Chili Bowl

[propfxrO84]

This week in Tulsa, OK. A couple guys you might know, are taking part in the largest, most prestigious, indoor (dirt) midget race in the world. No name guys like Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Kevin, and dad Sammy Swindell will compete against some real drivers like our, Matt Johnson (Dudley Malone's grandson) and Kevin Bayer (son of one of the toughest drivers and fastest E&SE mod drivers ever). Wish them luck!!!! Bryan Tharp O-84

[mdaspit]

Bryan-
Do you know when Matt races?

[Merc Myackster]

Good luck Matt and Kevin!!!

[propfxrO84]

Matt raced on Wednesday, not so good, think they had mechanical gremlins. Should be in LCQ tonight. racinboys.com are doing a live podcast.

[runabout333]

Dudley has been involved in midgets for years.
Has even raced at the high-bank track in Belleville, Kansas.
Years ago,, my father and I attended an auction in Wichita, Kansas.
At the acution was a lot of Midget stuff for auction,, including old PR and 460
blocks that were somehow used in midget racing.. True story..
Can anyone elaborate on the concept of using outboard powerheads??

[STEVE FRENCH]

Dudley and Rick Morris attend'n??

[bill van steenwyk]

Dudley has been involved in midgets for years.
Has even raced at the high-bank track in Belleville, Kansas.
Years ago,, my father and I attended an auction in Wichita, Kansas.
At the acution was a lot of Midget stuff for auction,, including old PR and 460
blocks that were somehow used in midget racing.. True story..
Can anyone elaborate on the concept of using outboard powerheads??

The 4-60 was 60 cubic inches. The Ford "V-8 60" was still the dominant motor in midgets at the time. The PR was 30. In outboard racing several PR's were put together to make a 60CI motor that races in the "X" Outboard class, and the 4-60 was also used in that class and also 2 man F runabout and F Hydro after the war until the inline 6 Mercs and the Quincy loopers took over competitively. There was a 4-60 built by John Toprahanian (sp?) from Ca. that was converted with Yamaha cylinders that was competitive for several years in the 60's I believe. Another "X" class motor was built by Eldridge and I think was two PR"s put together on a common crankcase. I remember the Yamaha cylinder motor at DePue in that time frame on a 2 man F Runabout.

The 4-60 and other iterations of same were used as power sources for water pumps in WWII. I think a version of the 30CI Speeditwin was also used on a pump of smaller capacity. A large number of these were sold surplus after the war and used in both midget and outboard racing.

The new book about Boat Racing by Bernie Van Osdale has a few pictures and history of these motors in both boat and midget car racing. It is available from Amazon and has much information about the "early years" until the late 50's. Well worth the money. The article states that even after the war, with a motor (4-60) that was far from state of the art as far as two strokes were concerned, the motor as used in midgets was very competitive, to the point that others with 4 strokes used to "hem" them in on starts and such so as to cause them to load up and then when the flag dropped the 4 strokes would accelerate away from them until they cleaned out. Saw the same thing here in the ST. Louis area at a dirt track where someone was running a V-4 OMC powerhead in a midget in the mid 70's, and they would "hold him up" by going very slow on the laps preceding a start so as to cause it to load up, as there was no catching him if he was not loaded up on the start.

[propfxrO84]

I watched the V 6 johnrude in a midget a few years ago (maybe it was over 10 yrs) at the Chili bowl. As I understood, at the time the guy was the only one allowed to run one, as it/he was grandfathered in. It sounded and smelled awesome. Unfortunately, he was racing out of his home garage (ultra low budget) competing against million dollar a year budgets. I think a 3 liter merc with a decent budget could still give all of them a run for the money. (Or I might be getting old and dreaming ????). BT

[racer4s]

TQ's and outboard's

I don't know about the midget motors, but in the 60's my dad helped put some Quincy merc's in a couple TQ's owned by a guy named Thompson out of Columbus, IN. He raced the UMRA circuit and when they could get Sonny Yates to drive, nobody could touch them.
In the 80's, there also was a a guy from Owensboro, KY named Ron Ambrose that won several UMRA Championships running a 700 Konig. They couldn't beat him with the 750 Honda's so they outlawed 2-strokes and I think he sold the outfit to a guy in California.
I'll never forget the sound they made.
B Simmons