Midget faces 1962

[Mitch G.]

Here's one of the greatest midget, Lakeside Speedway, programs ever! I'm biased because my dad drew, and designed this cover. The CARC had one also with modfied coupes on it. 1962 is the year, I've included the neat drawing of the amusement park on the back, my dad did not draw the park.
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=118&pictureid=1055
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=118&pictureid=1056
I've still got the 8x10's my dad used, these are Scott Duncan photo's taken in 1961, all at Lakeside Speedway. You will notice the driver's faces have been cut out of the photo's. Back in the old days before computers, and photoshop, a cover like this was made up of hand drawn, cut and pasted separations. The photo's were sacrificed for the cover art. We'll start from the back, #3 is Gene Pastor in Kurt Stockwells Kurtis Offy #3, this was the ex- Miles Spickler Nu-Enamel car that originally had a Drake motorcycle engine. Then #1, Jack Peachey in his own Hiram Hillegas V8-60. #6 is Warren Hamilton in the Vic Felt built midget, note the injectors are on the opposite side as an Offy, this must be a reverse rotating Offy? this car was later stretched into a sprint car. Next is legendary Earl Kouba #55, the ex Bussard Kurtis Offy, Kouba was 6th in 1961 points, hey Joe what's with the longer rear wishbone on this Kurtis? #5 is Eddie Jackson in the ex-Lloyd Axel Kurtis, again volumes could be written on this car and Jackson. #27 is Jim Lamanna who would win the 1962 RMMRA title in the Sam Rodriguez Offy, pretty sure it's a Kurtis also.

[Thomas E]

Did you notice that Warren Hamilton's #6 Offy had the intake on the right side. What Warren explained to me, you could reverse the intake and the exhaust for either side.

[JimmyK]

Good eye! I can answer the nerf bar/wishbone question... Dad (Earl) changed the frame pick-up point for the rear rods in 1948. He wanted the frame pivot to match the u-joint location to eliminate bind and get better weight transfer. You'll notice almost all modern midget designs use this same concept, even with cross-torsion or spring torsion and the single radius rod. Sprint cars mostly still attach behind the u-joint. (Except for Kerry Madsen's dominating Knoxville car a couple years back.) With the high HP of a sprint and the birdcage/radius rod design, the shorter rods provide more forward bite.

That and the softening the torsion bars are about the only changes made to the car during most of its life. Warren Hamilton swaped the front axle torsion pivot to the right side in 69 or 70 when he was the car's caretaker.

On Warren's offy, yes the offy could be setup either way. Many guys tried reversing the rotation to improve corner bite. I don't know how this was done, will need Joe, the engine man. to help on that score.

[Olen McGuire]

Hey Mitch, since you've got the faces and the pictures they were taken from,you should be able to put them back on and then you would have both.It can be done with Photshop or the cutting,scanning and printing method.~Olen :racing:

[JRKracer]

The engine in Warrens car actually turned clockwise as normal. The block was turned around, end for end putting the exhaust valves on the left side and the intake valves on the right. If you all remember Warren built a roadster in the winter of 59 and raced it in 1960 at Lakeside. The engine in these pictures was the block he used in the roadster. Remember most roadster had the exhaust on the left side , even most of the Indy cars also. Jimmy is also correct in some guys actually ran the offy counter clockwise but not with a conventionsl quick change rear. otherwise the pinion would be on the wrong side of the ring gear and that sucker would fly ---- BACKWARDS or in a reverse direction. The Lively "Duce" could be reversed and was I was told from time to time in its early years because it has a 'Conventional Bennett rear end. It has a winding box attached to the engine were the gear ratio was changed instead of the regular Halibrand rear. The Bennet could be simply swapped end for end and the drive then would match the counter clockwise rotation. As for the Hamelton Roadster I don't know were it went . All Warren ever said to me and Dad is the Damn thing would'nt turn left and he sold it.

[JimmyK]

I was helping Poppy Warren at his shop in Comererce City (working on the Ford Van) and he had a light bulb moment. He was chatting away about race cars and setup when he slapped his head (literally, fingers splayed because of his war wounds, I can still see it clearly). "It was the ackerman, the ackerman was wrong. That's why it wouldn't turn." I had no clue what he was talking about but nodded my head anyway. Who wants to look stupid in front of one of their heros. I had to wait till I came home to Minnesota to ask Joe and dad what he was talking about, both this "ackerman" thing and what car.

[Mitch G.]

Jimmy, Joe, that's what I mean about you guys writing a book, your knowledge is boundless. Olen, I ain't that good with computers, but it's a good idea, my brother could pull it off, I'll bet! The big problem is the program has faded over time, and the red screen that the drivers faces were printed in is about a 75% or 50% screen compared to the 100% red of the "Lakeside" and numbers on the cars, so a lot of detail is lost. However, a computer stud like Webby could probably do something with it. Oh yeah, I just got off the phone with my dad, seems Elmer Sauer was the contact who asked him to draw up both program covers.

[Peach]

Fun to see old programs, thanks for showing Mitch. Great to see my dad Jack Peachey.

Thansk Rory

[parrot]

Jimmy, Joe, that's what I mean about you guys writing a book, your knowledge is boundless. Olen, I ain't that good with computers, but it's a good idea, my brother could pull it off, I'll bet! The big problem is the program has faded over time, and the red screen that the drivers faces were printed in is about a 75% or 50% screen compared to the 100% red of the "Lakeside" and numbers on the cars, so a lot of detail is lost. However, a computer stud like Webby could probably do something with it. Oh yeah, I just got off the phone with my dad, seems Elmer Sauer was the contact who asked him to draw up both program covers.

Mitch, what a wonderfull program cover. I had no idea that there was a midget program done the same as the one that your dad did for the CARC. And to actually have the photos from which those faces were cut out - priceless! Gets my vote for post of the week. My question is, how do you get the photo to present in that size?

Just for reference, in case some site visitors haven't seen it, the CARC program with faces is shown under the John Guttormson profile under 'Forums". Guess we can also thank Elmer Sauer for the idea. Now wonder if the original photos for the CARC prgram still exist.

It's a lot of fun reading about all of the midget history that you guys lived through. During the sixties I just lived within earshot of Lakeside Speedway, first just on the other side of Harlan on 47th, then even closer at Utica and 45th. I just walked to and from the track for the races. Unfortunately, with a couple of toddlers at home, I couldn't justify being gone both saturday and sunday evenings so usually just got to the CARC show. Sneaked in a Midget race here and there, but now wish I'd gotten to more of them. I particularly liked that era when the cars pretty much looked similar (except for the cool paint jobs complete with leaf lettering, popular at the time), but used a variety of engines. Found myself rooting as much for a certain engine as driver. Joe Giba's outboard powered car was a favorite of mine.

[Mitch G.]

If you have the photo's on your desktop or in a file in the computer, as you post you go to "manage attachments", and upload them to your post. If you want to embed them in the post at the larger size, you upload the photo to your "community", "pictures and albums", create a file, and upload, save and they are in your file at this site. As you post, go to your file and on the bottom photo i.d. you copy it, and paste it directly to the post. I'm not good at explaining this, Webby is the computer genius, so If I've confused you, I apologize.

[webby]

Here is a short video explaining the easiest way to attach a picture to a post or thread on the Auto Racing Memories website.

YouTube - How to make a post/thread with a picture attached

But what if you want to post pictures within the body of your text? In other words... the video above shows you how to attach images to the bottom of your post but the next video will show you how to post images INSIDE your post.

YouTube - Instructions on creating profiles at AutoRacingMemories.com