see86go Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Txtom referred to a crash in the Fords thread that resulted in a serious fire at Paramount Austin Speedway. Here are some photos of the crash by Ted Hood. There are no dates on the back of the photos, but I am guessing it is 1974. Ray Johnson blew an engine and Glenn Schwabe went partially through the pipe fence. The first photo shows Leroy Brooks' and Jerry Grant's cars partially stuck through the turn 4 fence after striking the back of Schwabe's car and after the resulting fire: Leroy Brooks' Chevelle Glenn Schwabe's Camaro Another view of Glenn Schwabe's Camaro I do remember Glenn Schwabe did suffer some burns in this mess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 I do remember Glenn Schwabe did suffer some burns in this mess. And he raced the next week in the same car, after it was rebuilt. An ironic twist to this mess is Lee Machen's Torino blew the engine that started it, and Schwabe's camaro took the brunt of it. Mac had a hand in building Schwabe's car intially, and rebuilt it in a week after this wreck. Mac was also working with Brooks, who is pictured here, and was longtime friends with Jerry Grant. Grant later drove the famous #81 Chevelle to so many wins in the 80's. This wreck was kinda like keeping it in the family. This Schwabe camaro is the one Leroy Brooks ended up with abouit 1976, and raced it to many wins before Jim Mangrum of Austin bought it. Mangrum drove it a couple times, and also Alvin Stewart. It last raced about 1982, by then there was not a straight piece of metal on it anywhere, chassis included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Tom, I remember when Schwabe had that little shop in Austin, on Trinity Street, between 1st and 2nd streets, next door to Gene Lindholm's radiator shop. Glen had a kid working for him then named Mike Kingsley. I went all through school with Mike and his older brother, and we ran around together quite a bit during high school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProTree Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Budman,I was fortunate to spend alot of time around gene lindholm from the mid 80's to the mid 90's at the local 1/4 midget tracks in austin and sa.He hardly ever missed a saturday nite watching the kids race.He had alot of good stories about the going ons around the shop on trinity and how the city was always coming to check the storm drains in front of the shop.He was a walking historian on the ole time midgets in texas and talked alot of his good friend tubby stewart.I,to this day miss Gene.The 1/4 midget kids cared alot about him also,if he missed a race, they were asking where Mr. Gene was.After his passing ,the 1/4 midget racers held a race in his honor.R.I.P. GENE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted January 10, 2006 Report Share Posted January 10, 2006 Tommy, I last visited with Gene at that same QM track, probably 15 years ago. He and my dad were good friends back as far as I can remember. I can remember visiting at Gene's shop when I was just a little kid. Then, after I was grown, I'd still stop by his shop from time to time and visit him and his brother Charlie. Gene worked Friday nights for A.B. and Louis Wusterhausen out at Speed-o-rama from the time it opened in 1960, into the 70's I think. I was saddened to hear of his passage in the mid 90's. I never met a nicer man. As you say Tommy, .................... Gene R.I.P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
302cominthru Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 If my memory serves me correclty, Brooks ran at Pan Am the next night. It's amazing his Chevelle didn't have more damage. thanks for sharing those Craig.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 Brooks did run the next night, and Schwabe only missed that night. He was at Austin the next Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
302cominthru Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 Tom - I think I have photos of Brook running at Pan Am the next night. If memory serves me correctly, he won a consolation race that night. He was bad to the bone.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 I was recently thinking about how different race car construction was before the time of cheap pipe benders. In keeping with that thought - On the shot of LeRoy's car in the infield, is that a mitered corner on the rollbar "hoop" behind Leroy's seat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texasprd Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 I think you see the tube coming forward to the A-pillar. From that angle, I don't think you can tell if the main hoop is mitered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
302cominthru Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Great observation by both. I do know this, Leroy was well ahead of his time when he was racin'..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrss1 Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 heres a question for the brains out there. who owned the wreckers and who was driving em. i woulda only been about 2 at the time but i think one of em may have been my dad. just curious cause i have no pictures of him and he has been dead for about 5 years now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Great observation by both. I do know this, Leroy was well ahead of his time when he was racin'..... Most of the racers from this area were way ahead of their time. From Frank Ferris & Buddy Woodall to Mac and Leroy. I actually own one of Frank's last camaro chassis. It has rod style tie rods and an upper link that mounted to three spots on the frame and one on the rearend (kind of like three rods on one point). I was told that it made the car handle great with little rear end bind or movement. Dad (Dwight Lener) said that he and Alvin removed the extra mount because they didn't think that it would make it past any tech today. Frank also build the upper controls arm and modified the lower. So I do agree that the racers of that time was ahead of their time and that is were alot of todays parts came from. 302cominthru when I got the chassis from dad the roof that came with had 02 & Leroy Brooks on it. I gave it to a good friend of mine because he was a big Leroy fan and I have Frank's box van that has Leroy on the side so I could part with the roof. I still have the rest of the body that is a fiberglass camaro with 16 on the door. May race it someday may not just a great piece of history for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
302cominthru Posted July 26, 2007 Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 Wow - that's some great insight to how these cars were engineered some 30years ago....thanks Nathan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rattlesnake.byte Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 I do remember Glenn Schwabe did suffer some burns in this mess. Yes he did. I also remember that same year when he flipped the Camaro in the first lap of the trophy dash but then came back for the two main heats that night. I was dumfounded to see the car back on the track. Buddy Woodall won all three heats that night with the 351 Cleveland powered Falcon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Posted March 4, 2008 Report Share Posted March 4, 2008 Buddy Woodall won all three heats that night with the 351 Cleveland powered Falcon. yep grandpa loved that falcon. I have stated it before if I would have listened close enough to my grandma I would have the falcon still to this day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
302cominthru Posted March 13, 2008 Report Share Posted March 13, 2008 I do remember Glenn Schwabe did suffer some burns in this mess. Yes he did. I also remember that same year when he flipped the Camaro in the first lap of the trophy dash but then came back for the two main heats that night. I was dumfounded to see the car back on the track. Buddy Woodall won all three heats that night with the 351 Cleveland powered Falcon. Rattle Snake - I saw Schwabe flip his car down the front straight-away in Austin. He was driving a car (Black #88 Camaro) owned by Waldo Harper and flipped it going into turn one. I remember being really scared because it was an awful sight. Well, they ran the rest of the race, and during an intermission, with ALL of the sheet metal removed from the car, Glenn entered the track from turn four and ran a few hot laps with the bare Comaro - the fans went absolutley crazy, including myself. What a memory! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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