"John Doe" Modified:
Vault Mystery For You to Solve....

SOLVED!  (We think!)
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Help a Fellow Enthusiast Find Out a Little History on a Car From the Past...
Here's All That's Known:

Photo ID# c03.22.07_JOH_DOE_STA_1
Car #: Not sure
Driver (s) : Not sure
Location: Not sure
Date Raced: 70's?
Photographer: Michael Stasak
Photo provided by: Michael Stasak
Comments: From Michael:  I just bought this car and trying to findout who drove it.    37 / 38 Chevy, 427 on the hood. (SOLVED - SEE BELOW!)
Visitor's Comments

If you recognize the car and have any info to add regarding the history of this car, please email us here at the Vault:  Click Here or email us at 3wide@optonline.net (include the Photo ID# above)

Date: Visitor's  Name:

Comment:

03/25/07 Joe Friscia Mike: What town and state did you buy the car? It wouldnt be CT would it?
Joe Friscia - Torrington CT
03/25/07 Michael Stasak I got the car in the Frenchtown, NJ area.
03/25/07 Jim Kelleher It certainly looks like the car Mario Caruso and Pete Hamilton drove. (Worcester Sand and Gravel Chevy Coupe)
03/26/07 Joe Friscia Boy, if there was any chance "Fats" or Pete ran this car, you've got a good one there! Good luck in your search!
03/26/07 Bucky I think that's Bob Ayers car. Look at the picture in the vault trivia contest. The door panel looks the same, the front end is tough and the body with the attitude his car had. It is the wrong color, I remember iit as blue. Please don't disclose my work e-mail.
03/26/07 3-Wide Not sure about this, but the silver blue #9a on the vintage circuit looks a lot like the old #69 of Bob Ayres which I think was a former Dean Applegate car???
02/26/07 John Mc I think that may have been a car #69 that Walt Bettler drove at Flemington back in 1972. It was yellow, didn't race much but I remember it because he was in a crash w/ my dad in the #4 one night. Don't bet the farm on it, though.
03/27/07 George Perkins I don't think that's the 69 that Hamilton and Caruso drove. The numbers look wrong, the frame is later than vintage, plus all of the Worcester cars I saw were 35-36's with the quarter windows hogged out.
03/27/07 Kevin B I might go as far to say this could pass as one of Buzzies old coupes! Look at the way the drivers window is cut out and notice the partial door handle assembly still in tacked, the way the the forward part of the door continues a few more inches after the factory seam.A lot of Buzzies car were built this way. mother nature sure put a lot of extra miles on her!!
03/28/07 John Mc Kevin B seems to have forgotten 1 small detail....in all of Buzzie's coupes except the last 1, which was a Profile car, he sat on the left (or driver's) side. This car has the steering in the center.
03/30/07 Spilly This car reminds me of the Bob Toreky #14 that he ran in the mid 70's. That car was later sold to Bob Burns, who I thought was Billy Pauch's brother in law. That may explain the Frenchtown location.

Another guess may be the Nate Strunk XXX car, which I saw run a few times at Flemington
03/30/07 Dave Suchy THIS LITTLE COUPE REMINDS ME OF THE BROWN #69 THAT DENNIS DEBRIZZI RAN AT ONE OF THE EASTERN STATES RACES AT OCFS A WHILE BACK.
04/01/07 Gregory Saeger The hood lets us know about the last time the car ran. Fuel injection was on this motor, so you guys in Jersey would know when they stopped running injection on those motors. Nice find though!
04/03/07 Chris Z See if Michael is comfortable with posting who he bought that coupe off, or where in the Frenchtown area. There is such an unbelievable amount of racers, past and present that live in that little section of Hunterdon County, you can't go down any of those roads without running into someone that had or has something to do with a racecar. I am sure if the word got to the right one he could get the history of that car real quick.
04/03/07 3-Wide Michael, if you can, give us a little more info and I'm confident that these guys will solve it.  So far, I'm banking on John Mc's explaination...   Before John was old enough to get into the pits, there wasn't much that got past him!
04/04/07 Michael Stasak It came off a farm off Rt.29 in Kingwood Twsp. The person that I got it from had no idea who the original owner was. It has the initials FF punched in the plate above the steering colum. I would guess this was the builder or original owner.
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04/04/07 3-Wide Let's see... Fuzzy Fussenden?  Think he drove a #5... or did he also drive one of the 31K sedans???
04/04/07 Walter Onora Looks like a Bob Rossell built racer. I am judging form the hood. I have a couple of photos of Bob's 56 modifieds. Looks very similar as fa as the hood and body area.
04/04/07 Mike Stasak SOLVED!  We think....

The mystery has been solved ... After John Mc's help, I tracked down Walt Bettler who lives in Morris, Pa. and found out he was the one who drove the car. He bought the car from George Butler and it was driven by Oliver Butler. The "FF" on the steering post stands for Floyd Fleming, who did most the welding on the car for George Butler. I ask Walt about it crashing with Craig and he said he did indeed crash with Craig, but not with that car. Would appreciate if anyone has any photos of this car when driven by Oliver Butler. Thanks to all of you for your help on this one!
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04/04/07 3-Wide You know... John Mc is like a broken watch - Twice a day he tells you what you need to know!  (Great Job John and thanks to all who weighed in on the mystery of the Frenchtown #69.)  Now let's see if we can find a few pics for Mike of Oliver Butler driving the car....
04/09/07 John Mc As far as the #69 coupe, one of the reasons I thought it was the car Bettler drove was because it sat outside of Poniatowski Bros Equipment Co (which was where the WaWa is located on Rte 31 in Flemington now) and I passed it while riding the school bus on my way to school for an entire spring. I thought it was George's car 1st (who is George & Gary's dad & Oliver's brother)...small world, huh? BTW, Floyd Fleming raced a late model at Flem & Naz for awhile, has a pool service business now. Nice guy.
05/09/07 DALE WELTY That right hand driver position reminds me of a number of cars that Howard Conkey of Show Car Engineering in Waterloo NY built in the seventies. Chuck Chiprich drove one to many victories in NY. Al Gollie had one as well. Both cars were coupes. Don't know if Conkey built any others besides those two that might have made their way to the Jersey area.
     


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