Tidbits & Stories
Here is where the tidbits & stories will be presented.
1952: Carl Ferguson won a special 400 lap event at Taft Stadium in a six cylinder Chrysler.
1957: The Championship team of Leroy DeShields and Bill Scroggins were apparently the first to use an actual trailer to haul their race car. Most race cars until 1964 were simply towed to the local tracks with a tow bar. As out of town race tracks gained popularity a race car trailer became a necessity.
1957: A typical 1957 race car was a 1937 or later model, mostly Ford chassis, with a flat head Ford engine and one two-barrel carburetor with a fuel nitro mixture. The average car weight was 3400 pounds, and cost about $1000.
1957: Frankie Lies won the first National Jalopy Championship which was held at Taft Stadium. Frankie also won the second National Jalopy Championship, which moved to Hutchinson KS. in 1958. Frankie's blue #55 is probably the single most successful and recognized car of the late 50s', 60's, & early 70's. To see a photo of "old 55" and to get some background click here: Racing From The Past.
1960: Seems that Melvin Rodgers not only planted a big one on the trophy girl on a particular race night-but he likewise got a big one planted on him by his wife afterwards-ON HIS HEAD.
1961-1963
The 1961 season brought on quite a few changes in the cars although by their appearance, it was not obvious. While there was still a few of the familiar, Flathead Ford powered cars, the rules now allowed the use of overhead valve engines. To the best of my memory, the engine displacement limit was now set at 339 cubic inches. The rules allowed any engine and car type combination, so the typical '37 Ford 5 window coupe or sedan was now powered by a Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadilac, Chrysler, or even aFord. Carburetors were normally a Stromberg 97 and the typical setup was to use three of them. There were a few cars using 6 of the two barrel carburetors; it seems like Cleman Humphrey used the 6 x 2 setup on his Chevrolet powered Ford and Charlie Kamerzell used the 6 x 2 on his Chrysler Hemi powered car. Nitro was still a favored fuel, just as it had been with the Flathead cars. While the small block Chevrolet became the favorite choice for power, the 283 needed to be bored and stroked to make the cubic inches; the 327 did not make its appearance until 1962. Bob Eichor started the season with an Oldsmobile powered Ford coupe, but the setup did not bring the performance or success that he had seen in winning the championship the previous three years. He later changed to Chevrolet power and it worked out much better. I believe that Bob drove a '37 Ford coupe for Pat Suchy in '61, but it seems like he was in a Brotherton '37 Chevrolet by the '63 season when he nearly won the championship in a hotly contested battle with Aaron Madden. Other cars that I remember included the car of C.J. Ruckman. His car was beautiful '37 Ford 5 window coupe that was powered by Cadillac with a 3 x 2. Although most cars of that era were local, cars that were often flat towed, C. J. towed his car from Tulsa to compete every week. I only remember a few sponsors of some of the cars from those years. Bobby Laden drove a Chevrolet powered'37 Ford coupe until late in the '63 season when he switched to a '37 Chevrolet and was sponsored by Herb's Radiator and Welding for those three years. His cars were typically red with white lettering. C.J. Ruckman was sponsored by Joe Cox Grinding Works of Tulsa. Aaron Madden was sponsored by his business, A&A Radiator Service. There were a few cars that were outside the usual coupe or sedan as was seen in the occasional later model sedan, but those cars were hard to handle on the tight quarter mile Taft Stadium track. As I remember it, there were engine size allowances for cars with independent front suspension as opposed to the straight front axle used by the typical '37 Chevrolets and Fords. The Fords had the cross or buggy spring and these cars had the springs strapped with belts to tune the suspension for turning left. This was visible in some of the photos where it is obvious that the car leans to the left. The Chevrolets had longitudinal leaf springs, which offered some different tuning challenges. As the '63 season began more teams began converting to the Chevrolets and Ray Copeland came up with a setup that was used for years to come. He used longitudinal leaf springs in the read like the Chevrolets and the cross-spring in the front like the Fords. This setup would be used in many of the open wheel cars in the following years.
Thanks to Rick Patterson for his contributions.
