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1-13-07
Original Car Found in Ohio
Photos and story by Vic
Cooke
A search that lasted nearly ten years turned up no signs
of the original Croshier, Baltes & Lavoto dragster that Jerry Baltes piloted
to so many victories in the mid-sixties so a new recreation was commissioned
and built and now two years later the intact original has surfaced. It is in
the possession of a auto repair shop operator who has had it in storage for
the past 15 years pending his own plans to eventually "restore" it in some
fashion when circumstances allowed. As seen in the photo below, you might
say that Jerry was a pretty happy fellow upon dispelling any remaining
shadow of a doubt that this was indeed his original car.
You may recall about a month ago a picture of an
unidentified white FED suspended above workshop floor was floating around
the internet. No info was provided on its location. Sharp eyes thought it
looked an awful lot like Jerry's car. Once Jerry got a look at the photo
too, he agreed. After some further exchanges he was more certain than ever,
and planned today's visit for a personal inspection.
How could this have eluded the dragnet that Jerry had out for so long trying
to snag it? It was a tale of "near misses" of monumental proportions, and
connections that
might have been made with just a bit more info.
The present owner is named Jim Urbanek, who has done some bracket racing on
an irregular basis at Thompson Dragway. Many of the other racers there know
of this car, he says. Although Jerry had "wanted" posters at tracks like
National Trail and Norwalk, there was just never a "click" with anyone to
connect it to this particular car. Had the poster ever found its way to
Thompson Dragway, there might have been.
There are even more "possible" connections that just
didn't happen....like the shop being just a few blocks from the Mazi
residence in Eastlake, and possibly Frank and/or Dawn knew of a car being
there. I suppose it all goes to show how much an element of "luck" enters
into stories like like this before all the chips fall into place.
As shown in this section of the report, three new photos of the car as
stored in the shop and as we viewed it earlier today.
This is a group photo of the
"principals" involved in today's visit.
From left to right is Don Moyer, Pat Baltes, Jerry Baltes,
Jim Urbanek and his son, Mike Urbanek.
Don Moyer was the key "connection" that led to this
reunion and served as intermediary in arranging today's meeting between all
the parties involved. Moyer is a 40-year old car restorer/collectibles
broker/jack-of-all-trades located in Mentor, Ohio. We'd never met
before. He's another sometimes-racer at Thompson with a home-built Willys
Gasser he runs at the Gasser Reunion events there. Don's also a
member of the "HAMB" web-group and the "mystery" photo that was posted a
month ago was one that he took and floated in that group for any more info
available.
Urbanek is 59, and as mentioned earlier, runs a very low profile auto repair
shop situated in a windowless building on a side street in Eastlake, Ohio.
You would never guess in years of passing it daily what might be lurking in
the rafters, lol!
Urbanek had this one old photo of the
car taken at the time he acquired it before it was tucked away. Urbanek
acquired the car from a former employee who had bracket raced it for a
couple of years before losing interest. There are still "gaps" in the
hand-to-hand history of where the car has been though
About half a dozen of Urbanek's friends were present
throughout and Jerry was treated as quite the celebrity. All this audience
were at least casually interested and
somewhat knowledgeable about early drag racing, but for most, this their
first encounter with a notable figure from the Golden Age. Jerry had lots of
great stories that everyone enjoyed I hope I can remember most of them! No
way he was going to escapeand autograph session signing everything these
folks had laid their hands on having to do with his car.
What happens next is very much up in the air. Having his immaculate
Cacklecar, he's no longer champing at the bit to acquire this one too, but
he does have a strong interest in what happens with it from here. A lot of
things were kicked around without resolution, and I won't get into all the
possibilities. I kind of sense that Jerry would be happiest to see the car
restored to a "as raced" condition without the glitz and glitter...just a
"genuine" '60's Pepmuller racer ala Ivo's "Barnstormer" and Wenderski's
"Black Beauty," (which incidentally were all consecutively built
cars....something I didn't know).
One agreement, though, is that Urbanek is going to take the car down from
the rafters, clean it up, and bring it down to Columbus in June for this
year's NHRR. Jerry wants to display both the original and re-created cars
side by side, and that should indeed make for quite an attraction. Plans
could well hinge on just what transpires as a result of that showing. We'll
just have to wait and see!
Check Back for more details as they become
available.
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