Austin

[see86go]

Here are some photos I shot at Speed-O-Rama in the late 70s. I used a fairly large telephoto lens for the on-track shots while sitting in the stands, so the quality isn't that great., but I am sure these will bring back memories to some.

 

The first is Waldo Harper:

[see86go]

Jake Wallace

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Leroy Farmer

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Tommy Davis

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Steve Klestinec

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Jarry Spencer

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Freddy Fryar

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Glenn Schwabe and Pat Lane

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Glenn Schwabe

[NickHolt]

Those are some great shots. Brings back tons of memories.

 

Nick Holt

[Bobby]

Looking at Schwabe's and Waldo's cars - I don't see any leaf springs. Were these trailing-arm cars? Waldo's looks like the wheelbase has been altered too!

[txtom]

The Pat Lane Vega car is interesting. Was that a mini stock?

 

No, it never was a mini. Pat lane built it in '77 or '78 to run at Pan Am. In 78, Ware let the racers take off the front fenders, kinda like a Modified, and a few guys built Vega bodied cars; besides Pat, Gary Mahoney and Ricci Ware JR.

When Pan Am closed the fenders were put back on Lane's car to run Hwy 16 and Austin.

 

As for the other cars Craig posted, The #9 Camaro of Waldo Harpers has a couple interesting feature victories to it's credit.

One was when he took it to Abilene when it was still asphalt, and put Leroy Brooks in it. Brooks blew the field away on what had once been one of his home tracks. The other was Freddy Fryar at San Antonio, after Fryar blew the engine in the Nova going into three on the last lap of Labor Day Weekend (I think) 1979. Still won the feature in the Nova. And two weeks later, drove this Harper car to a convincing victory at Hwy 16.

 

The 55 of Jake Wallace is the last car I remember him racing in his long career.

 

The 51 of Leroy Farmers has a long time sponsor name on it, Bill's Auto Parts. This was Billy Ormond, who had the great Nova that Brooks drove to I think two wins in the Liberty Bell race at Meyer Speedway. A dominating car until they changed all the suspension it it. Never handled right again, and Brooks only drove it a couple times after breaking his leg in a viscious crash at Hwy 16.

 

The 78 of Tommy Davis, who is one of my all time favorite drivers. It amazed me how long he ran this car looking like it does, as he usually kept his stuff looking real good. He had one of the first store bought cars, a Howe he brought to Pan Am around 75 or so.

Any of you old guys remember him getting upside on the back straight after getting tangled by Martha Wideman in Frank Ferris's winged car, that was the Howe car, a solid red # 78 with sponsorship from McDonough Brothers.

 

Steve Klestinec's 81 car was another in a long line of fast cars to run out of Lee Machen's shop. This car was one of the two track champions the first year of Hwy 16, in the Limited Sportsman class.

It was built on a 57 chevy frame, and was also responsible for a change in the layout of the Austin track. Remember when it did not have an exit gate at the top of turn 1? Just the opening? Well, Klestinec dead centered that pole there two straight Aquafest races with this car; after that, they put the swinging exit gate there. When he built his late model, I seem to remember this car ended up with Danny Reininger.

 

Anyone racing around here knows Jerry Spencer from Kyle, Always kept a clean car, as evidenced by this #56. Went from green cars to brown cars to a color combination similar to the 55 of Wallace here.

 

#14, Freddy Fryar. If you don't know by now...............

This was the car to beat around here for a few years. Always looked exceptionally clean, and wicked fast.

This is a Banjo Matthews chassis, and this car still exists to this day. It belong to Phillip Lyall in Houston, who purchased it from Fryar. There is a pic of on another thread here, as the #74 of Lyalls.

 

The 85 of Lane's was previously mentioned. The Black and Blue #88 cars of Schwabe's were both owned by Waldo Harper. Nothing against Schwabe, but he never really had a lot of success in either one of these. I don't remember if they are the same car just repainted, but I do remember Glen getting the blue car upside down at Austin one night.

 

Those are some great shots. Brings back tons of memories.

You are right, Nick. Great memories.

[Bobby]

Tom - Thanks for the info on the Lane car. I went back and edited my post to say something else, because the full fenders and what seemed like small diameter tires convinced me it had to be a mini-stock. On the other hand, the big hood scoop and driver setback were my initial clues that something might be odd. Thanks for confirming.

 

My brother tells me that Harold Oatman, who I crewed for for many years, also built a Vega, after I headed out of town for college. I assume it must have been in this period.

[see86go]

Thanks for the comments, guys, and the stories, txtom. It's nice to be able to share these photos with people 1500 miles away and stay connected to Texas racing.

 

I have boxes of photos I shot from that era and will post as time permits. I do have photos of a few of the Vegas.

