STORM KING MEMORIES / BLACK ARROW Mysteries

[dinoKeymaster]

Found this cruisin our ODF GALLERY (T O’Shea Photos) More than one “Storm King” and they GOT the “Black Arrow”-whole ‘nother story there. …(This From New guys-weeks ago:}

{CHANGED HEADING…’whole other story, has become the story edit-dino}

“Well, I’m here. I’ve been hoping for a site like this for some time and glad to see Dino trying to do it justice.
Just a quick bit about who I am; my family raced at Dover from 1963 until about 1977. We also raced at Lebanon, Island, Connecticutt, etc, but Dover was “home”.
We started in ’63 with my Mom’s ’59 D-500 four door dodge. Our Dad encouraged us drag racing as a family as a way to keep us boys from racing on the street.
We raced the first year in D/SA and had one competitor in that class all year, Bill Rudd. He won every single weekend except one, when he had to go to a wedding and we soloed for the class win!
The following year we bought a max wedge ’64 dodge and ran S/SA and did very well with it. We met “Doc” Burgess who ran a ’64 Plymouth with a street wedge in it. He told us he was ‘coming after us’ for the following year. We were pretty blown away when he showed up with the “Black Arrow” which was his car from day one, never Bill ‘Grumpy’ Jenkins’. Bill built the motor and ran the car at events when Doc coouldn’t take time frm his work.
In ’68 we bought the “Black Arrow” from Doc Burgess, and then a clone of it in facotry trim to run S/S again. We went to Pro Stock from it’s inception until the Chrysler boycott of the class. Dad and I ran our max wedge and a ’67 Hemi four speed GTX for a season or two more, but drag racing had become just a bracket race after that with factoring and class restructuring all so the Chevy’s could win some races. We quit racing thereafter and I didn’t set foot on a drag strip for years, when I finally came back it was on a bike, ending a coouple of years ago on a turbo nitrous funny bike, running 7 flat at 192 mph.
Now I’m building a ’66 Dart stretched nose door slammer funny car, and a mid engined ’27 T like the old speed sport roadster.”

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[storm-king]

Thanks, Dino.
I’ve heard some rumors that someone knows where the original “Black Arrow” is today. I do too, in 1971 it was sitting on a scrap pile at Consoldated Metal Works in Newburgh, N.Y. about to be crushed.
As Consolodated would not sell anything once it came in the yard, I have no doubt it is gone for good, which it essentially was when we sold it, for $50.00 to a kid in Cornwall, N.Y.; whose Mom got tired of it sitting in the backyard and made him take it to Consoldated.
Bill (my brother and the owner/driver) and I strripped the Arrow clean to build a super stocker, bacause by the time we got it the Arrow was a typical butchered up ’65 race car. We prefered super stock. We had already put a rod through the original block racing at Connecticutt in ’68, and so had a different hemi in it, which we bought through the Ramchargers due to the kindness of Jon “the voice of drag racing” (sorry Dino) Lundberg, who was announcing for Frank Marratta that year.
Anyway, we picked up a wrecked ’64 Plymouth out of a salvage yard in Kingston, N.Y. for $75.00 and put some of the Arrow’s original thin steel on it, and off we went.
I know Jim Krammer had that second car we built from the junker a while back, and some other guys have something lettered like the Arrow, but the real one is, just like Dover, long, long gone.

[34gasser-65awb]

Storm King, let’s hope this gets set straight! If you didn’t stay to see it scrapped, then there could be a slight chance that it didn’t get crushed/junked then and there. The shell that is still around which I heard was the Black Arrow/Storm King was said to be in terrible shape and used up real bad, like long gone and not saveable. Consistent with what you say about it’s condition last time you saw it.

There is also a chance that the shell in question is not actually the Black Arrow / Storm King and your side is correct. I haven’t seen or heard hard evidence that it is. Just going by what a good friend told me, who I tend to trust.

Let’s all keep cool and respectful, and just try to see if we can’t figure out exactly what is in that barn! This place is about Dover history more than anything else, so let’s do right by it!

[dinoKeymaster]

PUT BRIAN ON IT ! Where is the the ‘Barn’ ? “Agent DDS ” is our best operative. He’s ducked enraged farmers, evaded junk yard dogs, and infiltrated top security situations. He’ll bring us back the truth. Or “bust “the myth. And I always tell him “If you or your DDS force are caught or captured, we will disavour any knowledge of your existance….this tape will self-distruct in 10 seconds …good luck Brian” .. . . .. sorry , got a little carried way there….smile ….everybody smile.

[34gasser-65awb]

Amen Dino!!!!!!! Especially the smile part. The truth or bursting the “myth” would be great, but we all gotta get-along in the meantime!

