At 3:48 the gentleman donning the Cromwell helmet is Bud Rose ( real name Harry Eisele). He was Clark Gable’s stunt double in the 1950 movie “ To Please a Lady”. His most notable achievement was winning a 500 mile race for Sprint cars at Riverside International Speedway in 1958. The race was sanctioned by the CRA.
I am watching this from Germany following up a documentation on Mario Andretti. Reading about engine size and horsepower available in this class I am out of words. It seems in a way a surreal blend of 30s racecars (Bentley, Alfa, Maserati) and Mad Max vehicles. The drivers (ex)position and angle of the wheel is just extraordinary. What a wild world of racing concepts. Thankyou.
I have AAA yearbooks for 1950 through 1954 and in those "Big Cars" were sprint cars. I have never been able to find out how the Championship cars became the "Big Cars" during the USAC years. Donald Davidson always refereed to the Champ cars as the big cars and he had no explanation.
This must be "amateur" Kodachrome. It gave brilliant color and resists fading better than most color films. A nice view of the county fair background of Champcar racing.
My friend Nick Dunno got killed at Langhorne 9/29/58.I have been told movies. Existed of his crash,he was a close friend,any information available would I be happy with any Reply, Please Help. !
Does anyone remember my grandfather Wild Bill Holmes, he raced the east coast, NY, CT, Mass.. I've read that he was very good. Might have raced a car sponsored by a funeral home in RI. Any info or stories would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I’m going to link this video to a Facebook site that might be able to answer youre query. If he raced THESE cars there’s a good chance someone will know Wild Bill. I myself have never heard of him..yet..
@@MrChristopherHaas Thank you Mr Haas for doing that. He was from NYC city area, Connecticut too. Mostly drove midgets , indoors and out.. raced mostly in NY, NJ, eastern PA. And New England. Won a boatload of races and I believe track championships. Buried in Danbury Connecticut. Mostly raced in the late30s. The 40s, and early 50s. If that helps any. Thanks again, tramp.
@@saddletramp6935 My pleasure. I’m a member of various NASCAR,ARCA,USAC sites and, when I see an old video,I put it where those who experienced the event and or families and friends of can enjoy them. I LOVE IT when I find some obscure old home movie of races from long ago. I also spend my retirement trying to fill in the blanks on any empty statistic, race results from old programs or newspaper articles that can’t be found online. Anyhow, I put this video on a couple of related sites where there are plenty of old timers with phenominal memories and there’s always someone who remembers. If you dont get any hits I’ll take a more direct approach…let’s see what happens
Much of the video is about Indy cars, not midgets. The shots of cars one the 1 mile tracks are of Indy cars. In the 1950s only the Indy 500 was on pavement. All the other 10 tracks on the Indy championship were 1 mile dirt tracks.
At 3:48 the gentleman donning the Cromwell helmet is Bud Rose ( real name Harry Eisele). He was Clark Gable’s stunt double in the 1950 movie “ To Please a Lady”. His most notable achievement was winning a 500 mile race for Sprint cars at Riverside International Speedway in 1958. The race was sanctioned by the CRA.
I am watching this from Germany following up a documentation on Mario Andretti. Reading about engine size and horsepower available in this class I am out of words. It seems in a way a surreal blend of 30s racecars (Bentley, Alfa, Maserati) and Mad Max vehicles. The drivers (ex)position and angle of the wheel is just extraordinary. What a wild world of racing concepts. Thankyou.
Thanks for showing this, most of it is AAA champ cars.
I have AAA yearbooks for 1950 through 1954 and in those "Big Cars" were sprint cars. I have never been able to find out how the Championship cars became the "Big Cars" during the USAC years. Donald Davidson always refereed to the Champ cars as the big cars and he had no explanation.
I didn´t know what to expect when I clicked on this video; midget cars, or midgets racing full size cars :)
This is great -although this is mostly Champ(ionship) "Big" cars, my Dad raced midgets in the old AAA in 1949 and 1950.
This was when race drivers were real men no good helmets safety belts roll cages
This must be "amateur" Kodachrome. It gave brilliant color and resists fading better than most color films. A nice view of the county fair background of Champcar racing.
It is, 8mm Home Movie as I recall.
My friend Nick Dunno got killed at Langhorne 9/29/58.I have been told movies. Existed of his crash,he was a close friend,any information available would I be happy with any Reply, Please Help. !
Does anyone remember my grandfather Wild Bill Holmes, he raced the east coast, NY, CT, Mass.. I've read that he was very good. Might have raced a car sponsored by a funeral home in RI. Any info or stories would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I’m going to link this video to a Facebook site that might be able to answer youre query. If he raced THESE cars there’s a good chance someone will know Wild Bill. I myself have never heard of him..yet..
@@MrChristopherHaas Thank you Mr Haas for doing that. He was from NYC city area, Connecticut too. Mostly drove midgets , indoors and out.. raced mostly in NY, NJ, eastern PA. And New England. Won a boatload of races and I believe track championships. Buried in Danbury Connecticut. Mostly raced in the late30s. The 40s, and early 50s. If that helps any. Thanks again, tramp.
@@saddletramp6935 My pleasure. I’m a member of various NASCAR,ARCA,USAC sites and, when I see an old video,I put it where those who experienced the event and or families and friends of can enjoy them. I LOVE IT when I find some obscure old home movie of races from long ago. I also spend my retirement trying to fill in the blanks on any empty statistic, race results from old programs or newspaper articles that can’t be found online. Anyhow, I put this video on a couple of related sites where there are plenty of old timers with phenominal memories and there’s always someone who remembers. If you dont get any hits I’ll take a more direct approach…let’s see what happens
AAA Big cars
Much of the video is about Indy cars, not midgets.
The shots of cars one the 1 mile tracks are of Indy cars.
In the 1950s only the Indy 500 was on pavement. All the other 10 tracks on the Indy championship were 1 mile dirt tracks.
3:40 just came in from some hot laps with a cigar in his mouth & wearing a nice polyester shirt, before "safety" was even a thing!
NO SOUND NO WATCH . GET REAL ,MAKE SOMETHING UP .KRAPP