a10.17.04_MYS_FAC_UNK_0070_1.jpg (115934 bytes)

Photo ID # a10.17.04_MYS_FAC_UNK_0070M_1
Car #: #NA
Driver (s) : NA
Location: Loganville, PA  (Weld Racing East)
Date: 1970's
Photographer: Ken Johnson
Photo provided by: Ken Johnson
Comments: Comment from Ken Johnson: 

I'll try and remember what happened to the cars.  Weld built 3 for himself. There were 7 built in the winter of 75. Ed Demolino, Walt Olsen, Kenny Brightbill, Stan Ploski, Will Cagle, Alan Johnson and Billy Osman Stacy Reeves and Dub May were helpers in the building of the cars.

Reeves went with Cagle to New York to be his mechanic. Cagle's later became Frankie Schneiders. The Weld 11 was a Weld 91 which was bought by by Ray Carrol and George Moskat. It became #11 then went to Gary Hebner and became a 56. Weld's last win at Reading was in the 3 of Osmun.

The cars sold for $7,000.  Weld said the time it took to build the cars proved to be a loss for the year, he didnt make any money and was way behind with his own work.

The first Weld car went to Walt Breeding I think. The offset Hemi went to Britt Batty and the 3rd was the MK Car. There was also an asphalt car that was real radical and was built by Weld and worked on by Jerry Stahl (Stahl Headers) and some one from Flemington Speed Shop and a third person that may have been Sonny Dornberger and Ed Stauffer. This car was tested at Trenton and other places. The mechanics were bickering about set up and Weld said the hell with it and sold the car. It never raced.  I have only one picture of the car.

Weld wanted to win at all the tracks he raced and would go to those tracks till he won or was banned. Bridgeport banned the Weld car for having a Fluid type transmission that only had one gear forward and reverse. The rule said you had to have reverse but didnt say more then one forward gear. He was unbeatable that year til he was banned.

He then went to Flemington where he raced til he won. Won a Twenty lap feature and became real good friends with Al Tasnady. He also won at East Windsor.  I think that he had 16 wins at Reading but he only raced now and then.  He would go to where the money was. That year he raced the Modified and a Sprinter.  In the Modified he led the Eastern States 200 till the 190th lap when the engine blew with 10 to go. Gerry Chamberlain won. Syracuse he won the Sprint version on Labor day one year and in the Modifieds he set fast time the only year he raced Modifieds. He started 7th because he did it the second day.

Weld never ran a carb and didnt change his fuel lines. I think he sat up all night thinking about it and finally talked with Merv Trechler and the fuel lines were discussed. He changed them and went out and set fast time. He broke a suspension while running 2nd making a pit stop about lap 100.  His suspensions were very soft and syracuse had a large incline when you came into the pits. He should have won his first race at Reading but the suspension broke then also while leading. The next week he was leading again and got a flat tire. The third week he won.

Visitor's Comments To add your comments about THIS PHOTO - Click Here
Date: Visitor's  Name:

Comment:

11/23/04 John Mc I think he may be a little confused w/ the eventual direction of the cars....  The 1st car(the original) went to Statewide (Billy Osmun ran it at Syracuse..remember the NO2 deal?)

The car that was so fast that it was banned (the picture in the vault of the car on the trailer at that motel in Flemington) was the car that Batty bought, and the sidewinder that had the hemi (which was later replaced w/ a Chevy) was sold to Breeding.  Moskat bought the car Weld ran himself, which I believe was a yellow #91 (it may have been later changed to a #11.)

11/23/04 Bob Becker I think Ken has it reversed. I remember Breeding with the Hemi, and Britt Batty got the other car.  I think Sonny Dornbergers 99 was a copy of Batty's Weld modified.  I could be wrong, Ken knows Kenny Weld's history better than most.
11/23/04 3-Wide I don't know how any of you guys keep this stuff straight...  Pretty amazing that we remember any of it when you consider that it was about 30 years ago and some of us were just barely teenagers....  I guess it just show us all how important the cars and drivers and those nights at the speedway really are to all of us.  I'm sure Ken can help us get to the bottom of it all.
11/24/04 Rick Shive Ploski's car was sold to John Wojnar #30, then to Rod Hanna.  I know this for sure because I lettered it for Hanna (had to get real creative by changing the #30 into a #63 because they didn't bother to repaint it).

They had the original doors and hood behind the garage still with the #27 on them.  Both Rod and Jeff Hanna drove it.  After that it ended up at Moc-A-Tek.  Don't know who drove it though.

11/26/04 Ken Johnson Walt Breeding did get the hemi. The Hemi was changed to a Chevy.   Batty got the second car and left it sit out side for the longest time from what we were told. Osmun did not get the first car because the first car did not have a rear side window and Osmuns does.
11/14/05 Chuck Hassler Every body keeps misslng the first two cars. The first two cars were built for Bob Weikert and were identifiable by frame colors like the sprint cars were (one red and one blue). The cars were painted with candies and pearls and most of the drive the drivetrain and other parts inside were anodized red, blue or gold.

These two cars were the cars that became the statewide cars. As for the quarter windows, Weld put them in when he could not see in the dead spot the body created. This was put in all the bodies . As far as the sidewinder, the hemi blew up while Weld owned it.   They put the chevy in it and sold it to Breeding. As far as the NO2 this system was in the original two Weld cars - explains why it was in Osmun's car.
09/10/09 Matt Bahre I know exactly how much the 1976 Weld car cost. It was $13,500....not 7000. I carried a small brief case with that exact amount in it in CASH when I drove the hauler down to PA to pick the car up in the early spring of 1976. I remember being very nervous as I was a 19 year old responsible for more money then I had ever seen before!

Also, As I've written before:

* The original weld car was sold to Statewide racing for the 76 season and driven by Balough, Osmun and then Horton. It ended up in CT (raced at Middletown) and then was sold to Jeff Holtzler. (Many ... Many wins)

* There were only (6) count em... (6) cars based on the original in that garage in the spring of 1976 when I picked ours up. Cagles, Brightbills (statewide team car), Olsens, Welds (TK performance), Alan Johnsons and ours...(6)...

* If Ploski got one, it was built after those original (6) cars

* Weld then built a second generation car (76) which utilized a Lanco dragster transmission. That was the car that was banned. We also bought the same tranny after talking to Weld but the Valley banned it before we even got it into the car. This is the 1/2 bar car that inspired Sonny Dornbergers car

* The third generation car Weld built was the sidewinder which can be found on another site with Walt Breeding at the wheel.

* Stacey Reeves did go to work for Cagle for 1976. Cagle ordered the very last frame Weld built that year. Reeves didn't last long with Cagle and actually worked for use for a couple of weeks during the early summer. I remember Stacey flying in from PA to CT with a new front axle on the Sunday before Memorial day that year as we bent one at the Valley. He traveled with us to the Cuse that year and to a few other races. He told us Cagle would probably sell the new frame which led to us buying it from Cagle

* Statewide bought the original car and one of the 6 built the following winter. Brightbill got the newer car but never liked it.

* That last (weld) frame based on the original car still rest in the corner of one of our buildings here in Connecticut. We have most of the parts to put it together and I've been thinking about doing just that over the last year or so. I envision the car as it was meant to be... mounted on 113 inch drag tires with a injected big block!

Anyone have a working set of older Hilborn injectors?????


Matt Bahre
Bahre Racing
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Back