[storm-king]

I don’t see any disagreement here or confrontation. I’d be happy to see whether or not the car was rescued, I just have very, very, strong doubts. It was a great car, with great history but its no biggie if its gone. It’s kind of like Petty’s cars, you know; they were race cars, and even his best ones they buried with a bulldozer in the back yard. All the old hemis, the works.
That aside I saw your other post in the pictures section and wanted to comment on the Arrow’s adjustable wheelbase. Doc had a blacksmith from Wingdale or Pawling do the actual work, a real, honest to God blacksmith. Think aboout it; that is the kind of person Doc had connections with, because he was a veternarian. Before you laugh, that car ran straight as a string. It would be real easy for us to tell if this junker in a barn is it or not due to the unique nature of the mods made by the blacksmith.
Incidently, neither the car that went to Consoldated, nor the current car in the Arrow’s markings has the correct VIN on it. That was not on the real car, as it had a fiberglass dashboard in it, and we pulled the vin off the original dash and it subsequently got lost. So unless someone actually stole the original VIN out of our tool box and it somehow appeared on this quasi replica that’s out there, it’s very unlikely, again, that the original VIN is anywhere to be found.
But I digress…
Fully altered the car had a 100″ wheelbase. It also had an intermediate position, which I think was the popular at the time 2%; we never used that. During 1968 we put the wheels back to stock location, made covers for the big ugly hole in front of them, and ran heads up super stock at Conn Dragway in a class that really was the forerunner to pro stock. 3,200#, 428 cube max, gasoline, and stock appearing, that was about all there was to it. It was great, Jay Broderick, Tasca Ford, Larsen Ford, Norwood Chevy, Kosty Ivanoff, and so many more I’d have to think about for a while, but it was just the best race year we had. Even had Joe Tyson come up in one of the Grumpy’s Toy Camaros along with Ed Miller, and along with Bill Flynn we all had to run a special match race within the regular heads up meet because of some suspicious malady with the P&G equipment said all of our engines were over cube. Funny that, considering Flynn and we had checked fine the preceeding four or five weeks! I think they just wanted a free extra match race. I actually have some of those rounds on super eight converted to VHS.
We have some pictures that survived our move last year and Bill was looking at them this evening. Next week I’ll have my assistant scan and copy them and send an electronic file to whoever Dino says I should; and y’all can use them here.

[storm-king]

I going to post a follow on to my last post. The car that is most likely running around currently in original Arrow livery is our modified wrecked ’64 we put some of the Arrow sheet metal on in 1969. When pro stock started for real we got a new Duster from park Motors in Newburgh and took the running gear out of the Arrow copy. Remember, the original motor was already gone.
Some time after that, Doc called us and asked if we’d build him a streetable version of the car, because all these local kids would come by his place, knowing who he was, and want to take him for a ride in their Camaro or Chevelle to show him how fast they were. He told us about one kid who came over with such a car, and it had an oil pressure gage sitting loose up on the dash. When the kid hammered it, the gage just sat there. Doc got sick of these shenanagans and wanted a car he could show to these kids so they’d know what fast was.
So, we scrounged up another hemi from here and there, and built Doc a sorta-replica. It was yellow, had the Arrows light metal on it, and that’s about it. Doc played with it for a while, and sold it back to my brothers partner, Richie Walsh, who started to prep it to run NHRA super stock. He may have run it, but not very much. I think that’s where the notion that the car is still out there came from.
Bill could probably fill in some detail here and I’ll try to get him on more often. I got him to sign in today but just about had to put a gun to his head. We’ve always been involved with aircraft as well as cars, and that where his heart really is today, although once you get him started talking about racing its hard to get him to stop. So there’s hope.

[34gasser-65awb]

They all sound like possible explanations. I have not seen the shell in question. Don’t know what is on it for paint or lettering (if any) or if there is a vin tag or even a dash in it or not. Did hear that it had been further modified with the frontend moved forward too. We gotta see what really is in there!!!!!!!!!!

[dinoKeymaster]

ATTENTION :ABOUT “SENDING PHOTOS”…… A disc Would be best reg mail. OR send E-mail if only 3-5 shots.(Scan at 150 dpi.) More will take too long to load & recieve. IF you Have A program to RESIZE FILE proportiontly in inches to around 8 x10 …that will work.

[hvy70ssParticipant]

Hey StormKing,
How are you? About a year ago I got in contact with you from “Dragstrip Memories” website regarding Dover pics. I was at a car show last month and had a nice talk with Lou Centolanza. The old days came up alot but actually he may be driving for a “new’ nostalgia Super Stock car next year. Mopar,of course!! This “mystery” about the BlackArrow is interesting….I’ll be following the updates. You sent me a few pics of the ’65 S/S with Bill, also a couple of the Duster ProStock last year. With your permission, I’ll send them to Dino for posting….Are you OK with that? Thanks,

Bob Smith

[storm-king]

No problem sending the pics to Dino for this site. We’re lucky we had just a couple of ramdom photo boxes seperate from the rest of our collection, or we’d have nothing.

VIN tags, it’s been so long I don’t remember where they were, just know it wasn’t on the car.

someone Pah-leeease go check this out so we can put the poor thing to rest? Or is it going to be like Amelia Earhart; and stories and theories just keep on comin’? 😆

[jmb442]

Maybe Bill Kurtis can find the Black Arrow,just like he “found” Amelia Earharts Plane
In that AT&T commercial. “I’m Bill Kurtis And I’ve just found the…….

[storm-king]

Funny stuff!

[dinoKeymaster]

I’m tellin ya Guys…Give BRIAN an address and He’ll show no mercy to the property owner until the “case” is solved ! Knowing Brian …He’ll have the thing on a U-haul Trailer …He could talk your Grand mother into buying a Harley. Gps ,ODF & Digital camera equppied ! he probably has a Dick Tracy Wrist Radio too.

[34gasser-65awb]

Already on it Dino!

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