07.18.03_001_CON_ALC_0057_1.jpg (61770 bytes)

Photo ID # 07.18.03_001_CON_ALC_0057_1
Car #: #1
Driver (s) : Vince Conrad
Location: Alcyon
Date: April 12, 1957
Photographer: Bob Sweeten
Photo provided by: Bill Skinner
Comments: Comment provided by Bill Skinner:  First heat winner at Alcyon Speedway's first racing program for Friday, April 12th, 1957 with a winning time of 3 minutes and 52.7 seconds!
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07/19/03 3-Wide What a neat number!  I guarantee if anybody did something this creative today on the side of their racecar, everybody in the stands would notice and the kids would love it.  (I also can't help but think that when Bob Sweeten took this great photo, he made sure the flag didn't interfere with that mean old bulldog's face - Great picture)
07/20/03 Jim Murrow 3 wide, I agree with your comment, this is the most creative car numbering I ever remember seeing. (Well, actually, despite the fact that this is an unforgettable car, I don't remember ever seeing it.) Must be a senior moment, (or decade). I think Vince's regular ride that year was the white # 57 car. I assume this car wasn't a regular at Alcyon. Anyway, besides the great number graphic, check out that fancy pin striping.

Today, somebody would sit at a computer for an hour, and design that number graphic, and the lettering, click the mouse, and full size decals would come out of the machine in the corner. The pin stripes would be tape. The whole numbering/lettering and striping operation to the car these days is just sticking things on - but, when this car was done, everything, including all that pin striping, had to be hand painted. Somebody spent many hours, in very uncomfortable positions, hand painting all that stuff on this car. Quite a job. I wonder what color it was?

07/20/03 3-Wide I appreciate the vision that today's artist/graphics specialists possess, (Joe Zuzcek at Joe's Signs in Robbinsville, NJ, Jay from JD3 Graphixs, Custom Kenny Roth from Custom Creations, and others.)  Even with computers and vinyl, someone has to dream the stuff up and then make the computer see it the same way that they do for it to come out the way it does. I also like to see an "original" like this where someone sat there with a brush and paints and created with the car as the canvas.  I would almost bet that whoever painted the bulldog on this thing probably painted a few noses on some of the military planes used in WWII.   (It definitely has that same look to it...)
07/20/03 Jim Murrow You're absolutely right, it takes just as much talent, and inspiration to design a graphic on a computer as it does on a car, or a canvas. What I meant was the actual physical work involved in painting all of that onto a car. He or she, must have been on their knees, side, back, getting up, and down, for hours and hours on this job. Bet there were some sore muscles and an aching back by the time this was done. Thanks,
07/31/03 Jim Murrow After a little checking, I find that this car seems to have only run Alcyon on the night this picture was taken, April 12th, and the following Friday night, April 19th. After that it disappeared, and Vince Conrad drove a different car. The logical assumption, therefore would be that this car was an invader, and Vince Conrad was not the regular driver.

I see the sponsor, Millsboro Motor Sales, on the roof. One Millsboro, that I know, is in southern Delaware, just a few miles from Georgetown Speedway. Could be this is a Georgetown car that came up to NJ for a couple races before Georgetown opened? Maybe some of the Vault visitors can fill us in on the history of this great looking car. Thanks, Jim Murrow

08/05/05 Brittney Cronrath Vince Conrad is my grandfather! I did a paper about him for a school project.
09/14/05 Lee Conrad The car was candy apple red and the bulldog and number one were white. The car was owned by Jr. Collins of Millsboro, Delaware.

Jim Murrow was right when he said Vince's regulare ride at Alycon was the number 57. However, Vince was the regular driver of the bulldog car. Vince drove for different owners at five or more different tracks some weeks as he attempted to accumulate points for the Nascar Sportsman National Championship (he finished second in the nation in 1959 and fourth in the nation in 1961). Vince drove the number one bulldog at Dover, Delaware.

When this picture was taken he was only driving the Bulldog at Alycon because the 57 (owned by Joe Duffy) was out of commission for two weeks and Vince had Jr. bring the bulldog to Alycon so he could accumulate points.

Vince drove the number 49 owned by Melvin Joseph at Georgetown, Delaware. He drove the number 9 owned by Lee Coker at Flemington, New Jersey. (This was the same number 9 that was involved with Jackie McLaughlin's 026 in that famous dead heat feature at Flemington). Vince drove his own number 27 at the asphalt New Jersey tracks (Old Bridge, Wall Stadium and New Egypt), the New York Tracks (Islip and Polo Grounds) and the southern tracks.
03.06.13 RL

Vince was always in a class of the top drivers.  Always clean with himself and his cars.  One of the best sportsman drivers around

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

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