Category: friday feature

By David G. Firestone

The name Andretti is to racing what the name Ruth is to baseball, Jordan is to basketball, Unitas is to football, and Gretzky is to hockey. Between Mario, Michael, Marco, and John, the Andretti family has wins in many different forms of auto racing over a lengthy period. It was with the same expectations that Jeff Andretti, Mario’s son, and Michael’s younger brother started his racing career in the 1980’s. In 1986, he scored his first win, at the 1986 Indy Lights race at Pocono. He followed that in in 1987 with two wins, one at Phoenix, the other in Miami. He had a decent Indy Lights career until 1990, when he went to CART. His career in CART seemed to be taking off in 1991, where he had 4 top 10’s.

Then came the 1992 Indianapolis 500. That race could, at best, be considered a caution-fest. There were a total of 13 cautions for 84 laps over the course of 200 laps. So 42% of the race was run under caution. Lap 115 brought out caution #10, when Andretti and Gary Bettenhausen crashed coming out of turn three. Safety crews needed 18 minutes to cut Andretti out of the car, and he was sent to the hospital with two smashed legs.

That is the kind of wreck that, if it doesn’t end a career, will hamper it, and Jeff was no exception. Although he would return to racing, any chance of a great racing career was long over. After that race, Andretti would only attempt two more CART races, before moving back to the Indy Lights series in 1995, then the North American Touring Car Championship in 1996, then to the Craftsman Truck Series in 1999, before retiring, and becoming a driving instructor.

Jeff’s last grasp as a CART driver came at the 1994 Slick 50 200, at Phoenix. He started 27^th, and finisned 17^th while racing for the AGIP / Hawaiian Tropic Lola / Ilmor for Antonio Ferarri’s Euromotorsport. One of his crew members wore this Pyrotect pit crew firesuit.This single-layer suit shows some light wear, not surprising for a pit crew suit worn for one race.

The collar has a PYROTECT patch across the Velcro closure.This is why I love old open wheel firesuits, instead of one large sponsor across the front torso, there are a series of small sponsor patches in a grid formation, along the white and blue stripe. The suit has no belt, and unadorned legs with standard cuffs.

The shoulders have unadorned epaulets on them. The right sleeve has STP, GOODYEAR, and CAN BALANCE logos present, and no television logos. The left sleeve has an SFI patch, indicating the suit has a 1 rating, which would provide the wearer with the most minimal of protection, 2 seconds at most. The back has an unadorned neck, and a gusset surrondung the AGIP logo, and the stripe containing the smaller logos. Pit crews face serious risks every single day, and unlike this suit, which would provide the most minimal of fire protection, especially in CART, which had a well-known history of pit road fires, the suits that crews wear need to be specifically designed to protect them from fires. How this is done is accomplished through a number of ways. Next week, I begin a huge project concerning those pit crew suits.

By David G. Firestone

Going off topic today, but I’ve wanted to do this for a while. September 18 1968, was an uneventful day during an eventful year. While the rest of America listened to Harper Valley PTA, red Testimony of Two Men, or watched Hang ‘Em High, one lucky person got to meet, and get an autograph from a man who changed the face of fast food, fried chicken, and the cooking industry, all at the same time.

Even if you’ve never eaten at KFC, you know that Col. Harland Sanders founded the company, and came up with the famous “Secret Recipe.” You might not know that he was a jack of all trades prior to KFC. He was a military man, a railroad man, an amateur lawyer, an insurance sales man, a ferryboat operator, and, by 1930, a Shell gas station attendant in Corbin, Kentucky. That Shell gas station was the best thing to ever happen to Harland Sanders, but at the time, he didn’t know it. He served food, including his chicken, country ham, and steaks in the living quarters of the service station.

Sanders’ temper was well documented, having lost no fewer than three jobs due to disagreements or brawls with people, including one in a courtroom during his law practice. During an encounter with Matt Stewart, a competitor, a shootout took place. The story goes like this, Sanders painted an advertising sign to lure more customers to his station, which enraged Smith, who painted over Sanders’ sign. Sanders and two Shell officials caught Smith in the act, and the shootout occurred. Smith was shot in the shoulder, and wound up killing one of the Shell officials. Smith was sent to prison for murder, and Sanders had the market all to himself. Around that same time, Sanders was named a “Kentucky Colonel,” and was recommissioned one in 1950. He began to call himself Colonel Sanders, and the name stuck.

During the World War 2, he was worked as a supervisor in Seattle, and later ran government cafeterias. He had already perfected his now legendary “Secret Recipe” and discovered that frying in a pressure cooker made the chicken more moist and flavorful than pan frying. After the war, he returned to his kitchen, and in 1952, franchised his chicken to Pete Harman of South Salt Lake, Utah. A sign panted named Don Anderson came up with the name “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for the new Utah restaurant. This would be a turning point, as Sanders, who had failed at most of his businesses, found the recipe for success, no pun intended…he just didn’t know it yet.

