DECEMBER 2014

A Racing year end, Holiday Greetings, and Keeping in Touch with you Communique

As before, much of this may not be of interest to some of you, however this is an all purpose effort to cover my bases. It is heavy on my Vintage Race Car meets and travels as most of you are acquaintances from 24 years of Vintage Open Wheel Race Car activities. Others receiving this are friends and relatives from 79 years of living. I hope all will find some of it of interest.

January was spent finishing the huge task of organizing my book inventory for return and disposal following resigning my territory back in November. Now I had only to hope the company would honor their contract with me and credit me full purchase price for the 1200 some books unsold during the 19 years of our association. After significant communication correcting their figures, I was made whole in March with a check for the full amount.

In February Bonnie and I loaded our selves into her 2000 Toyota Camry and headed South on a play-it-by-ear trip with visits to friends and family in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Nebraska.

We passed by Albuquerque on Interstate 40 and I exercised great restraint in not searching out the Unser race car museum. I guessed most of what was there was newer than, and outside of my area of interest.

Just west of there and south of the highway, we noted from our 12 year old atlas that the Acoma Indian Pueblo was an easy detour and thought it might be of interest. Wow, what an understatement. Recent excavations on Acoma Mesa tend to suggest that Acoma was inhabited before the time of Christ. Archaeologists agree that it has been continuously occupied from at least A.D 1200.

For a wonderful explanation and photos of this treasure go to...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoma_Pueblo

So after three days of driving we got to Flagstaff at about dusk and started the marvelous 30 mile drive down Oak Creek Canyon and arrived at our first planned visit in Sedona with Doug and My thein Thornsjo. Doug had been a sports car repair customer of mine from 1959 or so with his Cadillac Allard, then he was our company lawyer as our business grew. He later had migrated to Maine where he spent most of his working years and now in his retirement years has moved to Sedona.

Doug and My hosted us and toured us around marvelous Sedona for about a week. During this time we took a short day trip South up (the mountain) to Jerome, Arizona.

At Belleville Kansas in 2013, I had met Don Robertson who had towed from Jerome to run his 1928 Studebaker 8 cylinder that he built. He had told me about the old gold mine that he had bought 36 years or so ago and so that was our target.

Jerome was a substantial mining town on the side of a mountain that became a ghost town. It has been heavily restored and is a popular tourist attraction and arts and crafts center. Don's “King Gold Mine” just outside of Jerome is a wonderful, totally cluttered 6 acres full of old mining machinery, trucks, old buildings, a donkey and Don, looking the part of the old prospector.

There is a gift shop/entry building where a minimal admittance is charged, but free for all of us over 75 except My, she being a relative youngster. Below is a link to Don's website where there are a number of You Tube videos with one link here also.

http://www.goldkingmineghosttown.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1d_CrMbl0s

My thein has a remarkable curiosity and understanding of mechanisms and while the three of us were talking to Don, she discovered the Model T manually operated dump truck.

It didn't take her long to figure out how to elevate the dump box.

She also was quite taken by Dons race car.

Leaving Sedona a few days later we drove a short trip to Prescott for dinner and an overnight with one of Bonnie's college chums and her husband.

From Prescott it was a couple hours to Peoria, a northwest suburb of the sprawling Phoenix area for several days staying with another of Bonnie's friends. I managed a day to meet up with my old Thermo King friend and fellow employee Gene Oyler and arranged to spend an afternoon at his house and viewing his Military Jeep restoration project and reminiscing about the old days. I hadn't seen Gene for perhaps 15 or 20 years.

We then shifted over to my Cousin's and her daughter's apartment in Scottsdale in the North East area of Phoenix for a few days. They are very near the Musical Instrument Museum and it's easy to spend a day there amongst the geographical collections and the mechanical instrument collection. The building and grounds are fabulous also, like a park. Put this in your browser and check it out.

http://mim.org/exhibits/collection/

I also got in touch with Ray Crider another Thermo King fellow employee who we see regularly when they come to Minneapolis to visit their daughter and grand-kids. They hosted us for lunch at their Scottsdale condo and then we went a few miles North from them and they toured us through an unbelievable horse training stable called Los Cedros. There are 120 stalls there. Six trainers, all in separate horse disciplines, contract for the stalls and use them for their customers. Each has their own personnel to assist with grooming, exercising, etc.

This is a Moroccan themed and furnished facility that is open to just driving up and self touring. Even if you are not into horses this is an intriguing activity. When was the last time you saw a swimming pool for horses?

http://www.loscedros.com/

We left my cousin's and on the way to a quick afternoon to visit Bonnie's cousins wintering in a Retirement Park in Apache Junction, I stopped at the new Arizona Race Car Museum that I had seen an add for in my Sprint Car and midget magazine. It is in Central Phoenix. They have done a wonderful job putting this together however like I guessed the Unser museum would be, most of what was there was newer than, and outside my area of interest. I did acquire the Bill Hill book, Decades of Daring, the story of midget racing in the Rocky Mountain area from their gift shop.

The 1933 Garnant Miller 220 was the pearl of the museum for me.

Leaving the Phoenix area via I-8 and we headed for San

Diego driving the very straight road. I was impressed with the good condition of the Interstate pavement but quite bored with the long stretches of absolutely straight road. Also the need to be alert to managing my fuel as there are situations where no fuel is available for 100 miles or more.

Arriving in San Diego at Richard Robb's workshop/living quarters I perused the progress on his air cooled Franklin powered speedster that he has been creating over many years and his latest project cycle car that has somehow gotten priority.

Here is the cycle car, rear engined 3 cylinder diesel.

It will have chain drive to the rear solid axle.

We went for a pleasant lunch, returned to the workshop for more conversation and reminiscing, and then headed off to visit a nephew and his family for supper and conversation.

We headed off that early evening for Laguna Beach to spend a few days with my nephew and his wife in this neat Oceanside area. We took an afternoon to visit Bob Cmelak in nearby Mission Viejo. Bob and I were both trainees in a College Work-Study program at Kearney and Trecker in Milwaukee, WI In the late 50's. That was his home town and he attended Marquette University while I was from the University of Minnesota. K&T was a prominent machine tool manufacturer and we went through somewhat of a machinist apprentice training program in alternating 3 month periods during our last 3 years of schooling.

We had lost track of each other while he pursued his career in the aerospace industry in California. About five years ago he was taking a trip through Minneapolis and looked me up and we re-connected. I have fond memories of Milwaukee, the mile race track and road course, the industrial basketball and softball teams at K&T, the neighborhood taverns and the good natured joshing of everyone of different ethnic backgrounds.

Bob was adventurous as in 1957 he got excited about coming to Minnesota and going on a 5 day Boundary Waters canoe trip with Charlie McGuire and I, in spite of never having been in a canoe! He and I spent a night sleeping under an overturned canoe on an Island after abandoning McGuire, our tent, and the bear that was visiting our campsite.

On up to the LA area, that I call an alien planet, to visit my sister and several nephews and nieces, and Bonnie's sister.

