Photo by numbers....

[Frasson118]

The great Smokey Snellbaker, in the Roy Morrall #880. Roy owned Sprints in PA for many, many years, and Smokey is still racing to this day.

[Frasson118]

Now there is one talented Flagman, balancing on top of Gary Winters Pinto on Long Island, NY!

[Frasson118]

Another Gary Winters car... a nice Coupe with Injection.

[Frasson118]

Don "Bushey" Bushbacher from Central NY. Won a ton of Late Model races, and son Don JR. was no slouch either.

Don almost got out of racing at one point, as he was the guy who was sent by DIRT out to the shops of Kenny Weld to approve (or not approve) a car that they were bringing to the big race in Syracuse. It was the famous "Batmobile" (they called it a Lincoln Continental Mark IV), that changed Modified racing forever. Gary Balough drove it, unchalleneged the entire day, to the most un-popular win in Modified history.

Afterwards, Don was accused of everything from accepting bribes, payoffs, even Hookers and a bankroll to work with. Truth is, there wasn't anything in the rule books about maximum dimensions, only minimum dimensions. There wasn't anything in the book that said the car was illegal. He took all the heat, not to mention threats to himself and his family, for what the rule books DIDN'T say.

[Jim Fenton]

CooCoo Marlin in the #7-11.

American Legion Bowl, Nashville, Tennessee. Circa 1946 – 1956.



CooCoo going Cuckoo again at the American Legion Bowl, Nashville Tennessee. 1953.

[Jim Fenton]

Jim Childers back in the day at the Gate.

This is Childers in a Bomber in 1970, or maybe it’s a Taxi Cab, I’m not sure. Anyway, love that snazzy helmet and that tiger on the roof there Jimbo!
(I can't help but wonder who that guy is coming out of the infield on his LR quarter panel??)



Not sure of year or class here in the #141 1955 Chevy. Looks like a Bomber or could be an Early Model. Maybe Jimmy Mac or someone that knows Childer’s background better than I do can straighten me out here.


(Photos: Mean Gene Adler)

[Jim Fenton]

Bobby Allison back in the day in the #312 Late Model.




Bobby finished 2nd. to winner Wayne Reutimann in the 1965 Florida State Late Model Championship at Golden Gate Speedway in this car.

[Frasson118]

Sweet stuff there Jim. Don't know where you get these from, but Damn, I'm impressed!

Thanks for helping keeping this thread alive.

You too Dave, and everyone else who has contributed... this has been FUN!!!

[Frasson118]

I've always liked the oddball stuff too. Ed Howe apparently liked it too. All 3 are his cars. I think Ed was really into seeing his stuff tested out by other "consultants", like Jim Dunn who also ran the DIRT car, and Tommy Maier who ran both the GOne car, and the "H" car, that was heavily financed by Bob Newton... who owns Hoosier Tire (which explains the "H")

[Frasson118]

Ronnie Adams from LA. or MS. (?)

[Frasson118]

Long time (as in decades) Volusia-area racer, Roho Sims.

I'm thinkin' 60's into the 2000's. Any help here is appreciated!

[Frasson118]

Also curious here... see the 1/4 panel where it says Bertram Chassis? Is that Dave & Augie Bertram (current competitor at VSP), owners of Dave's Towing in Ocala?

[Jim Fenton]

Sweet stuff there Jim. Don't know where you get these from, but Damn, I'm impressed!

Thanks for helping keeping this thread alive.

You too Dave, and everyone else who has contributed... this has been FUN!!!

No prob Jerry.

Yeah I love this stuff. Especially the older stuff. I wish I could devote more time to it but making a living keeps interfering if ya know what I mean. (I hate it when work stuff gets in the way of fun stuff!)

The funny part is I never even checked this thread out until it was at least one full cycle, or maybe even two cycles into the number sequence. My work was keeping me on the road a lot at the time and I was only able to check in here once a week or so.

Yeah lets keep er' going as much as possible, maybe we'll set a record if there is a category for such things.

Has anybody checked the Guinness Book??

[Jimmy McKinley]

Looking through the "Florida Racing Memories" site, there's TONS of cars with oddball numbers; just can't copy and post the pics here. Teddy LaFleur's "X" comes to mind; Jimmy Crowe in the "ONE" Nova at Palm Beach; the BeanPickers and Sonny Kocsis both ran the zer0; hell, Fenton was even an oddball with that "FOUR" of his...LOL...Bryan Wescott ran a "THREE" in St. Pete's "Outlaw" (Thunder Car) division. Hell, even our car was #XII and #III for a few years out on the west coast at Inverness and St. Pete. We were also scored as the #12D for YEARS at Tampa, St. Pete, and Bradenton because Bontrager was the #12R, and I think there was one other #12 out there.
How many years did anyone go to Tampa and St. pete for Governor's Cup weekend (the Florida 200 and Gulf Coast Classic 100) and see a LOT of "re-numbered" cars? Speedy Reeves in that one pic posted earlier is renumbered as #121 (his regular number was 21). Paul Conners towed up from Palm Beach and renumbered his car as the 33C; Gene Tharpe already had his #33 National Guard Nova. Not sure where, when, or why, but as long as I can remember, Griffin had #7G on the side of his cars for YEARS. And speaking of Howe, he also had a "Brand-X" Javelin, and along with the "60ne" car, he had a team car, the "6o1ng" ("Going") car that Maeir drove as well.
Here's our #III car at St. Pete for the Gulf Coast Classic in 1985. When we ran Inverness, we'd slap a yellow duct-tape "X" over the first "I" to make it #XII. We used the III at St. Pete so Bryan could keep his points . Then we ran (and won) a Florida Pro race at Bradenton with Junior Purcell in the #112. This, for some reason, was pretty unpopular win for some reason (maybe the crowd didn't like Junior? I don't know, never got the full story...). Gertsner then drove for us at Lakeland Int'l's quarter-mile in the #121.

On a side note: hey, Westerman...feel free to use these if you want for the Florida Stock Car History Web site. Man, I got TONS of pics I need to go through and get to you.

[ModelCarMan]

My dad's started out with the number 1 on his car, but there was already drivers using the number 1, Curtis Letchworth, Mike Brinson, Aaron Coller etc... So he changed it to F1. Why "F" I don't know, he always gave me different answers, "Fast 1, Fantastic 1, Flat-out 1 etc... That's my dad for you! lol