When? Where?

When and where was this ATQMRA photo taken?

It’s a trick question.  The photo was taken on Saturday, June 22, 2013, at Bethel Motor Speedway during the combined ATQMRA and Vintage TQ program at the fun and family-priced little track.  But it sure looks like a photo from decades ago, doesn’t it?

The Vintage TQs turned out a solid field of 18 preserved and restored TQs.

Gettin' Ready!

Stan Ploski may be retired from active competition but he looks fit and ready to race as he slides in to the former Kindberg 10x at Evergreen Speedway last month... before the rain washed out the day’s planned activities.

So what was to be the Vintage TQ Club’s 2013 season opener with “Stan the Man” participating will now become a season wrap-up in October, and this Saturday’s double-header with the modern ATQMRA at Bethel Motor Speedway will be the Vintage TQ Club’s kickoff for the year.

It will be “Jack Duffy Night” as we honor the man who won the only race run in New York City’s Madison Square Garden, who raced the last classic coupe-bodied Modified at Daytona, and who today, in his 80s, still races!

It should be a great evening at Bethel, a track ideally suited to both the modern TQs and the vintage cars.  The track, located in White Lake, New York, is billing the program as a TQ Spectacular, but there will be much more on the program than just  TQs – the track’s regular Sportsman, Legends, Bandolero, BMS Modified, and 4-Cylinder classes will be on the bill as well.  For $6 spectator admission – six bucks! – it is probably the best bargain in racing today.

More information, including directions to the track, can be found on the track’s web site,  www.bethelmotorspeedway.com .

A Common Link

Four guys with the ATQMRA in common.  This photo, taken at the Pocono Raceway when the IndyCars were there for a test session earlier this year, includes (left to right) Mario Andretti, Ace Lane Jr., Jim Maguire, and Gary Mondschein.  All four of these men raced with the ATQMRA.

Younger viewers might think of Ace Lane Jr. only as a racing photographer, but he raced with the ATQMRA at Pine Brook, Atlantic City, Grandview (yes, Grandview) and elsewhere.

Gary Mondschein raced with the ATQMRA in the Pine Brook days and extensively with ARDC as well.

Jim Maguire won in TQs, Midgets, and Sprint Cars, and today is an active supporter of the vintage racing.

Mario Andretti also won in TQs, Midgets, and Sprint Cars, along with the 1967 Daytona 500, the 1969 Indy 500, and the 1978 Formula One World Championship.

Not a TQ, 2

In early April we posted a vintage photo of Jerry Wall’s rear-engine “Yellowjacket” Chevy V4 midget, even though it is not a TQ. We posted it because Jerry Wall had been an active and successful ATQMRA competitor. (We also posted it because we flat-out loved the car.)

We now have another reason: The car has been acquired by George and Marilyn VanVarick and Dimension Design, where it now resides awaiting restoration in the midst of several Vintage Division cars. We cannot wait to see this car's return to the track!

I

Mom and Mario

In the 1980s, long before he won a CART IndyCar race, long before he won a NASCAR Cup race, John Andretti was racing a stock car at Dorney Park, and one night, his uncle Mario showed up to watch.

It was a night that the ATQMRA was on the card as well, so it was a reunion of sorts – Mario Andretti won his first race of any significance with the ATQMRA in the Teaneck Armory, and went on to win at Pine Brook before climbing the racing ladder to the very top -- Daytona 500 winner, Indy 500 winner, Formula One World Champion.

In this snapshot from Dorney Park that day, Mario poses with driver Mark Pritchard’s mother, along with Pritchard (right) and Tim Adams (rear).

John Andretti’s father is Aldo Andretti, Mario Andretti’s twin brother.  Aldo also raced with the ATQMRA before retiring from driving following injuries suffered in a sprint car crash in 1969.

Who?

At Pine Brook in 1968 is this modestly-proportioned TQ with a somewhat generously-proportioned driver.

But there is no number on the car.

Who is it?  Do you recognize either the car or the driver?  (Click the photo for an enlarged view.)

Such simpler times, by the way.  No roll cage.  No gloves.  No way that Bardahl jacket is fire-resistant.

8-inch diameter wheels.  And tires that probably lasted a full season, instead of a single race.

Anyway, if you can fill us in on the car and or the driver, contact us here.

Smilin' Jack

In this photo from Pine Brook in the early 1970s, Jack Duffy enjoys a victory lap in the Zrinski #75, his regular ride and a combination that won plenty of races.  (Click the photo for an enlarged view.)

In the background, Bill Force has pulled up to the pit gate in his #26, and Alan Purdy has stopped behind Force, in his #4.

That’s Hank Force, Bill’s father, leaning into the cockpit of the #26, and Ed Enes, at the time an ATQMRA officer, standing with his arms folded.

Why have we chosen the above photo for this week?  So many reasons, beginning with this new photo:

When this past Saturday’s scheduled 2013 opener for the Vintage TQ Club was rained out, instead of there being racing there was a social gathering at Gary Mondschein’s Dimension Design shop in Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania.  There, Jack Duffy, now some 40 years older but looking the same, took a seat in the very race car that was obscured by his checkered flag in the Pine Brook photo.

Duffy, who today resides in Florida, had traveled north for the occasion, and while he was disappointed to not get on the track with the Vintage Club, in the Purdy #4 he is smiling more than we recall him ever smiling after a race victory!

The restored #4 will be among the cars participating in the rescheduled season opener, now set for this Saturday, May 18.  So will the restored Force #26, with Bill Force himself on hand.

So we just had to use the old Pine Brook photo this week.  In that photo we see two of the cars and two of the drivers now participating with the Vintage Club.