I managed almost a full day at the Justice Brothers museum in Duarte, way North on the 605, a mecca of historical midget and other race cars. This was my fourth visit over the years but certainly missed the company of the now departed Ed Justice Sr.

I arranged to spend a day with Dan Scott in Burbank who is the son of Landy Scott who just passed away this November at age 95. Dan has the '47 Kurtis that his Dad ran at Sun Prairie and was track Champion in 1947. I had become aware of this car from their website while resurrecting my current midget which is also Studebaker powered. The use of fuel injection on that car is what triggered me to create an injection set-up for mine. Dan has recently put the car on loan to the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, IN. Check it out at...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0chqMcyagqc

While visiting an automobile bookstore in Burbank, Dan and I became aware of, and connected with, Chet Knox, a collector in nearby Glendale. He invited us over and we spent hours viewing his collection, his historic 100 year old house and surrounding “wild” land.

Chet has some “pearls” in his collection. He has one of the two Milwaukee built, Bill Willison DOHC 6 cylinder midget engines known to exist.

He has a '34 Vintage Offy powered rail frame midget that was one of the Don Lee cars that Frank Kurtis had modified the body, and an Alfa Romeo powered Kurtis midget. There are two midget roadsters, one is an offset Ford V8-60. The other is an Ernie Frederickson built, cross mounted rear engined Offy that utilizes a chain drive!

Knowing Gregg Kishline had knowledge of Frederickson, I called him in Kenosha, WI and was pleasantly surprised to learn his Dad did some of the drawings for the car and Gregg had even sat in it as a youngster. I put Gregg in touch with Chet.

Leaving California we headed North on I-15 through Las Vegas (quickly) and discovered an easily accessible from the highway, western side of Zion National Park called Kolob Canyon. We spent a few hours exploring that manageable area then back North East on I-70 headed for Eagle, CO.

I had made arrangements to stop in Eagle and visit with Sid Blandford whom I first met at a Vintage Race in Belleville KS about five years ago.

Sid has a 30's rail framed Offy powered midget that I think originally was a Clyde Adams built car but it got re-bodied somewhere along it's rough and tumble years with Kurtis components.

He also has a Kurtis Offy and a V8-60. While Sid and I were spending a few hours in his shop talking, my wife and his wife were in the house and Bonnie explained we were possibly going to stop in Vail to look-up a college classmate she hadn't been in touch with for 50 years. When Suzy asked who, it turned out the Blandfords were very good friends with the couple and the husband is Bob Lazier who was the Rookie of the year at the Indy 500 placing 19th in 1981 and of course his son Buddy won in 1996. We got directions of how to find them in Vail and we were off.

Unannounced we arrived at their door and were able to spend a couple hours chatting. Bob and I had a bit in common as he was originally from this area and we knew many of the same people in the racing scene.

On the road again, we made Denver at dusk and were able finally to get ourselves to another cousins' home for several days of visiting and touring in Denver, then off for Lincoln, Nebraska and the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed.

Over the years since the mid '90's, I have visited here many times and made some good friends and provided some leads for engines and cars that have been acquired. What never ceases to amaze me is the new acquisitions that continue to appear, some of whose existence was totally unknown previously.

This year the major acquisition was the complete Ed Rachinski collection which was known as the Nevada Vintage Race Car Museum. Featured was the Joe Lencki Indy roadster that had a Lencki 6 cylinder DOHC engine that was specially built by Offenhauser. Also a mid '30's totally un-restored Lencki big car with a 250 Offy. An additional 20,000 square feet of museum space was being prepared to display this collection.

Go to this web site for a wonderful story and pictures of Lencki and his cars...

http://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/2012/08/22/the-phantom-offy-six-banger/

On overload, we left Lincoln headed for home. Coming up on Le Mars Iowa (home town of famous racer Emory Collins) . I had to satisfy my curiosity as to might the largest ice cream factory in the world have a sampling room like a brewery?

Started as Wells Dairy, their brand Blue Bunny is legend.

After about six weeks on the road and 5060 miles, we were back home in mid March to find my substantial inventory buy back check waiting and a hell of a lot snow that continued on well into April.

During April and May we had the house and trim stained taking most of two weeks and arranged to have our 54 year old garage slab ground down and patched and coated with epoxy paint, non slip color additive and final clear coat. It was a three day process for 2 men. The result is amazing and the cost very reasonable. I thought the old concrete might need a tear out and a new floor poured.

With a first Vintage race date of May 21st there was plenty of time to re-assemble the fuel injection system from it's warm and dry winter storage, check the other systems, lubricate and fire up the engine and be ready to go.

On Tuesday May 20th I hit the road to the Anderson, Indiana ¼ mile paved track to run with the Midwest Oldtimers Vintage Race Car Club the next night. It was as a support exhibition for their Must See Extreme Sprint Series, United States Speed Association midgets and mini sprint program. When I exited that nights sleeping quarters in my Dodge Magnum Motel, a glance back at the race car on the trailer spelled big trouble.

The car was severely sagged on the right rear and closer inspection revealed a failed weld on the swiveling spring perch on the right side allowing the tube frame of the car to sag down until it contacted the axle tube housing and was resting on it. This had happened on the trailer during the drive but obviously was a progressive failure that finalized en route.

I was on the Eastern edge of Illinois, it was 7:30 AM and the race was that night in Anderson. I started driving and looking for a welding shop in all the small towns I was going through. Without getting into the details, that became a “forget it” program so I hustled to Anderson thinking someone at the track would know of a local welder. By the time I got there, it became obvious there was not enough time to effect a repair and still make the race.

I then made some inquiries amongst the guys of who might be able to help me in Indianapolis the next day for that evenings' race as part of the Hoosier Hundred at the 1 mile dirt Fairground track. Fortunately Roy Caruthers was there with his Vintage sprinter and suggested I follow him back to his house in Indianapolis after the races that night and we could start in on my car. Roy had also helped me out the previous year by giving me a steer to the Waterman Fuel Injection shop in Gasoline Alley when I wiped out my fuel pump running with AARA in Ohio before last year's Hoosier Hundred.

Later in the evening after the Vintage cars had run, I couldn't locate Roy so I phoned him and learned he had trouble with his engine, loaded up and was on the road and almost home to check out his own problems for the next nights run. He told me to come by at 8 in the morning.

I found his place and parked the rig on the narrow and near flooded street and headed for his shop. He told me his sprinter cam was gone so he had no ride for that night. As we were walking back out to my rig a car was stopped behind it and I thought I might be blocking the road.

The driver emerged and he and Roy greeted each other and I was introduced to his neighbor, Tom Silnes, who's Dad Joe was a well known race car body builder. He had stopped to look at my car and I reminded him that we had had a conversation about 7 years earlier when I had sent him pictures during the time I was trying to identify the car and had no idea what his Dad's cars looked like.

