A Classic at the Classic

It's "Classic Weekend" at Oswego Speedway this Friday-Saturday-Sunday [Posted 8/27/2013], and the Vintage Club will be there for exhibition laps on Saturday, August 31, along with the modern ATQMRA's big show and feature races for the Small Block Supers and the ISMA Supers.

Here's a photo taken by James Briery during last year's event.  (As always, you can click the photo for an enlarged view.)

Lookin' Good, 50 Years Later

Two weeks ago we posted a 1963 victory lane photo from Pine Brook, showing a satisfied-looking Sal Gamby.  50 years later, Sal still looks good!

By the way, we noted in that earlier post that when racing Sal spelled his name phonetically, “Gamby” or “Gambe" or "Gambi.”  But this was a nom de guerre.  “My real name is Salvatore Gambelunghi," Sal told us.  "You can see why I shortened it – by the time the announcer would say it the race would be over!"

But what became of Sal’s race car, as seen in this photo also taken at Pine Brook in 1963?

Sal sold the car to Curtis Reid, shown below in the car in Atlantic City’s Convention Hall (now Boardwalk Hall) circa 1970.  We see that the roll bar has gained elevation, and the car has a sidedraft carburetor instead of the downdraft.  Curtis had some good runs in the car.

Curtis Reid later sold it, but today he no longer remembers to whom he sold it.  Do you know where it is?

PS:  Want to see your photos here on TQVintage.com?  Just send them to us, like Sal did!

TQ Racing at Hinchliffe?

Yes, for a short while there was a possibility.

It was back when Lawrence "Pat" Kramer was mayor of Paterson.  A meeting between ATQMRA representatives and the mayor took place in the mayor's office on October 10, 1979.  In attendance were Bruce Jones, at the time the ATQMRA President, plus Dick Marlow, the builder of Pine Brook Stadium, and Bob Marlow, at the time the ATQMRA's announcer and publicist.  And, of course, the mayor himself.  It was a meeting to explore the possibility of re-introducing racing to Hinchliffe Stadium.

The mayor was in favor of the plan.

There were plenty of issues to be resolved -- lighting, parking, adequate pit space and more -- but one issue proved to be the downfall of the plan.  At the time the stadium was still being used for high school football, and a requirement was that any race track not interfere with the playing field.

An inspection of the stadium by the ATQMRA representatives made it clear that there was simply no way to install a modern paved race track of sufficient width and still leave the football field undisturbed.

The plan was shelved.  But for a few days that October, it seemed tantalizingly close.

The notion of racing at Hinchliffe persists, but today it persists in the form of a vintage racing expo, which takes place each September.  Keith Majka, Sr., is the driving force behind this event.

31 Plus 30 Equals 30

In the photo is Tom Arntz, driving his restored TQ, one of the “Used Cars” campaigned by the late Jerry Morese 30 years ago.

The photo was taken in the summer of 2013 at Borger’s Speedway.

Jerry Morese, by the way, did not approve of our referring to his TQs as “Used Cars,” even though he had the name of his business, Jerry Morese Used Cars, lettered prominently on each of them.

This car was originally numbered 31, but Tom re-numbered it 30 in tribute to the cars his father raced with the ATQMRA.

Trivia:  Long before Jerry Morese raced with the ATQMRA, he raced a stock car at Wall Stadium, where he won... in 1950!

Everybody Loves a Winner

Enjoying victory lane at Pine Brook 50 years ago is “Sal Gamby,” the name as it appeared on the entry lists and in the results charts. But the name was a phonetic spelling so that people would pronounce it correctly, and sometimes it appeared as "Gambe" or "Gambi." This driver’s real name is Sal Gambelunghi, and 50 years later he has sent this photo to us. (As always, click the photo for an enlarged view.)

In 1963 Sal was a feature race winner at Pine Brook twice, claiming victory in the first race of the year on May 17, and then repeating on June 21.  In the first race, finishing second to Gamby was another young driver by the name of Mario Andretti.  Andretti would go on to win his first and only Pine Brook race on July 5 of 1963.

Gamby had been the ATQMRA’s “Rookie of the Year” in 1962 and his two 1963 wins proved that his strong rookie performance was no fluke.

