Ed Jackson & the Pizza Oven Restaurant

[Jerry Lee]

I really dig what you guys have put together in the Midget Forum here on ARM, it’s a fun place to roam through. I ran across this little gem I thought I’d add to it.




http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=171&pictureid=1065
(J.L. McGuire collection) Ed Jackson strikes the classic “over the shoulder” pose of the
times in the PIZZA OVEN #5, Offy powered midget from about 1959.


What a great promo shot this made for the sponsor, the famous Pizza Oven Restaurant, once located just off of Speer Blvd. in downtown Denver.

I’ve always found this pic kind of eerie in a sense that there’s an absence of people in the background or in the restaurant in what seems to be mid-day. It’s like Ed’s the only person on Earth, in a racing episode of The Twilight Zone.

[parrot]

Love those old promo shots where the sponsors place of business is in the background. Especially when it's a neat old building and/or has cool signage, especially neon. Is that building still there? I think the character in the middle of the sign would look good hanging on my garage wall. Wonder where old signs go to die!

[Olen McGuire]

Hah, Bill I couldn't resist this one. I think most of them go to the signetary although the Pizza Oven sign might have been cremated.:idunno:

[lakeside #29]

Hi Olen,
Did it have pepperoni and sausage on it?
We have a friend who worked in one of the Pizza Oven's. I'm going to ask her if they are still standing.
Miss Peggy

[Mitch G.]

Jerry Lee, terrific photo!! gotta' love those 1950's era buildings, signs, etc. My 14 year old daughter looks at these photo's and says "I wish I was alive in the 50's"!

[Terry Von Tilius]

That looks like the "Pizza Oven" at 6th and Sherman.
The building is gone now.
Damn good pizza though.

[webby]

Wow! That's a shot I have never seen before! Very cool.

It is odd how vacant it all looks.

[Jerry Lee]

That looks like the "Pizza Oven" at 6th and Sherman.
The building is gone now.
Damn good pizza though.

Right you are, Terry! 600 Sherman is the exact address of that building according to a 1971 Denver telephone book I have. I guess I should have looked that up before I posted. I just remember seeing the red neon glow of PIZZA OVEN in the distance as a kid when we passed down Speer.

Other Pizza Oven locations listed were:
6151 E. Colfax
3250 W. Colfax
2690 Baseline in Boulder

I wouldn't be surprised if this photo might have hung on the wall somewhere in the establishment at one time. If any of you have ever eaten at Carl's Pizza on West 38th in Denver, they still have some framed pictures on the wall of Midgets and Coupes they've sponsored over the years.

[Olen McGuire]

I thought I would add my version of Jerry Lee's Pizza Oven photo. Maybe it will jog some memories of what it looked like back then. I wasn't sure of what color Ed's midget was, so I left it white with a silver lettering.~Olen

http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=174&pictureid=1069

[JRKracer]

Great Picture !! Anybody know when he added the roll bar ? I know it was on the car in the '59 crash at Peoria Ill. maybe we can find some pictures of Eddie at Englewood in '58 I think I remember it then but I was only 6 at the time . He and my dad had a firery battle for the Time Trial and Ttophy Dash Championship. Dad won both with two more quick times and 1 more Dash then Eddie had. I remember that well but not the rollbar. Any help ?

[Mitch G.]

Joe, as far as I can tell, Eddie put the roll bar on #5 for the 1959 season. My dad told Jack DeShon he would only drive his #51 car for the 59 season, if he put a roll bar on it, mainly because of the Kenny Blanchard accident at Lakeside.
Seems like a lot of Denver midget owners put a roll bar on for 1959. As dad tells it, you could clearly see Blanchard's head hit the pavement each time the car went over, hence the trend toward roll bars. Leroy Byers, would probably be the best resource for the exact answer. I wasn't born yet, but of all the printed material I have, seems 1959 is the first year the #5 shows up with a roll bar. Just a guess on my part. Maybe Thomas E. can recall?

[Thomas E]

As I recall, 1959 was the first year that Ed had a roll bar on the #5 car.

Looking back at USAC when they took over sanctioned auto racing from AAA in 1955, the idea of roll bars was being talk about throught the ranks of the newly formed USAC.

The magizines of Speed Age, Motor Trend, Hot Rod, had several articles about the roll bar issue for open wheel race cars, in looking at the different designs that could be used for drag cars and and cirle burners. From 1955 to 1957 roll bars were scarce in the open wheel ranks. The car that Sam Hanks won the 1957 Indy 500 in, in 1958 the same car would be driven by Jimmy Bryan ('58 winner) and would outfitted with a roll bar and an elbow guard to keep Jim's right elbow out the right rear tire. Several other cars had roll bars as well, among them some the Watson Roadsters, surprisingly the #5 Watson Leader Card roadster that raced at Monza did not have a roll bar. At this point there was no strong arming among the USAC officals, even the Director of competition at the time, Sam Hanks, had said the owners, owner/drivers make the choice, but eventually all the championship cars had roll bars.

