Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[Low-n-Slow]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry

If you want a hand getting larger newspaper clippings posted, I can try to lend a hand. If you scan them in overlapping pieces of whatever size you scanner handles and PM the pieces to me, I can digitally remove the overlaps and stitch the pieces together.

Lovin' the story - memories of misspent weekends of my youth chasin' CanAm and Formula 5000 races around the Northwest

cheers
Low

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Since reviewing the “Sandy” clipping and the photos regarding “Shade Tree Mechanics”, I need to fill in a segment previous to going to Indy with Bill Engelhart. Sandy’s mention of brother Joe, and his wife Vivian working with us, and me spotting my Ford custom van on the right side of the photo showing the “not a display” sign, I realized that I had skipped over our joining up with Stu Bradbury again. That’s why I was so confused as to what happened after the Larry Cannon Indy deal in May 78.

I mentioned previously that Stu had asked me about opening a race shop, and that is what we did. We set up shop as STB Racing Inc. in Tempe, Arizona. Sandy and I sold our house in North Phoenix, and bought a new home in Tempe, to be closer to STB. Joe and Vivian left “El Rancho Quagmire”, and moved to Tempe to work with me.

Bradbury bought lots of equipment for the shop, mill, lathe, tubing bender, bead blaster, heli-arc welder, valve grinder, and much more. We barely got the place set up when the work started coming in, Formula Fords, sprint cars, and midgets. I hired a couple of guys, and a secretary. Things were moving right along, then I got the call to go to Indy with Engelhart. Joe wasn’t very happy when I told him I was going to Indy, and he was in charge of the place until Sandy and I got back, but he handled it fine.

After Engelhart crashed, we left right away, and went back to STB. There was a lot of work to do there, and I was supposed to be the “boss”, so it was, “back to business”.

I’m glad that I got this post written, because now things are going to fall into place. I don’t know why I was so confused, but Sandy’s hand written date on that clipping cleared it all up.

Larry

[ebutner]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Sandy's still coming through... Nice.

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Things were going well at STB, we were as busier than we wanted to be, building frame jigs, welding tables, and setting the shop up in general, as well as doing some customer work. Joe and I were also rebuilding Stu’s Lola, and doing some modifications as we went along. Sandy was having a ball cleaning parts in the bead blaster, she really liked doing this, making old parts look like new. I tried to teach her how to do some heli-arc welding, but she didn’t like that at all for some reason, but enjoyed operating all of the other machines. Vivian was sort of Joe’s “right hand man”, as they say, but I never heard any one called a “right hand woman”, so we used that “man” term. We were all having a good time, and it was great having Joe and Vivian there. They were staying with Sandy and I for a while, but I told them that they should go find a place of their own, you know how that goes, family or friends are O.K. for a while, but there is a point where it is time to move on. On the week-end they went looking, I assumed for an apartment, or a small rental home. They came back and informed us that they had bought a new home, three bedroom, two bath, and I thought they must be joking. Nope, they had in fact bought this house, a big jump from “El Rancho Quagmire”! They also went out and bought all new furniture, Sandy and I were impressed, as well as surprised. Joe’s rebellion over the rear engine Indy cars was over, he came back into the mainstream of society, never to return to anything like El Rancho again.

In late August, I got a phone call to work with Dick Ferguson, a former Formula Ford driver who had come up with a deal to race in the California 500 on September 2nd. The Sannett brothers, who owned Aero Electronics, a company that rebuilt electronic vacuum tubes, in the Los Angeles area, bought a Penske PC-6 with a Cosworth turbo-charged V-8. Ferguson was a Ferrari mechanic, and had met these guys when he had done some work on their Ferrari. This was hard to pass up, and it was only a three week gig, so I put Joe in charge of STB, and Sandy and I drove over to California.

I met Ferguson at the Ontario Speedway, and he told me that Penske would not give them the car just yet, even though the Sannetts had paid for it. This was supposed to be the car that had won Indy in May, with Rick Mears driving. All I could figure was that Penske had planned on using it as a back-up car for Rick at Ontario, but took the opportunity to sell it to the Sannetts. Since I was the “Chief Mechanic”, I went over to their garage and told them that I wanted the car immediately, so I could get it checked over. I was told that they wanted to remove some “things” before I could have the car. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what these “things” were. The Sannetts, Ferguson, and myself started raising some hell, we needed the car so that we could get it ready to run. They soon said that we could have the car, but told me not to start taking things apart, just get it ready to race.

As soon as we got the PC-6 in our garage, I began looking things over, I had to familiarize myself with the car since I had never worked on one of these. I noticed some things that made me curious as to what the function was for certain items. Hmmm, very interesting!

Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

There wasn’t time for me to fully investigate some of the things that seemed odd to me, we had to get Ferguson out for some practice laps, since this was his first time in the car. I don’t recall exactly how he did in qualifying, but he made the race, starting mid- pack. I’m pretty sure he got up to 5th place at one point, but lost some positions by the end of the race. Unfortunately my source of information for Indy cars only goes through 1978. I don’t know why it ends there, maybe the person who was running that site passed away. I did find that Ferguson ran the 1980 Indy 500 driving a Penske/ Cosworth, but I don’t know if it was the same car, because it was #26 instead of #23. Jim McElreath ran the #23 Penske/ Cosworth, so maybe Ferguson/ Sannett had to do a number change. In any case , Ferguson crashed on lap nine.