In 1956, he sold the Corbin Restaurant that he had called home for so long. Realizing he needed money, he started his quest to franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken. Initially, it was slow going, but people began to see that Kentucky Fried Chicken would work, and, by the 1960’s, over 600 locations had opened, in the US, Canada, England, and Mexico. In 1964, an aging Sanders could not handle the stress of managing the restaurants, and sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to John Brown, and Jack Massey for $2 million, over $15 million in 2016 dollars.

Sanders was the mascot of KFC, and continued to appear on packaging, and advertising. Sanders himself wore the white suit and black string tie which he would forever be associated with. Sanders was, in real life, a foul-mouthed control freak, who would visit franchises to make sure that the chicken was being prepared correctly, and would snap if he found that it wasn’t. He remained active, even after being diagnosed with acute leukemia, and was active until his death from pneumonia on December 16, 1980, at the age of 90.

On that rather uneventful day, September 18, 1968, someone met Col. Harland Sanders, and got his autograph.Torn from, appropriately enough, a chicken advertisement, this 7 inch long piece of paper was signed by Sanders, “Sincerely, Col Harland Sanders, 9/18/1964.” While the paper has aged with time, but the signature is still bold. It also looks as though there was something else written, either by Sanders, or an unknown hand, as at the top right corner, there is an underlined S. What was written, has been lost to history.

Torn from, appropriately enough, a chicken advertisement, this 7 inch long piece of paper was signed by Sanders, “Sincerely, Col Harland Sanders, 9/18/1964.” While the paper has aged with time, but the signature is still bold. It also looks as though there was something else written, either by Sanders, or an unknown hand, as at the top right corner, there is an underlined S. What was written, has been lost to history.

Next week, I will examine some unique items from the bottom of the sea.

By David G. Firestone

I’ve talked about the promotional advantages of driver suits and racing suits before. True, a racing sponsorship can pay a lot of dividends. According to this article from Fox, “A new study conducted jointly by the Los Angeles-based media agency Wasserman and Buffalo, New York-based Nervve showed that Denny Hamlin’s Daytona 500 victory was worth $1.9 million in earned media value for his primary sponsor, FedEx.”

But where racing suit design differs than regular work design is that the sponsor or team can design the suit in ways which most normal companies wouldn’t be able to. Denny Hamlin’s suit can be designed for maximum sponsor exposure. While Denny for some reason doesn’t wear TV logos on the sleeves, if any FedEx employee were asked to wear a uniform similar to Denny’s suit or the teams pit shirts, the company would be a laughing stock.

While racing suit design for promotional appeal is a new concept in marketing, mechanics in auto racing have been around since day one. Mechanics make the cars run, and keep them running. They have to work on cars and wear special clothes, as the fluids in the car can ruin most street clothes. This Race Rock Racing team suit is a perfect example of the fusion of both.As much as I have searched, I haven’t been able to find any information on Race Rock as an auto racing team. However, they were apparently a racing team. This suit was a mechanics suit designed for them. The suit is made from Jupiter, Florida based RJ’s Racing Equipment. It feels like it’s a single layer of Nomex, but could also be polyester. It isn’t SFI certified.

The front has a CART patch and RACE ROCK RACING TEAM embroidered into the chest,a checkered flag stripe, and a yellow stripe across the chest with a PPG patch and a BILSTEN SHOCK ABSORBERS patch sewn into the yellow stripe. The belt, and legs are unadorned.

The shoulders have yellow unadorned epaulets, and short sleeves with MOPAR PERFORMANCE RACING TEAM and CHAMPION SPARK PLUG patches on the right sleeve, and VALVOLINE RACING and HOLLEY patches on the left sleeve. The back of the suit has a giant RACE ROCK RACE TEAM logo embroidered into it. Other than that, there are no designs present at all. While racing has been used as a promotional tools for decades, the innovation of the driver suit as a promotional tool is something that has taken the racing world by storm. Hell, you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t find racing suit design interesting, and I wouldn’t be writing it. Next week, we will look at the signature of an innovator who created a product known throughout the world, and revolutionized a whole industry.

By David G. Firestone

I do a lot of articles about stuff used by drivers. Sometimes the drivers are current drivers, other times, the drivers have retired and moved on to other ventures. Such is the case with this helmet, used by Dave Labs. Dave Labs is a former ASA Champion, who moved to drag racing in the NHRA and IHRA. He is a self taught artist, following in the style of Kenny Youngblood. Labs works out of West Allis, WI, and has designed a number of cars, including NASCAR, ASA, and NHRA. He also designs shirts, and has painted hot rods and airplanes.

