#2238  -   "Tony Bonadies battles for the lead with Ray Brown (#6) during the heat at the Williams Grove, Pa., Speedway. On the next lap, a wheel collapsed on the Bonadies machine, forcing it to spill and throw Bonadies from the car. The injuries the veteran Midget auto race star suffered proved fatal." From Illustrated Speedway News (undated) (Walter Chernokal Photo)

#2235  -  That looks racy! The Super Sportsman cars at York Haven, PA's BAPS Motor Speedway. Garrett Williamson #32, Kenny Edkin #75, Jay Fannasy #222, and Russ Mitten having fun. From Area Auto Racing Calendar 2019. (Chad Updegraff Photo)

#2234  -  They sure used to race hard at Manzanita Speedway. This bit of outrageousness transpired at the Western World for Sprint Cars in November of 2008. The participants were not identified. Photo from THE HISTORIC MANZANITA SPEEDWAY IN PHOENIX, by Larry Upton, Judy McDonald and the Stock Car Racing Association. (Photo courtesy Don Iverson)

#2230  -  Jimmy Vasser in the winning Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard/Honda on April 14, 1996 at Long Beach. The PPG Indy Car Series was hot. Promoter Chris Polk entertained over 100,000 fans that day. From INDY CAR CHAMPION: A Season with Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. (Cheryl Day Anderson Photo)

PS. That was NEAR Hall of Famer Billy Greco in Friday's mystery shot. He tells his story in The Number 43, published last summer by Coastal 181.    

#2223  -  There was a lot of celebrating on January 17, 1965, after a sundrenched crowd of 61,474 witnessed  Dan Gurney snatch the Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, CA, in a Wood Brothers Ford. The day wasn't blissful for everyone, however. AJ Foyt was dueling with Junior Johnson for second place when he drifted into the dirt off turn nine and did an end-for-end. He broke his back and fractured his left leg. Doctors at the Riverside Community Hospital deemed him to be in "fair" condition. Then Dick Powell, a strong runner at Riverside, spun in turn one. A group of fans perched atop a forklift all shifted their positions to watch, and the forklift flipped over and down an embankment, killing a 20-year-old from San Diego and injuring three others.  Photo from RIVERSIDE RACEWAY: Palace of Speed, by Dick Wallen. (Jim Chini Photo)

#2220  -  John Frankenheimer's 1966 GRAND PRIX, winner of three Academy Awards, raised racing films to a podium seldom reached since then. It's the beautifully presented story of the entanglements in the lives of very brave wheelmen seeking the world championship. As well as actual Formula I drivers including Juan Fangio, Phil Hill, and Graham Hill, the cast includes Eva Marie Saint, James Garner, Yves Montand, Jessica Walter, and the incredibly fetching Francoise Hardy (above). It seems that this winter there are colds, flu, and pneumonia everywhere. If you get hit, take it from personal experience that this film will lift you to a place you would much rather be for a couple of hours.

#2216  -  Dick Berggren sends in this Photo of the Day about our friend Joe Freeman, owner of Racemaker Press in Boston.

"Abnormally brave! Joe Freeman is a long-time driver shown here racing his Kurtis Indy roadster at Lime Rock's road course in a vintage event last fall. There's no roll bar on the car and Joe isn't wearing a shoulder harness. He also races a 1947 HRG which has no roll bar or shoulder harness. He wears an open-face helmet because, he says, it's more appropriate to vintage cars than a full-face helmet.

Joe knows the pain of a big crash so he races dangerously but fully informed. In 1975, racing his Brabham he came up the Lime Rock hill with the hard right at its top and suddenly there was a car stalled in the middle of the track. It was impossible to miss and the impact was ferocious. Joe was badly hurt, having broken both legs among other injuries. It took emergency crews half an hour to cut him out of what was left of the Brabham.

He will race again in 2019."  Caption and Photo by Dick Berggren

#2207  -  That's Ray Fox with the last remaining Kiekhaefer Chrysler 300B in October of 1988. Ray said, "One time Kiekhaefer threw me a birthday party. He used to smoke cigars that came in glass jars and they were super cigars. He had one in his mouth all the time. At my birthday party he handed me a box of these cigars so I could take one. I took the box away from him and handed it around so everybody that was there had a cigar. Kiekhaefer didn't say a word, but he about died."  Quote and photo from FULL JEWELLED - Stock Car Racing from 1951-1956, as told to Russ Hamilton.

