From the "I bet you have never heard of this guy before" department: 89 year old Captain Jack McClure and his Turboniques Twin T-16 Rocket Kart.

This story started out while I was reading Just A Car Guy. Steve Buffel posted the story of a rather special "barn find" on E Carting News which led to the story of a cool, 89 year old, barnstorming drag racer named Capt. Jack McClure. 

 (courtesy Drag Racing Online)

As Steve tells it: "I just learned that that an old friend still has this forgotten relic sitting in a collapsing barn.  The first time I saw the kart was about 25+ years ago. You can imagine the WOW factor it had on me as a teenager. We couldn’t believe that this twiggy little thing could handle rocket power and be safe! Well, it turns out that they weren’t. The rumors I’ve heard is that a few people met their fate while harnessing the power of Turbonique. Apparently, if you backed out of the throttle, then got back into it you created a bomb. Copper tubing corrosion and bad solenoids were also an issue".

 

Here’s a summary of Steves friend’s story:
“The kart was purchased by a local car dealership and was intended to
be run as advertising. No one at the dealership had the balls to drive
it so I got elected. It was advertised on a radio show for three weeks
prior to a drag race in the summer of 1967. Exact date forgotten, but
may be able to figure it out with time. We had the cart fueled and
ready to go to the line, I had my fire suit on, and a race official
came to me and said “last minute ruling by NHRA that we can’t run
rocket cars due to insurance reasons.” They then announced it to the
crowd. Total BS of course. They padded the crowd wanting to see the
rocket powered go cart and always knew they couldn’t let us run. I
said “It’s fueled up with volatile fuel, can we run after the race?”
They granted that and I made a single run after the crowd left and the
lights were still set up. Only witnesses were the drivers who had
raced that day. That was the only “official” run. I drove it on a
blocked off street a week earlier just to make sure it worked before
we went to the race. So a partial run and a full run, me driving, were
the only times it was “lit up”.”

Further investigation on a Turbonique Rocket Kart I came across the website of Capt. Jack. Courtesy to his site for the rest of this story. This guy was to drag racing what Eddie Feigner was to softball. A real showman and character that is still working a hundred or so nights a year at drag strips all over

the country.

 If you love crazy old guys that have made a living entertaining people then please do yourself a favor and visit Jack's website. His story is much like the ones of Joey Chitwood, Evil Knievel and Andy Granatelli. The story about his tiny little wife getting all liquored up and tearing up a motel room is priceless. Racing promoters would pay him to put on a show between the regular races and he would ALWAYS beat the local hotshoes. Not unlike the Harlem Globetrotters versus The Washington Generals.

Rev's Digital Library Standford Universirty. Hundreds of thousands of images of the history of automobiles and more specifically auto racing. This is the Bruce Craig Collection. It documents the history of open wheel racing in the United States.

All of this is courtesy of Stanford University Rev's Collection which you can enjoy here. There are over 300,000 images just in this collection. The Bruce Craig Collection contains 300,000 images of American motor sports from the 1910s through the 1970s. Craig was a documentary photographer and also collected the motor sport photography of other cameramen; included in the Craig Collection are the archives of photographers Ted Wilson and Vincente Alvarez. This vast array of prints and glass plate negatives cover oval track racing back to the days of the board tracks of the 1910s and 1920s. The Craig collection documents such famed venues as Ascot Park in California, Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While primarily an archive of open wheel racing, including Indy cars, sprints and midgets, the collection also includes images of modified race cars and early NASCAR contests. In addition to the thousands of oval track racing images are a varied pictorial of early hill climb contests, souvenir images of race car drivers, track architecture, wrecks, pits and paddocks, and crowd scenes. Nearly every era of American racing scenes are represented, from the 1920s through the 1970s.

North Central Wisconsin barn find. 1951 homemade midget race car with a 45cc Indian Scout motorcycle engine.

Beautiful vintage Midwest built race car. Raced frequently in and around central and north central Wisconsin in the 1950's. It was found with the original 1941 Studebaker push truck and hauler that was used for several different cars by this driver. Both are in as -found, original, garaged condition. They are not going to be restored just cleaned up and made mechanically sound. One of many things I love about this car is the bright work on the hood. Parallel chrome strips slanted towards the back give it a real racey feel. The front bumper letter "K" was the builder and drivers initial. What a great Saturday night treat seeing this find.

Boogity, boogity, boogity...Let's Go Racin Boys.

This weekend is the Daytona 500. The opening race of the season for the good old boys of Nascar. One of the true legends of the sport and the patriarch of the first family of racing, the Petty's, was the eldest, Lee Petty. He was hard charging and instilled the love of the sport in his son Richard, his grandson Kyle and his great grandson, the late Adam Petty.

Today all of the drivers and cars and crew are covered with endorsement patches and decals. Old Nascar endorsement collectables aren't real common. Here is a battery additive box we have in stock that features Lee. "I'd rather race without my tires than without VX-6 in my battery"he declares. It is available for purchase here

Here are some great old photos courtesy of Legends of Nascar and National Speed Sport News