....More Merv Dove thanks to Merv's Nephew Randy Dove...circa 1953!

This is a continuation of Merv Dove photos from the previous post ...click here if you haven't seen the first post then come back... http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/2010/07/merv-dove-gentleman-to-be-admired.html

This is Merv's first car. Above the back window is written "Brent Park Special". Merv says that he lived on Brent St.....so the name! Also on the side is written see Rothchild's for the Hudson Jet. Rothchild's was on the corner of Bay and Secord Street in Port Arthur. The next photo not too clear, but you can see all the extra bleachers that were set up in front of the old grandstand to accommodate hundreds more at the races....not too safe either, as jalopy jockeys were tearing down hundreds of feet of wooden fence on the backstretch and there is only a light chain-link fence here between the racers and the fans.

Merv's next car was totalled(geez, Merv, how many '33 and '34 Fords did you wreck...I'm already getting a sick feeling in my stomach...LOL). Please note that his next sponsor here is Leo's Service which was on Shuniah St. in Port Arthur. The first photo by itself and the second one here with a very young and dejected looking stock car jockey, Merv Dove.

This is none other than Merv's Sponsor Leo Dyson himself in full Texaco Service uniform. The next photo is a dead-on shot showing the front damage, all taken at Leo's on Shuniah Street.

Here is another photo of the good side of the car with Leo at the front, Merv to the right of him and the guy with the flat hat is one of Merv's pit crew Bruce Larson. In the next photo Merv is messing it up with a few other jockeys. Also note the little #2 model "A" pickup truck in the pit area. That is Tom Dow's hauler, painted exactly like his own jalopy. A story is forthcoming on Tom Dow.

Here are a few great shots of the #31 car from the Grandstand at the old CLE track. Just a reminder....this is the exact spot where the Golf Dome is today. The photo on the right is taken as the drivers pile into the pit area before the races. The #57 car here is before Barry Kettering used that number. This is Brent Hard's car.

The above was taken shortly after the one just before it, showing how the jockeys all lined up nice and neat in their individual pit spots...how many cars do you recognize? The #10 car in the last photo is Pappy Fowler's with "Darling's Service" prominently painted on the side. Darling's would later become Kettering's service station, and later yet would become "Ray Charles Texaco" in the '60's. Check out the little model "A" coupe pulling the #6 car with a V-bar. The popular "RO" sign with the gas pump below near the middle of the last photo is of course Riverlake Oil which was handled by McEwen fuels at the time. There is a story about Riverlake Oil back into my blog archives.
These pictures are full of great memories. Much thanks again to Randy Dove for loaning Hot Rods and Jalopies the photos to add to Merv's portfolio....and finally thanks to Merv for being himself and always a gentleman!
Be sure to click on each individual picture for full effect(some twice).

More Stock Jockeys from the 1950's....

A little fuzzy but still a great shot of #49 Conrad Trombelli just out of the photo on the left, #57 at this time driven by Brent Hard, and #37 Glen Kettering(Barry's Brother) sponsored by Jessiman Motors. The CLE Coliseum shows up on many of these photos taken on the #2 turn, and can be seen top right.

Here is a shot of the#37 Glen Kettering car sponsored by Jessiman Motors. This time Glen is driving a '32 Ford 5-window coupe. Wow, those Kettering brothers sure destroyed a ton of deuces. The photo on the right shows the Massaro Brothers, Tony and Albert duking it out on the #3 turn.

Here is a couple of great shots of Tony Massaro's #87 car, one in a 34 Ford 3-window coupe and one in a '34 Ford 5-window coupe kicking up the dirt in the #3 turn. The Massaro brothers Albert, Tony, and later Bunny always kept the competition tight, and their antics on the track provided great entertainment for many years at the good ol' CLE racetrack. Thanks!

Click on photos to enlarge

Do You Know This Building?....

These colour photos were taken on July 12th 2009.


Yes, It's the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Coliseum building that has been around for quite some time. It is directly across from the Golf Dome(which would be situated right in the middle of our old dirt track on the fairgrounds), and also puts Silver City pretty much right in the middle of the great old wooden grandstand.
This was considered the gate turn(turn 2) on the track. Behind the race cars is where the gate was opened to let all the cars, pit crew and track officials into the pits(infield).
If you study the pictures you could probably go and stand right where Al Massaro's car was....right in the middle of the parking lot of the Golf Dome.
I am still working on who some of these guys were but in the left b&w photo #79 is unknown, #22 is unknown and #88 was the well known Albert Massaro with a 1937 Ford Coupe. In the right b&w photo is #24 unknown, #88 Albert Massaro with a 1934 Ford Coupe, his brother #87 Tony Massaro with another '33 or '34 Ford Coupe, and finally the D & K Special #10 driven by Don Marsh. This number was also used by Pappy Fowler in those days. These b&w photos are from the mid 1950's.
Some of these incredible drivers are not with us anymore but live on in infamy because someone had the foresight to save these great photos.
Landmarks such as the Coliseum are still around to give us an idea of the location of other things. Thank you to all who have preserved these photos.
Oh yes, and thank those stock car jockeys for destroying hundreds of those all steel early '30's Ford Coupes and Sedans....that's why they are scarce and very valuable today(who would ever guess!)........Dave.
Always click on photos to enlarge

Kohar Brother's #15 Meteor/Mercury Jalopy....CLE 1953

The top left #15 photo and email information is submitted by Rick Kohar.

