1950's PHOTOS

This is where it all started, in 1953. This was Carl's first race car. Look at that left rear whitewall tire. Not very high-tech, but it had a roll cage and was a competitive racer by 1953 standards. The engine actually was a Sears-Roebuck engine, right out of the crate. The car is showing quite a bit of oil from the track. Pit crew members would have to wipe the numbers clean, as shown here, or the cars would not be scored. Behind it is crew member Art Gillette's Buick.

Here's another 1953 photo of Carl and his first car in the pit area.

This photo from about 1955 shows Carl at Beech Ridge Speedway.

The car from the previous photo is shown here after a hard flip. (added 10/31/06)

This picture is from 1957. It was taken at Unity Raceway in Maine.  The car became known as "The Jitterbug". When they came in and unloaded at Unity, the car was very fast and when Carl went out in his heat race, he won the heat and lapped all but the 2nd and 3rd place cars.  When the Unity officials came over after the heat, crew member Orian Moore, who can be seen with the dark hair behind the center of the roof, told the officials that they had been running at Syracuse and other big upstate New York tracks. This wasn't true, they had never raced in New York. But after Carl won the semi-feature race too, that was enough to convince the Unity officials to pay them first place money and tell them to go home and not ever come back. So they never did run this car there again.

A 1959 spin. The no. 95 is Francis "Buzzy" Stack (added 2/19/08)

Go Back to Rogers Home Page