#2205  -  The caption on this photo in the book PENSKE'S MAESTRO, Karl Kainhofer and the History of Penske Racing, by Gordon Kirby, attests that "Penske's rental car [was] submerged in the hotel's swimming pool at Laguna Seca following some high jinks with Augie Pabst."  Wouldn't something like that more likely have happened at Richie Evans's motel?  (Photo - Kainhofer Collection) 

#2203  -  Some incidents just seem to get burned into memory, and this was one of them. It was 1958 at Fonda Speedway. A young taxi driver from Whitehall, NY, was charging through the back in Ted Vogel's white #95 Ford-powered Sportsman. But, halfway through the main, it looked like something on his right rear broke, dropping the corner of the chassis way down. Kenny, "The Shoe," was undeterred and, if anything, just drove harder. For a couple of laps. Then on turn two, the problem worsened, the car dug into the clay, and over and over it flipped. And, much to the horror of all us watching in the first-turn grandstand, out of the window flew Kenny. When it was finally over, you could have heard a pin drop. It looked as though the car had landed on top of him. But, in truth, none of us could see what really happened. The beefy early Ford overhead motor had actually been torn off its mounts and landed first. It saved the Kenny from being crushed when the car came crashing down on top of it. The safety crew rushed to the scene, righted the car (as shown in the photo) and tended to him. Amazingly, though he was certainly hospitalized, he was not that seriously hurt. It was a scene that I will never forget. And it was the first thing I thought of some 40 years later when Kenny called . Over the years, he had emerged as one of upstate New York's all-time great dirt trackers and he said he wanted to do a book about his career. That sounded like a good idea to me, so we got together and wrote THEY CALLED ME THE SHOE. And that was the start of Coastal 181.  (Photo, Ted Vogel Collection)

#2201  -   Here is Benny Parsons, the only driver to hold the distinction of winning the both ARCA and NASCAR Championships in his career. This photo from 1964 at the Mt. Clemens (Michigan) Racetrack. The former horse track was transformed into both a quarter- and a half-mile paved oval for cars in the 1970s and '80s. The site is now an industrial park. (Photo and caption Jim Hehl)

#2198  -  Our late friend, New England Auto Racing Hall of Famer Marty Harty, said this was the end of the racing line for a driver named Al Canney from the Dover, New Hampshire area. He crashed the "mud buggy" at either Newmarket, NH, or Sanford, ME, in 1941 and ended up in a coma. Is that President Roosevelt on the radiator? (Coastal 181 Collection) 

#2197  -  Here in New England's Merrimack Valley, "W" stands for Witkum in Supermodified circles.  On the left is Eddie Witkum, a star performer at the gritty old Pines Speedway in Groveland, MA.  The photo was taken in 1967, just  before the "cutdowns" morphed into roadster configuration. On the right this summer, five decades later, is Jeffrey Battle, Eddie's 17-year-old grandson. Jeffrey, exceptionally impressive, had just won the Randy Witkum Memorial small-block Super event at Star Speedway in Epping, NH.  (Randy was Jeffrey's uncle, who was killed in an ISMA race at Jennerstown, PA in 1999.)  (Rich Hayes Photos)

#2192  -  The indoor season is coming. Here's a shot from Atlantic City a decade ago with Teddy Christopher showing Joey Payne and Jeff Hoetzler (#4) the quick. Teddy will be missed again this year. He was inducted posthumously into the New England Auto Racing Hall of Fame earlier this month in a touching presentation by Jackie Arute. From "STRAPPED IN" magazine, May 2009. (Mike Feltenberger Photo)

PS The answer to yesterday's photo quiz: The one and only Jack "Do-it" Hewitt. Photo from HEWITT'S LAW, by Jack Hewitt with Dave Argabright.