 

I was on Pat Lane's crew in the late 80s, and still speak with him regularly. He is probably the biggest influence I've had on my own racing career. I was a fan of his before I ever met him, not only because of the way he driove but the way he acted off the track. Here's a better photo of his Vega.

 

[Bobby]

Craig - I really appreciate you posting the Vega pictures. I was no longer around when these were run, and I had been under the impression that they were part of the national beginning of "real" modifieds with altered wheelbase, engine location, etc which coincided with this time frame. I can see from this picture that everything was in the stock position.

 

How did these handle, with a heavy engine at the front of a small car? The fact that he is running a 305 is interesting too. Do you know any of the particulars of the rules?

[RockStan]

actually the 305 was not the ones you no of today they were punched out 283's or 302's "can you say screamer" also note the camaro back bumpers front and rear

[Bobby]

I commented on the 305 because it would have been considerably smaller than what the Camaros were running, thereby implying that this class, like others at Pan Am, were running a weight per cubic inch rule, possibly one with an advantageous break for smaller engines.

[see86go]

There was a lb.-per-cubic-inch rule, like 9 pounds. Many cars had smaller engines to take advantage of the weight break. It wasn't only the smaller cars that used the smaller engines, people ran them in '57 Chevys and Camaros as well.

[Budman]

Craig,

 

Thanks for all your picture posts on here. Those are some priceless photos and bring a lot of great memories back to a lot of us on here.

 

If I may, to all the members, click on the link "Craig Schmidt Racing" below any of his photos. It takes you to his site. Scroll to the bottom of the page. There is a great old picture from San Antonio, probably from the 40's, of Fred Elbel in one of those old roadsters they raced during that era. Cool!

[txtom]

There is a great old picture from San Antonio, probably from the 40's, of Fred Elbel in one of those old roadsters they raced during that era.

 

Buddy, You oughta know where he got that pic from!! And I believe Fred Elbel is Craig's Uncle.

 

It is also correct about the small engines back then. The 305 back then was a .030 over 302. The Chevy and Ford 302s shared the same bore and stroke, 4 inch bore X 3 inch stroke. Those little crankshafts would really wind, but they hurt the torque, so everyone geared them to wind a bit.

With the 9 pound per cubic inch rule, it also shaved several hundred pounds off the weight of the cars.

Example--a 305 had to weigh 2745 pounds, a 355 had to weigh 3195 pounds, a difference of 450 pounds This was huge on tire wear.

When we started running the Super Stock cars at TWS in the TROC races, we ran the first few with a 355 to 361 engine. Later, we built a 311, which was a bored and stroked 302. The small engine and lighter weight showed significantly better tire wear, and the smaller engine produced a little better horsepower per cubic inch.

And we won up there with both.

At Hwy 16, it was routine for guys to buzz those little engines at or near 9,000 RPM.

Hard to say which engine combinations are better, the older smaler engines, or the current crop of 355's, but, for me, I sure used to enjoy hearing a no muffler high winding engine with 180 degree headers out the right side echoing off the boiler plate down Hwy 16's back stretch.

[oatey220]

Speaking of Pat Lane,

One Saturday night at PAS I was supposed to drive his car in the employee race that Ricci Ware had once a season. I did not want to drive that night and I still wouldnt crawl in a race car for any amount of money (some of us would rather build one than drive one). Anyway he had engine problems that night and I was never so glad for his bad luck. Some day in the future when I cross Pats path I will have to apologize for all the prayers (that he wouldnt get his car running) I said that night. My hats off to you guys that go fast and turn left.

 

Bobby

We did build a Vega in the summer of 1978, I think we built it in about 2 weeks. Harold raced it at PAS and maybe Austin I dont remember. Later in the year we took it to Mexico and I dont what happen to it after that.

[HiTech]

labonte ran a 283 . with those 180 headers and that was one sweat wine those motors made .

[RodneyRodriguez]

thanks for these Craig, this is about the time my dad started taking me out to Speed-O-Rama, I remember all of those cars!

I remember when Steve hit that post @ turn 1 as well.

Is that the 88 car Scwabe flipped on the front straight? He was my favorite and every time Fryar came around I knew Glenn would have his work cut out for him. The 55 of Jake Sr. was indeed his last car, I have pic of that cat @ TWS.

Keep those pictures coming, those are really cool to see..

[Lucky161]

I commented on the 305 because it would have been considerably smaller than what the Camaros were running, thereby implying that this class, like others at Pan Am, were running a weight per cubic inch rule, possibly one with an advantageous break for smaller engines.

 

I think you might be making an assumption sort of like one I made back in those days. Tom Williams had a Chevelle that ran against Camaros at TROC and I assumed it was heavier than the Camaros. But it probably wasn't. It was probably near the same weight because all the cars were using pretty much the same chassis, so you would just be talking about a minor amount of weight associated with the hulled out sheet metal. If you look at that Vega closely you can see the tube frame front stub.