I backed the trailer to Roy's shop and with the race car still on the trailer he used a floor jack and a long 4X4 to raise up the body by the push bar and we were able to easily remove the ¼ elliptical right side spring. Then the culprit pivoting mounting pad from it's perch through the frame. We went off in Roy's truck to DRC Chassis in Gasoline Alley where his friend and the owner Joe Devin re-welded the pivoting shaft to the mounting pad. Back to Roy's, we re-assembled the mount and the spring and set the ride height as near as we could. In less than two hours we had cured the problem.

We were done and I said to Roy, “do you think you could fit in my car”?

He replied “I would make my self fit in that car”. We removed the upholstery and he squeezed in, so that late afternoon Roy had his ride at the Hoosier Hundred.

Roy Caruthers ready to be pushed on to the Indianapolis Fairgrounds dirt mile in my midget.

The next day I drove up to Gas City Speedway to display my car and watch their non-winged sprint and midget program that evening. The other option was to attend the Little 500 in Anderson but since I had done that in previous years, I opted for something new.

Leaving Gas City, it was a leisurely drive to Burlington, Iowa where I arrived a day early and watched the motorcycles, quads, and others run their Saturday night program at 34 Raceway.

Sunday night the Vintage cars ran hot laps and two heats as support for the track's sprint car show. My car ran and cooled fine.

Arriving home at 4 AM, I had three weeks to relax and get ready for our next event. Inspecting the right side spring mount revealed a crack beginning in a weld crater where the original weld was terminated so that was re-welded and the one re-done in Indy by Roy's friend was also removed and reheated and both stuffed in vermiculite to slow cool for many hours.

After re-assembly, it was on the alignment rack to verify squareness of front and rear axles relative to the engine plate, measure the non adjustable caster and camber to see if they were still as was, and set the toe.

The car has always had a slight darting tendency and Roy experienced it more severely at Indy after our repair when we were unable to get the ride height set properly.  I then felt it severely at Burlington, IA two days later but there also might have been a track issue as one of the older non caged sprinters experienced it also. They had run a motorcycle and quad program the night before that used the inside of the main straight as a part of their course and that's the area of the track that he and I really were affected. There was no preparation done on the track for our event.

On June 18th I left for Oskaloosa where we ran support heats for their regular Wednesday night sprint car show. The next day and evening we had the track scheduled for test and tune and for heats and feature but rain canceled that. I felt the car handled a bit better but very hard to determine. It ran and cooled perfectly.

The next night we were at Knoxville for the Friday night Nostalgia at Knoxville, Vintage cars only. Again, the car ran perfectly but seemed to still have a handling question.

On July 1st it was off to VanWert, Ohio for the AARA two day event. Thursday we had only five stock block midgets for our heat. One V8-60 and four 6 cylinder cars! Three were Studebakers and one a Continental.

By the end of the afternoon only two were still running and/or needed work to be able to run on Friday. At that point I met with the other drivers regarding my leaving to run at Winchester for their 100 year anniversary Friday Saturday and Sunday program on the super fast paved ½ mile high banked track..

Arriving at Winchester, I signed in and was directed to the infield to drop the race car. I believe there were over 50 Vintage cars there for the big weekend. Friday was all winged sprint car practice and qualifying for their evening show. The Vintage cars got two extended periods to hot lap and most all of the Vintage cars were on the track.

Saturday was practice and qualifying for both the Top Speed modifieds that ran that night, and the ARCA cars for their next day 200 lapper. The Vintage cars again got two extended hot lap sessions during the day. I got in about 80 laps all together in the 4 sessions. There is no time to relax when running this track and I found myself needing to get off after about 20 laps.

Kenny Schraeder was there to run his ARCA car and got in Jerry Hipple's Chevy II powered midget and ran some laps with the Vintage cars.

Kenny Schraeder photo op with my car.

Sunday they had all the ARCA cars lined up at an angle on inside of the front straightaway and all the remaining Vintage cars that had not left, lined up in straight rows. This was called an autograph session for the fans to come down on the track for an hour. In reality I had more of the ARCA drivers and crews interested in my car than the spectators. Not surprising I guess.

While we did not run at all on Sunday, our weekend pit passes let us enjoy all the three days of racing. Schraeder had fast time in qualifying, led much of the race, but a late pit stop relegated him to second. My car had run and cooled well with only the nagging handling question open.

Pitted next to me in the infield all weekend was Bob Moore from New Castle Ohio with his wonderful '30's Henry Meyer built big car with a McDowell DOHC.

On Monday morning I left Winchester having four days to kill before the Harry Miller Reunion Friday and Saturday at the Milwaukee Mile race track.

I arrived in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday morning and met up with Gregg Kishline at his shop and viewed his restoration and construction projects. We went over to Turner Auto Body to collect Lance Turner for lunch but he was AWOL. Then I drove up to Milwaukee to get situated.

Nothing was happening at the fairgrounds until Friday so Wednesday I spent knocking around the West Allis area where I had lived and worked at Kearney and Trecker in the mid fifties. The only thing left of the large factory was the corporate garage with it's steel beams now converted to an everyday repair shop. I would believe the garage building dates from the 1920's or earlier. It is the dome roofed smaller building in the center of this photo. The main plant is now a shopping center.

The photo below is the old corporate Kearney and Trecker garage today where the company officers parked their cars that were probably washed daily

A few blocks away the old huge Allis Chalmers factory has seen a similar fate although a few of the buildings have been re-purposed. In one, the end of the building has been glassed in to allow a view of the large overhead crane that traveled the length of machinery bay on rails near the top of the walls with a crane operator riding in the control cab. On the main floor of that building is a very large fitness center where I was able to get a $10 day pass and utilize their facilities.

Thursday afternoon I headed for Rockford, Illinois to enjoy a very pleasant meeting and dinner with Kevin Olson whom I had been trying to connect with for a year or so. He is a treasure.

Kevin in my car on the trailer with no upholstery.

On the way to Rockford I had tripped upon the Lensing “Historic Automobile Museum” off of I-39 south of Beloit. This is an eclectic collection that had a Hillegass V8-60 midget a Chandler 8 cylinder Indianapolis car from 1929, several Batmobiles, Presidential sedans, a land speed record car, a Safarikar, etc.

Friday morning I was a very early to arrive at the race track to secure a preferred spot in the vendor and display area for my car proximate to the pit area where I could easily inspect, photograph and otherwise enjoy the approximately 60 historic cars in the open pit area and running on the track.

My friend Bob Pavlovich was there with his 1948 7th place Indy car actually a pre-war, Roy Richter built DOHC Hal powered.

This is a two day event and after Saturday's running I was off for home after 12 days on the road.

The following weekend was a one night event at Cedar Lake Speedway, in relatively nearby New Richmond, Wisconsin as support for their regular Saturday night show. This is a wonderful 3/8 mile banked track that hosts the World of Outlaws once each year. As usual a mix of cars with me being the only midget and getting severely blown off by a winged sprinter, a couple caged sprinters and one un-caged sprinter , plus a modified.

