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Investigating family racing history

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The engine/gearbox was a Chevy 350 "four bolt" with a ZedF transaxle in its last incarnation as an FA car. I do like the: "If you look you a can tell it is the exact same except for some added reinforcement tubes and some other modifiactions to convert it to a Formula Atlantic racecar" part.

Not sure what it had for power (if anything) when Myron and Phil purchased it, ISTR Fiat was mentioned. Phil was involved in a heavy shunt somewhen prior to '73 (I believe it to have been at The Ledges, as an FJ entrant but can't confirm). The car was then reconstructed/modded to accommodate the V8/Hewland power. Myron campaigned it from '74~'75 'till '80~'81.
 
The De Tomaso Formula Junior that your father raced is now here in the UK. I bought it from someone who imported it from the USA having won it on ebay. I intend to restore the car to its original specification and I was interested to know if you had any photos etc from the early 60's that might help me.
 
YIKES!

This is a bolt from the blue.

Myron Yoho was a friend, neighbor, fellow Lotus owner in Sewickley, PA. He died as result of injuries suffered in a racing shunt in '81.

My pix of the car are all after it had been modified to accommodate the V-8 and Hewland Zed-F transaxle. Not much help for trying to take it back to original, I fear.

<span style="font-style: italic">OH!! And welcome to the FORUM!!!</span> :savewave:
 
My dad raced in the Steel Cities Region. Some other names from that region include Don Yenko and Roger Penske..(and Penske competed in FJr)..whoever they are? :wink: Does anyone know where I can find membership rosters for SCCA Steel Cities region for that time period? 1960-1963 +/-??
 
One great set of archives related to PA racing is ~Here~, kept by the excellent automotive historian, Matt Rowe.

The PHA was more eastern PA, but a lot of the western PA folks ran these events so you'll see a lot of familiar names (such as Penske).
 
In those days it was: "drive it or drag it, run whut ya brung." :wink:
 
The official PHA Historian and Archivist is Ron Mann, who lives near Hershey, PA. He has quite a collection of "stuff", is always looking for more, and is always willing to help people looking for info on PHA events, drivers, etc. The Matt Rowe I know is very much involved with PHA events as a Chief Steward at PHA Hillclimbs. He is also the www.pahillclimb.net webmaster.

Rich Rock, PHA VP
 
Silverghost said:
My dad raced in the Steel Cities Region. Some other names from that region include Don Yenko and Roger Penske..(and Penske competed in FJr)..whoever they are? :wink: Does anyone know where I can find membership rosters for SCCA Steel Cities region for that time period? 1960-1963 +/-??
Click to expand...

The "living Historian" for SCR would have been Donna Mae Mims, but she recently passed away. Don Baker is listed as holding the postion of Historian with the region, so you might try contacting him. Steel Cities Region Directory

All definately before my time, and the only DeTomasso FJ I remember was the one Bill Bryan ran at the PVGP in the late 80's.
 
This was taken in '76 or '77, can't see much of the car though.
 

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This one is with Ken Hoffman at the helm, again not much detail can be seen.
 

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This is an interesting thread. I've recently had some email exchanges with the new owner of the ex-Myron Yoho car and we are making some headway into identifying some history for the car as it was raced by Myron Yoho in FA configuration from 1975 to 1978.

Less certain to me is possible 1979 use as an ASR car in two races. I'm not sure that this chassis, as it still exists today, exhibits the changes that should have been necessary for the car to race in ASR. Unless, perhaps, it was allowed to run in such races as "filler"?



Any connection proposed between the Yoho car and Howard Hays at the moment is nebulous at best. Assumptions are easy to make based on geography but there are many potential confusions. First off, there was more than one DeTomaso formula car in the general area of Pennsylvania. This should come as no surprise since the cars were seemingly sold by J. Edward Hugus (Pittsburgh) for a time.

