|
|
|
||||||||
|
Big Kevin Masters
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
PRESENTS
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
1965 WORLD CHAMPION
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
VIRG "The Flying Junkman"CATES
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
33 WILLYS RACING THOUGH THE YEARS
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Early 1960s running an injected small block chevy.I have that nose in the attic.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
That Virg under the car in what looks like 64. A day at the races always working on something!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
In Canada racing the Karbelt car as an altered.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Here see is in still small block powered at a car show in OHIO !
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Here is the car in its WORLD CHAMPION stage. Now running a 426 hemi that he got from my dad.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Recent pix from Thompson Virgil "The FlyingJunkman" Cates' '33 Willys caught my eye. Virgil's '33 looks great.. and it ran very well!
Seems the car ran chromed grille shell off a Model A, to make it legal for C/Altered. My memory is fuzzy, but I seem to recall that Virgil was involved in some sort of highway crash while towing the car, mashing up his nice, painted new fiberglass front end that would have let the car run as a legal B or C/Gasser (weight).
Virgil scrounged up the Model A grille and bolted it in place, with the Willys radiator still in its stock location for Gas class rules. Results of this "class change?" Outstanding! As a C/Altered the car ran Comp Eliminator and cleaned house at both regional and national level.
He later built the Opel and enjoyed reasonable success.But not like that of the 33 Willys.
Virgil was a seriously hard racer and good guy. His nickname "Flying Junkman" was hardly derogatory. I met Virgil through Ron Hassel, another of the old-time Ohio Gasser guys. Hassel was himself a hard racer. Although he and Virgil were both competitors they were also good friends, swapping information on how to go quicker and faster in what ever class they chose to run. Hassel was also known to refer to Virgil as "The Junkman", not at all in a negative sense, but because they raced against each other from their teenager days.
my comments on Virgil's '33 were directed primarily at its "glory days" as a C/A Comp Elim racer. In those days it was the fastest and quickest and winningest C/A car running. Virgil Cates C/A' '33 Willys was strictly utilitarian, and just plain 'ol "hauled ass". I challenge anyone to argue that point regarding this historically significant race car. As a C/A it was "damned ugly", but boy did it run!
-Jim Hill- CRANE CAMS
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
BACK TO MY HOME PAGE CLICK HERE
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About 1/64 scale 33 WILLYS light weight resin body . Great for you slot car or custom .Paints and sands GREAT .with todays superglue EAZY custom.Own one today for just $9.99 plus $4.00 shipping.email me at oldtimegassers@aol.com
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| page created with Easy Designer |