BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. — It’s amazing what you find when you sort through your old banker boxes, photo files, scrapbooks, plastic totes and piles of assorted memorabilia.
We’ve been doing that lately in anticipation of downsizing and warm memories have been flowing like cold beer after an extra-lap race on a hot summer night.
Among the treasures unearthed was a short recollection from longtime midget racer Bobby Hart titled “Racing on Pennies in the 50s” that puts the cost and methods of racing today in perspective.
Like many racers then and now, Hart, a terrific mechanic by trade, had little disposable income left over from raising a family. But he persevered and was quite successful, garnering a championship with the NEMA organization and four between 1953 and ’58 with MARC. He also set a speed record for midgets on the beach at Daytona and was the NASCAR stock-block champion in 1955, when the Offys and Ford V8-60s ran together.
Hart was also the proud father of three racers, daughter Mitzi and sons Rick and Rob. Racers today may well know Rob, who long ago relocated from New York to Indiana and has served as crew chief and mentor for a wide variety of sprint car racers.
Here, then, are some of Bobby Hart’s recollections.
“In 1951, I sold my share in the Harry Bridge No.5 Ford midget for a couple of hundred dollars and some spare parts. With the money from that sale, I bought a used Hilligass rail-frame midget kit from my boss, Walt Cross, for $450 on-time payments. My investment included the body, frame, steering, front axle, gear box with dog clutch, 20 gear changes, radiator, front and rear springs and miscellaneous parts.”
Since Hart worked for Cross’ truck shop at the time, the deal also included use of the shop’s lathe, welder and other equipment as well as a stall to work on the car at night and on weekends. His next challenge was coming up with an engine.
“At a local scrap yard, I took a chance on a Ford V-8 60 HP motor, complete with transmission, for 30 cents a pound. Total cost — $9. I took it apart and found it was a freshly rebuilt .030 over with a good reground crankshaft, good valves, new valve springs etc., etc.
“The spare parts from Harry Bridges included a Harmon and Collins cam and a set of .030 over Jahns pistons. At the time, new bearings from Ford were about $10, Grant rings were about $30 and rings from Burd were free if you sent them a picture of the car. Gaskets were $15 for a complete set. I bought a used two-carb intake manifold for $20 but bartered work for it instead of cash. A used cut-down Ford rear with safety hubs was $50 and I used Model A Ford front hubs and wheels from the Bridge deal. And my boss, Walt Cross, was working with Frank Delroy to build an Indy car and Delroy sold me a set of Schroeder front brakes for about half-price.”
Hart then related loading the car into a rented U-Haul trailer with a crane when the car would not fit through the rear gate and driving 300 miles in an overheating 1940 Mercury to Buffalo Civic Stadium on pre-Thruway roads. After getting help to manually lift the car out of the trailer, Hart’s day went totally in the crapper when the pistons hit the cylinder heads, which had been relieved but not enough, and the rod bearings were all wiped out.
“My first win with the car was a consi at Shangri-La Speedway in Owego, N.Y., and the first main event win came in 1952 at Peekskill, N.Y.,” summed up Hart, who raced competitively for many years in a variety of cars, both self-owned and as a hired gun.
“My creative car building had taught me many things, especially that with a little imagination and innovation, good friends and attention to detail you could race on pennies.”
Veterans of the early stock car days could also relate similar sagas of the era when junkyard parts, innovative minds and endless hours of labor could be combined to produce unique, amazingly fast racers at minimal cost.
Today’s racers, who buy almost everything and then assemble the pieces, ending up with cars 99-percent alike, will never experience the joy of winning with something they built from the ground up.
Sprint car legend Rick Ferkel told us once that the first car he raced at Eldora Speedway was built with tubing from old swing sets. The good old days weren’t all good, and in the case of Ferkel and countless others, the cars were definitely not as safe as the factory-built chassis used today.
But knowing how it was done “back in the day” can certainly give today’s racers an appreciation for how far the sport has progressed over the years.