Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

Hello IOW friends,

This photo I took at Oswego Speedway Classic back in 1965. If anyone can positively ID these two cars and drivers I would greatly appreciate it.

My initial thoughts were #81 Ray Wright from Indiana and the supermodified on the left of the #81 was Mort Anderson from Michigan. But, there have been other opinions on the drivers in this photo. Enough so to make me investigate these cars and drivers a little more.

NOTE: You can hardly see the number of the supermodified on the ramp to the left of the front of the push truck, but that is the #77supermodified of Herman Wise from Georgia - the 1971 Little 500 winner.

Bottom line: The driver ID's I am not sure, but confused I am. :14:

Midwest Connection
Have a good day...see you at the races
Rich - Arnold, Missouri

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...ghtandunkn.jpg

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

Hi Rich, sorry I am no help. I know there is at least one box of old Oswego programs at my brothers house. I will be back in N. Y. at the end of the month and check to see if the programs go back to that era.

See you at the races this summer,

Patti

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

This sight may help. It is an encyclopedia of Supermodified racing.

http://www.retrorockets.org/

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

81 Nolan Johncock???

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

Before your time FATBOY, Nolan was Gordy's cousin. Raced for the DOWKERS of Charlotte, MI. :11;

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

Wow!!...C.B.,you two(FB) must be Bud's!!..eh!!.......
______________
Brucer':32:

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

I know that FB2. But at least I made a guess. Didn't he run Oswego some? He ran a few USAC races too ???

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

Yeh, he ran for Dallas Varney from Muskegon several times, plus others I fail to remember. He was pretty good but had a few problems making the USAC shows back then. It was different times as you well know. I think he was killed at Sandusky in a Dowker car.

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

I had the pleasure of growing up watching both Nolan and Gordie Johncock race at Oswego, part of what I always called the mid-west invasion era at Oswego. Some of the best years of racing at Oswego, Art Bennett, Wayne Landon, Sammy Sessions, Nolan and Gordie were just some of the great drivers to make the long haul to Oswego. I remember Nolan being involved in a nasty crash at Oswego, just don't remember all the details. Max Dowker is a name I haven't heard in a long time time. Rich with this thread has spiked my interest to get back to Oswego and dig out that box of all programs at my brothers.

Patti

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

I took a little trip down memory lane this morning by pulling out my book on the First 50 Years of Oswego History. Max Dowkers cars were numbered 7, Jim Gresley also drove for Max at Oswego. The bad crash I was remembering involving Nolan was during a Saturday morning practice session for the 1967 classic. The throttle stuck on Nolan's car, he climbed the wall backwards going out of the track and hitting the sign under the lap counter in the first turn. Even though Nolan sustained a slight arm injury in that crash, he climbed behind the wheel of Persh Pollock's super and finished fourth in the 1967 classic driving with one hand.

On May 30th 1970 Nolan took a wild flip at Oswego in Max's #7, history shows Nolan was running under the driver alias of "Jack James" to protect his USAC driver status.

Leon Wieske, Nelly " Bingo" Ward, Dave Paul, Tom York, Gordon Dukes, Nick Rowe, Joe Martinic, Todd Gibson and John Benson Sr. should be added to the list of drivers I had the pleasure of seeing win at Oswego. Many of these mid-west stars making the long haul to Oswego on a weekly basis along with Canadian stars Norm Mackereth, Johhny Spencer, Warren Coniam, Andy Brown,, Gary Witter and Joe Hlywka. An of course three names that wrote Oswego Speedway history Nolan Swift, Bentley Warren and Jimmy Shampine, all of these stars and many more made the 60's era at Oswego Speedway a remarkable time too be a fan of supermodified racing. It was a time when the racers you watched run at your local track could go to Indy and many did, something we all wish could happend for our USAC stars of today.

Rich, your original question still escapes me, Gordie Johncock ran #85 and Wayne Landon #83, I didn't find any pictures of the car you are questioning in the book. Will go through the programs at my brothers next month.

Patti

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

Wow!!...C.B.,you two(FB) must be Bud's!!..eh!!.......

I knew Danny when he was dancing for nickles at the front gate of I.R.P. He's grown into quite a boy now.

Re: Midwest Connection - HELP! Can someone ID these two supermodifieds? Thanks
 

From:http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/

Nolan Johncock was one of the competitors in the Sandusky International Cavalcade, a supermodified race held on 03 October 1971 at the Sandusky Speedway, a 1/2-mile paved oval. Johncock's car in that event was the ex-Ken Paul Special roadster - in which Jim Rathmann won the 1960 Indy 500 race - and later converted into a supermodified.

On the ninety-fifth lap of the 100 laps of that race Johncock, then running in second place, ran into another car whose engine had just blown up. Johncock's machine crashed through a retaining wall and hit a pole. It is believed that he died at the spot.

Nolan Johncock, a resident of Hastings, Michigan, was a cousin of Gordon Johncock, who won the Indy 500 in 1973 and 1982.

The car in which Nolan Johncock lost his life was later restored to the same configuration in which Bob Harkey finished the 1964 Indy 500 in eighth place. As of 2009 the machine resides in a private collection in Ohio