Well folks, it is over. The Omaha International Meet was fantastic.
Almost 350 vehicles on the field Thursday, with over 2/3 of them to be
judged. Officer Dave took home honors for both Sheba and Goliath.
Rick Courtier brought home a trophy for his truck. The entire week
was a blast. I am now back on line so this may be stuff you have
already heard. If so here is another dose of the news.
I took the trip to the Strategic Space and Air Museum and to the Bill
Smith Collection Museum at Speedway Motors in Lincoln. The Air and
Space Museum was very interesting. Of course being Studebaker folks we
kind of gravitated toward the B-17, but there was much more than that
in the museum including the B-52 and B-36 that were sitting in the same
room as the B-17 (along with much, much more). Along the way to Lincoln
we stopped in Asheland, Nebraska, for lunch at a soda shop type of
place. Service was great as was the food. The organizers had thing
fixed down to the minute, food came out quick which of course meant all
was fine with the Studebaker world. In this small town was a little
auto body/service shop, on the main street, that proved very inviting
for many of us. When you walk by a small store front and in the window
hangs a '38 Chevy grill, a pair of fender skirts for a '69 Chevy,
and a set of early Torque Thrust wheels, you know you have to go in.
Under a lot of dust and dirt was an incredible pile of really cool car
stuff. In the back a guy was working on an early Stingray coupe and a
Model-A. Outside the back door was a Crosley. The guy said that he
had never had so many people in his shop total as came by that day!
>From Asheland, we went on to Lincoln. The Bill Smith Collection at
Speedway Motors, is a must for any, and I do mean any, car nut. The
group was broken up into three smaller groups. My group was taken to
the second floor first. I could have spent all 2 ½ hours on this
floor alone. I have never seen so many engines in all of my life.
Most were Model-T and A engines with all kinds of speed equipment
attached. Lots of flathead V-8s too. You know its something when a
Ford Flathead with Ardun (SP?) overhead valve heads is rather mundane.
Even a Paxton set up for a Flathead V-8. The third floor was mostly
toys and pedal cars. Again I don't there I have ever seen as many
pedal cars in my entire life as there are in this museum. Of course
again, the Studebaker group gravitated toward their own, in this case
it meant the Studebaker Indy engines on the first floor. There are
three - First was an engine used in an Indianapolis race car in 1939.
I was a six cylinder with polished aluminum head and dual carbs.
Second was a pair of Studebaker dual overhead cam V-8's that were to
have been used in the 1952 Indy 500. Unfortunatelyl, the snout on the
crankshafts were too week and broke off when the engine was fired by
and external starter, so they did not compete. The engines, one of
which was displayed so that you could see much of the inner workings,
were awesome to see. Lots of other cool stuff, too much to mention
here.
Friday afternoon drag races took place just south of Council Bluffs,
Iowa. Lots of cars showed up, with most of the Studes competing. Some
interesting machines ran. One of the most interesting was a '41 two
door sedan with an R-2 engine. Eventually Ted Harbit found his way to
the helm of this one, setting the lowest ET of the day. Our own Rich
Courtier was the only casualty of the outing when, racing his own
brother, his tranny let go. Fortunately he had brought a spare.
Unfortunately it was at his brother's place about 30 miles away.
Rick's Triple A membership came in handy that day! Mike Myers ran
his ghost flamed Avanti. There were several trucks that ran including
a ¾ ton C-cab. Dave Lester made several great passes and I think at
the end of the day he was second fastest. Besides the 1/8 mile drag
strip, there is a 2.5 mile road course at this facility. A "tour"
was conducted of this track. I was lucky enough to ride with Dave
Lester around this track. It is too bad we had to follow other folk,
as that coupe and its driver really wanted to twist and turn! It was a
great ride.
There is a resurgence of the Studebaker Truck Farmers. Several of us
complete with overalls and straw hats had a group picture taken on the
back of two of the glorious big Studebaker trucks. This should end up
in Turning Wheels as Art Unger was there taking pictures. This is a
great group of folks.
Well guys and gals, there was probably a lot more that I missed, but I
am sure you will get filled in on all of this before long. I am now on
my way to South Bend to see the new museum before I turn south for the
Tar Heel State.
Joe Roberts.
e
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