28 replies to this topic

[Skull]

No skull. He had a auto wrecking yard right above the hunters/fisherman's club in arnold.

I'd be surprised if they weren't related. I remember the junkyard and where it was, but I seem to recall it under a different name?

My dad knew the Galli family well, and if it is the same family, I had no idea they were involved with racing.

[Racer17L]

Different tracks I know,,, but I tried to find a few old Pittsburgher 100 weekends within the last 10 years to compare to Sportsman cars of today.  Keep in mind these are WoO lates, not a weekly show.  Both slick daytime qualifying.  In short the fastest Sportman today would have been a mid pack WoO qualifying car that year.  Not bad.  So I would have to assume the answer is yes, the Sportsman of today would be as fast,if not faster, then the LM of the 70's and 80's.

 

2007 Pittsburgher 100

 

1. 44-Clint Smith/Senoia, GA 20.320
2. 75-Bart Hartman/Zanesville, OH 20.381
3. 1-Josh Richards/Shinnston, WV 20.432
4. 29-Darrell Lanigan/Union, KY 20.449
5. 1*-Chub Frank/Bear Lake, PA 20.563
6. 15b-Brian Birkhofer/Muscatine, IA 20.717
7. 15-Steve Francis/Ashland, KY 20.750
8. 19-Steve Casebolt/Richmond, IN 20.795
9. 3s-Brian Shirley/Chatham, IL 20.874
10. 79-Davey Johnson/Latrobe, PA 20.884
11. 24-Jeremy Miller/Gettysburg, PA 20.913
12. 11-Tim Hitt/Weston, WV 20.948
13. H1-Jared Miley/South Park, PA 20.995
14. 24-Rick Eckert/York, PA 21.029
15. 4b-Jackie Boggs/Grayson, KY 21.029
16. 1c-Lynn Geisler/Cranberry Twp., PA 21.032
17. 1d-Ronnie DeHaven Jr./Winchester, VA 21.124
18. 25-Shane Clanton/Locust Grove, GA 21.128
19. 99B-Rick Briggs/Bear Lake, PA 21.150
20. 22-Gregg Satterlee/Rochester Mills, PA 21.183
21. 02-Al Atallah/Bridgeville, PA 21.192
22. 84-Rod Sweitzer/Stoystown, PA 21.233
23. 17-Keith Barbara/South Park, PA 21.244
24. 99-Donnie Moran/Dresden, OH 21.282
25. 40-Dutch Davies/Warren, PA 21.320
26. 0-Steve Baker/Fairmont, WV 21.351
27. 2J-Jeff Rine/Danville, PA 21.362
28. 1U-Matt Urban/North East, PA 21.400
29. 20-Chad Ruhlman/Bemis Point, NY 21.432
30. 68-Dennis Niederritter/McDonald, PA 21.480
31. 21d-Dan Stone/Thompson, PA 21.535
32. 76-Dave Wade/Clinton, PA 21.628
33. 21-Leo Stadelman/Jefferson Hills, PA 21.628
34. 17d-Nick Dickson/Lewistown, PA 21.878
35. 2J-Mike Johnson/Imperial, PA 21.894
36. 17-Larry Marks/Pittsburgh, PA 21.948
37. 33-Chris Hackett/Erie, PA 22.057
38. 17-Brandon Burgoon/McDonald, PA 22.070
39. 6-Jim Lepro/Midway, PA 22.150
40. 7M-Michael Davis/Rayland, OH 22.401
41. 13-Steve Wilmoth/Clarksburg, WV 22.593
42. 81-D.J. Miller/Hookstown, PA 22.750
43. 1-Kyle Lukon/Burgettstown, PA 23.032
44. 93-Roy Mitchell/Hobart, IN 23.932

 

2014 Ed Laboon Memorial

 

