Unser, Rutherford & McElreath Personal Items Up For Sale
 

The Kraft Auctions 46th Anniversary Antique & Collectible Auction will include items from the personal collections of racing legends Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford, and Jim McElreath.

Online bidding and the preview is open now with the live auction in Valparaiso, IN on Saturday, January 21, 2023.

Hundreds of items including race worn helmets, gloves, shoes, and uniforms will be available. There are also jackets, shirts, diecast, art, trophies, and much more. And there is even an Offy powered midget in the auction.

Visit KraftAuctions.com to see the items and register to bid.

Bart

Re: Unser, Rutherford & McElreath Personal Items Up For Sale
 

Maybe something to do on my birthday? Just browse, of course.

For a quick look at the aforementioned items and current bids, they start on Page 31 of all of the items up for auction:

https://kraftauctions.hibid.com/cata...d--2/?cpage=31

That auction is only a few miles from we’re I live! That blue Goodyear Bobby Unser jacket is really cool.

Re: Unser, Rutherford & McElreath Personal Items Up For Sale
 

Thanks for making aware. Some really cool things

Re: Unser, Rutherford & McElreath Personal Items Up For Sale
 

You're welcome. It has been a blast to go through the items and find out the back story of some items. Like the Exercise Muscle Machine (Lot 7672) from Rutherford. He told me Eddie Sachs gave the thing to Bobby Marshman. Marshman gifted it to Johnny Rutherford in the early 1960s. Johnny said he and Betty spent many a nights sitting in front of the TV with Johnny working the steering wheel, connected to the Houdaille shock, turning it back and forth to build upper body arm strength. There were no power steering cars in those days.

Another cool item is the IROC Tach (Lot 7474) that Mike Follmer awarded to Bobby Unser after the 1975 IROC Riverside race. Seems they had problems with the Tach and used an alligator clip to make it work and he went on to win the race. So the crew took the tach and made this award they gave to Bobby.

Bart

Racing history is really interesting, and not many have seen or heard of most of it, thanks for posting.

Re: Unser, Rutherford & McElreath Personal Items Up For Sale
 

So true. The stories are great.

Has anyone on this site ever raced wearing a Sam Brown belt? How about a Cromwell style helmet?

This belt was Bobby Unser's and the helmet was Jim McElreath's.

Those guys were from the very tuff group that made this sport for others to follow.
Money, technology, toilets with doors, fraternity with so many unknowns, aerospace products, new race tracks, interstate roads and computers.

Lynn

My early days of racing, I wore a Cromwell helmet, about all that was available in those days, see a lot of them in these old pictures, I walked under a low roof one night, and put a big dent in it, I later became the first distributor of Bell Helmets when they first moved East to the Vetter factory in Rantoul, IL.
The Cromwell was aluminum I do believe, the reason for the dent.
McHal became the fiberglass helmet ⛑ of the day, before Bell in 1955, I still have my McHal!

Great history. Don't stop.

Lynn