02.07.03_054_TOB_REA_0067_1.jpg (31595 bytes)

Photo ID # 02.07.03_054_TOB_REA_0067_1
Car #: #54
Driver (s) : Dick "Toby" Tobias
Location: Reading, PA
Date: 1967
Photographer: Bob Zellars
Photo provided by: Mike Feltenberger
Comments:   (Thanks Mike) Dick Tobias in 1967 at Reading. Toby was at the end of his Consoli career and was at the helm of this somewhat awkward looking modified for the 1967 season.
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Comment:

02/08/03 James Brewer It is true that the ATCO #54 was a little awkward looking but versions of this car took the Reading championships in 1966 and 1967.  Davey Brown was the wrench and with Toby they were a great team wherever they raced
02/08/03 3-Wide I think this is one of the tallest cars I have ever seen, especially when compared to some of the other cars of the day, but maybe it was that height that gave it enough bite through the corners to take the championships as James reminds us above.   (There's nothing awkward about winning 2 championships!)
02/08/03 James Brewer Didn't mean anything by the comment other than to draw attention to the fact that Toby and Davey won the championships those two years.  Actually - - and this is just my opinion - - when Tobias and Brown took over the mechanical end of the ATCO team it became the first threads of the Tobias chassis of the 1970s. I think it really became apparent with Toby's next cars - - the Super Dog #17 coupes.

The ATCO 54 cars, beginning in 1965, were really a race chassis built on a production frame - - driver and engine way back compared to most of the other cars. Part of the reason the cars were different (awkward looking),  had to do with the design change to a higher center of gravity and a move to the single purpose car - - dirt or asphalt. In fact, ATCO cars did not convert to asphalt use very well - - I think they really had their hands full at Langhorne after they started messing with the design to get the driver in the center of the car - - and all that started with Toby and Davey in 1965.

You didn't get to Reading much and I was never at Flemington as much as I would have liked. Both tracks were part of the Golden Era - - I still miss it as much as anyone.

02/08/03 3-Wide Thank you very much for your comments and I'm sure the rest of the visitors will agree.  For the heck of it I looked up "awkward" and the definition is "marked by a lack of dexterity and grace, esp. in physical movement...describes objects whose size or shape make them difficult to handle"

That being the case, I guess it could be said that this version of  the #54, while appearing somewhat "awkward", actually performed in an "unawkward manner" on the Reading dirt!"  Thanks again for the information.  One of my biggest regrets in life is that by the time I made it out to Reading, I found a mall instead of a racetrack.

02/08/03 Mike Feltenberger Bob Zellers was the track photographer in the closing years of the Fairgrounds.
02/19/03 Bill Hanna I was born and bred to Flemington, having been born there and attended every Saturday night from probably 1964 (when I was 5) until 1997, when I retired as an official and just could not get up to love the asphalt anymore. I was raised on steady diet of Flemington on Saturday, and Nazareth on Sunday, sometimes we even made the Harmony feature of Sunday night when I was young. But my greatest day of my young life was when I turned 17 and could drive to Reading. From 1976 until 1979 I went each and every Friday night to see the stars at the Track of Champions, and am so sorry to see these two tracks gone, but OH THE MEMORIES......
12.13.11 Terry Fick  James is correct, the ATCO cars always had high centers of gravity. Toby and Bobby Gerhart were always pulling the left and sometimes right front coming off the turns when the weight shifted just like a drag car. When Toby built the "Dog" car he ran bar rears and spring fronts; bars squat more than springs adding side bite going in and forward bite coming off. Later the Bullock car with Chanberlain ran a form of independent front suspension allowing Chamberlain to be the first to be able to "back in" a modified with those slick M&H Racemasters drag tires everybody was running. Today with "treaded" skins everybody backs in. In those days you had a handfull.

The mid-60s were a time of great change at the Reading Fairgrounds. The flat heads were competitive but, as I recall as a very young man, were pretty much club racing. The modifieds changed all that. My family knew probably half the flat head field, but when the mods came many of the flat head guys quit driving due to a lack of money or the fact the cars were just so much faster and the risk was no longer worth the reward.

The Home of Champions became a professional mecca by 67, the majority of the field making a living from running modifieds. Keep in perspective that at the time NASCAR was viewed as a regional novelty, USAC Indy cars were the big national show (running pavement and dirt). There was also Can-AM, Trans-AM, bugs, NHRA, and the SCCA was very popular at airport venues. The NE modified scene was a place were a team could make a living without all the travel of USAC and NASCAR. So there was big money in play in 67 at Reading as well as other PA and Jersey tracks. It was at this time that drivers demanded two cars, I believe ATCO brought two for Toby in case one was damaged, the other could be rolled out and qualify through the consi. And Lindy paid well and deep into the field.

I can still hear my mother when Lindy announced that modifieds would be the show, "those guys from Jersey will ruin everything." Not everyone was happy that modifieds were coming. Over time though I think most were glad they came. My buddies and I (teenagers at the time) got there at 6:00 so we could watch all the cars show up, and after the show walked through the pits. How times have changed.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

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