During his career, Labs wore this Bieffe helmet.Bieffe is an Italian helmet company that had a reputation for making “cheap” helmets. I’m not even sure if they are still in business, as they don’t seem to have an official website, and it doesn’t appear that they are making new helmets.

This specific helmet has a KENDALL GT-1 sponsor on the visor, and is customized with DAVE on the sides, and Lab’s Racing on the top. This particular design is a motorcycle helmet. It has DOT markings on the back. The red, gold and silver color scheme is one of Dave’s favorites. The helmet is missing one of the visor clips, and has a large amount of scuff marks and scrapes across it. The tags inside the helmet show a large amount of staining.One thing I like about Dave is that he is a hands-on guy. He left the NHRA because “ was spending more time with business, and that didn’t leave me very much time to go Drag Racing. The quicker and faster you go, requires more work and more crew help. I didn’t want to turn the operation over to someone to prep the car, and then I would just drive. I guess I learned it from Don Garlits, but I always wanted to be hands on with the running of my car. I don’t want to be just a Driver. With that in mind, and the ever increasing demands to compete at the NHRA level, I decided it was best to stop Racing.” He likes to know everything about his car, everything it does, every adjustment it needs, and how it all works. I’m like that. I want to be able to handle the items I discuss, not just look at pictures of the items.

This week we’ve discussed a designer, next week, we will discuss the canvas that these designers now use.

By David G. Firestone

I started watching 10 Things in Tucson. For those who don’t know, 10 Things is a show staring comedian Jamie Lee, and it discusses 10 Things you might not know. In one particular episode, I got really upset. The discussion concerns the fact that NASCAR doesn’t require a driver’s license to race. Jamie could not wrap her mind around the fact that NASCAR drivers don’t need a driver’s license to race.

What she and the writers glazed over is the fact that that NASCAR and almost all racing sanctioning bodies issue “competitor licenses.” Competitor licenses are significantly harder to obtain than a standard driver’s license, and the sanctioning bodies make the rules for obtaining them difficult on purpose, so that the average joe can’t buy a race car on eBay, and drive it in a race. As you get higher and higher in the racing ranks, the requirements become stricter, and harder to obtain.

This is not a new phenomenon. This goes back to the 1960’s. As time has worn on, the need for such regulation has become paramount, as auto racing has grown in popularity over the last 30 years. Many fans would love to race with their favorite drivers, but the fact is that due to their lack of experience and skill, this could cause a lot of problems. Race car drivers have skills capabilities that the average joe could only dream of having, and the competitor license makes sure that those who can do, and those who can’t watch.

John “Shorty” Miller was a NASCAR and ARCA competitor in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was one of the founders of the Dayton Auto Racing Fan Club, or DARF, and is in the DARF Hall of Fame. In 1976, he was involved with ARCA, and was issued this license.This ARCA license is slightly bigger than a regular driver’s license, is two sides, and folds in half. Issued on December 14, 1974, the license states that “The undersigned hereby acknowledges that he is familiar with, and agrees to abide by the rules and regulations of the Automobile Racing Club of America Inc. in all competitive events sponsored by ARCA. This license is non transferable and is revocable for cause by the Automobile Racing Club of America Inc. It is further agreed that all decisions of the Commission will be final.” It is then signed by Miller, and an ARCA Secretary. \The license also comes with two copies of the “Competitor Liaison Bureau Summary of Plan Explanation and Limitations” which discusses the insurance payouts for accidental death or injury if said driver is killed or injured in an ARCA event. It also comes with a copy of the 1976 ARCA Rule Book, which contains 12 pages of rules, which covers a lot of ground, but leaves so much open, it’s not funny. The competitor license is a necessary tool to make sure that the drivers are capable of racing. That’s why they are hard to get. Next week, we will discuss something that is very easy to get.

By David G. Firestone

When “Flaming” Frank Pedregon passed away in 1981, he had no idea his sons would become some of the most respected drivers in Funny Car. Fast forward to 2016, and one son Tony has 43 event wins, third on the all time win list, and two championships, and the other Cruz has 33, and two championships, including the only Funny Car championship not won by John Force. The Pedregons have gone down as one the greatest families in the history of drag racing.

