a12.24.04_071_BRA_FRE_0066_1.jpg (60026 bytes)

Photo ID # a12.24.04_071_BRA_FRE_0066_1
Car #: #71
Driver (s) : 1966
Location: Freeport, Long Island, NY (after winning a 100 lap Sportsman main event)
Date: 1966
Photographer: Ed Appolt
Photo provided by: George LeBlanc
Comments: Here's a great story that was provided to us by George LeBlanc (who now has the #71 in his garage!) in response to our recent trivia question (11/04) about "The Last Sedan Standing".  While it may not have been the last Sedan to compete on the track in the Modified Division as our trivia question requested, this very well could be the "Last Sedan Standing as the car today still sits in full race gear just as it came off the track in 1974, some 30 years ago!)

Up until but not including 1965 Freeport Stadium under the Donaldson-Kedenberg promotion featured a division which was called (appropriate for this subject} "SEDANS" The requirements of this division was simply that you had to run a SEDAN, no coupes were allowed. Make of car didn't matter.

The 1937 Dodges, Plymouths, and Desotos were most popular and most bizarre was the fact that 4-door sedans were most prevolent.  Engine of choice for the MOPAR gang was the 265 cubic inch 1954 Chrysler "Spitfire". A few racers did use Fords and they proved to be better handling cars with the transverse springs.

One racer who dominated this division was Bruno Brackey. He won the Sedan championship something like six years in a row amassing hundreds of features in this division.  Another oddity of those days was that drivers were allowed to compete in all of the divisions on the same night. Bruno was the only driver in the history of the track to win all three heats and all three features in the SEDAN, NON-FORD, and MODIFIED divisions in one night. He ran a 37 Flatback sedan in the sedan division for several years. This is the car that appears in the Snyder video with the IN-CAR Camera that was set up by Ed Appolt. (I know Gary London likes to take credit for that but it isn't the case.)

That car was know as "Old Betsy". It finally got wrecked beyond repair one night and the driver that was involved in the accident with Bruno felt so bad that he gave Bruno a cherry 37 Ford Humpback sedan to make amends. This car became Old Betsy the second. He won the 63 and
64 sedan championships with this car.

In 1965 the Sedan And Non-Ford divisions were dropped in favor of a new "SPORTSMAN" division which was a 318 C.I. limit overhead valve engine class.  Bruno put a 292 Y-Block Ford in Betsy and continued running it as a Sportsman. The top Modified Division at this time became the controversial "Open Cockpit Modified" division which was a 6 cylinder topless class.  After the 1967 Strike-Shut-out that Freeport experienced the track finished out the remainder of the season with bombers. In 1968 when the Modifieds returned under new rules, 7 inch maximum width street tires, no slicks allowed and 390 C.I. Limit, Bruno's 71 became a Modified still with the 292 Ford power. He was able to run very well with the now only closed driveshaft two spinger
Ford in the field and still won a feature with this car on occasion. 

He won the Modified title with this car in 1970 in fact. When Freeport was taken over in 1974 by the Campis and enlarged to 1/4 mile he was no longer able to run the sedan and Old Betsy was retired.  I was lettering his new cars for him every spring and when I went there I would always take a peak at the old sedan which was under a canvas. I wanted that car! I would say to Bruno every spring "I saw you win so many features in that car at both Freeport and Weissglass, what are you going to do with it? " He said he was going to modernize it and lower it down to update it to which I said "NO". 

A couple of years went by and I was still lettering his cars and he said to me one night at New Egypt Speedway "You want my old sedan, don't you?" To which I said "YES". He responded with "Take it, it's yours"  I was floored.

That was in 1976 and the car is in one of my garages just how it came off the track the last year it was raced. It can be seen by clicking on my LeBlanc Trains banner. 
(Click here to see the #71 as it sits today)

A lengthy story but if Bruno's car isn't the "Last Sedan Standing" I don't know of another one that is. By the way, it still has the original black paint on it. Most of Bruno's Fords were black with white fenders either number 7, 70 or 71.

Thanks Joe - George LeBlanc.

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Comment:

12/31/04 3-Wide Jeez. George, us New Jersians used to get upset with guys after they won 3 races in their career, nevermind all 3 heats and all 3 features in one night! 

While we think we decided that Charlie Decker's blue #16 Coach was one of the last to run dirt, and John Megill's #83 was one of the last sedan to run asphalt (early 80's), the #71 could very well be the "Last Sedan Standing" from the standpoint of the way it has been preserved to reflect the condition it came off the track for the last time. - Thanks George

01/10/05 Brian C. Loutrel George - Seeing this photo brought back some great memories of my visits to Freeport Stadium in the 1960s. My father, Louis Loutrel, and my uncle Frank Loutrel, worked with Ed Appoldt as photographers at Freeport for the old Illustrated Speedway News through the 1960s and I used to sit in the stands and enjoy the races.

I remember Bruno's "Old Betsy" as well as "New Betsy", too. I have fond memories of the different divisions at Freeport - the A class jalopies, the "S" class street cars, and the "modifieds" where Bruno's #71 ran. I loved the old late 1930's sedans - Marty Himes white #150, Jack Verity's red and white #A121, Ray Fitzgerald's #A200, etc. I also remember Jim Lacy's #88 coupe, Ed (#1) and George (#645) Brunhoezl's coupes, Leo Caroll in the #A50, Red Raynor in the 393, and the A100 of Bob
Scarlett. And, of course, that black #71.

I also remember the ARDC midgets and the TQ midgets racing at Freeport and seeing drivers like Len Duncan, Ed "Dutch" Schaefer, and Leigh Earnshaw. I have some of my father's old 8MM movies of racing at Freeport during the 1960s that I watch when I want to go down memory lane. Thanks for providing the photo and the narrative about Bruno, his car, and Freeport Stadium in the 1960s.

01/10/05 Pat Stellwagen Just a few memories to share with George - I'm Bill Stellwagen, an old friend of the Brackey family. I once rode in this car - as a passenger on the way to Weissglass Speedway. Myself and Bruno Jr got to sit in the sedan while it was being towed through the streets of Brooklyn on our way to the Gangplank- Verrazano Br.

Sure enough, New York City's Finest pulled us over and came up to the window of the Sedan to ask for license and registration.  I think Bruno talked his way out of that one pretty easily. 

I remember how the Ford exhaust manifolds were carefully drilled to remove excess weight, and one of the 2 sedans had steel cables and turnbuckles strung underneath to control the flexing of the frame - Bruno was a gifted and innovative mechanic.    I'll see you at the Weissglass Museum sometime this year for sure!

     
     
     

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