... Front and back side.

Here's a pic of AJ tangled up at Playland.

jakdad, I think that's at Arrowhead. Playland only had three timbers for the track wall.

Nick,

I had lunch last week with Bill White, Ron Babbitt, and Don Anderson. Don is Ron's brother-in-law. I had met Ron at Bill's place last year and we discussed old racing pictures and such. Don was a mechanic for several of the old-time racing vets in the Houston area and did some racing himself.

Ron said Don had some old racing pictures that he might share with me. Don is on the road a lot showing the Ricky Bobby, Wonder Bread car from Talladega Nights, but he finally had some time to come up to Temple and bring his collection.

Let me tell you... It is quite a collection of just about every kind of vehicle that raced on a track from the 40's through the 70's. Most are from Arrowhead, Playland, and Meyer Speedways. He must have had several hundred that included programs too. We spent several hours going through them. He has an amazing memory for what each car was, its engine, and all the drivers. I thought he might just have a dozen or so that I could take and scan to post here. However, he had so many, there was no way I could handle all those pictures with my scanner. I suggested he take them to some copy place like Kinko's and have them put them all on CD's or DVD's. He said he would look into that.

If not, I will try to take a few at a time when convenient for us to get together. I don't know if he trusts the mail to get them back and forth between us.

Also, I don't know if there might be copyright problems in trying to have a copy place do them. A lot were taken by track photographers with their names on the back of the photos. I was wondering if you, or anyone else here, might have any suggestions on how to handle this. Don is interested in having them digitized because the older ones are starting to deteriorate and fade.

An interesting coincidence... all four of us were at Playland that Saturday night in September, 1959, when Blackie Lothringer had his terrible accident. Don and Bill were in the pit area.

From a previous post of mine here last September...

"This photo brings back a very dark memory for me. It was 1959-1961. I'm not exactly sure of the year. Maybe someone can help out here with the exact date. I had picked up a friend of mine for an evening of always exciting auto racing at Playland...an event that had become fairly routine for me, starting in the mid-50's. I left my wife at the friend's house with his wife and we took off. After we entered the gate, we stopped to look at some of the pictures of previous races put up on display near the concession stand. I could hear a car roaring around the track during the pre-race warm-ups. MFB's photo shows the area between turn 1 and turn 2 with what was about an 8 ft corrugated metal fence between the track and the spectator gate and entrance area. As we turned to head for the south stands where we alway sat, I heard a loud bang and looked up in time to see a wheel come flying over the wall...followed immediately by, what I would learn later, Blackie Lothringer's car. His car must have left the track about right where this picture was taken. I was about 50 feet from where the car landed. Needless to say, there was pandemonium, with people screaming and running everywhere. Three people were killed and many injured, as they were headed from the gate area to the stands. If I hadn't stopped for a Coke and to look at the pictures, I would probably been where the car came down. Many of us did what we could to help the injured until medical personnel arrived. Blood was everywhere. It was a very sickening experience. Of course the races were called off. When we got back to my friend's house and walked in, my wife saw the look on my face and knew something was wrong before I had a chance to say anything. She later told me that I looked like I had seen a ghost."

With the aid of Archie Lacy's grandson. who was also there and only 10 years old at the time, I managed to place a date on this accident. It was Saturday, September 5, 1959. With this information, I contacted the Houston Public Library to see if they might have a microfilm copy of the next day's Houston newspapers on file. They did have, and they sent me some not so good copies which I have scanned and put the links below. If interested, I can scan the copy of the Houston Post and put it on here also.

Chronicle Page 1-Top

Chronicle Page 1-Bottom

Chronicle Page 8

More memorabilia from Lacy's grandson...

(After you click on the clipping thumbnails to bring them up, click on them again to further enlarge and make them readable.)

This clipping from May, 1957, describes the make-up of the Archie Lacy Special shown in previous photos.

This clipping is undated, but appeared sometime just before the construction of the Daytona Speedway started in 1957. Info at the bottom outlines the organizaton of the Houston Stock Car Racing Assn, naming their first officers.

This photo is undated, but from the mid-50's. The names on the photo for this crew are, L-R:

Mert Davis, Bill Farris, Tex Ritter (not the singer), Dick White, Bill Blumrick, Charlie Johns, Bill Hawkins, Bill Allen. It is not known what their function was, so any input from old-timers is appreciated. I'm going to run it by Bill White sometime soon and see if he knows.