The first brother to have real success in Funny Car was Cruz. He started racing in 1987 in a top alcohol dragster, moved to top alcohol funny car, then to top fuel in 1991, and in 1992 won the Funny Car championship. The biggest rivalry in drag racing in the 1990’s was John Force vs. Cruz Pedregon. Both were driving Pontiac Firebirds for a while, with Cruz driving this Interstate Batteries/Hot Rod car, represented by this 1/32 die-cast. John Force was not going to be denied, and decided to get in Cruz’s head by hiring Tony as a driver. By 1993, both Pedregon brothers were racing in full time funny cars Tony and John did not have the best of relationships. Both John and Tony were racing the same design car, but Tony would have to, on occasion, throw a race for John. This is a 1:24 scale mock-up of his Castol funny car from his days with John Force. In 1998, Tony won 2 events, one at Texas, the other at Denver. During that season, he wore these Simpson Holeshot drag boots.These boots are unlike most racing shoes because they are designed to cover both the shoe, and the end of the leg of the driver suit. Why would funny car drivers wear such boots? Well, to answer that, let’s look at the design of the inside of a funny car. This is a Ron Capps diecast, but it shows how the car is set up.The driver sits almost on top of the rear axle, with the 10,000 horsepower engine, and nitromethane fuel tank directly in front. Should there be an engine explosion, which isn’t uncommon, the fire would blow back into the driver. There are firewalls in place, but those can’t always be counted on to protect the driver from the full effects of fire in the time it takes to get a funny car stops. That’s where these boots come in. They will give that little extra bit of help to the driver in exiting the car. They are rated 15, not bad for 1998 standards, but would have a 20 rating in 2016. Both boots have been signed by Pedregon and he added the inscription “’98.” Both have Simpson warranty tags, and the right boot has an SFI tag 3/3 tag. In 2002, the Pedregon brothers formed Cruz Pedregon Racing, Inc., and both have had driver duties. This visor was used by one of the brothers, and autographed by both. It’s designed for a Simpson Bandit-style helmet. The Pedregon brothers didn’t use “The Clydesdale Effect” with this visor. The last item is a parachute bag used by Frank Pedregon Jr. It’s designed to hold the parachute on the back of the car, and was from the car when Frank hit Scotty Canon. The Pedregon brothers are unique individuals in the history of the NHRA. Next week, we will look at some stuff from one of the most unique characters in the history of ARCA.

By David G. Firestone

Tucked away in Tucson, hidden on an unpaved road, is a museum that every car guy should see before he dies. It’s a museum devoted to a unique marque of automobile, one so rare, most people have never heard of it. I’m speaking of the Franklin Auto Museum. It’s devoted to the Franklin Automobile Company, which existed from 1904 to 1934, producing some of the most luxurious and innovative cars to date.

The H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company was founded by H. H, Franklin in 1893 as a die casting manufacturer. In 1900, they expanded in to the automobile industry with the aquision of the talents of John Wilkinson, an engine designed. In 1902, the first Franklin Motor Car was built. By 1904, Franklin was a full-fledged automobile manufacturer.

Franklin cars were advanced, with air-cooled engines, constant level carburetors, and made use of a 4 cylinder straight engine. As time progressed, they shifted from 4 cylinder straight to a V-12 engine, which their aircraft engine subsidiary was innovative in making. Franklin focused on luxury models, often costing significantly more than other models. This focus was the main design aspect of most of their cars. A Franklin was somewhat of a status symbol, but as the economy began to fall, the sales slowed, money was lost, and, by 1934, after 30 years, the company ceased production of cars. Their aircraft engine production continued until 1975, when it was sold to the Government of Poland, and all operations were moved to Poland, where it operates to this day.

One of the children who was driven around in a Franklin was Thomas Hubbard, who was such a fan of Franklins, he would restore them for collectors. He began to buy and restore them for himself. His collection grew, and, as he began to grow older, decided that he should open a museum devoted to the history of the Franklin Automobile Company. After he passed away, that museum opened, and continues to operate to this day.

The collection is very impressive, with examples ranging from 1904, to one of the last cars ever sold in 1934. Three buildings make up the complex. The first one features many of the later models, including this yellow 1925 coupe with a rumble seat, one of the few 1934 Franklins in existence, to H.H. Franklin’s car that he used in New York, complete with remnants from restoration. The second building resembles a traditional garage, and has some of the newer cars, and some of the older cars, including this 1933 Olympic Coupe, this 1934 Sedan with matching luggage, and this 1946 Lincoln V-12 Coupe, which is for sale for $26,500. The third building features many of the really old cars, some as old as 1904. This was my favorite room, as many of the designs are so contradictory to car designs today, that it stunned me that people would willing to drive them.

This is a perfect example of one of those cars, a 1909 Model XD Touring Sedan, which was designed by Ransom E. Olds, who would later go on to found Oldsmobile. It’s a quaint looking car, that was designed before it was decided which is the driver side. The musuem also has a number of hidden treasures and vintage items, such as this vintage Dixie gas pump,and this old stock ticker.There are too many amazing things to list, so here is a slide show.

The museum is open from Mid October to Memorial Day, Wednesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for Seniors, $5 for teenagers and students, and free for those under 12. This is the video of my tour, and I highly recommend that you take the tour as well.

Next week, we go back to racing, with something worn by a former NASCAR champion…