#2187  -  On the final night of regular racing at Afton (NY) Speedway, IMCA Modified hot shoes Tyler Stoddard and Beau Ballard (shown above) were really going at it. Beau ended up ahead by just one point in the championship chase. The last night came on the weekend of IMCA's Boone Nationals, so no points were given out in the IMCA division, but Tyler and Beau were both ready for bear. They got to the front in their feature, and, according to Kenn Van Wert, Beau's car owner, left absolutely nothing on the table for the last ten laps. At the line, Tyler nipped Beau for the win, theoretically tying the two in points. So, who was champion? Afton Speedway's answer: both. Beau, who had one feature win over the season, was anointed Afton IMCA champ, while Tyler, who won two, wears the laurels as Afton Track champion. (Kenn Van Wert Collection)

#2184  -  A big and fast man in his diminutive but speedy Super - Joy Fair at the Michigan State Fairgrounds in 1961. Fair danced on the pavement of Sandusky, Ohio, with the #719 as well, out-shoeing the likes of Gordon Johncock, Jack Conley, Rollie Beal, and Nellie Ward. By 1963, he was off on chapter two - conquering the Late Models.  (Photo, Jim Hehl)

#2166  -  Morral, Ohio's Todd Gibson put together a string of nine features in a row at Oswego, NY, in 1968, an achievement that remained unbeaten for a decade. His car was the very racy #0, the "Flintstone Flyer." Photo from 1979 GATER RACING NEWS YEARBOOK.

#2165  -   "Graham Hill confers with Colin Chapman during a bittersweet 1968 for Lotus. The team lost talisman Jim Clark at Hockenheim in April, but five weeks later Hill won the Spanish GP - the first of three victories that would help him secure a second world title."  Quote and Photo from Collectors' Special: 1960s in Focus - Rare and Unseen Photographs from a Golden Decade of Motor Sports, Damion Smith Editor. (LAT Photographic Photo)

#2156  -  "Talk about unique. The Best Engineered Car in the 1971 running of the NHRA Winternationals was Jim Busby's dragster. The Junior Fueler was powered by twin Ford Indy engines that Jim picked up for a song after USAC made the 255-inchers obsolete. Can you imagine the headache of tuning these engines with their 8 cams and 64 valves? Driven by Hank Westmoreland, the rail cranked out a best of 8.27 at 186.12 on 50% nitro. With a change once again in USAC rules, the Ford engines were back in. Jim sold the engines back to the same people he had purchased them from and made a healthy profit." Quote and Photo from 1001 DRAG RACING FACTS: The Golden Age of Top Fuel, Funny Cars, Door Slammers, & More, by Doug Boyce. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

#2152  -  Here are two photos and a quote from our favorite Bluesman, John DaDalt.  "Old Davey Brown Sr. hasn't slowed down any. I was down at Williams Grove this past weekend watching Lance Dewease put a whipping on the Outlaws in a car fielded by Donnie Kreitz Jr. and Davey Brown Sr."

#2151  -  The late Teddy Yip, an ethnic Indonesian Chinese, was a flamboyant owner of a business empire including casinos, hotels, and trading companies based in Hong Kong. Of all things, he was a former race car driver who became a highly active team owner and sponsor. He'd frequently fly from Hong Kong to the US for a weekend of racing and he pulled down a third place at Indy with Mike Moseley in the early 1980s. Here he was at the Indiana State Fairgrounds for the Hoosier Sprints in 1977. He enjoyed all aspects of the American life style.  From 1978 Hoosier Sprints Official Program. (Bill Reser Photo)

#2149  -  That looks like fun! It's Bonneville in 2005 and Bill Latten is buckled into a 1959 Kusma Indy Car with a 255 CI Offy up front. (From Bonneville Salts Flat Calendar, 2006, Huntimer Photography.)

