Midget Car Museum Is in a Class by Itself

Collecting and displaying old cars, especially race cars, has become a popular hobby among car guys and gals. Some of the larger collections are on public display -- for a fee -- at large facilities, such as the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard, the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona and the Marconi Automotive Museum in Tustin.

Many others are private, scattered around the Southland, open to friends and at times to organizations with charitable activities.

The Justice Brothers Racing Museum on the original Route 66 in Duarte is different. It is free and it is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It is not an all-encompassing collection, but for midget car enthusiasts, it is a dream come true. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the teenage Justice brothers, Ed, Zeke and Gus, built their first race car, a midget, in a shop in Paola, Kan.

Midgets have been part of the Justice tradition since. After moving to Southern California, they built another midget in their garage while working for famed car builder Frank Kurtis. When the brothers decided to go into the oil-additive business, they helped bankroll their company with $2,500 from the sale of that midget.

As reminders of those long-ago days, the museum, at 2734 E. Huntington Drive in Duarte, is filled with famous and not-so-famous midget cars.

One is Charlie Allen’s ’39 Offy-powered machine, the first midget designed by Kurtis before his Kurtis-Kraft days. It was driven by Mickey Rooney in the movie, “The Big Wheel.” Some of the others include the Dutch Hurd midget, driven by one-armed Allen Heath to victory in the first 500-mile race at Riverside International Raceway; and the No. 1 Grant Piston Ring Special, driven by Perry Grimm, that was a two-time winner at Gilmore Stadium in the 1940s.

For sprint car enthusiasts, there is a Morales Bros. No. 4 Tamale Wagon, one of the most famous cars in Southern California racing, and the No. 81 car that Jimmie Oskie drove to five California Racing Assn. championships between 1969 and 1979.

Among the most popular displays are other cars used in Hollywood films, particularly the No. 17 K&K; Special, a midget driven by Clark Gable in “To Please a Lady” with Barbara Stanwyck. There are also two Reynards that were used in the forgettable Sylvester Stallone movie, “Driven.” Purchased from former Indy car owner John Della Penna, they were powered by 900cc Honda motorcycle engines for safety purposes, although they were capable of 150 mph on the track.

The collection, which started in 1985 in a room alongside administrative offices, grew to where Ed Justice had to clear out an adjacent garage and use it as a backup museum building. One of its features is a collection of original early 1930s Fords, including a Chevy 350-powered ’32 Ford Phaeton street rod and a ’32 driven by Rooney in his Andy Hardy films.

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Turkey Night Grand Prix

Tradition, thanks to TV, will return to the Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix.

Irwindale Speedway officials had planned to move the Thanksgiving Night race to Friday night this year for the first time in the historic U.S. Auto Club race’s 63 years. Then TV, in the form of Speed Channel, stepped in and said it would show the 100-lap race live on Thursday, Nov. 27.

“Many fans had asked us about changing the race date to Friday because of conflicts with family plans and flight schedules, and we looked very seriously at those requests,” said Bob DeFazio, track general manager. “In the end, we decided that having the race on television live for the first time ever on Thanksgiving night far outweighed the slight inconvenience factor that some fans would have to shoulder.”

At least one fan, or rather racer, applauded the return to tradition.

Wally Pankratz, who has been in every Turkey Night race since 1975 and says he remembers when his father, Bob, finished fourth in 1947 -- Wally was 2 at the time -- said, “It’s been going on for over three generations, we just grew up going to that race on Thanksgiving. Turkey? Stuffing? Cranberries? Track dogs with mustard and relish is how I remember Thanksgiving.”

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Southland Scene

The Long Beach Sprint Nationals, championship powerboat races that have been conducted at the Marine Stadium since 1942, will take place again Saturday with the Southern California Speedboat Club offering a day of circle boat racing. The American Power Boat Assn.-sanctioned races will feature six classes.

Grand national points leader Doug Lightfoot of Lomita will try to hold off national champion Greg Gluck of Hollywood, Fla., in the race for blown V bottoms. Round 5 of the Super Stock Racing Assn. will showcase the Canary Pride boat driven by Ty Newton of Mesa, Ariz., against 15 inboard flat-bottoms, among them boats driven by local favorites Larry “Hollywood” Hamilton of Moreno Valley and Dennis Rankin of Hacienda Heights.

The Western Formula Light series will have Kevin Curtis of Huntington Beach, Chris Henderson of San Pedro and Shawn Love of Thousand Oaks trying to take the title away from Scott Economy of Hollister. In the pro-stock final for injected inboard flat-bottoms, Jeff Wooton of Pasadena will be favored.

There will also be races for Cracker Boxes and Formula Light tunnel boats. Vintage race boats will be on display at the stadium, according to SCSC commodore Ross Wallach.

Thanks to a rainout earlier in the season, Irwindale Speedway fans will be treated to two 50-lap main events for NASCAR’s top-of-the-line super late models Saturday night. Both will be full points-paying races for the Dodge Weekly Racing Series. Four other classes will also participate, making it one of the busiest nights of the summer season at the half-mile paved oval.

Perris Auto Speedway is running a Figure 8 this week, an exciting event on dirt. One of the favorites will be Earl Cox Sr., who began racing dirt-track Figure 8s in the 1960s at Ascot. The Norco veteran has won races this year on the dirt at Perris and on the asphalt at Irwindale.

Super stocks will share the spotlight. Everett Burns, father of Perris super stock champion Chad Burns and Irwindale late model champion Todd Burns, will seek his second consecutive victory in the super stock feature.

Freestyle motocross jumping, one of the X Games sports, will be on display tonight at the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino and Saturday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa along with the regular speedway motorcycle programs. Former national speedway champions Mike Faria and Bobby Schwartz will ride in the racing segment of the evening.

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Last Laps

Bud Moore’s famous Trans-Am teams of Ford Mustangs and Mercury Cougars will be on display during the 30th Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races, Aug. 15-17, at Laguna Seca’s Mazda Raceway. Four of his most successful cars will be racing in the Historic Trans-Am feature Aug. 16. Four of the drivers -- Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Ed Leslie and David Pearson -- will be at Monterey, according to race director Steve Earle.

A memorial service for Briggs Cunningham, a famous driver, team owner and car collector who died July 2 at his home in Las Vegas of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, will be held today at 2:30 p.m. at the Pacific View Cemetery Chapel in Corona del Mar.