“The first picture is of Ed Kohar sitting in the car at the Kohar Bros. Garage in 1953. The garage was located on the SW corner of Amelia and Brown Sts. across from the Westfort Hotel, in west Fort William(now Thunder Bay, Ontario). The garage was later moved brick by brick to the present site of T & T auto parts on King Street and James just past the underpass towards Mount McKay and the mission."
As Rick would say, “My father Ed and his brother Rudy built it and Harry Lee was the mechanic that spun wrenches on her. This is the car the Sam Myronuk drove to a second place points championship in 1953. J.U. Calonego construction had given them some sponsor money.”
Rick also says, “some of this info is sketchy but that Sam drove it over the fence(likely tearing down yards of fence like most jockeys did in those days) and was seriously hurt. Some time later there was a fight amongst everyone and the car was sold. I am not sure who the car went to but I always thought that Louis Tocheri ended up with the car.” The above photos show the Mercury as #15 with J. U. Calonego as sponsor and subsequently #19(Tocheri) which kind of proves Rick’s speculation. “Check out the football helmet for safety gear and the flex pipe under the car for an exhaust header...really high tech stuff for the time I guess? Also apparently this was the first car to ever have a 4 barrel carburetor at the track. Rudy and Ed had snuck it back from Duluth on one of their junkets."
This was the last foray of my father(Rick's father Ed) into racing until my brother Mel started at it in '67 at Riverview Raceways.”
Post Script...This is one of many great stories that come out of the old jalopy racing days at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition track, and I most sincerely thank Rick Kohar for sharing these great memories with us. The top right photo shows Sammy Myronuk receiving a trophy which could have been his second place championship win as stated by Rick. The second #15 photo shows an earlier model Mercury with the #15 on it before it was Tocheri’s car and those cars look exactly alike(The darker #19 photo shows Louis Tocheri to the right of his car). It wasn’t unusual to see many cars wrecked during a season and just putting the engine and roll cage into the next one...we did the same thing about 14 years later.

Rick has submitted some further info stating that after the 1953 racing year they sold the garage to Andy Samas and Ed went on to sell cars for Jessiman Motors for 2 years after that. Also in 1971 Ricks father Ed, sold me my one and only muscle car, my brand new 1971 Chevelle SS hardtop as sales manager at Port Arthur Motors....and I remember to this day how good he was to me on that deal.....Dave

click on photos to enlarge.

Jalopies and Brills!

If you are wondering what the title means....we can explain. The jalopies on the back stretch are #60 Don Marsh, #19 Louis Tocheri, #31 Merv Dove, #54 Wally Prokosh, #47 Barry Kettering. The unknown is behind Tocheri, and the brill bus is behind the fence. The background of this picture is taken not only on the CLE race track back stretch, but on the corner of Northern Ave and Fort William road here in what is now called Thunder Bay, Ontario. At this point the Port Arthur and Fort William busses drop off passengers(it's called the loop), to transfer to each susequent city. Basically this is where Fort William and Port Arthur used to divide and each city had their own separate transit system(wierd or what!). Brill busses were electric busses that used a trolly system for power(like rail trollys) but drove on rubber tires just like gas powered busses....pretty unique. It was a bit of a problem though in winter months when freezing rain hung on the trolly lines. Too bad they didn't keep the system considering today's incredible fuel costs. Click on the picture!

YELLOW!!

I just had to add one more photo of the Vicky for a laugh. Everything had to be yellow. This is Rosemary and I taken in 1987 at Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This was the first long distance trip we had taken and had traveled along with our friends Shelley and Joe Salerno, in their '34 Ford 2-door sedan. During a safety inspection there, they noticed a beautiful lime green paint blob that was embedded on my front axle. On closer inspection is was a frog that I hit somewhere along but it sure looked cool against the School Bus Yellow of the car. Rosie looks great but I look like a dork with those crazy shorts, yellow sunglasses and knobby knees.

Inspiration!

This is one of my favourite photos of my dad and I in 1986 while working on my '33 Ford Victoria. Anytime I was in a bind for some inspiration or assistance, I could always count on my dad to show up at my garage. We would sit and contemplate what to do, and toss around ideas, especially when it came to body work or welding. He had taught me to weld years ago and how to do lead body work on my '32 Ford coupe. Leading was quite an art in itself. To this day at almost 90 years old, he is always interested in what's going on inside the garage. The picture on the right is how the Vicky turned out. It was sold to Ray Stevenson from Winnipeg in the fall of 1988 and I started my Little Deuce Coupe that winter. At this time I believe that the car belongs to a doctor in Calgary, as it had been spotted at a rod run there a couple of years ago.