#2141  -  Richie Tobias just has to be on the gas. For years he was an outstandingly successful and courageous wheelman, whether in a Sprinter, a Silver Crown car, or a Modified. He is legendary for his uniquely frightening but successful assaults on the high groove at the former "Moody Mile" at the Syracuse Fairgrounds. More recently, along with Doug Rose, he has revamped the track in the middle of Kutztown, PA, with a very successful program featuring SpeedSTR and Slingshot cars of his own design. Richie and Doug have now partnered with Mike Heffner to bring the first "World Series of Dirt Racing" to Selinsgrove, PA, on October 11-14. Utilizing both the half-mile and the bullring oval inside, 10 divisions of race cars will compete - everything from three classes of Sprinters to Super Late Model and Modifieds to SpeedSTRs and Slingshots. But, very unusually, AMA Flat Track Motorcycles will be added to the program. You can bet all the four-wheel guys will be standing next to the fence watching that. (Tobias Family Collection)

#2138  -  In 1935, Preston Tucker of Tucker Automobiles, persuaded Henry Ford that racing at the Brickyard would be good for publicity. Ford decided to build and enter 10 Millers powered by Flatheads, but at a late date. Only 9 arrived at the track; only 4 qualified; none finished. The steering boxes were mounted so close to the exhaust manifolds that they cooked. The cars were unsteerable. Henry Ford was thunderously unimpressed and ordered all of them destroyed, though a couple remained and raced again with alternative power.  From Kar-Kraft: Race Cars, Prototypes, and Muscle Cars of Ford's Specialty Vehicle Activity Program, by Charlie Henry. (Courtesy Ford Images)

#2128  -   As always seems to be the case at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, promoter Lyle Devore packed them in for the legends night. Three of his guests pretty much terrorized the place in summers gone by. L-R are Brian Ross, Wes Moody, and CD Coville. Everybody move back!  (Photo by our man from Amsterdam, Dave Dalesandro)

#2117  -  Coastal 181 friend Steve McKnight sends in this victory shot of the July 31 Super DIRT Series event at Airborne Park up in Plattsburgh, NY.  As Steve says, the scene reflects the remarkable new age span in DIRT's Modified roster.  L-R are "Mad Max" McLaughlin, 18;  Danny "The Doctor"Johnson, winner at 58; Racing Extravaganza's Carly Hendrickson, 22-ish; and "Super Matt" Sheppard, 36.  (Steve McKnight Photo)

#2115  -  It was a good day back in 2013 for the most excellent New Hampshire racer Wayne Helliwell at the then-paved Airborne Park in Plattsburgh, NY...especially since he did not have to go too many more laps.  (Coastal 181 Collection)

#2109  -  Whether that moment of glory or the moment of terror, it's all there in MODERN THUNDER, the incredible new history of USAC Sprint Cars by Argabright, Mahoney and Sullivan.  It's nearly 400 pages of stats, fabulous photos, and text. Dave Darland, Brady Short, Mike Brecht, and Darren Hagen star in this intensity at Eldora in June of 2008.  From MODERN THUNDER: The Illustrated History of USAC National Sprint Car Racing, 1981-2017, by Dave Argabright, John Mahoney, and Patrick Sullivan. (John Mahoney Photo)

#2108  -  They may have been famous ones, but "Boys will be boys. Lucky Jordan sat on Dad's left and Bobby Pickell (wearing the hat) on his right. Jackie McLaughlin was standing up. Maybe he hadn't wanted to be identified. He had just blown up the outhouse at Nazareth."  Quote and photo from Alan Carter's book on his father, JUST CALL ME RAGS: Rags Carter's Racing Life. (Carter Family Collection)

#2103  -  Josh Azzi is over and out, into the sunset. (Greg Mesler Photo)

#2102  -  A serious gasser. This was Johnny White at New Bremen, Ohio, in the Weinberger Sprinter on May 3, 1964. Later in the month he would finish fourth at the Brickyard and become Rookie of the Year. But then on June 14 at Terre Haute, he bicycled, flew out of the park, sustaining injuries that paralyzed him from the neck down. He passed away on Christmas Eve 13 years later.  From 60 YEARS OF RACING - On Both Sides of the Fence, by Larry LaMay.

#2089  -  Wouldn't you have loved to see a few laps of this?  Seventy-eight summers back, on July 6, 1941, the Sprinters assembled at Little Valley Speedway, a half-mile dirt at the Cattaraugus County Fairgrounds in New York.  Photo from our friend Ford Easton, Butch Fleetwood Collection.

