Dobry Leo (1 results)

4to. [29 leaves (unnumbered).] composed of mylar sleeves. With 122 original photos printed on glossy photo paper (5 Kodachrome colour photos), sized from 2.5 x 3.5 in. up to 3.5 x 5 in. some w/ annotations in lower fore-edge of image, or on verso, a few dated (some soiling to one image, & edgewear to a few). Recent cloth 3-ring binder, lettering stamped on front cover, excellent exemplar. This sensational group of original photographs records open wheel midget car racing just after World War II in and around Seattle, Tacoma, & Puyallup, WA, Victoria, BC, Portland, OR, California, and Nevada, including photos of many of the midget racers and their drivers at the Portland Raceway, Aurora Speedway in Seattle, the San Mateo Fairgrounds, Reno Fairgrounds, and the historic Langford Speedway in Victoria, British Columbia. The hunger for speed, the presence of large numbers of skilled mechanics & machinists, a booming midget car racing scene nurtured by Ballard's Gasoline Alley, nurtured incredibly popular midget car racing circuits on the West Coast during the 1940s and 1950s. These photos open with shots of Geer McRae Motors Mercury, # 75, the AA Plating Works No. 2, Leo Dobry's No. 64 Kurtis Kraft midget racer driven by Del Fanning, a jalopy racer No. 26, sponsored by Nix Auto Wrecker owned by Edward Prestek, and the center of Ballard's old Gasoline Alley in Seattle, Swede Lindskog's No. 3 midget racer, and more. There are many photos of races, wrecked midget racers, midget open wheel racers on trailers, and many action shots of them hurtling down the tracks. A number of the photos depict iconic Seattle driver Del Fanning in front of, and sitting in his midget race cars, including the "Seattle Special," No. 7 for Dick's Auto Repair on 3817 Gilman Ave. in Seattle, as well as No. 63 owned by Leo Dobry, which was a Kurtis Midget, with Offenhauser Engine, and ran a number of races in the Northwest, set track records at Langford, and also raced the San Jose 100. There are photos annotated for the Portland Auto Show in 1954 when No. 44 wins 1st place, as well as a series of images showing a pristine Midget Racer under construction in a garage. Leo Dobry was a racing car owner out of Tacoma who was a moderately successful car owner on the AAA and ASPAR circuits in the 1940s and 1950s, as well as operated a successful speed shop which built and ran Kurtis Kraft racers on the Indy circuit, and the Pike's Peak Hill Climb. See: Don Radbruch, Dirt Track Auto Racing, 1919-1941: A Pictorial History, pp. 302-303, 100-124; Golden Wheels Fraternity, Auto Racing Pathfinders, Del Fanning History; Racin' Thru the Raindrops: A Virtual Motorsport Scrapbook, Lanford Speedway, Victoria, BC (2017); Brian Pratt, Big Car Racing at Lanford Speedway, Canadian Racer (2018); A Look Bat at Nix Auto Wrecking & Ballard's Gasoline Alley, Vintage West Woodland, August 29, 2016.