Posted on 4/4/2015 at 08:41:47 PM by D
Story related to me by my friend Duane Depuy that in time will be lost to the ages. Read it to the end you won't be disappointed..
History 101- The Saga and the Players of NE Ohio racing
By Duane DePuy AKA Dirty Pierre:
Soon after WWII was over the racing/hot rod business got moving in the Ohio area and it is interesting to note the players who made it so and how intertwined their lives were.
I guess you have to begin with the early parts suppliers who made it possible for all the young racers to accomplish their goals. So in some particular order although not of importance, here they are from the Cleveland area.
There were two Speed Shops and a machine shop in the area, Raceway Equipment, Midwest Racing and Pop Myles. On the East side it was Midwest that was run by Frank Spillar, who really was more interested in midgets than anything else. His first shop was located on Broadway about East 40th and later as the business got more into hotrods he moved to 130th and Miles Ave.
He also had a location in Indianapolis that served the big time racers there. He later sold the business to Jack Harris and Dick Jarvis. More about them later.
T.W. “Pappy” Crooks ran Raceway Equipment on Madison Ave. and was noted for having an immaculate ’40 Ford sedan delivery that had a highly modified V-8 under a clear plastic hood. He also fielded a 27T track roadster that was driven by a variety of drivers including the legendary Bob James. This car was Bill Ports’ entry into track racing many years later.
Meredith “Pop” Myles was a AAA race car owner and ran a racing machine shop in his backyard garage. He built numerous flat head Ford engines that ran at Lorain County when it was dirt. Somehow I recall a number like 28 at one time. He was the oracle of racing knowledge and served as the tech advisor for the first supermodified built by his son Gary and Don Gardner. It was interesting to note that Pop Myles ran the number 39 while Gary had an affliction for the number 93.
Gary, Don and Norm Smith (more of him later) worked together in a tool and die shop and also moonlighted for Pop, usually porting cylinder heads. Other than his engine work, Pops claim to fame was that he designed and built a girdle for the 283 small block Chevy that essentially made it into a 4 bolt main.
Unfortunately Pop died of a heart attack at age 62 while looking over a racetrack. Gary took over the business “Myles Engineering” and enlarged it to the present Lorain avenue location. Later selling it to long time employee Ray Banyas who changed it to Victory Engines.
These were the guys that you went to when you had a problem or needed something made to order.
In the late 50’s, Jack Harris and Dick Jarvis opened a speed shop on Madison Avenue and called it Speed Equipment. They ran it part time on evenings and weekends. Eventually they went full time at a larger location and included shop work. Jack did the sales thing while Dick (an NASA technician) did the shop work.
Eventually, Dick tired of it and left to go to Grumman Aircraft. About that time Jack bought out the Midwest Racing business and took on Bill Port as a partner. Together they took it to a multi-million dollar business.
So much for the parts suppliers, the beginnings of racing started at the Akron Dragstrip in the early 50’s. Well it really wasn’t a drag strip as the local hot rod club prevailed upon the manager of the Akron Airport to allow them to use a road that ran between the airport and the Derby Downs Soapbox Derby site.
It was only 20 feet wide, had a slight uphill, a slight curve and a dirt return road. But, it was a beginning and the first organized drag racing in Ohio.
Of course the area hot rodders flocked to the place and that included Bill Port with a 50 Olds, Joe and Frank Martincic with a GMC powered 39 Chevy coupe. One of the first and only dragsters, at that time, was a project of Harris, Jarvis and Port with a flat head Ford powered rail that was welded up by Don MacBeth and made out of concrete rebar.
They brought it to the strip on a rented four-wheel trailer and unloaded it by manually lifting it out of the trailer. It was such a bad handler that the fastest and bravest driver was Jody Jarvis (Dicks wife) at a little over 100mph.
Don MacBeth was a NASA technician also and ran a part time engine shop to finance a sprint car in the IMCA circuit. He was the only one of our group to be in track racing at that time and did run the Little 500.
Joe Scarpelli and I ran a 34 Ford powered by a Cadillac engine and we were the strip champions in 1953 with a speed of 109 mph.
