Below is the new mystery driver
that needs to be ID"d. The track sure looks like Hornell Raceway to me and I have talked with Paul Amidon (builder and owner of Hornell Raceway) and from the description I gave him with the steep
bank for the good viewing by the fans and the building at the top it is about 95% Hornell. Paul says "to much water over the dam" to remember who the driver might be. You will note it is a
flathead Ford product and except for two special races "A" cars didn't run at Hornell. The track opened in 1959 so that is the earliest this picture could have been taken. The "B" cars were
allowed to run flathead Ford products or inline 6 cylinders. This must have been a happy day for our winning driver at the neat Hornell oval.
Ford
Sun 6/11/2006Good Sunday morning across the
US and Canada, Great to see the interest in this car and driver. Cal Lane a driver from the 50's and 60's advises the picture was for sure taken at Hornell Raceway. The car was owned by Joe
Povoski and driven by a number of drivers as a "B" stocker. The Ford flathead proved to really haul the mail in the early years of the car. Cal himself drove the car several times and in the
Fall of 62 he put a slant 6 that he owned into the car, painted it green with his #, 220 on it and won the 100 lap intertrack championship at Mills Raceway in PA. First place paid $75 and a
trophy Cal still has.
Cal thought the driver in the car was Curly Hatfield from Elmira but Curly is a friend of mine that now lives in Texas and for sure it isn't Curly in the car.
Kevin Todd wrote that he thought the track might be Addison. There was a neat track at Addison and as Kevin said in his e-mail it was a sugar bowl much like Hornell. Because Cal is firm on
Hornell as the track we are going with that. Kevin brought up some interesting points on the engines and I need to clear it up for everyone. In the early 50s the Ford flathead was the engine of
choice as you were required to run an engine of the same manufacture as the car itself. Another reason was by this time the junk yards were full of old Ford cars (makes me sick to think of all
those 37 Fords that got scraped at the yards or totaled at the tracks). Other cars and their engines were used but not to the extent of the Fords. Ford came out with the OHV "Y" block in 54 and
GM with that hot Chevy OHV in 55. The flatheads saw the writing on the wall and into the mid 50's the OHV engines took command. Rules also were changed that allowed for various engines to be
used in whatever body you wished it to be in. At this same time the cost to field a car with this high cost equipment got out of sight. This opened up the "B" class even more at tracks and the
Ford flatheads plus the inline 6 cylinders made up most of the modified races( I think 274 ci displacement was max. for the "B's"but I could be wrong). Several tracks ran both B and "A" classes (A
cars had OHV modified engines with a higher displacement for more power than the B's) and as time went on into the 60's the A's ran at the big tracks and NASCAR. Small tracks had the B's for a
good show and to keep the cost down to the car owner/drivers. Late models came along in the mid 50's too and really put on great shows at the local tracks. Stories on the Late Models both in
NASCAR and at local tracks is for another time. Hope this clears up the A and B thing for those that weren't sure.
Racejett writes the car looks alot like those that raced at Lancaster in it early years before it was paved. He is exactly right. These cars were called bugs and used various bodies, even
Crosleys. Not sure if Lancaster had a "B" class along with the "A"'s or not.
Stay tuned, Ford
6-13-06---Good Tuesday morning to all, Well our friend and former driver Cal Lane
did some more detective work by calling car owner Joe Povoski's son and sure enough he remembered who our mystery driver is. The name of our proud driver that day at Hornell Raceway, Joe Muncy.
Additional information revealed the Dobson brothers, Neal and Olan, also drove the 74 car during its racing days.
Remember the background I did on the "A" and "B" stockers in the last update? Well Cal shares with us that his first stocker "B" was a 34 Dodge coupe with a Chrysler "split fire" fh 6 that
he ran at Chemung and Dundee.
I will work on another mystery car/driver/track and run it by you later this week.
Ford