Henry and Linda Strube towed in from Peoria, IL with their ex Chuck Wokson owned #5 Leffler built sprinter that Jerry Blundy drove in many of our old IMCA Oldtimers events.

Curt and Alice Johnson came all the way from Fremont Ohio with their sprint car as well.

The next week our annual Aussie visitors, David and Jan Munzberg arrived and began their extended Minnesota visit first staying several days with us. Unfortunately David was otherwise committed later in his trip and could not join me for the Norton, Kansas event over Labor Day weekend.

A stop at Speedway Motors in Lincoln, Nebraska on the drive out to Norton, and connecting with the gracious John Mackichan, I got a quick look at many of the new additions to the wonderful American Museum of Speed. This was my second visit of the year. They have recently acquired the complete Ed Rachinski collection which I had viewed previously in Henderson, Nevada (Nevada Vintage Race Car Museum). Twenty thousand additional square feet of display floor is being readied for the collection. The Joe Lencki 6 cylinder Indy upright but offset roadster plus a mid '30's totally un-restored Lencki big car with a 250 Offy are some of the pearls of this substantial collection.

I arrived in Norton, Kansas on Saturday late afternoon. I scouted around town and discovered the wonderful race track in the large city park with ball fields, swimming, etc. Not unlike Angell Park in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin however the track is a very wide ½ mile dirt that started as a horse track in the mid 1800's.

There was a good turnout of cars but again the older midgets are getting scarce. Most of the cars are from the Kansas Antique Racers and the Colorado Vintage Oval Racers. Sid Blandford who I had visited in March, brought his rail framed Kurtis bodied midget and had High Banks Hall of Fame and Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame, Gene Pastor driving. I had met Gene at Belleville the year he was inducted and it was fun to be on the track with him. Between Gene in Sid's Offy, Jerry Wilson in the Chet Wilson Engine Service V4, and a Chevy II, I ran low and enjoyed watching them all fly by.

Gene Pastor in my car at Norton Kansas

There are three excellent restaurants in town and Saturday night they arranged for one to stay open after hours to accommodate the race gang. Sunday noon lunch was served at the track. It was a long way to tow but many thanks to Tom Barclay of Arlington, KS for finally getting me to come to Norton.

Norton concluded the race meets I could make for the year as we had made arrangements to meet the Aussies in mid September in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They had driven out from Minnesota in a 2008 VW Passat wagon they had bought, stopping north of Toronto for a 5 day Wood Collectors International convention and sightseeing through Canada and Maine on the way to Halifax. We flew in to Halifax and spent 5 days together there, sightseeing and gorging on lobster and other seafood, and repeated the process for 3 days on Prince Edward Island.

We then drove the Aussiie's to Halifax airport where they flew off for Boston to tour for 4 days, then San Francisco for another 5 days and then off for their home in Adelaide, South Australia. While they were doing that, we were leisurely driving the Passat back to Minnesota via Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, back into Canada to Ottawa for two days and through Sault Ste Marie into the U..P. of Michigan and across Wisconsin.

I think I broke my record for miles driven in a year with that last 2000+ mile jaunt.

The last three months seem to be extremely busy with little visibly accomplished. I think part of the problem is the conspiracy between China and U.S. Big business that makes it necessary for us all to pay by the month to live in the modern world and has us totally wasting untold hours wrestling with a variety electronic devices that we got along fine without for most of our lives.

A new deck railing system, a re-grouting and refinishing of the kitchen counters are in process, cutting some female buckthorn off the neighbors adjoining lot, along with the normal lawn mowing, pill management, and seemingly never ending medical and dental appointments seem to keep me busy. Add in the removal of the steering gear from the race car to start getting the handling improved as best I can, not an easy job.

Already looking forward to hitting the road for a summer of Vintage racing and hoping there might be some opportunities before late May as it was this past year.

Again, hoping everyone might have found something of interest in this year's epistle.

Wishing all a Happy Holiday season and a healthy pleasant New Year. I am hoping we meet up in the coming year.

A Racing year end, Holiday Greetings, and Keeping in Touch with you Communiqué.

Art Abrahams    02-02-2014

As before, much of this may not be of interest to some of you, however this is an all purpose effort to cover my bases. It is heavy on my Vintage race Car meets and travels as most of you are in that groove and I hope you will find it of some interest.

I will begin by using the last paragraphs from last year’s edition…

So now as I finish this long epistle, and e-mail it off to most of you, and print it out and mail to a few of you who have,  perhaps wisely, chosen to not get involved in this electronic madness, I will go on to finish another article for the The 12 port NEWS.

This time much shorter and many pictures, of good friend and fabulous fabricator of my resurrected midget, Dave Seleen’s Cummins Diesel installation in his ’62 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud!

 I will again be watching as the various 2013 Vintage meets get posted and plan my participation accordingly. Again I want to go on an extended Eastern trip as I have been able to do the last two years. Belleville KS is also running after a 2 year lapse in late July and I will plan on that.

 My on-going cardiac re-hab on my treadmill, some upper body weight work outs and daily hand/finger exercises for tendonitis take a lot of time. I also still have my Motor Auto and Truck Repair Information sales territory but have quit the road travel as I wind down this business.  House maintenance and repairs never end, just like a race car, so I’m more than busy most all of the time.

 Hopefully our paths will cross in the coming year.

 So now, the new…

 2013 was tragically punctuated by the loss of my 51 year old son John, who took his own life in August as a result of severe depression which had plagued him for some years and apparently reached an unbearable level. We know now of the terrible struggle he had been going through in those years, although being treated, he kept it well hidden from us, a bit less so from his family.

We now only have the good recollections and have been able to provide a YMCA campership endowment in his memory at the camp where he, his sister, two of his cousins, and myself spent many years as campers and/or on staff, and has meant so much to our family.

 Apart from my racing, the other major occurrence was my resignation from the Independent Sales Representative territory in Minnesota and Wisconsin for Motor Information Systems that I have worked since 1994. I did this effective November 30^th and have spent almost 8 weeks physically scrapping about 8000 pounds of books, returning only the covers for credit on this now obsolete inventory. So much for why the late timing of this message is what it is.

 Plenty of shelf space now in the garage for stuff.

 So, a belated 2013 year end and Holiday greetings to you. Many of you are my friends and acquaintances from 78 years of living and others from 23 years of Vintage Open Wheel Race car activities.

 During the winter I did finish the 4 page article for the March/April edition of The 12 port NEWS on Dave Seleen’s Cummins Diesel installation in his ’62 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud. In June, four of us took an inaugural 700 miles round trip in one day to the Harry Miller Meet at the Fairgrounds 1 mile track in Milwaukee. A short one page story of that was written for the September/October issue.

 In March, Bonnie and I loaded ourselves into our 2000 Toyota Camry and headed straight west, ignoring the freeways as much as possible, and arrived at her sister’s in Pocatello Idaho, two days later. We were pleasantly surprised to see 60 and 65 mph limits on many of the 2 lane US highways we traveled. After about 10 days we reversed the process and I was back home to get the race car ready for the season.

