Old Video from Tri City half mile 1968 & 1970

F

finner18

Steve Finn
Here is some footage from Tri City in 1968. It begins with Wib Spalding in his USAC sprint car.
[video=youtube_share;tLawrv8MKuc]http://youtu.be/tLawrv8MKuc[/video]

This is from Tri City in 1970 and shows the trophy dash. In the beginning you can see Bubby Jones in the yellow #B4 coming on to the half mile and later Dick Sutcliffe in the black #40.
[video=youtube_share;dMfs-gBUXlw]http://youtu.be/dMfs-gBUXlw[/video]
 
wow that brings back memories 1970 that the year I was Illegally in the pits being only 15 I hung around the 61 car
 
Great footage! This brings back many memories that I shared with my father, who has passed.

I remember Wib Spaulding, my favorite driver, winning in several classes on the same night. Does anyone know if he had any nights where he "swept" all divisions?

Thanks for any replys!
 
back in 69 i was living at the lake of the ozarks,,they ran super modifieds at holts summit in jeff city ans at woodies in califorina mo....i did a bit of trading with a old boy in eldon mo..got a ho-made super powered by a 413 chrysler..this was a real death trap,,made out of black iron pipe,,but it was super fast,,i ran several time at holts summit but never had any luck,ran with guys like the frasier bros,,took it to califorina and a guy named david sapp drove it,,he ran 9th in the feature and we made $120 a lot of money in 69,,right about the 4th of july i headed back to st.louis with my super in tow,,i ran it at lake hill but stunk,took it to st.charles wher bunkie martin from fredrick town drove it,we made a few bux that night,,i then made the trip to the BIG track tcs,,i was not feeling well so i let some moron hot lap it,,i think he peed his pants going down the back stright at nearly a 100,,he jumped out so ,i jumped in and made a lap at around 26 seconds,,slow by todays standards but at the time in the top 10,,my heat consisted of me a guy named (i think)charlie booten in a real super/sprint with a 327 that had 3 duces,,also in my heat was george egans champ car,,no roll cage,just a skimpy roll bar behind the driver,,at the start of the heat i got behind booten and we made some distance on the rest of the pack,,we got the whit flag and by that time i knew i could not pass him so i figured i would be happy with second in the heat,,comming for the checkerd i slowed to pull on the quarter and the guy in egans champ car just got by me at the flag,,,,in the feature i was running a solid tenth when the old ford style 3 speed got real hot,,almost glowing,,took the heat as long as i could then pulled in and bailed,,that was the last time i raced that piece,traded a guy for a real nice 56 ford hobby car i ran at bellville at the charlie bowl..if ya think i am blowing smoke ask dwight barbeau he was at st.charles the night martin drove it,,it was black with no. 81 (imagine that,i was on barbeaus pit crew befor that era)with the name PATSY on the tail..how i made it out alive from the 60s n 70s i will never know but as the sone goes "THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIEND,WHE THOUGHT THEY WOULD NEVER END""amen
 
Man, I miss the 1/2 mile! By the way, thanks for settling a bet. I went to the sprint and midget races at T/C earlier this year. When I asked the fellows I was there with who remembers the guard rail on the inside of the corners, none of them did. They all said I was crazy. I said I may be crazy but I remember the guard rail! What a great shot of Wib's beautiful #44 sprinter. Thanks for the great footage.

Brian #44
 
I remember the guard rail but I'm thinking that it was only on turns one and four as shown in the movie and it seems like some of it might have been there in the late '70's.... That's some really neat footage too. I never knew that there had been big oil tanks in that area behind the speedway either. It's funny how stuff like that changes over time and is forgotten.
 
83vpMod said:
Great footage! This brings back many memories that I shared with my father, who has passed.

I remember Wib Spaulding, my favorite driver, winning in several classes on the same night. Does anyone know if he had any nights where he "swept" all divisions?

Thanks for any replys!
Click to expand...
I was there one nite where Wib won in the Late model, sprint car, and midget,,he was the best!!
 
Here are a couple of classic Wib pics in all 3 divisions for you guys. He could drive em all!
wib_1.jpgwib_2.jpgWib6.jpg
 
Cooper- I didn't care was a great story of old days. Fireball a quick question on
Dwight Barbeau. As I remember & this goes back to when I was a kid, did he
also race at Evansville, Il as well as Bel-Clair. For some reason he was a fav
of mine. I liked the #81 for one thing, alot better than then the 66-99. As I
remember his car was black with yellow #. Good to hear he's still kicking. That
was before Don Klein was racing once he came around, he was my fav but
not my Dad's as I think he had a Ford motor & my Dad was a Mopar man.
 
hey cooper,,the vids are about tri city ,so is my story,,ya dont like what i post ,dont read it thank you,,now regarding dwight,,his cars were alwas show pieces,he worked for a body shop in st.louis,his race shop was in the ally at sara and laclede (i think the building is still standing)he won the allied championship in a 57 chevy that he formed the sides to look like a corvette,,bill peach ended up with that car and ran bellville with a 348...i lived in the area so it figures i would hook up with cyclone (is racing nom-dplure)arrounf 67 or 68..he was building a 37 ford coupe that took a hit the first night out,bent the frame,they fixed it but i think it was to light,,his next masterpiece was the famous (and soon to be restored)henery J,,the body and i think the cowl would lift up for easy access to the motor and to do service...this car was powered by a 427 ford (once hes shop partner ,hurracane hank,did a in car rebuild,we were rushing to get the car ready 4 b-vill,i was bout worn out and opened my big mouth "i aint doin no more work till i hear it run,hank came over and put 4,one bank of plug wires on and it fired right on up,best tasting crow i wever ate,,oh ya,he won the dash that night)the color was a yellow with metalic blue,,i have a picture i will try to attach..i can get his phone no and you can call him up,,dont talk nothing but racing,,OH YA MR.LENE,,just to keep this posting on subject i am posting a picture of me in victory lane at TCS,,notice my fire retardant bibs,,the car had a $52 junk yard motor,,,LA-TEE-DA...........lenny garson,,
 
i got hundreds,want more???? i gots a great russ wallace storie,,ya no i been doin this chit for dang near fitti years.........LOL
 
Hound & dirt boy- I agree maybe jim could set up a fireball blog, where lenny
& some the old timers could tell stories about the past. This time of the year
we who love racing miss it & his story about Dwight Barbeau, brought times
when I went with my family every weekend to the races. After being away for
almost 40 years, I now realize those were some of the best times I ever had.
 
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