1964 - 1966
The racing program moved from Taft Stadium to full time at the Fairgrounds and the cars took on a very different look. This was the first time that the cars being run in OKC and Tulsa were now under the same set of rules. After Aaron Madden won the '63 championship, he was seriously injured in an open wheel car due to a drive shaft not having a safety loop around it. Aaron had to sit out the '64 season while recovering. The cars were now open wheel and of earlier year models, mainly early to mid 1930s. The rules now required that the engine and body/frame had to be of the same make. The majority of the cars now became Chevrolets because of the popularity of the small block Chevrolet. Engine size was reduced to 305 cubic inches, so the familiar "301" fit in perfectly. Bobby Laden used a stroker motor for his '35 Chevrolet, now sponsored by Uptown Carpet. The "Carpetbagger" used a bored out "265" with a "327" crank. I believe that he soon converted to the standard "301". There were a few Ford powered cars like the one driven by Bob Eichor in 1964. The Ford sedan was built by Jay Hughes and would see a lot of action with three different drives. Aaron Madden drove the car in 1965 and Bobby Reynolds was at the wheel in 1966 for Pat Suchy. Interesting story about the 1966 season when the points race between the top three was pretty tight. Bobby Reynolds had a chance at the title, but the familiar 50 Pat Suchy car was destroyed near the end of the season. I was in Bobby Laden's pit crew starting with the 1966 season and while it was not a great season for Bobby Laden, I had a great time working for him. He and the rest of the crew taught me a lot and they were especially glad that I was not injured when a spark ignited the #6 car as I was fueling it. Since Bobby Reynolds needed a ride if he was to have a chance at the title, Bobby Laden let him use his car on at least one event. I can still see Reynolds taking the car out for a heat race and going what seemed far too deep into turns one and two on the first lap. He would go deep several more times, but not to that degree. When Bobby Reynolds pulled back in after the race and I helped him unstrap, he explained the story to all of us. Bobby Laden had the car setup the way he liked it, with the brake and clutch pedals reversed. As Bobby Reynolds told the story " I went in about two car lengths too deep and then mashed the clutch pedal which was where the brake should be." The way he told it was hilarious and it brings a smile to me just remembering it.
Stan Schoenberg had the distinction in of having a unique car in '64, '65, or '66 by driving a Plymouth in a field of mainly Chevy's and a few Fords. Most of the '64 to '66 cars were Chevy because the car and engine had to be of the same make. Stan's car was sponsored by the Cable Chrysler/Plymouth dealership, so naturally his car was a Plymouth. A new generation of small block Mopars had been introduced in 1964 in the form of a wedge head 273 cubic inch engine. This new engine was lighter than the old polyspherical head 318 cubic inch engine and is still with us today having been in many sizes like 318, 340 and 360 cubic inch displacements. I assumed that they would have chosen the new engine for this racing application, but they chose the old polyspherical head 318 cubic engine and de-stroked it to make the 305 cubic inch limit. I don't remember the car being particularly competitive, but Stan always got the most out of it.
Thanks to Rick Patterson for his contributions.
1965: Not that at times a more than competitive spirit existed between the Tulsa and OKC drivers, fans, and track personnel a minor incident stuck in my mind. Carl Ferguson and dad had no particular interest in winning trophy dashes and instead used the track time of two to three laps to test setups for the A-Main Feature. This had went on for a few weeks until a Tulsa Speedway sportswriter complained about the strategy and suggested that Carl could not win a trophy dash. The following week Carl and dad just happened to meet the writer in question and they both assured her in no uncertain terms that they would show her how to win a trophy dash. True to their word Carl not only won the trophy dash by a 1/4 lap, but also swept the race card that night with a 1/2 lap lead win in the A-Main Feature. The following photo is from that night. After a thorough post race inspection the car passed without incident.
1966: Wayne Cox (Lawton) appears to be the first competitor locally to use an existing car body as a mold to form a fiberglass shell.
1966: Wayne Cox had a commanding lead in a Super Modified A Feature one night and all the sudden Wayne puts his left hand up, pulls over into the inside racing lane and slows down to a halt. Well, not knowing what was going on - ALL the other drivers followed suit. I didn't have a car of my own that year so I walked out onto the track and asked Wayne "What's going on?" Wayne said "Bob, my throttle linkage just broke, got any wire?" There happened to be some wire on the mud screen so I untied one corner and threaded it through the throttle body linkage and the accelerator linkage just in time before Bud and some of the other officials came over wondering what was holding up the show and to get moving. Wayne fired up, as did everyone else and the race was on. Wayne ended up winning the feature and to this day people are still wondering "Why did everybody stop?" Thanks to Bob Brotherton for the tidbit.