It seemed like dragsters were the way to go as Martincics built several that competed against our RE Chrysler powered dragster. They usually beat us. They went as far as the Kansas City Nationals in a slingshot Chevy machine and gave the Californians fits til their engine blew.
I would be remiss not to mention the Arfons Brothers who were racing against us at time. They started with a Pontiac powered Farmall tractor and it seemed like at every drag meet they would show with a different car. Going through a 9 cylinder radial, an air-cooled V-12 and finally the Green Monster (they all were painted green) The monster had the 1710 ci Allison and tandem axles.
Joe and I would poke fun at him til he told us he was buying the engines war surplus for less than 200 dollars. He also turned 144 mph on that narrow road when the best we could do was in the high 120s! However we did beat him in a match race, cause our ET was lower. Of course we all know that he went on to set Land Speed Records at Bonneville.
After my RE dragster was destroyed, I helped out an enterprising young guy, Joe Schubeck, who had built a slingshot and was going nowhere with a flat head Ford. I put my Chrysler in his car and promptly set fast times at several drag strips and unfortunately blew the clutch and flywheel. Luckily he was not injured but it gave him an idea as many of the V-8 Chevies were doing the same thing. So Joe welded up a bell housing and started in the business of making blast sheilds.
He united with another welder Bill Steiskal and they formed Lakewood Industries and developed the hydraformed bell housing. Schubeck did the initial welding on my first RE car and supplied a shallow housing to mate the Ford to the Halibrand quick change.
Schubeck continued drag racing, eventually setting a national record at 166mph and getting the ride in the Hurst twin engined 4-wheel drive Oldsmobile. Billed as “Gentleman” Joe Schubeck, he wore a fire suit that resembled a tuxedo complete with tails.
Joe later sold his interest in Lakewood for a multimillion-dollar price and turned to making aircraft engines based on the Chrysler hemi. He employed Dick Jarvis to design the prop reduction gear.
After several years of successful drag racing both Bill Port and Joe Martincic turned to track racing. Bill bought the Raceway Equipment Roadster and Joe began building his own supers. His first attempt was a car resembling a T roadster. After some practice he qualified respectably. MacClingan came by and told him “Well you went out and showed you’re a$$, not you have to prove it, you’re on the pole of the fast heat.”
Of course Joe’s accomplishments in super racing are legendary. Except for GM 21, he built every car himself including his last that was a RE car. Jim Shirey won the Lorain County championship with it. He earlier got interested in fiberglas when he built two bodies for his drag cars and then went into the business of developing kit cars for FiberFab. One of which was a copy of the RE Ford GT 40. He sold one to Bill Port who put a big SB Chevy in it. Port later sold it to Norm Smith who after some 25 years still has it.
Bill Port was a racer through and through. He drag raced very early and eventually had a Pontiac that was almost unbeatable in it’s class. He built a 900 lb Ford 289 dragster that unfortunately was destroyed in a garage fire. As noted before he owned the Raceway roadster, which was by then outclassed in supers.
He then bought my RE car and had Bob Hayduk drive it and was enchanted with Bill Hites 4 wheel drivers and bought several of them. Included in his stable was the RE suspensionless car. When RE cars were outlawed he had Hite build him a four-wheel independent FE roadster that proved unsuccessful.
He then concentrated on building and supplying engines for both supers and stock cars. While he farmed out the machine work, he did all the assembly work himself and he was meticulous. He built engines for Gibsons and May, just to name a few. He also loaned out engines on a percentage basis. In fact when he died he had over 12 engines in the backyard shop ready to go.
He was also personally responsible for bringing Armond Holley on the local racing scene. He was dissatisfied with his original driver of the RE car and Hite talked him into using Armond Holley. He moved Armond up here and actually installed him in the old Pop Myles house.
Port had bought it and used it as a base for his race operation. He also got him a job at Lakewood Industries. In fact Armand won the feature for him the first night in the car. He also once won the Australian Pursuit in one lap.
Mac Clingan was a self made man coming from the deep south, he had very little education but was a shrewd business man. Not knowing how to read or write, he understood figures and handled a fleet of racecars and made his living by buying and selling used cars.
He had a memory like an elephant. His wife would read the race ads to him and then he come to the garage and point out where we should go. Then he would go someplace else.