Going somewhat through time to share what we know of the cars that are identified and of the folks who raced cars that are not yet identified:

ISI FJ N. 0003 (reputedly the "first car built as FJ") was purchased 1960 by Norman Buerdell (Havertown, PA) in Italy while on his honeymon. He reportedly raced it there before bringing it to the USA and racing it 1960 at Cumberland, Roosevelt, Montgomery and perhaps elsewhere during 1960. He continued racing it and advertising it from 1961 to 1965 at a minimum. The car is known today in the UK.

Note that the early cars are called "ISI" on their ID plates, reportedly after de Tomaso's fond nickname for his wife Isabel Haskell de Tomaso. It seems that the cars were marketed in the USA as "Isis" and that this name appears in entries as a result even though the "Isis" name does not appear on the cars.

ISI FJ N. 0008 turned up 1972 in Munhall, PA and was owned and used in the area for many years in vintage events before it went to Virgina in more recent years.

An ISI FJ was ordered from Hugus by Ron Letellier in 1960. Depite being "flown in", by the time the car arrived, three SCCA Nationals had been missed. Ron owned the car in partnership with "Brock" of Fats Valley Sports Cars. Brock raced the car in preliminary events (no record found thus far) and Ron raced in the main events. Appearances included Meadowdale (July 1960), Road America (July 1960), Louisville (August) and Road America again in September. Additional races were done at Daytona in November with at least one additional 1960 race yet to be identified. Ron finished 6th in SCCA National Standings. Ron says that this “was the most fun in racing that I ever had.” The car was advertised by Isis America – Lyons, IL, USA. But Ron went on to race some more, probably in this same car as an ad appeared again in August and September of 1961 with the same sort of description. He was also 10th o/a at Road America in June of 1962 in a DeTomaso, again "probably this one". Ron recalls that it was sold to someone named "Willie" in Indianapolis.

William Henderson of Pittsburgh, PA entered two cars as "Isis OSCA" at Cumberland in May of 1962. He had another entry at Watkins Glen in September. It may have been at the Glen that his brother "John Henderson" died while racing a Lotus FJ ... inspiring an end to racing for Bill. Unfortunately, Bill Henderson died 2009 and we cannot ask him for additinal details.

Howard Hayes was the entrant for Ed Hugus in a DeTomaso FJ "Isis-OSCA" at Connellsville, PA 8/11-12/61 (race #30)

Dick Hayes entered an "Isis ...

Ah, but it is about here that some additional confusions appear ... perhaps making it appropriate to begin another posting a bit later when I can go into some more detail.


John de Boer
The Italian Car Registry

"I like Brit cars as well!" OK, some of them almost as well.
 
Well, when it was Myron's car it resided in a garage in Ambridge, PA, along with an assortment of bits-n-pieces from the original. The rear wing is one we fabricated from plywood and aluminum sheet, filled it with "expando-foam" for rigidity (a great story about just HOW that foam expanded...).

The chain of ownership between Hays and Myron may be vague, but not totally unlikely. Wish I could fill in that part of this tale. It could put this thread to rest.

The "T-Y" logo was originally for "Tyrell-Yoho" (Not sure of the spelling of Phil's sirname) Racing. Most of the races it ran were at Nelson's Ledges, crew was a loosly assembled bunch: Kenny Hoffman, myself, Myron, our S.O.'s, an occasional "other" volunteer. Last set of tires were leftovers from the practice sessions at The Glen, '76, IIRC. Hauled 'em home in the back of my Ford van. Not sure we need to publicly detail which team they came from. :wink:

The "Redline Racing" decal on the wing was from Dick Scott's business, he supplied a lot of the racing gear. Scotty sold everything from Bell helmets to FF Royales. Met up with him again a few years ago on a group visit to the Collier Collection. Wonderful individual, too.

Phil did most of the welding fabrication of the chassis after the previously mentioned shunt. The joke was that the only original piece of chassis was the stamped bit to ID it.

