A sprint car owned by Lee Parker and built by Paul Leffler changed the landscape of sprint car racing in Florida 1975.
A sprint car owned by Lee Parker and built by Paul Leffler changed the landscape of sprint car racing in Florida 1975.
Prior to 1975, most sprint cars in Florida were custom-built or one-off designs. When Parker debuted his car in 1975, it was evident the car was a little more advanced than other sprint cars racing in the state, primarily because of its suspension. In addition, it featured an Eddie Curry custom paint job that was more detailed than most cars of the period. It was one of the first mass-produced cars compete in the Sunshine state.
During the winter of 1974, Parker and his wife, Jan, decided they wanted to have a new car built. They were steered toward Indiana car builder Paul Leffler. Leffler had been building cars that were finding success regularly on the Indiana dirt tracks and in USAC competition.
When it came to racing, the Parkers kept a low profile and didn‘t let too many people outside of their circle of friends know what they were up to. The new car project wasn‘t any different. Once they got the new car, they told very few of their purchase. In fact, they went to great lengths to keep it a secret. They stored the car inside their home rather than their garage.
Competing primarily on the pavement, the car won many races with drivers Dave Scarborough, Jimmy Riddle and Allen Barr.
Chad Freeman, who grew up in Tampa, but resides in Adairville, Ky., is very knowledgeable about the history of Florida sprint car racing as he grew up around it. The 52-year-old was a fan of Riddle as a youngster. The Parker No. 7 sprint car holds a special place in his heart, as his hero began driving the car in 1976.
Freeman had always wondered what happened to the car. He had often thought about restoring it if he could find it. In 2018, he aggressively tried to find it — and ultimately did. He had successfully restored several other cars prior to beginning this restoration.
“This car really changed sprint car racing in Tampa at that time,” Freeman explained. “This car had parallel front torsion bars instead of a spring front and it just handled 10 times better. The technology was a little more advanced than cars around here at the time.”
The car ultimately forced other teams to update their equipment.
“The Parkers had a pretty old Buzz Barton spring-front car. Some of the guys from up north would come to Florida to race in February. There were some Leffler cars here. I guess they (Parkers) decided that‘s what they wanted after seeing a few Lefflers,” Freeman continued. “Lee Parker drove the car himself the first couple of times in 1975.
He eventually decided to put Dave Scarborough in it as Dave lived just down the road. When they put Dave in the car, they took off and started winning immediately.”
The team won multiple times at Tampa‘s Golden Gate Speedway during that first season. They even ventured outside of Florida and qualified second for the Little 500 at Indiana‘s Anderson Speedway. The car also won the 50-lap Little 500 tune-up race.
An eighth-place finish in the Little 500 did not detour them. They returned to the Midwest to compete in July and traveled to California in the fall to compete in a series
of races in the Golden state.
After a parting of ways with Scarborough, Parker hired Riddle for the 1976 season.
“Jimmy Riddle got in it and did pretty good and won some races. But in October of 1976, Jimmy flipped the car pretty bad at Golden Gate,” Freeman remembered. “He broke a lot of bones and it almost killed him. His throttle stuck and he ran over the wheel of Carlton Coffey. The car was bent up badly. Once they got it back together, Jimmy Alvis Jr. drove the car some. After Jimmy drove it for a bit, they ended up selling it to Rocky Sullivan. They traded Rocky some brick work for the car.”
Sullivan had the car from 1979 to 1982. Sullivan ran the car himself, but hired Allen Barr to drive it in the winter months of 1981-‘82. Barr won a handful of events at Golden Gate Speedway and Sunshine Speedway in Florida.
The car was sold to a guy in Gibsonton after the 1982 season. He allowed Sullivan to drive the car on occasion. In 1984, the car was traded to another person in exchange for a Corvette.
“The car sat idle forever and nobody knew where the car was at,” Freeman explained. “About five or six years ago, I started calling around trying to find it. I finally found it. The car was torn apart. All that was still there was the frame, fiberglass tail and front axle. But I ended up going and buying all of Jan Parker‘s stuff. There was still a lot of original parts from that car at her place. I ended up getting the rear end, front axles, steering box, in-out box and engine parts. I‘ve got the original 302 motor out of it. I‘d say 45 percent of the car is original.
“I got the car in 2018,” Freeman continued. “I asked Eddie Curry if he could repaint it after I got it restored. He said he couldn‘t do it anymore. He taught me a lot of stuff I know as far as paint and body work over the years. I decided to do it myself. I‘d say I got it 95 percent as close as the original. I had some original panels I was able to look at. The rest of it, I had to go off pictures I had. It was painted with a spray gun and taped off. I did it exactly like Eddie did. With laying out the designs and masking. It took me two weeks.”