 The major need was to create a final solution for my repeating water pump drive failure. I had determined that my modified timing cover with fabricated mounting flanges for both the Fuel injection pump and the Water pump, was absolutely correct on center to center distance from the nose of the crankshaft.

 So, I set about to change the 3/8” square on the end of the water pump shaft that previously had coupled to first, a 3/8” square drive socket welded on to the cut-off crankshaft center bolt, and secondly to a 3/8” slot milled into a different crankshaft center bolt. I had thought my center distance was off and the fuel pump was centering the timing cover, askew from the crankshaft center.

 Now I set about to provide beef and location tolerance by making a drive similar to modern sprint car practice. This entailed cutting the nose of the crank shorter and providing a clearance slot in it.  This was done in the frame with an air powered high speed grinder and cut-off wheel. Not pretty or perfect but effective.

 The trick idea was to make the drive dog to clamp to the 7/16” water pump shaft so that I could adjust the assembled height of the spring loaded seal in the pump when rebuilding. I could also make my own shafts by simply cutting 7/16” drill rod to length as there would be no square, hex, or tang on the shaft.

 Preliminary work as the design developed with the impellor and shaft, new drive dog, and preliminary mating crankshaft drive hub.

 Water pump still with old shaft with the square on the end, but with newly designed two piece drive dog and preliminary drive hub.

End of crank cut-off and notched for clearance. Ears were left on to provide more surface for drive hub to center and bear on.

Drive hub, made from original front crankshaft pulley and hub, cut down to final height shown mated to the dog.

 Drive hub mounted on the crankshaft.  It is held on the end of the crank by two radial set screws, 90 degrees apart. Even though the reverse scroll grooves for the front rope seal have the drive slot interrupting them, there is no need for the rope seal because the pump completely closes off the timing cover opening for the crankshaft and the oil matriculating to the drive is mainly expelled by centrifugal force and secondarily, contained by the sealed bearings in the water pump housing

 By the end of April I was all back together including re-installing all fuel injection components that were removed and stored in warm basement for the winter. I was ready to fire it up to make sure we were OK before first planned event May 18-19^th in Ohio.

 April 28^th IMCA swap meet at Raceway Park was to include test and tune on the track, but when we got there, their tune had changed to “not for the vintage cars”.  I had suggested Tommy Porter drive it since it was from him I had bought the project in 2002.  Tommy tried to light it up on the grass parking lot to no avail.

 Loaded up and went home and found the contact spring in the magneto cap had fallen out when I had checked the points earlier. A few days later I got Jan Jacobsen out to the house and we tried again on my paved residential street.  Couldn’t believe that again it wouldn’t fire up, it wasn’t getting fuel.

 Dug into it a few days later and found I had inadvertently installed the suction side fuel filter in backwards, blocking fuel flow.

 Got Jake back out a few days later and fired it up on the road and ran it until the engine was warm.  Loaded up on the trailer and I was ready for the 700 mile drive to Washington Court House, Ohio. I had arranged to meet John Barlass there and share the driving with him.

I fired up the car and ran 4-6 hot laps to warm it up and handed it to John to run the first heat. Amazingly there were three Studebaker flat head sixes, a Continental flat head six, and only one V8-60. When the green flag waved, it was like John didn’t see it. Off the field went and he was moving at pace speed.

He brought it in and we started searching for the problem. Finally by late afternoon and taking the fuel system apart, piece by piece, we found metal shavings in the pressure side fuel filter which lead us to the fuel pump which we found had a damaged thrust end plate caused by my brain being disengaged when I mounted it to the drive flange and didn’t provide for end float when it heated up and/or the attempt to start with the filter reversed.  The attempts to start it with the two earlier problems, and the small amount of running at home plus the few warm up laps were enough to wipe out the thrust plate and the pump could not develop pressure.

I’ll use the severe head blow I got last summer (and my age) as an excuse, however there is also no curing stupid.

Had made arrangements to meet Bill Scarince in Cincinnati after Washington Court House to tour Zakira’s restoration facility on Monday morning. He had the Cunningham Ranger on the trailer with him and the crew at Zakira’s were all eyes.

Here’s a picture of Josh in the saddle.

While at Zakira’s Josh advised me that Waterman Racing Components (who makes my particular Kinsler pump) has a fuel injection repair shop in Gasoline Alley in Indianapolis. He contacted Roy Caruthers in Indy and got the details and that night I slept in front of the shop door to be the first one there in the morning. Well, it was raining plus I had a full tank of fuel and no empty jug to drain into so here’s how we cured that problem.

Now we had the fuel pump higher than the level of the fuel in the tank and removing it was a snap.

This shop is one of three Waterman has in Gualala, CA, Concord, NC and Indianapolis, IN. Each shop builds its own inventory of new pumps from the extensive individual parts inventory in stock at each location. This also makes repairs and rebuilds a simple and immediate task...     (707) 884-4181
Indianapolis, IN  (317) 244-1424
We disassembled the pump and inspected the damage and determined a new thrust plate and seal would cure the problem. Measuring and choosing the proper thickness thrust plate, replacing the seal, and running on the test bench confirmed my pump was back to new specifications.

A few of the neighboring shops/workers stopped by to check out my car. One of them was running his Silver Crown car at the Hoosier Hundred on the fairgrounds dirt mile track Thursday, where I was planning on running with the Midwest Oldtimers Vintage Race car Club. We talked about the state of affairs of Silver Crown racing and the reasons for the demise of the Ethanol fuel edict from a few years previous.

The rest of Tuesday I was off visiting some shops to kill time while waiting to hook up with Bill Scarince who was meeting me Wednesday to do some shop touring. We spent a lot of time at the new location of Hammer Art which had moved from Gasoline Alley to an old Allison building on Main Street in Speedway that was later used to build the New Generation Riley Silver Crown cars of the failed 2006/2007 period.

They were feverishly working to ready the 1956 Indy #14 Federal Engineering laydown Kurtis roadster for the Indy 500 vintage car activities during the week.

I was mainly attracted to the Kurtis 4000 chassis in the back room. Note the Oval tube frame with lightening holes, parallel torsion bars front and rear with the rears located inside the tube frame.

 We tried to connect with Jerry Weeks but he was unavailable.

 On Thursday mid day we met at the Indiana Fairgrounds Midwest Old-timers car display outside the Indiana Fairgrounds grandstand that preceded the evening on-track exhibition during the running of the Hoosier Hundred Champ Car program event.  We got there early and unloaded while a few other cars trickled in and then the rain also trickled in. The whole show, including the Hoosier Hundred was called and rescheduled for Friday. Bill did not have the time to stay over unfortunately.

 The next morning I was able to connect with Jerry Weeks at his shop and we had a nice leisurely breakfast. Then back to the Fairgrounds for a beautiful day of race cars on display and our quick few laps on the wonderful mile dirt track. About 25 Vintage cars participated on track.  I watched the rest of the races from the grandstand (free tickets for Vintage guys) and then after the races, packed up and headed home.