Over at PineBrookStadium.com we have posted another photo of Gamby and his winning car.  (You should send us your photos, too!)  Sal, what became of that car?

Round the Square

The Flemington Fairgrounds is just a memory today, but at the beginning of the 1972 season the ATQMRA participated in a Sunday afternoon program, one of the very few times that the TQs raced on the square. We can recall just two such events on the track during its long tenure as a dirt surface. (The track was paved for the 1991 season.)

In this photo, Doug Craig’s #55 is the most recognizable, coming up on the outside.  But the other identities are (correct us if we’re wrong by sending an email to us here): Mel Mondschein in the #9, leading this pack by a slim margin over Jim Adams in the #88; an unidentified car obscured behind Mondschein; possibly Drew Fornoro in the Karl Kindberg #10, and Bill Force in his #23 during the period that it sported the “Johnny Lightning” paint scheme.

Click the photo for an enlarged view.

This is not the lead pack.  Visible in front of Adams is some dust, kicked up by at least one car ahead of this group.

Sadly, today the site of the Flemington Fairgrounds has something in common with the site of the Pine Brook Stadium:  There is a big-box home supply chain store on the property.

A Turning Point

Here’s Mike Calla, having just pulled off the track at Pine Brook in May, 1969.  (Click the photo for an enlarged view.)  And we are going to draw a line from this moment over 40 years ago to this weekend’s Vintage TQ event at the Mahoning Valley Speedway.  [Posted 7/11/2013]

You’ll note in the background two other cars, Pete Falk’s #44 and Vinnie Bing’s #66, neither of which has a roll cage.  That’s because in 1969 Mike Calla’s car was the first and only car with a roll cage.

The cage was a bolt-on affair, removable such that a conventional roll bar would remain.  And at first, there being no mention of roll cages in the ATQMRA rule book, officials directed Calla and his racing partner Bruce Jones to remove the cage.

But 1969 was a sad and controversial year for Eastern racing.  In the ARDC Midgets, Bob Wilkey lost his life as a result of injuries suffered at the Reading Fairgrounds, and Larry Rice was killed in a crash at Islip.  Both men had raced with the ATQMRA, and both fatalities spurred a change in ARDC’s policy which until that point expressly prohibited roll cages.  Cages became an option in ARDC.

In the ATQMRA, Calla and Jones routinely arrived at the track with the cage on their car, and removed it only when told to do so.  Then, at the opening race of the 1970 season, ATQMRA champion Doug Craig arrived with a cage on his championship-winning car.  That was the end of the debate.  Neither he nor Calla nor anyone else was ever asked to remove a cage, and not long thereafter roll cages were made mandatory.

Today it is sometimes hard to believe that the use of an obvious safety device such as a roll cage was ever questioned, but there existed a fundamental objection to them that was perhaps best expressed at the time by veteran driver Jack Duffy: “If you put cages on the cars,” Duffy said at the time, “anybody will drive them.”

What Duffy’s words meant was not that you had to be courageous and crazy to drive a race car, but rather, that you had to have respect for the dangers racing presented.

But what does all this have to do with this weekend’s Vintage Division event at Mahoning Valley Speedway?  Well, we mentioned that Mike Calla’s partner in his racing venture was Bruce Jones – note the “C & J Special” lettered on the car.  Jones continued to race with the ATQMRA long after Mike Calla stepped out of the cockpit, and Jones drove for many years for car owner Tom Williams.  And Tom Williams will be the Guest of Honor at this weekend’s program.

Tom Williams’ cars, always numbered 9 or 9W, were entered under the “Williams Brothers” name, but despite his brothers’ involvement with the team there was no question that Tom – known to everyone in the pits as Tommy – was the team leader.  The team’s mascot was the cartoon character Speedy Gonzales, and the cars were always immaculately-prepared machines.  At the turn of this century, Tommy Williams became the championship-winning car owner in the ATQMRA.

This Saturday’s event at Mahoning Valley Speedway is another combined program with the modern ATQMRA.  Here’s hoping that things go better than they did last year, when a late-day thunderstorm knocked out the power to the community and curtailed the on-track activities.

And here’s a tip of the hat to Tom Williams, one of the finest gentlemen in racing.