None of that matters, really, because Sandy and I went home to Phoenix, and STB right after the Ontario race. We had fun at the race, but I had some responsibility to tend to at STB, Stu had invested quite a bit of money in the shop, and me. Joe was glad that we came back, he didn’t like being in charge, and Stu had bought another race car, he had decided that he was ready for something bigger and better than his Lola Formula Ford.

Larry

[Bob Blackwood]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry-
I'm sure our paths must have crossed at some point during the
seventies.Dennis Firestone, Dick Ferguson and I beat on each other
regularly, up and down the West Coast, with Formula Fords. I raced biplanes for fifteen years until a RARA decision concerning insurance a couple of years ago left me less than enchanted and now,I'm back to race cars. Some reminiscing with you over a cool one would be a lot of fun ! In lieu of that, keep up the stories- they're great !
BTW, Ian Gordon got a kick out of your tale of his rapid exit from the Sea Fury during the retraction test. I see Ian regularly at his shop at Sears Point.
Best regards,
Bob Blackwood

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

While I was off gallivanting in California with Ferguson, Stu had bought what he was told was a Can Am car. I doubt that Stu knew what a Can Am car really was, but the term “turned him on”, and upon seeing it, the fact that it had a Chevy engine sealed the deal. There was a couple of brothers named Murphy, and Vern Schuppan involved, all from Australia. I knew who Schuppan was, he had run Indy in 76 and 79, and his name was still painted on the car. I think it was really an old Formula 5000 car, or an “A Sports “ racer. At any rate it was as ugly as sin dipped in misery, and brother Joe instantly dubbed it the “Warthog”, and the rest of us agreed that the name fit. I asked Stu why in hell he had bought this thing, and he said that he liked the guys “cute accent”. The “Warthog” had a huge rear wing that really impressed Stu also. What was done, was done, we would just have to make the best of this predicament.

My brother Dale and his wife Suzy moved from Indianapolis to Tempe to work with us. Dale had been painting and lettering race cars for many years in Indianapolis, and we were in need of his services. Stu’s Lola was ready for paint, and now we had the “Warthog” that would need painted as well. There were other jobs coming in that would also require body work and paint, so there was plenty of work for Dale.

There’s a lot more to go to add to this, but I am going to end it for tonight, It’s late, and I am getting ready to go to Indianapolis for the Indy 500 “Old Timers Club” banquet and Barbeque, and will be gone for 6 or 7 days. Maybe I can get another post on before I leave, depending on how things go. If this trip goes well, I should be able to make it to Reno, this is a good test.

Larry

[kevracer58]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry - I've had good success with this link for IndyCar driver/car research:

http://www.motorsport.com/stats/

Kevin

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I've run out of time, got to finish packing. I should be able to pick up on, and verify lots of stories while I am in Indy. I don't know if any of you saw the Danica Patrick incident last week-end where she hit that crew chief in the pits, but that was Chuck Buckman, who worked on "Blind Mans Bluff".

More to come in a week or so.

Larry

[Double ugly]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry's not anxious to get to Indy or anything but I'm picking him up at 2:00 PM for a 5:40 departure out of Sky Harbor which is a 40 minute drive. He doesn't want to miss the plane. It will be a dream come true for me to be on the "inside" at the 500 and meet the people he's talked about and that made the 500 what it is. I'll take lots of pictures.
John
(He's been packing and brain storming this trip for quite a while so don't believe he needs to finish packing.)

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry's not anxious to get to Indy or anything but I'm picking him up at 2:00 PM for a 5:40 departure out of Sky Harbor which is a 40 minute drive. He doesn't want to miss the plane. It will be a dream come true for me to be on the "inside" at the 500 and meet the people he's talked about and that made the 500 what it is. I'll take lots of pictures.
John
(He's been packing and brain storming this trip for quite a while so don't believe he needs to finish packing.)

Whoh... I have to admit, I can't get in here and read each of Larry's updates when they come in and rely on my "night owl" ness to lead me back to them to play catch up week to week..

Been a bit under the weather.. have missed an installment or two.. Is Larry going to Indy this year???????????

Freakin AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

We are going to rely on you to keep us up-to-date!!!!!!

We're in the "trenches" trying to ensure that Larry gets to Reno this year also...

Spoken with a few key players.. Looks like Larry's up to it...

Prettly likely, it will be!

Man...

Pit party's gonna be a hoot this year ey!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Red]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry

Love your updates! Please, if you feel like it, I would love to hear about the "curious things" you found with the Penske car.

[Pick]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Chuck was banged up pretty good (understatement) when he got punted by Danica......but it sounds like he's out of the crash house but not completely out of the woods.

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8318414

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

I just got home from Indianapolis, and we had a wonderful trip. All of my concerns about being up to travelling proved to not be a problem at all. I have no doubt that I can make it to Reno. Yeeeeee Haaah! I have a lot of stories to tell. Should get back to posting after a good nights sleep.

Larry

[MUSNTCHIT]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Bro - Cool!!!...Home safe and back at it already...never did take you long to look atta horseshoe...LOL... It was great having you back in Indy and at the Speedway with Dale and me...lotsa memories and stories... Sure enjoyed your friends, a couple of "gunfighters"...John and Dave, hope to get their tales at Reno... Later......... Ron