A Day at the Races Circa 1958 CLE

Here's a birds eye view of exactly what it looked like sitting in the huge grandstand at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition racetrack in 1958(Photos donated by Dave Corbett). A typical rainy day and the jalopies are tearing around drying up the track. Today exactly where the track was, is a huge golf dome and the Silver City movie theatre, but the property still belongs to the CLE. The smell of the exhaust, popping of the engines, hot dogs and popcorn are still on my mind, not to mention the marching band songs they played while waiting for the races to start. These were great memories! In the bottom right photo you can see the livestock barns for the fair. The Coliseum building in the top center of the same picture still exists today. Click on the pictures for a larger view.

The Lakehead Stock Car Club 1953 & 1957

Here's a group of photos from the 1953 and 1957 Lakehead Stock Car Club official programs that were sold at the CLE back in those days. (Click on each one to get a larger image) The skull and crossbones car on the cover of the 1953 program is the actual body that I used for my vintage modified car seen in photos below. These give you a good idea of who was racing back then. My family was not too well off then, and a quarter allowance didn't go too far, so I would sell cokes for Percy Dacy, who operated most of the concessions. This would get me into the races for free and I would then sit at the highest spot in the grandstand, watch all the good stuff, and sell only a few cokes to the folks sitting around me . After the races I would return with my unsold cokes and Percy would say, "Hey Kid, you're sure a crappy salesman." Right, but I got into all the races for free!!

The Great Old A & W drive-in

Here's a wonderful shot of one of the original A & W drive-ins here in Thunder Bay(very close to where I live). It was on the corner of James St. and Arthur St. exactly where the Metro(A & P) grocery store is now. The house and garage across the street in this picture is exactly the same today. The photo was taken in 1980. The music students from the high-schools around the area got together for a 50's tribute which was recorded and televised on cable 7 back then, and done right here at this famous drive-in before it closed. The cars are from left to right, Jerry McKenzie's green model "A" coupe, Art Lee's yellow '33 Ford coupe(which now belongs to Rick Stokaluk...seen in a prior picture), My red and black Hudson Terraplane, Gord Wall's black model "A" sedan, and in the front Dinger Bell's T-bucket. You can see the camera man on the left side of the picture, and all the students having a great time....what a great day!!

Hot Rod from Down Under

They build great hot rods in New Zealand too. Friends(mates as they would say down there), Glen and Issy Keen are building this very cool model "A" coupe hot rod, done in the old style sitting high on a '32 Ford Chassis, with a chopped top, split wishbone suspension and a Flathead Ford engine. A beautiful job. That's their vintage original model "A" coupe right behind the hot rod. Our January is their summer and our July is their winter. How's is coming now Glen??

Bonneville, the birthplace of the Hot Rod

This has been another dream of mine and a trip one of these years. Here's a photo of my friend Ron Limbrick. He has had the privilege of being in Bonneville for speed week a few times now as an official and even had a chance to ride towards that mirage mountain that looks like it doesn't touch the ground.....what an opportunity Ron. Anyway that's him in the drivers seat and the free ride that he got.....what was the speed again Ron? Oh yes....got any bigger sun glasses?....only kidding Ron. I guess you need the largest ones you can get standing on that sooo white bright salt in 90+ degree weather.

Stucky's '33 Ford Coupe

Here's a nice shot taken from Hillcrest Park here in Thunder Bay. That's Rick and Martha Stokaluk's cool '33 Ford Coupe on the left with Rick, Martha and my beautiful wife Rosemary between our two cars. You can also see the famous Sleeping Giant in the distance.

Lady Luck completed in 1991!

Here's how Lady Luck turned out, using parts
from 3 different bodies including a sedan.
It was a super fun car to drive but after 8
years owning it, and a couple of features in American Rodder Magazine in 1995, I
reluctantly sold it to another great guy
and now dear friend, Frank, in Rockford Ill.
There was a few more things I wanted to do,
so on to the next project.....It was still a
Ford Coupe though.....the race car you
saw a few pictures back.

Our Little Deuce Coupe

Here's how our '32 Ford 5 Window
coupe started back in 1988. It was purchased
near Mankato Mn. and brought home
to Thunder Bay. I'm sure a glutton for
punishment, as most of my cars started
in this condition. It's the challenge I like
the most.

Great Guy with his '40 Ford

Another extreme builder, detailer,
and all round great guy,my good
friend Al from the Minneapolis area
with his cool '40 Ford that he has had
for eons, but currently upgraded.
Al also is an automobilia collector,
who was instrumental in getting
me started....I blame you Al, for all
the "stuff" I've accumulated.

Gotta Love These Guys

Ed Roth and Rat Fink....icons of the
hot rod world.....I love this photo
that was done for the Roth movie
last year "Tales of the Rat Fink"