PHOTOS FROM THE HERBERT
FAMILY COLLECTION.
Please enjoy these images
from the Herbert family
collection, courtesy of
Jeep's late brother Clay
Herbert. Most of the stock
photos taken by Russ Bergh,
John Grady and others took
in the fifties and sixties
have been seen by most of
us. The treasures are in
personal photo albums, like
the one I'm about to show
you. So, if you have any
photos you would like to
share with us race fans give
me an e-mail at rgraham57@twcny.rr.com
.
Twenty five bucks was big
money in 1950.
In todays world this car
would bring 20 to 25
thousand dollars on the
auction block (before Jeep
took the torch to it).
Another view of Jeep's
creation.
Gettin down to business.
Oh for the warm summer days
and hanging out with your
pals.
What do you suppose Jeep and
his buddies are planning for
the Lady Ann?.
Jeep and Pete out for a spin
in Pete's roadster.
Somewhere in history of the
legendary #3. (click to
enlarge)
A more refined #3. MUCH
emphasis on the MORE.
The #3 in action. (click to
enlarge)
Jeep has his back to us, and
thats Bob Mott behind the
wheel.
Jeep won a lot of races in
the #3.
(L-R) Lou Lazzaro, Pete
Corey, Howie Westervelt and
Jeep Herbert. Pete took over
the driving duty's of the
#3, and won so mant feature
races NASCAR outlawed the
use of any car that had an
original cloth top, like 34
Fords had. (click to
enlarge)
THE IMAGES BELOW ARE FROM
VICTORIA SPEEDWAY AND ARE SO
CLEAN I FIXED IT SO YOU
COULD ENLARGE THEM FOR MORE
DETAIL.
Doc Blanchard on the outside
pole, the Trinkaus #62
behind Doc. I don't know
who's on the pole, but thats
the 111 in the #3 spot.
(click to enlarge)
Bugs Bunney, aka Harold
Betts on the outside pole,
and see how many others you
can identify. (click to
enlarge)
An enlargment of the photo
above (click to enlarge).
Bernie Maruski's #71 on the
pole, Jolly Ollie or Ron
Quackenbush on the outside
pole. I'll let you figure
the rest out. (click to
enlarge)
I'm not done with Fonda
yet by any means, but
thought I'd give it a break
and change the subject for a
while and show you all some
photos from Jeeps
collection. There's lots
more, including Lee Wallard
at Indy (Jeep was a friend
and went along with Wallard
as a spectator).
The question of which era
of stockcar racing was the
best always comes up, and in
my opinion they are way to
different to compare. In the
early days the pits were in
the infield, and fans could
watch what was going on with
the race teams. Basically,
pre-race entertainment. Huge
stock car transports and
enclosed trailers put a stop
to infield pits, as the
spectators in the grandstand
couldn't see the
backstretch. The early days
produced lots of crashes,
rollovers and sometimes
fire. There was an aura of
danger, serious injury and
even death was possible to
happen. That for some reason
is a draw, as a lot of folks
want to be witness to a
scary event. Todays racecars
handle great, are relatively
safe, rarely rollover, and
catch fire even less
frequently (thats all good).
The early days produced some
characters, Rene Charland,
Chuck Mahoney, Richie Evans,
Tom Kotary, guys that made
you laugh when you heard
about one of their latest
escapades. Todays racers are
professionals, and for the
most part don't seem to be
having any fun (that could
be probably be just my
view). Today's Stockcars are
safer, faster, and technicly
superior to stockcars of the
coupe era. No matter what
era we like, were stuck with
what we got, plenty of side
by side fast competition.
Speaking of fire, I was
on hand to see the
following. On the Fonda
backstretch a coupe had
rolled over, the driver
exited unhurt and the track
crew rolled the car back
over on it's wheels. A
wrecker towed the damaged
car around the third turn
and down the drag strip,
leaving the car in front of
it's pit. On the backstretch
the track crew decided to
burn off the gas the car
spilled while rolled over.
Woosh, the fire followed a
trail of gas around the
third turn, down the drag
strip, and burned the
previously crashed stockcar
to a crisp.
NEXT WEEK: MORE PHOTOS
FROM THE HERBERT COLLECTION. |
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