1   16m    Rusty Martz   21.344  3  105.416 mi/h    3 
2   66    Timothy Burns   21.456  2  104.866 mi/h  00.112  00.112  3 
3   21W    Chris Withers   21.598  2  104.176 mi/h  00.254  00.142  3 
4   1R    Rod Laskey   21.619  3  104.075 mi/h  00.275  00.021  3 
5   M5    Christian Schneider   21.779  2  103.311 mi/h  00.435  00.160  3 
6   419    Shane Applebee   21.787  3  103.273 mi/h  00.443  00.008  3 
7   224    Shawn Fawcett   21.796  3  103.23 mi/h  00.452  00.009  3 
8   C8    William Hurlbrink   21.909  3  102.698 mi/h  00.565  00.113  3 
9   20J    Jim Fonaught   21.963  2  102.445 mi/h  00.619  00.054  3 
10   17m    Russell Moore   22.014  3  102.208 mi/h  00.670  00.051  3 
11   25    Brett McDonald   22.017  3  102.194 mi/h  00.673  00.003  4 
12   T3    Colton Gearhart   22.030  2  102.133 mi/h  00.686  00.013  3 
13   64    Rob Shook   22.038  2  102.096 mi/h  00.694  00.008  3 
14   380    Pat Hanley   22.071  2  101.944 mi/h  00.727  00.033  3 
15   44S    Bob Sloss   22.091  7  101.851 mi/h  00.747  00.020  8 
16   68    Shaun Hooks   22.099  3  101.815 mi/h  00.755  00.008  3 
17   92H    Bobby Heim   22.137  3  101.64 mi/h  00.793  00.038  3 
18   29    Curt Bish   22.144  2  101.608 mi/h  00.800  00.007  3 
19   08    Jeff Broniszewski   22.207  2  101.319 mi/h  00.863  00.063  3 
20   28S    Bob Schwartmiller   22.224  2  101.242 mi/h  00.880  00.017  3 
21   1B    Bill Robertson   22.397  2  100.46 mi/h  01.053  00.173  4 
22   45JR    Todd Weldon   22.442  3  100.258 mi/h  01.098  00.045  3 
23   30    Bob Egley   22.472  3  100.125 mi/h  01.128  00.030  3 
24   68X    Jake Simmons   22.530  2  99.867 mi/h  01.186  00.058  3 
25   T31    Tom Scott   22.557  3  99.747 mi/h  01.213  00.027  3 
26   2w    Leigh Wheeler   22.568  3  99.699 mi/h  01.224  00.011  3 
27   10    Nick Kocuba   22.705  2  99.097 mi/h  01.361  00.137  3 
28   60B    Jim Ball   22.730  2  98.988 mi/h  01.386  00.025  3 
29   33K    Brad Koteles   22.826  3  98.572 mi/h  01.482  00.096  3 
30   96    Jim Sayler   22.840  2  98.511 mi/h  01.496  00.014  3 
31   7    Eric Piotrowski   23.190  3  97.025 mi/h  01.846  00.350  4 
32   5S    Randy Sprouse   23.353  3  96.347 mi/h  02.009  00.163  3 
33   17L    Vince Laboon   23.427  3  96.043 mi/h  02.083  00.074  3 
34   4    Ricky Steigerwald   23.432  2  96.023 mi/h  02.088  00.005  3 
35   27W    Steve Webb   23.445  2  95.969 mi/h  02.101  00.013  3 
36   1S    Kyle Shannon   23.554  2  95.525 mi/h  02.210  00.109  2 
37   A22    Bill Slade   23.606  2  95.315 mi/h  02.262  00.052  3 
38   22B    Jesse Brock   23.673  3  95.045 mi/h  02.329  00.067  3 
39   7p    Mark Peck Jr.   24.951  2  90.177 mi/h  03.607  01.278  3 
40   W1    Jarrod Westover   26.524

[ramsey31]

What is funny, is that Rusty Martz would have qualified 26th in that Pittsburgher field.  Steel block, steel head car that is 400-600lbs heavier vs the best of the best back in 07

[Racer17L]

Agreed. All of those open motor cars are 3,000 lbs.

[FanJim24]

S&S chasis, open motor, no weight minimum, current bodies--sportsman would be faster then a early 70s LM.  No question.  10 years ago the pure stocks were pretty much what the early 70s LMs were.  The sportsman class is beyond that.  

[RocketChassis#1]

I don't have Lernerville records but I do have the PPMS ones, in the Super Late models, the first time they qualified was the 1980 Pittsburgher. Tom Peck was the fast qualifier with a 23:75, on a dry slick track. The following year they had a NDRA race on a wet heavy track. Freddy Smith a new track record of 20:14. The track record was lowered 4 times that day. That record held until 1984, at the height of the Wedge cars when Charlie Swartz went 17:64. Donnie Moran lowered that later that year to 17:54. The following year they went to the small bodied "stock appearing" cars, and Charlie Swartz set a record that season for that style car of 19:18. In 1986 PPMS had the All Star Late Models, small bodied cars with big spoilers, spillboards and without roofs, and Donnie Moran set a record for that style car of 18:18. Later that year without the spoilers and the roof on Moran broke Swartz's record of 18:41. That would stand until 2002 when Davey Johnson went 18:408. In 2010 Keith Barbara went 18:181, later in that season in Brandon Burgoon broke the record twice in two weeks 17:658 and 17:261. In 2013 Alex Ferree went 17:202, which is the current track record and now the all time Late Model record. Vince I have Rusty Martz's record at 21.043. 

[tdietz10]

Maybe the cars in the 70s and 80s but no way today's sportsman keeping up with a 2000 or newer late models let alone world of outlaw cars.

[jo73]

Dietz. There is ZERO comparison in today's cars. Chassis, suspensions, brakes. Could you imagine taking a current SLM motor and bolting it in Chris Snider ? 55 car. I don't think that he could ever get to 1/2 throttle at best. Anyone would just blow the tires off. A dry slick track, I think straight away speed mite be close, the corner speeds are another story.

I was at Selinsgrove back in the 90's. Sprints and Midgets where on the card. After the track slicked off, the midgets where matching the speed of the sprint cars. (a 1/10 off) The midgets where wingless. Thru the corners they could stay on the bottom and where visibly faster. The sprint cars where up on the top, long way yes, but they just couldn't get the horsepower down.

[Racer17L]

Rocket - thanks for a very informative post! It's amazing what times those wedge cars turned almost 35 years ago compared to the high budget lightweight stuff of today.

And yes the question was could the Sportsman run with the LM of the 70s and 80s and that is a yes. No one is suggesting Rusty Martz would line up and beat Alex Ferree at Pittsburgh today.