In 1961 he and Tony Lavati shared a Pontiac racecar and hauled it to Daytona on an open wheel trailer. My brother Milt was the crew chief and some of the local hot rodders were the pit crew. NASCAR wouldn’t let Lavati drive the banks so they gave a rookie named David Pearson the seat.
Clingan bought a stretched midget with a SB chevy in it and proceeded to put Bob Hayduk in it. Milt was again the crew chief and they raced out of our garage. Bob won the very first super race at the Cloverleaf in the car. It was sold to Bob Plumley driven by Jim Seese. Clingan also bought the Leitenberg Indy car and put Hayduk in it. We christened it the Gray Ghost because it never got out of primer paint. Clingan owned a bunch of sprinters and loved the dirt.
Bobby Hayduk drove early Sportsman Park and got his first super ride in my first super. We had street raced against each other when in high school and never knew it till much later. He drove a 35 Ford Phaeton and I a 36 Ford roadster.
The first super was a Chrysler engined, Jaguar frame, Crosley body and an independent rear end patterned after an Bonneville streamliner. It wasn’t very good til we moved the engine back 13 inches and shed 800 pounds and went from running the semi to the helmet dash in one week. He went on to drive a multitude of cars including the wheel lifter #14.
They painted a white dot on the LF and spectators could see that it never turned all the way around the track. Bobby gave up polishing musical horns and turned car salesman. The 14 car was destroyed at Heidelberg (dirt) by Joe Conroy. Both he and Clingan were in different hospitals at the same time as a result of crashes. They exchanged stories by telephone. Joe drove several supers and eventually bought a garbage disposal business and fielded both sprint cars and Silver Crown cars. He competed in the Little 500 several times with Tony Elliot driving. He also was co-promoter of the sprint 400 at Bradenton Florida.
There were many others in our group, like Joe Hrudka who founded and made millions selling Mr. Gasket a couple of times. “Fast” Eddie Schartman, drag racer extraordinaire, who became a big time Dodge dealer.
Norm Smith, who won the last race on the dirt and the first race on the pavement at the LCS. He also scored the first checkered flag at the County for a RE car. All in cars numbered 92. He had bought a 34 Ford from Myles that ran as #93. Norm just painted out the 3 and put in the 2. We have stuck with 92 ever since. He was vice president of a metal tube company and still played his trombone in a big band.
Many of them are gone now, Port, Holley, Clingan, Jarvis, Lavati, Scarpelli, Hayduk, VanVlerah, Crooks and Spillar,Martincic,Seese, Smith but those were the guys who made racing interesting in the days following WWII.
History 101- The Saga and the Players of NE Ohio racing / Part II
Duane DePuy
I would be remiss if I didn’t note some of the early drivers who made supers such a gas. Limiting my scope to Lorain County and Sandusky. In no particular order, here are some of the special guys in that history.
Mickey Shaw: Mickey really loved racing and that proved to be his undoing. We met very early at the County and later my brother supplied him with his first Chevy SB which with he set the track record . He also helped me diagnose the #5 Chrysler on a Sunday AM practice time.
He hooked up with Charlie Altfater (a USAC and Indy mechanic) who built his #66 super sprint that he campaigned. Unfortunately he was involved in a tumble at Toledo and was warned to stay out of race cars as he had a concussion. He ignored it and the next week when someone asked him to try out a car at New Bremen, he did, aggravated his condition and he died that day of a brain clot.
Bud Bell: This guy amazed me when he came to the County with a crossfire Caddie powered super. He would get pushed off on the backstretch and go through 3 and 4 and then back into the pits. Making adjustments two or three times and then go out and set fast time and usually a track record. Unfortunately, he was thrown out of his car at New Bremen and was run over and killed by his brother!
Rollie Beale: First came to County in the P6 Lincoln powered super so battle scarred that it didn’t have one square foot of straight sheet metal. He usually won. Rollie went on to win the Little 500 in ‘66 and was USAC sprint champ in ’73 and finished in the top five many times. He became the long time USAC Sprint and Silver Crown Chief Steward.