#2086  -  The annual "Boston Louie" Seymour Memorial Midget race was held at Seekonk (MA) Speedway on Wednesday night. Modifieds and a packed grandstand joined in on the action that was eventually interrupted by rain. The Midget portion of the event has become remarkably noteworthy, with competitors hauling in from as far away as Iowa. Lensman John DaDalt sent us this show of a couple of serious heavyweights who came to town, Sammy Swindell (L) and Danny Drinan. (John DaDalt Photo)

#2083  -  There was a curious phenomenon in the Albany, New York, area at the outset of stock car racing in the very early 1950s.  Powder Puff racing was really popular - and intense.  Three of the hottest wheelwomen were, left to right, Helen Freckleton, Dot Schuman, and Sonja Siegar.  Everybody move back! (Ed Biittig/Jan Hacker Collection)

#2078  -  They say South Carolina's Tootle Estes drove every kind of race car imaginable and won 300 Late Model features alone. Those included his last race at Volunteer Speedway on August 20, 1982. After the race, second-place finisher and longtime rive L.D. Ottinger reflected, "Tootle was complaining about his arms hurting but we didn't think much about it . . . We loaded up and got on the interstate, and in a few minutes that Thunderbird came by doing 100 miles per hour. Buddy Rogers was driving and Tootle's wife was in the back with Tootle. They missed the exit for the Morristown hospital and stopped beside the road. We got Tootle out of the car and up on the bank to do CPR, but he was dead with a massive heart attack." He was 52. From A History of East Tennessee Auto Racing: The Thrill of the Mountains, by David McGee. (Ray Taylor Photo)

#2070  -   A while back we had a call from Gary Balough. I had raced against him and, like everyone else, was blown away by his Olympian talent. He asked if we would publish his memoir and if Bones Bourcier would work with him on it. He was quick to agree to our condition that he cover not only his racing exploits but also the less glamorous events. He said he felt he owed the racing community an explanation. I said, "We're on." Here's a shot from the result, our latest title, HOT SHOE! A Checkered Past: My Story, by Gary Balough with Bones Bourcier.  Photo caption: In 1980's World Series at New Smyrna, Balough beat Dick Trickle (and everyone else) for five nights. On the sixth, he and Trickle crashed. (Courtesy Gary Balough)

#2069  -   High at Haubstadt. In 2002 Sean Walden got to flipping on the quarter-mile Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Indiana. He landed on top of the billboards, disembarked, and waved to the crowd. It is conceivable that Sean could get back on terra firma easily, but what of the car? Good thing the track was carved out of a farm owned by the Helfrich family. One of their other business interests has been well-drilling, and they just happened to have the right equipment on site for removal.    Photos from DID YOU SEE THAT:  Unforgettable Moments in Midwest Open-Wheel Racing, by Joyce Standridge. (Kevin Horcher Photos)

#2063  -  Do you think Jimmy Bryan was just a little bit popular? Even in that era when our sport was so lethally dangerous that the AAA separate itself from it, Arizona Highways ran a feature story on Bryan as a key figure in the state.  That's Luella and daughter Stephanie with him.  From My Hero, My Friend Jimmy Bryan, by Len Gasper and Phil Sampaio.

#2060 -  Whoops!  A couple of days ago we posted a Photo of the Day about the IMSA Supers going to Monadnock (NH) Speedway for what we thought was the first time. Good buddy Jeff Horn straightened us out on that one. He remembers running his Super there back in the mid-70s, and you can understand why he remembers. He was leading when a lapped car got loose and nailed him. That time Jeff couldn't straighten himself out and off he went, into the wall. He believes Ollie Silva won.  (North East Motor Sports Museum Collection)

#2049  -  Linda Vaughn says, "Three of my pals right here, and heroes in the NASCAR world. From left to right are Fred Lorenzen, Bobby Johns, and Fireball Roberts. I just love this picture." It is pretty cool. From LINDA VAUGHN: The First Lady of Motorsports, by Linda Vaughn and Rob Kinnan.