One of the cars on display was our deceased friend Ralph Steele’s ex big car.

A long drive had me home in time to watch the race Sunday on TV. Much better than being there in my opinion. Two axioms apply here; “dirt is for racing, pavement is for getting there” and, “the shorter the track, the better the racing.”

I flew out to LA for family wedding right after that for a week. Tough duty. That's an alien planet out there. Got to meet Landy Scott’s son who has Landy’s old early 50’s injected Studebaker midget. We had been e-mailing for a few years and Landy (93 years old) had come out to the Miller Meet and spent a day with me, in 2011. We went to the Justice Brothers Museum for the day

Dan Scott showing the ’47 Kurtis Studebaker

Since all had been fine with my car at Indy, I was all set to go to Iowa in three weeks. Our annual Aussie visitors were here so David Munzberg and I did the Oskaloosa and Knoxville vintage meets, Thursday and Friday night. The car ran flawlessly both days with all previous problems of the last 3 years solved.

David had plenty of time to tour the Hall of Fame Museum and shoot many photos and to enjoy the regular modern day sprint car racing program on Saturday night

Next up was the AARA, possibly last meet ever at Van Wert, Ohio on July 4^th and 5^th.

I again made plans to meet John Barlass there and amend for his lack of laps in May.

Here he is in the middle with the Bradel Continental flat head six cyl. on the outside and Randy Lutmer’s V8-60 on the inside.

I suspect he’s getting passed by both cars. because on the push off for the last race of the first day, the right rear axle shaft snapped and while the engine fired up, when he got on the throttle for the green flag, the car headed for the grandstand wall. John knew there was a problem but didn’t recognize what it was, and doggedly continued.

It was very obvious watching him go around, there was no traction coming from the right side tire. Thus ended the running for us.

So I stayed to socialize and watch the next days racing, and then headed for home to fix the problem, cancelling my plans to stay out on the road and visit friends in the Milwaukee area and be at the Miller Meet that next weekend.

Pulled the axles and confirmed the problem. 

I acquired two old ‘40’s Chrysler axle shafts on the internet and a 6” diameter slug of 4130 bar stock from the steel warehouse and took them out to Dave Seleen in Howard Lake, MN.  Dave shortened the axles leaving the 1 ¼” ten splined ends intact and rough machined two flanges, boring for the cut off axle end.

I had John’s Custom Fabrication do the preheating and one pass TIG weld, post heat, and then bury the hot ends in buckets of vermiculite. It was about four hours later that I got back to Seleen with the welded axles for him to finish machining the flanges. As removed from the vermiculite, the weld areas were at 250 degrees.

In between all of this, Seleen, Rich Kleinschmidt, Pat Mandell and I loaded into Seleen’s “62 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, that he had spent the last two years repowering with a Cummins 6 cylinder diesel engine, and headed for the Miller Meet in Milwaukee. An early start, about 5 hours on the road mostly at 80mph with one stop, and we were at The Milwaukee Mile drinking in the sights and sounds of the participating vehicles and few just on display.

It was a down and back trip in one day and a first extended trip for the Rolls which now was getting 24 mpg on this trip as opposed to the previous 10-12 with the original all aluminum Rolls V8. albeit perhaps 500 pounds heavier.

Dave finished the axles and in they went for a July 20^th brief IMCA Oldtimers run with the regular program at Cedar Lake, WI. A typical mix of un-matched types of cars coupled with an extremely rough track suggested I do a “start-it-and-park-it” after one lap in the second heat after persevering in the first heat. But for me it was mainly a test for the Belleville, Kansas meet the next weekend, July 27th and 28th...

Belleville was well organized and well attended with 76 cars on the lineup board for Saturday. Three heats each for caged sprints and modifieds. They limited the heats to 6 cars to minimize chances for problems. There were only 5 uncaged midgets, a couple Pintos a couple V8-60's and my Studebaker.

Unfortunately the rain early Saturday created major problems getting the track in running condition. The best action was watching the push trucks trying to pack the track. Because of the steep banking they had to go fast to keep up on the track were mostly sideways and probably had 400 pounds of mud clinging to them. Although they got the entire program in, the track was compromised---as in rougher than hell. When you hear the caged sprinter guys with their 18" tires running 4 lbs. of air complaining, you know there is a problem. The bottom was the only reasonably smooth area for my car and of course it's flat down there and with basically no straight away on that track, it's pretty limiting.

Sunday the track had been worked over and looked good until the intermittent very light rain created a condition more like a skating rink and the action was stopped after only a couple heats had been run.

All in all, with the luncheon, Hall of fame inductions, Saturday running, Sunday lunch and museum touring, and much bench racing, I think we all had a good time. The Colorado Vintage Oval Racers did a very good job. Scarince, David Hoska and I were the only Minnesotans.

After that 1050 mile round trip, I was looking ahead to the Aug.16-18 weekend at Webster City, IA or a possibility of making the twice as long as Belleville drive to the EMMR in Pennsylvania where they run (briefly and moderately) at Williams Grove and Lincoln during their regular evening sprint car program on Friday and Saturday successive nights, and at the Lattimore Valley EMMR track (extensively) on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

I chose PA and off I went.  All went off on schedule until Sunday morning when the rain started washing out the Sunday afternoon running. The car had run fine all weekend so I was pleased that we got in the three out of four running sessions. I said goodbye to new friends acquired these last two years I have made this trek.

Here at EMMR is the 1938 rail framed Kurtis originally owned by Rex Mays. The car was re-bodied sometime after the war. I believe the owner has the original body as well.

Ex-racer Jim McClean with his sanitary 1948 Eddie Allen built Kurtis copy at EMMR

As I started for home, I got the horrible news about my son and was faced with making a quick as possible dash to Minneapolis. After an extremely arduous drive, catnapping a few times, I was home 27 hours later on Monday afternoon. The next day we drove to Duluth, where he and his family lived, for the Memorial Service. We stayed on for a few days to be with the grandchildren, other family and friends, some of whom came from California and Arizona.

It’s hard to focus after such a tragedy and keeping immersed in activity is needed to keep the mind somewhat off the continual thoughts of John and his life and his family. To that end, I decided to take the car to a static car show called Wings and Wheels at Osceola, WI on Sept. 7^th, a little more than an hour from home. It is held at the Osceola airport, includes a one hour air show, is free to the public and attracts a huge family crowd as well as about 800 show cars.

I arranged to meet Dave Seleen there who brought his Cummins powered Rolls Royce to display. With a basically non-car enthusiast crowd, few realized the Rolls had had a heart transplant because the job Dave did is indiscernible from the Rolls Royce perfection and quality look. Neither did most have any idea of what my car was as they were unaware of that idiom.

We left immediately after the air show before the spectator judged awards were handed out, not wanting any part of that. About four weeks later I got a phone call asking me to come and pick-up my trophy for the best competition car. I did that a month or so later only out of courtesy to the Chamber of Commerce that organized the show. Apparently the new world of trophies is a very plastic one I learned.

