Chapter 200

1/24/2009

Ch 200 Car Racing 1947                                                    Grandpa Wins

1947 Altamont Fairground Races Video

You probably don't care about this race, but the lost speedway lecture series at the Saratoga Auto Museum was one of our most popularly attended  events. Kinda hokey, so I began weaving a thread on the Hokey Ass Message Board. This popular vintage sprint car thread has a quarter MILLION hits.

Here's the interesting part: It is always a learning experience and for this one all I had to go on was my Father-in-law's 8mm undated movie box labeled only "car racing".  I followed the money trail of cars bought and sold, confirming the facts with named or un-named, sometimes off the record sources. The thrill of the hunt kept me going. The unsavory Schenectady Library newspaper microfiche ("...don't leave your coat at your work desk if you get up to get change..."), contact with owners, drivers, builders, family, extended family, writers, etc.

The ironic part is that I had also inadvertently photographed both the early and the later Gallione cars including a little Flip movie clip at our museum's spring autoshows, ...61 years after my father-in-law did !  Sort of a 6 degrees of separation thing?

This is my calling, to produce stuff for people who may not even want it.

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video notes to myself:

Altamont Enterprise oldies online records (via  Guilderland Public Library) :

"The favorite, Ed Bouley, Waterbury,CT leading the field on the seventh lap, was hurt when the flywheel on his motor let loose and came through the cowling of his car putting him out of action for the day.

Jerry Brown, Cortland, NY, had turned in the best qualifying time of the day."

[in other news in these papers the mystery of photosynthesis may be solved, aircraft to spray gypsy moths] 

A later Gallione replica car is the picture definition of a sprint car in Wikipedia . That replica is currently owned by Allan Wiltse of Bedford Hills, who confirmed this is a Hillegass Sprint Car now with a Chevy 350 restored by Joe Fiore,Jr of Southbury, CT in honor or his Dad, Joe Sr. Gallione drove for Fiore. The original car had a Ford flathead 60HP 4cyl 220ci, then Thunderbird V8.

Car builder's daughter's friend, Blase Regina Rte 146 Delanson, a current sprint car driver provided pictures of original car.

HAMB thread author (Josh Shaw aka corngrower32) advised me to disregard any crude comments from undesirables on the BB. He was apparently a crewmate and friend of Jimmy Shine ( TV show) for his '06 Bonneville land speed record.

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