All this is admittedly anecdotal, some footnotes from my recollections of a lifetime ago. We celebrated Myron's 40th birthday with a party in my uncle's garage in 1976, IIRC. Those years between '74 and '80 are a bit dimmed, as he was the first of my civilian friends (along with Ken, in the same shunt) to die unexpectedly. A decade passed before I'd even <span style="font-style: italic">look</span> at a racing car again.
 
Hello "Dr",

Thank you for your postings. It has been a pleasure reading your postings. I recognize that there can be some discomfort in bringing up certain old memories. My father gave up his racing-related activities in the sixties for a very similar reason.

I am not trying to infer that the car is necessarily not ex-Howard Hays. But I can say that there are other possibilities. It seems that Peter Hays may have lept to some conclusions based solely on geography? Since I am not privy to some private conversations that may have taken place without necessarily reporting a bit of evidence here, I cannot say if there is more foundation to the apparent belief. Unless his assumptions(?) prove correct, this may not help understand the true origins of the car. In short, an historical study may not be well served by simply accepting even one "fact" that is not certain.

I will be posting again shortly with more info that shows a bit about the potential confusions that remain about several DeTomaso cars ... and Hays' seeming role in things. At the moment, I am not even assuming that the chassis was actually intended originally for Formula Junior. A few similar cars were built for "Formula Senior", Formula 1 (1.5 liter formula) and Formula 2 as well as the later "Formula 3". The fact is, we don't yet know enough about any of them.

It is very nice to collect certain recollections from those who were there to experience what nobody knew would be considered important history for certain cars. Thank you for joining in and sharing. I'm sorry to have come late to the discussion.

Best regards,

John de Boer

Oh, I see one typo that needs correction in my earlier posting and it now seems too late to do so. An "s" was dropped from the name of Norman Buerdsell.

I see also a "slip of the finger" (or was that the brain?) where I typed "Howard Hayes" in place of "Howard Hays". It is simple to do when discussing Howard Hays and Dick Hayes while also having thoughts of Jim Hayes and Jim Haynes.
 
I appreciate the information you have been able to provide. This is a mystery / puzzle that I have been looking into for a while now.

Yes, I did take the parts of the puzzle I have/had available and came up with a plausible scenario. My father was very active and connected in automobile circles in the Pittsburgh area in the 50's and 60's. My interest in cars is most definitely genetic! :laugh:

1) I have several engraved pewter trophies and bowls from various races in 61-62 that list the car, the location, the place finished, etc.
2) My father was good friends with William Henderson, his son Bruce and I were best friends back then. "William Henderson of Pittsburgh, PA entered two cars as "Isis OSCA" at Cumberland in May of 1962" - I have a trophy for this race. It's totally feasible he was partners with Mr. Henderson (and/or others) on this race car, selling his interest in it when I was born in 1963( per Mom's orders :smile: ).
3) My father was also very good friends with Bill McKelvy, who operated Scuderia Bear race team.
4) While my Dad never told me much about his racing days, he did once tell me that the car he had was an entry level racer for a class that only lasted for a couple of years. At first it was fun, then things got too serious so he stopped.
5) My brother provided a description of the car's nose - blue with a white number. In the pictures of the eBay sale, the car is shown with a blue nose with a white number. When I contacted the seller to check where the car came from, he confirmed the Pittsburgh area.
6) Jump MANY years later to this forum where I just "happen" to meet Dr. E and it felt strongly like we have a connection of SOME sort. This race car concern was unknown to both of us for quite a while until I spotted the ad on eBay and mentioned it here.

Taken together, this seemed too coincidental.

Unfortunately, my dad never told much me about his racing days. His racing days were before he married my mother so she can not tell me much about them either. And it is extremely common for people to mispell our last name as Hayes. It happens for me all the time. I cannot imagine there were two Howard Hays/Hayes involved in FJr racing in the Steel Cities Region in those days.

I appreciate any light you may be able to bring to this. I have always been curious about this but have been unable to uncover any information. Please help me/us to determine - if possible - if the car in question is the same car or if my Dad's car was a different one and if it can be tracked down.

Peter
 
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