Bill Peters Jr. in my Hillegass at Osceola. This is about the era of the midget his Dad owned in the early fifties.

I spent the next weekend getting a Solar Ford midget running that was restored in 2002 and never run.  It is owned by David Ayers who's living in the Mpls. area now but grew up in Richmond IN. His dad owned the car and had bought it from Floyd Davis and it has the same Davis duplex steering and quick change as mine does.  The only two I've ever seen. Davis was from Muncie, IN and was a friend of Brian Ayers, David’s dad!

David was looking for the car for years and found out that Dave Weir in Indiana had restored it (he was at the Hoosier Hundred Vintage deal the last two years when I was there) and had sold it to collector Tom Smith in Ohio. Smith promised the right of first refusal to David if he ever sold it.  After his passing, the widow contacted David and he was able to acquire the car.

Dave’s daughter Leah in the car.

Notice the Smith Jiggler on the engine stand in the background of the second photo.

Got the car running on the residential road by my house. Had a problem keeping it running and decided we really needed to get it on a track to wring it out. Hoped Dave would take it down to Oskaloosa but he did not have that weekend off.

On Thursday noon, September 20th I left on the 6 hour tow to Oskaloosa, IA . About 45 cars total by track time on Friday night. Had a small but nice group of uncaged midgets including my Hillegass, a Kurtis Offy, a Kurtis Chevy II, a Kurtis Pinto, and a square tube chassis V8-60.  My car ran perfectly all weekend, never touched a thing, only added fuel.

Had a neat Aussie pair there that were staying with one of the group in Iowa. They have a Holden powered uncaged car and a caged VW. She does the driving, he's banged up a bit in the back from a flip years ago.

She got a ride in a sprinter Friday night but didn't fit the car and was very uncomfortable. When I heard that, I suggested she come by my car Saturday afternoon and see how she fit. That went well and she took it out for the first run Saturday night. She drove it faster than I do and I would have left her in it if I wasn't worried about her hurting herself and/or the car.

Little did I know she was also offered a ride in a prewar Hillegass car that Mike LaFary put a VW water cooled in and hung a cage on it. She started out fast but quickly realized the handling was a bit off and became cautious.

The last heat she was in Paul Waters’ Kurtis with the Chevy II, a good handling car for this being its first outing.

As I was leaving after the pancake breakfast Sunday morning, someone mentioned to me that they had never seen my car go that fast! I had mixed emotions on that remark.

An opportunity arose for David Ayers to run the Solar at an “arrive and drive” day at St. Croix Speedway on October 12^th.  This was mainly for the modern day winged and non-winged sprinters to let family, crew, friends run these cars with only two cars on the track at a time. Also, anyone could also rent-a-ride in a non-winged sprint as a few cars were available. Here was the deal…

Arrive and Drive/Test and Tune/Swap Meet

An open practice/test day is schedule for ANY driver wanting some track time. Cost is $30/car & driver

Come test out a UMSS Traditional Sprint. Cost is $5.00/lap ran and a $100.00 cash deposit is required for any damage occurred to car by driver.

A swap meet will be going on outside of the pit area. Cost is FREE.

Anybody entering the pit area will be charged a $10.00 pit pass for covering liability insurance

It was a cold, windy day and we finally got the Solar running in the pits but it wasn’t taking throttle. We hoped by getting on the track, with out the constriction of the pits, it would warm up and be OK. They finally let David go out at the same time the Motor  Grader was out blading the track. David was faster than the Grader but not by much! Wish I had gotten a picture of that.

The track got dry slick and there were numerous spin outs, a couple resulting in major damage to a couple rent-a-ride cars. The $100 cash deposit was only the beginning as the renters were totally responsible for the cost of all damage. There was a 5 figure check written for one car and the renter went home with the wreck.

The highlite of the day was when Brooke Tatnell got in somebody’s non winged sprinter, and purposely went up over the cushion into the marbles near the wall, and blasted around the track for about 8 laps.

The next week end was the IMCA Oldtimers banquet highlighted by the Bluegrass band that performed. You can tell what our generation is.

A few weeks later David brought the Solar over and we drained the fuel system and coolant for the winter. I removed the two Stromberg 81 carburetors as I felt they were the problem. Later checking revealed that they had alcohol main jets but none of the rest of the modifications to run alcohol were done.  We knew the accelerator pumps were marginal as well. Amazingly, new pumps have become available from Stromberg after many years of being unavailable.

So, with the large book inventory finally gone, my car wintering in the garage on the trailer, my fuel injection wintering in my warm dry basement, and David’s carburetors on the work bench, we are progressing toward another season of activity.

It’s February 2^nd today as I finish this and in a few days, Bonnie and I will take a 4-6 week unstructured driving trip to the southwest. We may be knocking on your door, keep your hearing aids in.

On our return I’ll look forward to getting both cars ready and hope David gets the fever to participate significantly.

Schedules are not out yet but generally closely follow the previous year. We are hoping there may be another Belleville this year in spite of being told, last year was a one time 100^th anniversary deal. Having never run at Norton, Kansas that’s on the bucket list.

A conflict arises with the Hawkeye Futurity at Oskaloosa because our annual visiting Aussie friends have invited us to join them as they leave Minneapolis to visit the Nova Scotia area. Presuming the Australian Benge’s will be at Oskaloosa, we will miss the opportunity to watch Helen at speed in my car and their enjoyable company.

So now as I finish this long epistle, and e-mail it off to most of you, and print it out and snail mail to a few others, I will prepare to endure the continuing cold of this year, and venture over to a friend’s house to watch the Super Bowl.

Go Bronco’s

May you all be well. Hopefully our paths will cross in the coming year.

Art Abrahams

I will begin by using the last paragraphs from last year’s edition…

After mid December 2011 when I wrote last, I spent a lot of time writing two articles for the Inliners International car club which publishes a bi-monthly, 32 glossy paged magazine/newsletter (The 12 port NEWS), that goes to the 1400 members of this 32 year old organization.

The relined riveted brake shoes were installed. The dented nose that occurred at Webster City was pounded out and cracks in the nose and front belly pan welded. A “Sam Browne” belt was made up from an old ’65 Cessna rear seat belt that I had on hand, to support my body from the forces trying to push my body to the right in the turns. Numerous efforts to pad my seat upholstery were in vain and a more modern wrap around containment seat not appropriate for the age of this car.

I determined my front spring had sagged somewhat and needed some re-arching and a long leaf added next to the main leaf to better support the whole spring pack. Since time was short, I deferred that.

April 26^th test  and tune day at Raceway Park ? mile paved track with Dave Seleen pushing and another 53 degree day, we ran about four ten lap sessions and with the full hood ran, at 220 degrees. I felt I was set to go with it for the season.

