Retro Rockets
Vintage 60's and early 70's supermodifieds
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From assorted Oswego Classic programs:

1970 was when Spencer won his first feature at Oswego in the rear engined car, only to demolish it at Deleware (Ontario) a couple weeks later. As they rebuilt it, they added more air foil/ground effects, not to mention mirrors! He qualified 17th for the 1970 classic and finished 16th after getting up to 5th and tangling with another car.

In 1971, Duncan again rebuilt the 07 and it was not done until late in the year. Their first race that year was just a couple of weeks before the classic. They qualified 15th and finished 18th in the classic.

In 1972, Duncan again rebuilt the 07 and changed the color scheme to gold and white. They had a pretty good year with the car and finished 4th in the classic.

Shampine image courtesy Jake Zoll Late in 1979, Jim Shampine showed up with his rear engined supermodified which was so good, that it threatened to make all existing supers obsolete, so Oswego outlawed the rear engines. Having poured a lot of work into his car, Jim was infuriated and refused to run Oswego. When classic time rolled around, Jim relented and entered his other super. He promptly qualified on the pole, and led every one of the 200 laps all the way to the finish - a feat that has never been repeated. The car was owned by Dan Kinney. Dan ran the car at Sunduskey before moving to California and running it out of there for awhile. Jim Paternoster of Racemaster Engineering in Oswego found the car in a field in California a few years back. He's either restored it, or is in the process of restoring it. Paternoster restored the Shampine 70-76 front engine roadster beautifully (it was featured in Open Wheel).This is NOT the same Jim Paternoster that used to drive the #44 (former Heveron car) at Oswego back in the early-mid 1980s - I believe that he has, sadly, passed away. Thanks to Peter Turford and Brian Baker.

Rear Engines - Page 1