Now back to those fabulous midgets. With USAC midgets in '58 it seemed to be divided camp, those who had the roll bar and those who didn't. It was the same way with local midget clubs and associations, your choice, that was how it was when I joined the RMMRA in 1961. If you look and the 1962 Midget Program thread, you'll that Warren Hamilton's #6, and Earl Kouba's #55 did not have a roll bar, I think two-thirds of the RMMRA cars had a roll bar, at that time Warren wasn't to keen on the idea.

I remember when Dave Barlett rolled his #15 Falcon powered midget going into the south turn at Lakeside, Dave's car had a roll bar, but you could see his head also hit pavement. Dave was quite shaken, but unijured. With USAC that in '64-'65 the external roll bar was required, and most of the local midget clubs and associations did the same.

The rest is history.

:checker: :kurtis:

[parrot]

Some more on roll bar history; in the open wheel ranks, the old track roadsters were first mostly free of roll bars until the late forties. After that, at a lot of tracks, it was mostly a single hoop, sometimes mounted at the rear of the cockpit, some mounted through the deck. Pretty much all of them were lower than the drivers head. I do remember as a kid discovering auto racing, some cars in the eastern Nebraska area having four post cages on their roadsters. The evolution of roll bars in roadsters can be seen in the two "Roaring Roadsters" books of Don Radbruch

[Thomas E]

Some more on roll bar history; in the open wheel ranks, the old track roadsters were first mostly free of roll bars until the late forties. After that, at a lot of tracks, it was mostly a single hoop, sometimes mounted at the rear of the cockpit, some mounted through the deck. Pretty much all of them were lower than the drivers head. I do remember as a kid discovering auto racing, some cars in the eastern Nebraska area having four post cages on their roadsters. The evolution of roll bars in roadsters can be seen in the two "Roaring Roadsters" books of Don Radbruch

Charlie Codner's #99 roadster that Don Padia drove had a high roll bar that looked like was the same level has Don's helmet.

The Don Radbruch books are great.

[Mitch G.]

http://www.autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=118&pictureid=1079
Lloyd Axel in his Kurtis Offy midget, in a match race against Don Padilla in the Codner track roadster. This is at Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, 1955 I think?
Axel won going away. This shows the hoop roll bar on the track roadster to advantage. That's the same midget that started this thread, at the Pizza Oven!

[Thomas E]

http://www.autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=118&pictureid=1079

Lloyd Axel in his Kurtis Offy midget, in a match race against Don Padilla in the Codner track roadster. This is at Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, 1955 I think?
Axel won going away. This shows the hoop roll bar on the track roadster to advantage. That's the same midget that started this thread, at the Pizza Oven!


That is a :checker: :checker: :checker: :checker: :checker: flag photo!

Check out those skinny tires on 99; #5 was carrying Firestone racing tires, the front tires were similar in look to the Firestone impliment tire they sold back when.

WOW! Araphahoe County Fairgrounds. I had seen a few championship 50 and 100 lap midget races there.

That may be before 1955, though I'm not too sure. CARC went from the roaring roadsters to stockers I think in 1952.

Still that's a great photo.

[Mitch G.]

Thomas, your right about that, I think the roadsters died out in 1950, dad tells me he remembers the last roadster race had 13 cars, maybe at Englewood? Dad had just got back from Korea. I just found this shot of Eddie with the "Pizza Oven" livery on the #5
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=118&pictureid=1080
I just called pop, he said the last roadster race was at Englewood, but he can't put a exact year on it. He was drafted in 50, went to basic and had his 20th birthday in basic training in Alabama (his birthday is July 20th, 1930), and his 21st birthday in Korea, which would be 1951. He said, he told Jack DeShon he would quit being a pit crewman if he did not put a roll bar on the midget, this would be 57 or 58 after the Kenny Blanchard accident. When he got back to Denver in early 52, the CARC were running coupes, and he got involved in 1954. So, the roadsters died out in 1950, the CARC started running coupes in 1951 or 52'? He can't remember for sure, anyone else have more exact dates?

[parrot]

Thomas, your right about that, I think the roadsters died out in 1950, dad tells me he remembers the last roadster race had 13 cars, maybe at Englewood? Dad had just got back from Korea. I just found this shot of Eddie with the "Pizza Oven" livery on the #5
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=118&pictureid=1080
I just called pop, he said the last roadster race was at Englewood, but he can't put a exact year on it. He was drafted in 50, went to basic and had his 20th birthday in basic training in Alabama (his birthday is July 20th, 1930), and his 21st birthday in Korea, which would be 1951. He said, he told Jack DeShon he would quit being a pit crewman if he did not put a roll bar on the midget, this would be 57 or 58 after the Kenny Blanchard accident. When he got back to Denver in early 52, the CARC were running coupes, and he got involved in 1954. So, the roadsters died out in 1950, the CARC started running coupes in 1951 or 52'? He can't remember for sure, anyone else have more exact dates?

I have a copy of a 1950 CARC roadster program when they were still at Englewood. The CARC ran both roadsters and stock cars in 1950, some of the photos are under the George Freeman profile. I have no info on whether or not the roadsters tried again in 1951, but perhaps not with the popularity of the stockers. CARC moved to Lakeside in 1952 after what I'm told was a one race late summer visit there in '51 at the invitation of Ben Krasner.