Arrived at WCH to learn my old Minneapolis friend and racing cohort, John Barlass had already arrived from his home in Michigan and was looking for me. After a good supper and nights sleep, we were at the track in the morning preparing the car to run. I got a push off on the fairground roads to make sure the car would fire up.  John got in the car first on the track and had trouble with the car coming out of gear.  Now I must admit that it came out of gear on me on the Raceway Park track in Minneapolis three weeks earlier but I dismissed that as my carelessness.

The car felt fast and I wasn’t that far behind the group but the day was hot and so was the engine as we were running the full hood.

After about a two hour struggle, I got the shifter handle and fork assembly out and surveyed the shifter fork which had been very hot and was bent, all probably from being out of adjustment and the force both John and I and the bungee cord had been applying. I had expected to find grease or oil in the box as the source of what was getting on our legs but it was dry. Whatever solid grease I had put in originally was gone and no oil had migrated from the engine as I had suspected.

I went off to the self service car wash and as so often happens, the race car got seen by a passerby who pulled in and started chatting. He lives about a stones throw from the racetrack (correctly called Lincoln Park Speedway, commonly called Putnamville) and told me they ran non-caged sprints every Saturday along with UMP modifieds and two support classes. He said they normally had 20 to 35 sprinters and some first class drivers depending on what other Indiana tracks were running sprints on that particular weekend. I had planned on being in Anderson Saturday night for the Little 500, but having seen that a few years ago I was open to something new.

also did. He contacted the track owner and they wanted me to display the car Saturday evening. The track is neat as hell. I spent the rest of the afternoon there as a winged sprint team had rented the track and was testing and I just parked inside the track fence under a shade tree and did some maintenance on my car while on the trailer and watched.

Back to Cloverdale for the night and up early Friday for an un-announced drop in 9:15AM visit to Jerry Week’s shop in Indianapolis. He saw my car and trailer in his driveway from his house and came out to find out who was there. Turns out that on Fridays before the Indy 500 he has sort of an open house, and before I left about noon, there was a full house of people including Jack Chisenhall from Texas (Vintage Air and Hollywood Spring) whom I had never met but had been communicating with on the Net for a number of years. Just goes to show that no amount of planning, will ever replace dumb luck.

The Midwest Old-timers car display outside the Indiana Fairgrounds grandstand that afternoon preceded the evening on-track exhibition during the running of the   Hoosier Hundred Champ Car program. Had a guy stop by who showed a lot of interest in the car, asked a lot of questions and took a lot of pictures. Lo and behold, a few weeks later I found out why. Here’s the link…

Thirty six cars on display and twenty six took to the track. We went out just after the water trucks between events. What a way to make sure you didn’t go too fast. My car was hot, pegged the water temp gauge during the four or five laps on the big dirt mile track. No way was I going to get off that track. After all, this was on my bucket list.

Lots of conversation again all afternoon and evening with knowledgeable race fans. Their program is busy as hell, and run off very steadily with little or no dead time. No opportunity to run my car.

Loaded up and left the track about 11:30PM and hit the road for Sun Prairie, WI to make their Sunday night midget event. I had no thought about attending the Indy 500. Made good time and with a little sleep on the way, I was at the track just after noon. Found the new promoter, Chris Wilke and got OK’ed to put the car behind the first turn grandstands, next to the concessions. There are understandably, more knowledgeable midget fans there (Angell Park Speedway) than any where else I have ever been with the car.

After a day to recuperate and a day with Leigh and family at the car collection, I was ready to delve into the midget and find out what the heck went wrong between my positive cooling experience prior to the trip, and the immediate and continuing problems during the trip.

On early Thursday morning, June 21^st I left on the 6 hour tow to Oskaloosa, IA. We ran that warm evening on the ? mile dirt and I progressively went from no hood, to my ? hood and then my fully enclosed hood, less the small side panel under the intake and the exhaust manifold for the last heat race. I finished the heat race and came off the track with the temperature holding 210-220.

What a wonderful feeling after 2? years of running the car, always with an  overheating problem, to crack the code. It was wonderful to load up that night, hit the shower in the fairgrounds facilities, and with joyous anticipation for the next night, hit the road for the short 40 mile drive to Knoxville and a good night’s sleep at the fairgrounds.

The banquet went fine but as we were departing the fairground banquet hall the rain started. It was heavy and it was over an hour long. When it finally had stopped the track was a quagmire of mud, the races were cancelled and I hit the road for home about 7:00 PM. I made a few short quick nap stops on the way and pulled up to the top of my driveway with the race car in tow at 3:30AM.

I was heading for our bedroom up five stairs in our split level house. The down stairway is 12 stairs down immediately adjacent. I made the step up but I was lined up with the wrong stairway and there was no step.

I was quite stunned, but not lacerated, bleeding, or any apparent broken bones miraculously.  My wife of course awoke to all this and after a few minutes helped me upstairs into bed. After a few hours of mainly headache pain, we got in the car and she drove me to the ER. Lots of tests and scans and a move to the neurology ICU for a few days then on to the Heart ICU. A total of 6 days in the hospital.

There was significant bleeding on the brain which was finally totally re-absorbed after about 6 weeks. I was moving pretty slowly around home and having some dizziness for quite a while. I just took it very easy but with an eye on running the car July 28^th for a little intermission show 45 miles away at Arlington, MN.  I knew I could drive the tow car down OK but not the race car. As it turned out, I couldn’t find a suitable driver amongst our small bunch that was there, so the car stayed on the trailer and I enjoyed a relaxing summer evening at the race track.

Since the car had now sat with the alcohol in the system for two months, during that last week of that month, I made an attempt to fire it up on the road in front of the house. No luck. During the next few days, I went all through draining the tank of the old fuel, cleaning of the fuel lines, filters, pump, barrel valve and nozzles and still no luck.  Finally ultrasonically cleaned the nozzles and got it running.

9/7/2012  Left for Webster City about noon and arrived at 4:00 PM. They had heavy rain in the morning and track and pits were a quagmire. Enjoyed visiting with the others that came for the Friday activity, but went to bed knowing the rest of the weekend was a “go”.  Saturday dawned clear and warmed up with good breeze. By late afternoon the John Deere with sheep’s foot got to work and by about 6:30 the stocks and coupes were packing the track. That’s one of the benefits of open wheel cars, of which there were 12 sprinters and 4 midgets and one TQ. We don’t do that.

Since Friday night rained out, Sunday afternoon was available as a rain date for all who wanted to run which was about only eight of us. Many had to get home or had enough track time Saturday night. I believe I set a record on Sunday as David Hoska and I traded cars for one session.  I believe I became the oldest person to ever drive his Luther Brewer 60’s era Chevy Sprint Car. 

Friday the 14^th,  left about noon for Oskaloosa. Pulled in just before dusk and met the two visiting Aussies, Dennis Williams and Bob Newman who had come to the States specifically to attend this event. Later that week I was able to help them have a special tour in Lincoln Nebraska of Speedway Bill’s “Museum of American Speed”.

This time much shorter and  many pictures, of good friend and fabulous fabricator of my resurrected midget, Dave Seleen’s Cummins Diesel installation in his ’62 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud!

abrhms@earthlink.net

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