Norm Sawl: Had a personal relationship with him as he drove for me and I worked for him. He and Art Smith ran a garage on Cleveland’s East side. Norm had a Grand National Oldsmobile that was a terror with at Sportsman’s Park. His last race there, he crashed, totaled the car and broke his neck. Somehow he won the seat driving for Myles in the early super days and proceeded to be one of the best on dirt and on the short ovals.
He won the 1955 Hundred Lapper at the County beating the Bealle brothers, Hayduk, George Shullick and Clingan. He is best remembered for his duel with Chuck Yost at the County. Chuck forced him off the track on the back straight. Norm jumped out of his car and promptly began throwing clumps of dirt at Yost as he came by.
At the height of his driving career, he quit and bought a fishing camp in Florida. Turning it into one of the best in the country he sold it and moved back to Cleveland. He opened a garage on Cleveland’s West side and employed Art Smith (#351 Super driver) and I. Finally he moved back to Florida and just recently died of cancer.
Dick Good: Cool calm and a winner in the #11 Chevy. Always a factor at the County and a winner at Sandusky. Dick went on to win the Little 500 in ’64 after leading it for 401 laps. We were once talking at Sandusky when a disgruntled driver came up and said “Next time you cut me off like that I’m going to run right over you”.
Dick smiled and said “the next time I cut you off, go ahead and run me over!” Sadly Dick passed several years ago way too young.
Leo Caldwell: Best remember Leo “the Gobbler” coming to the County with a Chrysler powered super sprint car with maybe 5 inch diameter exhaust pipes that really boomed both sound and flame. Leo went on to win the fastest ever sprint car race at Atlanta. Greg Weld qualified on the pole at 157mph and Leo won with an average speed of 125. He won $4125. Leo died in ’96 at age 70.
Joy Fair: Fair has raced for 6 decades although most of it was in stock cars. However he raced a Pontiac powered super with a reported engine size of over 500ci. Always a tough competitor at Sandusky and the County. Norm Smith occasionally reminds me of our claim to fame was that we beat both Good and Fair in the first ever race on the asphalt at the County. A blanket could have covered the three of them for the last 10 laps.
Morris Van Van Vlerah: What a flamboyant character. Drove the colorful Blue Goose, Chrysler engined, Crosely bodied Special. Morris drove in pin striped bib overalls and a tee shirt and always made a show of it when he won.
Besides those mentioned in 101, these were a few of the hundred or so characters that gave us the beginnings of supermodified racing. Just a bunch of fun loving dedicated guys, some who paid the ultimate price, but they loved racing and would go out of their way to do it and would always be willing to help you!
The Chevy was supposed to be a low cost substitute for the then-expensive Offy. Unfortuately, the Chevy engine certainly has come a long way since the days when we used to buy a factory new 283 CID short block for $225, hone it, cam it and bolt on mag, injectors and heads to go racing. Not to mention that we could run these things some twenty races or more. Contrast this with the now-required 410 plus inches of everything that skyrockets the cost into the thens of thousands and reduces life to a few nights. Do we really need this expenditure?"
"Speaking of tires, it's come down to where if you don't start every feature with a brand new one you might as well forget it. That means you have to make a mint just to break even--and that's not counting fuel and motor wear.
And how about throwaway chassis that are so refined and so alike that only the positions of the shock brackets differ? The basic configuration is just as Frank Kurtis laid out so many years ago and, like the propeller, has been copied and improved upon ever since.
All these things area a direct result of the intense pressure to win. Sure, try a different tire, if it doesn't work, go back to what you were using. Same with engine and engine components. No one wants to take the time and money to develop any radical new design simply because the cost of racing is too great.
Gaerte has it right when he says, 'If we don't get a handle on cost, the sport could be dead in three more years.'
Strange as it may seem, sponsors have created the problem. By telling competitors to win at any cost, sponsors are telling them, in effect that it's BUY, BUY or BYE-BYE!"
Duane is in the red shirt on the Jim Moran pit crew
Replies:
- Re(1): History 101 Duane DePuy - By Roland 4/5/2015 at 10:58:44 AM
- Re(2): History 101 Duane DePuy - By Sparky 4/6/2015 at 00:24:43 AM
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