1967: With rule changes made during the 1966 off season the Don Edmunds styled Super Modifieds make their first appearance at the Fairgrounds Speedway. Local drivers Dale Case, Carl Ferguson, and Bill Criner are the first to sport the new style. Among the more unusual conversions was Bob Brotherton's 1929 hupmobile bodied Super Modified driven by Aaron Madden.
1967: KLPR TV tapes & rebroadcasts Friday night racing on the following Thursday nights.
1967: With a car count of 130 six cylinder Modifieds a system was devised that would allow only the top 48 cars in points standings to participate in the regular program. All others would qualify through consolation races with the top two from each consolation event advancing to the B-Feature. A driver had to acquire enough points to remain/enter the top 48 car points system to compete in the regular programs.
Not many people went to
take their drivers license test with this guy:
And Danny "Quick" Swick said "I was scary"?
Danny happened to sweep at the old I-35 track at Goldsby one night and complained that he didn't make enough money to pay HIS hotdog bill. - Thanks to Jerry Schwartz for the tidbit.
A couple of great guys from the modified ranks: Glen Hunter (longtime Secretary of the Oklahoma Racing Association and Mr. K.C. Dewey). Oh, by the way Glen is an Insurance agent so I wont show HIS accidents - just kidding Glen.
A 1984 Daily Oklahoman article about Leroy DeShields:
Scott Munn
03/26/1984
Leroy DeShields will be trying to
bring back some old Taft Stadium memories at a special reunion Friday, March
30.
But it won't be a gathering of former prep football greats, or any old fly-by-night professional teams which had hoped to make it big in Oklahoma City. DeShields' reunion at the Elks Lodge, 4711 N Tulsa, will consist of men who brought auto racing to the Oklahoma City stadium.
So far, DeShields, said he has mailed out almost 70 invitations to former Taft Stadium drivers and has already gotten nearly 40 replies.
Those include the likes of Bud Carson, Harold Leep Sr. and former Indianapolis 500 driver Lloyd Ruby.
Although he has only one more week to get the letters out, DeShields, says he hopes to have 125-150 racers in attendance.
"I've been thinking about doing this over the years," said DeShields. "In the past, I've heard about the death of some old friends who I used to race with, so I decided to go ahead and do it before it was too late. I would really like to make this an annual thing, but I would never know what I was getting into until I did it."
DeShields, 59, raced for about 12 years at Taft and the Fairgrounds Speedway before quitting in 1963 to devote more time to his family and his own business.
"My racing was basically just a hobby," DeShields said. "In the early '60s they got into the different cars like they've got now, and anyway I was sort of growing up a little and raising the family. It was only a hobby for me because at the time I had my own service station. I think only five or six guys at that time were full-time racers."
Even though DeShields missed out on the big changes in racing, he did have to go through some minor changes which still made the Oklahoma City circuit a little bit tougher.
When auto racing started at Taft in 1951, DeShields says midgets were the only type of car that raced, since they were able to maneuver on the small track and avoid running onto the infield grass or hitting the wall.
"It was very hard to race in there because of the infield," DeShields said. "It belonged to the school board and they had set up railroad ties to help keep us off. If we went in the infield, we were penalized. We always had cars jump those ties and hit the outside wall."
A racing program at the Fairgrounds Speedway today consists of champ cars, modifieds and street stocks. All three divisions has its own set of rules, car specifications and types of fuel.
"Most of our cars were about 1937 through 1940 Fords," DeShields said. "We could put anything in the engine we wanted internally and we ran on just plain fuel. We could also run on any width of a tire we wanted."
DeShields said that it was common for racers to buy tires off of ambulances because they were wider and had more traction.
"Of course, the cars now have wings and they are more expensive," he said. "What they invest now is not close to our cars. We put maybe $3,000 into a car then, and now they're putting around $30,000 or $40,000 in cars. We also only had $1,000 purses. Now they've got $3,000 purses."
Racing at Taft started to fade away near 1956 when DeShields and many other racers went with Bud Carson and Mar-Car at the Fairgrounds.
The first year DeShields raced at the Fairgrounds, he won the Mar-Car points championship. De Shields raced six more years before calling it quits.
Now, DeShields has nothing to do with racing, and he says he'd rather not get back in it such as being a sponsor or helping his employees who are interested in racing. The closest he wants to come to racing anymore is the reunion.
"I'm about ready to turn my business over to my son because I want to do some traveling," DeShields said. "I've got some employees interested in the street stocks and I'm always being bothered about sponsorships, but no, I'm not interested."
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