| This page is devoted to the memory of my Grandfather, Pop Kline, driver of the #60 IRA Super Modified! |
| Thanks to the Ken Monroe family for giving me access to Mr. Pearson's color slides. Without their assistance, finding the correct color would have been a guess! Collis was the unofficial track photograph for the Mods back in the day. The above pictures are just a small sample of his hard work and keen eye! |
Tracing out the history!
| Luckily for me back tracking the ownership of this chassis wasn't too difficult. I'll show the information in chronological order. Here is Scott Sorenson who purchased the car from Pop sometime in the Mid 70's when Pop retired from racing. It took me a while to find Scott. I searched for the sponcer on the wing for a couple of months before a search engine listed it as a valid business. Mr. Schmidt at Schmidt Indusrial Truck said Scott was a former employee and had a custom bike shop in Sturtavant. |
| After some time Scott and his crew felt the need to update the car. Moving the motor back became the hot ticket so out came the saw to start the alterations. Hope to add photo's of the final out come of Scott and his crews handywork as they make them availible to me. After some time Scott sold the car to a guy from Silver Lake. The car ended up in the hands of Hank Havorka or one of his crew. At this point we haven't been able to find anyone who recalls Hank running a mod. |
| Pistol Pete Nelson was the last driver to complete a competitive lap in the chassis. Back in 84 Pete was Ed's son-in-law and ran the car for one year. As fait would have it, I pitted for Dean and Butch Potter in the 80's and never imagined one of my Grandfathers car's was at the race track! |
| Ed Schnieder of Salem was the next to wheel the old #60. Ed carried the #25 when he ran the car. He purchased the car from his good friend Hank Havorka |
Having sold my last race car back in 2000, my good buddy Butch Potter thought it was time to get something back in my
garage! I told him that I'd love to," If only I could find one of my Grandfathers old Mods!" I knew full well that these cars
must surely be stoves and refridgerators by now. Looks like I was wrong!!! Not even 6 months had passed before
Butch gave me a call saying he had a guy who had one of Pop's chassis. No more excuses, it was time to take a look!!
garage! I told him that I'd love to," If only I could find one of my Grandfathers old Mods!" I knew full well that these cars
must surely be stoves and refridgerators by now. Looks like I was wrong!!! Not even 6 months had passed before
Butch gave me a call saying he had a guy who had one of Pop's chassis. No more excuses, it was time to take a look!!
| Butch took the first look and brought back some Polaroids. The cage appeared to be way to short. Looking at the one news clipping I had of Pop's last car, it was very apparent that Pop's car was alot longer in the cage. After a closer look at the photo's weld rings could be scene on the upper part of the cage. Maybe we should get a closer look!! I took my photo to work and had our photo wizard lay a grid over the car. every square represented 3 inches. Now we had some approx. measurements in hand! |
| Sure enough! The updates and changes were very easy to see. Looked like 8 1/2 inches had been taken out of the cage length. Once we rolled the frame on it's side and found all the former tube locations still visible it was a done deal! This truly was my grandfathers car! Al asked me to come to the front of the chassis. "See that jack bolt thats just a bit out of square?" "Pop gave me lots of grief for not holding that straight when he welded it!" The last owner of this chassis was Paul Kuyawa who writes "Runnin the High Groove". Ed Schnieder had this chassis laying in the weeds for close to 20 years before Paul saved it from a trip to the scrap yard. I still can't image Ed and Paul saving this chassis for all this time! Paul told me he knew this would be important to someone someday. I couldn't agree with him more!!!! |
Now we're the proud owners of Pop's chassis! But how do we bring it back to it's original form??? Pop was kind of a
loaner in those days. Never had much of a crew and no one we've talked to had any details about the cars construction.
Pop never spent any money on pictures of himself back in the day. Every spare cent went into the car. Pictures never
seemed to help make the car go faster!!
Luckily some one pointed us in the direction of Doug Haack Vintage Photo's. Doug had 2 books worth of WI and IL Mod
drivers. I drove out of the Green Bay Auction with a fist full of 8X10's that really helped us get rolling. Other photo's
from privet collections started rolling in as well. Thanks to John Surges, Paul Kuyawa, Jack Biddison and Dean Potter
for the additional shot's!
loaner in those days. Never had much of a crew and no one we've talked to had any details about the cars construction.
Pop never spent any money on pictures of himself back in the day. Every spare cent went into the car. Pictures never
seemed to help make the car go faster!!
Luckily some one pointed us in the direction of Doug Haack Vintage Photo's. Doug had 2 books worth of WI and IL Mod
drivers. I drove out of the Green Bay Auction with a fist full of 8X10's that really helped us get rolling. Other photo's
from privet collections started rolling in as well. Thanks to John Surges, Paul Kuyawa, Jack Biddison and Dean Potter
for the additional shot's!
Click on any picture to
enlarge it!
enlarge it!
| The first order of business was to put 8 1/2" back in the cage length. Next we had the frame blasted and the new cage inplace. On to replacing the under frame foot hoops! |
We replaced every piece of tubing except for the 3" main rails. We didn't mess with the torsion tubes either.
Having a safe structure was most important to us. I was very happy with the body panel fabrication. We hand
made the nose, hood and side panels. The Roadster tail was a major issue right from the start! We hunted for
close to a year before we through in the towel and started thinking about hacking one together. As luck would
have it, Butch saw something on Ebay that he thought I should take a look at!
Having a safe structure was most important to us. I was very happy with the body panel fabrication. We hand
made the nose, hood and side panels. The Roadster tail was a major issue right from the start! We hunted for
close to a year before we through in the towel and started thinking about hacking one together. As luck would
have it, Butch saw something on Ebay that he thought I should take a look at!
| Here's a blurry preview!! Sorry, you gotta suffer though more pic's before you get to see the first clear show pictures!!! |
Al Kline can be scene looking things
over. Al, Pop's son, actually drove this
car at Oregon one afternoon many
moons ago.
over. Al, Pop's son, actually drove this
car at Oregon one afternoon many
moons ago.
