| Photo ID # | 02.20.03_029_WEL_FLM_0070_1 |
| Car #: | #91 |
| Driver (s) : | Kenny Weld |
| Location: | Flemington, NJ |
| Date: | 1970's |
| Photographer: | John Lucas |
| Photo provided by: | John McCaughey |
| Comments: | During a time when most were looking to make their cars smaller and narrower, Kenny, (not known for following the crowd), showed up with a bigger, wider car. Within 2 years, most guys who were serious about going fast followed his lead. I can remember the Statewide #3 (real Weld), Ploski #27 (real Weld), Dornberger #99 and others that appeared to use this same design. |
| Visitor's Comments | To add your comments about THIS PHOTO - Click Here | |
| Date: | Visitor's Name: | Comment: |
| 02/24/03 | Scott Pacich | This was the second iteration of Weld's cars. The ones that Statewide, Ploski and others used were the first generation with inboard coilovers front and rear. This car had outboard coils on the front. It was the car that Dornberger copied. After this came a really low and offset car. |
| 02/25/03 | John Mc | The first Weld cars were fast, but this one was a ROCKET! He was finally able to win @ Flemington w/ this car. This shot was taken in a motel parking lot the day after he ran @ Flem |
| 03/01/03 | Todd L | I earlier stated that Gary Balough and Kenny Weld changed racing as we know it, Just look at how smart Kenny was and how many race cars had his rims on them. A lot of people tried to force Kenny out of racing but he always found a way to stay involved. |
| 06/06/03 | Steve Fegley | There had to be more then 6 inboard coil cars because Statewide had 4 of them (3 number 3s and Brightbill's 19), Walt Olsen had one, Bobby Braxton had one (don't remember who owner was), pluse the original Wiekert 29. I always thought Allen Johnsons 14j was one but I'm not sure of that. This picture is neat to me because I never saw the red white ane blue one number 91, never knew such a car existed. I remember Weld driving the #91 at reading but it was yellow. |
| 01/23/04 | John Hager | It looks like the car has asphalt tires on it in this shot. Did they ever race this car on pavement? |
| 01/23/04 | 3-Wide | I'm pretty sure they're dirt tires on the car and on the trailer. |
| 08/21/04 | Bucky Stevens | I think this is the first car that really paid attention to aero on dirt. The common knowledge at that time was that we weren't going fast enough or straight enough for it to matter. Kenny had a bounty on him at Bridgeport at this time for winning five in a row. He was accused of cheating, by the promoter. This really pissed him off. He started in the back passed every one was leading by a half a lap, intentionally spun, went to the back and won by a half a lap. |
| 11/18/05 | Chuck Hassler | If you look at the rear in the car you will notice that the shocks are outboard also. I think it is safe to bet that this is one of the four bar cars he built and was running coils on the front instead of bars. |
| 01/02/06 | R.Wolsky | Aloha, This car had a funnycar transmission in it & he showed up @ Flemington for twin twenty show. He finished up front in the first, dialed er' in and came from the back to win the second 20. He went to Bridgeport the next day and may have won but I believe he started getting flack over transmission. I believe he ended up selling car to "Bunting" in Delaware or one them "down there". R.Wolsky - Kihei, Hi |
| 02/05/06 | Matt Bahre | The original Weld car (1975) led to Weld building only
six (6) complete cars that winter (05/06) for the 1976 season. They were purchased by: * Will Cagle (also the driver) * Conoly Farms (Alan Johnson) * Walt Olsen (Also the driver) * T/K performance (house car that Weld drove) * Statewide (Kenny Brightbill) note: Statewide also bought the original Weld car for 1976 * Bahre Racing (Ed Delmolino) There was one other original frame welded up by (Stacey Reeves) during the building of these cars. Cagle bought this extra frame... and we (the Bahre's) bought it from Cagle mid-way through 76. That new frame and parts still sits in our garage. Also... That was a Lanco transmission Weld used and was banned after one week and that car nick named (THE SIDEWINDER) 1977did end up with either Bunting or Breeding in Delaware. He brought it to Syracuse that year but it never hit the track. Matt Bahre |
| 04/07/06 | Ken Johnson | Stan Ploski also got one of the cars. There were 7 built that winter. The Transmission was a Weld/Winters creation. The car had one forward gear and a reverse gear. They were told to leave Bridgeport because of it. Rules said it had to have a forward and reverse working transmission. Didn't say how many forward gears. He then went to Flemington. |
| 10/12/06 | Mike Wagaman | I remember this car well from Reading. He was one of the first guys I ever saw that made a pass on the inside of turn 2 and was actually off the track. I still have a souvenir license plate of this car hanging up in my garage. |
| 10.24.12 | Louis Long | Walt Olsen’s car was owned by Frank Wiechecki and later driven by Bobby Braxton. It was a pink 74. |
| 02.13.13 | Charlie Goodman | Dornberger did not copy this car. Weld sold it and Sonny bought it from whoever that was that bought it from Weld. Sonny cut it up and made some changes, including shortening the wheel base. Meme DeSantis drove it after Sonny made the changes, and you are right about this Scott, Meme said the same, car was a rocket. |
| 02.13.13 | 3-Wide |
I've always heard
that Sonny built the #99 from the ground up, so I don’t know if he did or if
he didn’t. But if he didn’t, the best way to find out is for us to get the
specifics (who, when, where) and then we'll know what really happened.
Right now, it’s kinda like “I heard this”…. And “you heard that”…. Sonny
passed away about 8 years ago, but let’s see if we can find a few guys that
were directly involved back in the day and solve the mystery. Possibly
Ken Johnson from the Reading area will know. |
| 02.16.13 | John Mc |
If that were true, where did the resto 91 come from? The 99 was a copy, no question. |