#2046  -  "It was in the Midgets that Mario made his first racing headlines, but once he made it to USAC, he only ran a dozen Midget events. His last Midget appearance came in 1969 in the 1969 Astro Grand Prix in Houston's Astrodome, billed as the richest Midget race in the world. Teaming with Midget champion Mel Kenyon, Mario finished seventh and eighth in the two 100-lap events."  Quote and Photo from MARIO ANDRETTI: The Complete Record, by Mike O'Leary. (Ken Coles Photo)

#2044  -  John Hoenig came up with a unique - and racy - recovery plan in 1938 when his farm in Thompson, CT, was literally torn apart by the "Great New England Hurricane," also known as the "Long Island Express."  He built a beautifully formed oval, the first paved track in the country, and it opened on Memorial Day weekend in 1940 to a capacity crowd. Here are the Big Cars, dancing in formation on the high banks in 1941.  (North East Motor Sports Museum Collection)

#2042  -  Ouch! Sixties-era midgeteer Wayne Hoffman inserted Roxie Vendenna's V-8 underneath the steel guardrail at Denver's Lakeside Speedway. He had a fractured elbow – the car sustained more serious injuries.  From The Mighty Midgets, by Jack C. Fox. (Leroy Byers Photo)

#2040  -  A prototypical image of the time, April 29, 1956 at Reading, PA:  A Caddy tow vehicle, a pretty swish trailer, and the Curtis Offy. But you have to wonder how Chuck Weyant was feeling at that moment. The 23-year-old from the Buckeye State was fresh off his victory at the Hut Hundred the previous year, but by the looks of the steering wheel, this had not been a good day. Weyant lived on to become for some time the oldest living Indy 500 veteran until he died a year ago in January.  (Bradley Poulsen Collection)

#2029  -  Colleen Kay Hutchins, Miss Utah in 1951, was crowned Queen of the International Motor Show in the D.C. National Guard Armory the same year.  In 1952 she became Miss America.  She would definitely need a change of threads to handle the trophies at Eldora this summer.  From Souvenir Pictorial - International Motor Show, 1951.

#2028  -  That Frankie Schneider seemed to turn up everywhere. On this September 8, 1963, he was at Langhorne, PA, in a blue #42 Plymouth fielded by Lee, Maurice, and Richard Petty. Frankie outmuscled the car's overheating and ignition problems with a sixth-place finish, behind Paul Goldsmith, Norm Nelson, A.J. Foyt, Don White, and Curtis Turner. Four decades later Frankie wandered into our book booth at the Motorsports show in Atlantic City, walked up to me, and said "I know you."
"You should, Frank," I replied. "You have helped us with these books."
"That's not what I mean," he said, "I think I know you from the races."
"You should, Frank," I replied. "One day when I was just getting started, we towed all the way down to Nazareth, PA, with a pretty shaky Modified. A newcomer, I had to start last in the heat, next to you because you were probably leading in points. So I spun out on the fourth turn of the first lap and got stuck in the mud. And then you came around on the caution lap, looked over to me, and shook your head. How do you think that made me feel - a kid who had driven hundreds of miles to race, only to have the national hero shake his head."
Frankie looked me in the eye and asked "Where did you say you are from?"
"Boston."
"Never heard of it," he snapped.
(Photo from The Old Master: The Frankie Schneider Story, with Dennis Keenan)

#2027  -  It was August 3, 1963, and former motorcycle champion Cal Lane has a big ol’ smile underneath that robustly fortified starter's stand at Chemung (NY) Speedway. Cal recalls that he was particularly pleased because he was in the process of cleaning house - the heat, feature, and a match race - with his horned exhaust, slant-six dirt super. He had tough competition with the likes of Flyin' Bryan Osgood, Dave Kneisel, and his arch rival, Earl Bodine. Earl was brother to Eli Bodine who owned and promoted the track - and was father to Geoff, Todd, and Brett. All three raced and motored far beyond the hills of upstate New York to the motorized world of NASCAR. (Cal Lane Collection)

#2024  -  "The Wood Brothers #21 Ford sits on pit road during the spring Talladega race week with Dale Jarrett at the wheel. Neil Bonnett, who had to give up the ride when he was injured at Darlington in April, made his trackside return at Talladega. Greeting him was Bobby Allison, who suffered near-fatal head injuries two years earlier. Bonnett broke the ice in the press conference when he described his first conversation with Allison. 'Me and Bobby were sitting there on the couch,' said Bonnett. 'Between Bobby trying to say what he was thinking and me trying to remember what he was saying, it was a helluva conversation.'" Photo and caption from NASCAR: The Complete History, by Greg Fielden and The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide.