Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Pit Stop: Remembering Howard Purdy & The Deuce

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Pit Stop: Remembering Howard Purdy & The Deuce · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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We always have a blast chatting with our guests about all sorts of
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different topics, but sometimes we go off the rails and dig deeper into
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their automotive and motorsports pasts.
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As a bonus, let's go behind the scenes with this pitstop minisode
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for some extra content that didn't quite fit in the main episode.
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Sit back, enjoy, and remember to like, subscribe, and
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support Brake Fix on Patreon.
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When Howard Purdy and Bob Hodgson chalked out the frame for the Purdy Deuce on the
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floor of his parents home in 1964, little did they know that the car would be one of
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the most dominant cars to compete at the famed Oswego Speedway from the mid 1960s
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through 1974, as well as ultimately become one of the most iconic supermodifieds
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in the history of the sport.
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The car debuted in late 1964 but was plagued by new car issues.
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The 1965 season however was a relevation as driver Ron Lux won five features
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in a row and 12 of the 16 races held, easily winning the track title.
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In several of those wins, Ron used an alias as he was afraid of
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losing his USAC sprint car license.
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That year the car also made its first and only race ever on dirt,
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racing in the National Open at the Williams Grove Speedway.
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Lux was running 5th when he hit a rut and spun out.
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Sadly, he was fatally injured in a sprint car crash in 1966 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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The winter before he died, Ron Lux had suggested a young New
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England driver, Bentley Warren, as a candidate for the ride.
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Howard Purdy wanted a more experienced driver, but after trying several veterans
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with no success, he put Warren in the car.
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Bentley Warren drove the car from 1966 to 1969, winning seven features in that
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span, including the 1969 International Classic, the biggest race of the year.
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Canadian Warren Conium was behind the wheel in 1970 and 71, winning two
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features, and the final driver was the late Jimmy Winks who won five features,
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including the car's final race in 1974.
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Small block and big block injected Chevy motors have
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powered the car over the years.
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The current restoration carries a 1960s small block Chevy, and in its
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time at Oswego, the Deuce racked up 25 wins, 11 seconds, 5 thirds,
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and one track championship and one win in the International Classic.
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The car was competitive throughout the eras of the upright Supers, the sleeker,
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Indy Roadster style bodies, and even when rear engine Supers were running.
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The following presentation covers the history of the Purdy Deuce in more
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detail and was recorded during the IMRRC's Center Conversation Around
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Supermodifieds and the History of the Oswego Speedway and is hosted by the
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voice of Oswego Speedway, Roy Sova.
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I want to introduce a few people who were involved in the
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restoration of the Purdy Deuce.
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Up here in the front row, Bob and Nancy Hodgson, who are on the pitcrow.
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Mary Purdy, wife of Howard Purdy.
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Chris Purdy is over here.
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Doug Holmes was greatly involved in the restoration.
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Jamie Moore had a hand in it.
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How about a big hand for all of those people.
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I'm Nancy.
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And you're Bob.
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That's Bob.
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Oh, he could tell.
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Laughter.
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I'm with Nancy and Bob Hodgson who were instrumental in the original
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deuce that raced at the Oswego Speedway starting way back in 1964.
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Bob, you were on the, not only on the, uh, crew, but it seems to me like your
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name was mentioned in winning races.
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Uh, yeah, well, I, I drove some race cars myself.
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That was one reason that Ronnie decided to use my name when he didn't want Newsac
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to know that he was running other races.
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Did everybody think it was you or did they know better?
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At first I think they did think it was me.
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But after he won a few races in a row with Airboy, of course he
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decided he should use his own name.
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And he continued to do that the rest of his career.
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And, uh, Nancy, what was your involvement in this, other than probably
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bringing the phone to the track?
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Well, no, I used to bring food to them when they worked every
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night until 10 o'clock or so.
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Tube steak and fried egg sandwiches were their favorites.
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I did a lot of driving because they worked so many hours that they would be too
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tired to drive, so I ended up being the chauffeur for the car in the early days.
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How do you feel about all that, getting started in that and being
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such a big part of the crew?
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Oh, I loved it.
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We were a big family.
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We were just all a family.
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And the story about them taking tape measures and straight edges and chalk
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and drawing out a frame on the floor of Howard's parents garage is actually true.
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And I was there that night.
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I could hold the straight edge.
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Well, good for you.
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And what did you do during that, Bob?
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Well, of course, Howard came up with the design of the new
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car, and we just started getting materials together to get it built.
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One thing I wanted to mention about Howard Purdy, when I met him, he was
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a car salesman in a Ford dealership.
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Then he got into, he took over a restaurant near the Ford dealership,
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and, I guess one or two doors away there was a shoe store.
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And Nancy was employed in the shoe store.
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And of course, uh, we would work on the car every night.
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And then when it come closing time for the restaurant, we would go to the
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restaurant, clean the restaurant up.
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And so that was ready for the next day.
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I had to thank Howard for introducing me to this lady here She was very cool.
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This August, we will celebrate 63 years of marriage.
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Congratulations.
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Thank you.
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So, that's how Nancy and I got together.
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But anyway, Howard, after the restaurant, he then went and
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started the business of Purdy Ford.
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Then he had a Campland RV business and a Z Bart rust proofing business.
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And then there came Lakeshore Ford, another Ford dealership.
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Another thing that he did, we, in the wintertime, we used to go skiing.
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He designed and patented a ski boot case for ski boots.
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I think because he had so many things going on, he never got
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the opportunity to market it.
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And then besides all those things going on, Howard and Mary had a
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hobby farm where he had registered cattle and he had horses.
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With all these things going on all those years, Howard actually built
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56 race cars during his career.
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So he was a pretty busy person In the later years of our racing, uh.
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When people talked about, we didn't run the total seasons, and of course with all
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that stuff going on, that was a reason for, you know, every race at that time.
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Now, what about you, during all this time, and putting up with him for 63 years?
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Oh, it's been wonderful.
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And racing was wonderful.
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Bob met Howard when he was 16.
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I met Howard when I was 18.
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They were in one another's weddings.
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We're godparents to one another's children.
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It's been a marvelous friendship.
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And it's almost more like family than just friends.
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And Howard was a very brilliant man, well beyond his time.
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And when people say he wanted the best to be better, it's true.
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And it didn't matter whether it was a car or his business.
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Or his relationships with people.
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I think that was, that was his motto in life.
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It was never It was never just good enough.
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No, it was, nothing was ever good enough.
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It always had to be better.
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There was a way to make it better.
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And he'd work at it, and he'd work with people to get that.
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And that's a rare talent.
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And Mary, Mary Purdy is joining us, uh, wife of Howard.
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You must have led some interesting times with him over the years.
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probably, yes.
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. . There were always the race car.
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And then after our children came and you know, that sort of went, uh, I think he,
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he wouldn't have wanted his son to drive.
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Right.
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And so, then we bought a farm and we're working on the farm.
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We had Angus cattle.
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We grew, and that was a big enterprise.
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We grew corn, hay.
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Why did he finally get out of Russia?
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I think he really didn't want his son Chris to get it.
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Howard didn't really drive, but he wouldn't have wanted his son.
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Too dangerous?
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Too dangerous.
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Probably, yes.
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Well, thank you for joining us Mary, Mary Purdy, Nancy Hodgson, and Bob
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Hodgson, the iconic Purdy Deuce, here at the International River Racing
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Research Center at Watkins Glen.
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We'll have the next part of our program in just a few minutes.
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Thank you for having us.
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First of all, let me tell you a little bit about the Purdy Deuce.
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One of the most iconic cars ever at the Oswego Speedway.
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The whole thing was triggered by a guy by the name of George Offenburg in Florida.
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On the 26th of November of 22, the car arrived at Doug Holmes place in Auburn.
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On the 27th, they started the disassembly, and that was
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completed on the 30th of November.
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On the 2nd of December, the frame went to Lee Osborne and was
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returned on the 4th of January.
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The frame in the auto body then went to Steve Miller's shop
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in Mexico, New York, and Steve returned it on the 21st of March.
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The trailer arrived at Doug Holmes place on July 4th.
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And was ready to go on July 5th.
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Trailered it to Lee Osborne on the 14th.
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Lee returned it on August 9th to Doug Holmes.
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On the 24th, the fuel filter arrived.
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That was the last part they were waiting on to complete the car.
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And on the 28th of August, 2023, The deuce was fired up for the first time
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since 1974, and that was done at the Romulus Airport in Romulus, New York.
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So, ladies and gentlemen, we've got Bentley Warren, Warren Conium,
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Doug Holmes, Lee Osborn, and Steve Miller, the guys who primarily were
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responsible for all of the restoration.
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I want to mention that the car, as soon as we are done here today, will be loaded up.
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by Bentley Warren and taken up to Bentley Saloon in Arundel, Maine, where it will
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be on display for the rest of the year.
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If you've never been to Bentley Saloon, you need to go.
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It's a fantastic place.
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He sells more t shirts and hoodies than any racetrack in the world.
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He has two large, maybe the size of this room, or bigger.
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Barnes, with classic cars, and classic race cars, and the uh, Duke's is
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going to go up there and do that.
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People are invited to go in, there's no charge, there is an honor box if you
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want to leave some money in the box, uh, to help support what he does there.
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But it's just a tremendous visit, at Bentley Saloon.
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He has a lot of classic car shows, motorcycle shows, entertainment
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with music and everything like that.
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You could pay me like a fortune.
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No, so, that car is going to be out there, what, for the entire rest of the year?
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Yes, uh, Chris told me we'd keep it till the end of the year.
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And, uh, we're looking forward to it.
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And I'm sure a lot of people are going to love to see it because
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it was such a great race car.
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And it just did so much with, you know, different drivers in it and
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winning races and all that stuff.
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So, I'm just very, very proud that he, uh, let us have it.
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That he got it restored by Doug.
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A lot of other guys helped restore it.
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It's just an honor to have it.
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Mention a couple of other cars you got there.
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I got the 61 Junior, then there's a replica of 49 Ford that I drove in 61.
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I think I won a championship with it.
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I look at Fisher and me and I standing with the checkered flags.
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What the hell happened to me now
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But, uh, there was a lot of cars in there, a lot of race cars.
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President Bush was there once with, uh, his whole entourage and uh, the guy who
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was in a wheelchair at that time and the guy pushing him was his head PR guy.
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He said we gotta get out of here.
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He's telling me we gotta go.
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We gotta go like this.
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But he didn't want President Bush to hear it.
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President Bush says to me, What's over there?
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I said Model T's and Model A4's.
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I want to see them.
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He turns around to the guy and the guy's going like this.
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I mean, it was just such an honor.
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He came to the saloon three times.
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He and Barbara Bush, and they were just wonderful people.
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I got another cute little story, too.
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We have, for some reason, the surprise ears hanging in the office.
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So I'm standing next to Barbara, President Bush was next to her, and luckily my
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girlfriend, Lisa, who runs the place, was right beside me on the left side.
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And Barbara said, Bentley, I have to ask you a question, in this
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beautiful English language that she just spoke so eloquently.
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And I said, sure Barbara, what?
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She said, how do the brassiers get in the rafters?
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And luckily Lisa, she said, oh Barbara, some of the girls come in with two bras
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on, and they take, before Lisa said they take, But I was like, oh gosh, I
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did not come prepared for the occasion.
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It was so quick, so quick, so witty.
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That's happy for me, and a lot of people are going to see it.
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I want to start with you, Doug, because you were kind of the
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coordinator for all of this.
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Well, it took a little while before we received the car.
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Chris was going to restore it with his son, David.
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They just decided it was more than they can handle in a reasonable amount of time.
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So Bob Hodgson had called me, mentally called me, asked if we
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could get it done for classic.
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I said, yeah, if we get the car here, we'll have it done.
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We got to get, we didn't have the car at that point.
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It showed up at my shop, like Bentley said, the half inch shock stems were
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about five eighths, you know, with rust.
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It's pretty rough looking.
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One of the first things I did was call Lee, and I said, Lee, you gotta
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come over and look at this thing.
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Give me a plan of attack on this thing, and so we soaked it with WD 40.
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And, uh, I had it apart in a couple days.
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Took the frame up to get Lee, cause there was a couple cracks.
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We needed some motor mounts made for it.
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Just some small things fixed on it.
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Blasted and powder coated.
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Got that back, took it to, uh, Steve's.
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Got the tail section done, hood.
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nose, replace the right side door panel, and paint, and lettering.
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After that, it was just taking every single part apart, and either
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rebuilding it, or hopefully rebuilding it, but some stuff we had to replace.
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A master cylinder was lost cause.
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Fuel filter was also shot.
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That was a problem.
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It seemed to be aircraft stuff from back in the day.
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We just couldn't find a fuel filter, so we tried the best we could to
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duplicate it, and that's where Ted Johnston helped me on that.
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The brakes went to Martin's machine in, uh, I think it's Oklahoma.
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The gauges went out, got new bezels put on them.
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Just took the rack apart, the rear end apart, polished up
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the axle, zinc flashed it.
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The wheels were all just done and Cerakoted.
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I should have brought my thumb drive because there's pictures or,
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I don't know, maybe George did, but I had all the, uh, photos from
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everything right from start to finish.
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But yeah, I couldn't do it without Lee and Steve Miller and a bunch of
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people's name on that board there.
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And, uh, I'm glad it turned out as well as it did.
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Well, we want to mention that Howard Purdy's wife is
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here, his son Chris are here.
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They were responsible for the car finally being turned over for restoration.
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And Bob and Nancy Hodgkins, Bob was a mechanic on the
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deuce for a number of years.
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Lee, let me get you in here next.
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What was your role in this?
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Did some frame repairs, made some bumpers, motor plates, stuff that
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was just beat up too bad to fix.
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We got a friend of mine painted part of it, then we sent it back
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to Doug and he sent it up to Steve.
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Now how did you get involved?
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Doug contacted you about this?
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It was my lucky day, yeah, he called me.
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Yeah, yeah, he called me up because I've done other projects for him.
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So just one more on the list.
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That's right, just more iron, you know.
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And Steve Miller, Steve, this is probably one of the fastest
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restorations that's been done.
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I know you've had a number that have been known all over the United States, uh,
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competed again, not competed, but showed again at Indianapolis and stuff like that.
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But this has had to be a very quick restoration.
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We didn't seem quick.
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Body looked like King Kong jumped up and down on it several times.
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The whole back end of it, I had to fabricate that that was
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missing because this had a tail section on it when it last ran.
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Oh, that was sad.
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Did you keep the original hood?
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Original holes have been filled and recut for a big black radiator.
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They did a couple of things, they, they moved the offset.
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I think in 68, was that it, Bentley?
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When they changed the offset on it and put the, uh, open
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tube axle in it and everything.
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I, I can't remember, but it looked so much like original when I drove it
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in the 69, I think it was 68 and 69.
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It looked just like when you guys brought it.
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I'm like, wow, that's the same guy, I didn't think it was touched.
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Except it looked cleaner.
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Well, originally the engine was in the center.
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The rear end is out of an Indy Roadster.
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They had an Indy Roadster that they were going to replace this car with,
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but it didn't work as well as this car.
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So they took all the running gear out of it because originally this car had
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wide fives and housing rear end and stuff when they changed the offset
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because it is an offset rear end.
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Instead of making a new hood, they just riveted a patch over
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where the engine used to be.
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So, then they put a big block in it, and then cut up more of it.
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They cut into the nose section.
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There was a lot of it, uh, had to be replaced.
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This is the original top, though, and the original nose piece.
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Now, Doug, I've been hearing for years this car was put
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away right after it was raised.
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It was still in pristine condition.
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All you had to do was take it out and dust it off.
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That was obviously not the case.
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No.
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I have witnesses.
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Yeah, it was rough.
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It was rough.
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It didn't roll at four flat tires.
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He backed the trailer up to the garage and we picked the back end up with
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a cherry picker and then we kind of scraped it off the trailer, you know,
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got the rear on jack stands and we picked the front up with a cherry
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picker and set it on the ground.
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It wasn't going anywhere on its own.
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Now what made this car so competitive?
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It started in, uh, 64, ran through 74.
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The roadster era came into being, and yet this car was still a winner.
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Maybe just the drivers?
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Well, yeah, that's probably a lot of it, yeah.
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But, the car's very light.
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We scaled it with the small block, and it was 1, 740 pounds
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with the iron small block.
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Valley said it would have run better if I didn't have 50
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year old shocks on the back.
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Well, they were relatively new.
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Well, Bob found them for me.
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They were in the bottom of one of the boxes there.
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They're Monroe Max, is what they are.
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They were yellow, but in all the photos they're black, so we painted them black.
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One of the front shocks, we had trouble finding that little one
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that's on the lower part of the axle.
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All I did was go in the book and measure lengths and compress and that.
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That shocks off of a heater built cab or tip flip over cab or something, I
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don't know, but that's the only thing we could find that would fit on there.
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Yeah, as far as the chassis, I don't know enough about what made it fast.
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Bob Hodgson said it's basically a three wheeled race car.
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I don't really know what makes it so fast, other than I know it's light.
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I mean, we'll talk to Bentley, he knows what made it fast, right?
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I think a lot of it was Howard Birdy.
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He was a person that was Driven to do everything perfect and
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make things right and fast.
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And I remember driving it, we're out, we're running practice.
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And Fritz Kline was, Fritz used to be a big guy that worked on the car.
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Real nice guy.
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How is what, why can't you go faster Bentley?
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And I'm like, I thought we were going pretty, no, pretty good.
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Isn't good enough.
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He said, why can't you, he said, what's wrong with the car?
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I said, I don't, I don't think anything.
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He said, well, why can't you get into the corner deeper?
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What happens?
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So then I tell him what, what happened.
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He said, well, what happens in the middle when you try to pick the throttle up?
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Does it push or is it, or is it assy?
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I said, well, it gets assy when you put the throttle down.
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He said, what about coming out of the first two parts of the corner?
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What about coming out?
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The, I said, well, sometimes it's pushing, sometimes it's acting.
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And then he had Ray and Bob change tires, and he only had four wheels, so he had
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to take the wheels and tires off the car.
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He had a couple of spare tires, changed the tires, and it'd go
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outward, run the same speed, but it was a little bit different.
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Fritz told him, he said, you know, you're the fastest car
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on the track by two tenths.
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He said, But Howard always wants to go faster.
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And that was Howard's way.
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He always wanted to go faster.
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And I really believe he did that in his businesses and in life and everything.
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How did you get in the car in the first place?
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Now Ronnie Lux, of course, had it in 64, won 12 features, was the track champion.
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It didn't do a lot after that.
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And then you got in the car and in 69 won the classic.
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How did you get the ride?
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Uh, Howard called me up and asked me and I was like, Oh my God.
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And then I remember practicing in the car and the car was so good and
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Ronnie Lux helped me get the ride.
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And Ronnie Lux, I believe.
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I told Howard that I would be the guy to put in the car.
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He and I raced a little bit together and talked a little and stuff like
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that, just on different things.
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He thought that I would be a good driver for the car, a good fit for the car.
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And uh, when I remember getting into it in the first practice I was
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running, I was so darn nervous and I wasn't on the throttle wide open.
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I was just in practice till they threw the green.
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I thought I was going to break a drive shaft or a rear end.
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My foot was shaking so bad the car was going, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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like this.
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Like, Holy Cripes, I'm going to break something.
21:54
When the green flag came out, I practiced the car was, it was
21:56
unbelievable how good it went.
21:58
All right.
21:58
Now, after 69, you won the classic first classic win.
22:01
Then you got out of the car.
22:02
Well, I got a chance to go to the Indy 500 and you took that instead.
22:06
Yeah.
22:07
What?
22:07
Stupid.
22:09
But this was like a ladder and I, this climbed me up the ladder to get some
22:13
recognition and the people involved with this car, just people that saw
22:17
me and how it just made me look good.
22:19
And then I just got rides after that.
22:21
And then, Warren, you got in the car.
22:22
How did you get the ride?
22:24
Well, Howard just called me and, uh, asked me if I had time to drive his car.
22:28
And you said, sure.
22:30
Yeah, I mean, the car was so iconic.
22:32
You know, I said, great, that sounds like a good time.
22:34
But like Bentley says, Howard always wanted to go faster, and
22:38
he was great at reading tires.
22:40
He would just rub his hand across the tires and say, well, this one's working,
22:43
that one's working, but this one's not.
22:45
He'd always say, well, the car's faster than that.
22:48
I know when I qualified for the classic, drove it the first
22:51
week with a small block in it.
22:53
And I said, I don't know, this motor doesn't seem to have much.
22:57
And he said, you're kidding.
22:58
He says, it's a four by four.
22:59
And I said, well, it doesn't pull as good as four by fours that I've run.
23:03
So he said, okay.
23:04
Well, that was a week before classic.
23:07
He said, okay, I'll see you next week.
23:09
Well, I showed up at the track on the Friday night to practice the car.
23:13
And Gladdy, the girl at the, uh, hotel, said Mr.
23:16
Purdy called and said he's gonna be a little bit late.
23:18
He was making an adjustment on the car.
23:20
So I said, oh, okay.
23:22
Yeah, he probably won't get in till tomorrow.
23:24
So, uh, okay.
23:26
We missed some warm ups.
23:27
But the next day he showed up and here it's got a big block in it.
23:30
And so, uh I said, well, that's quite a tune up.
23:34
He said, yeah, well, he said, you said it didn't have much power, but
23:38
he says, after I put this motor in, he said, I did find that the four
23:42
by four had a broken valve spring.
23:44
And he said, so it was probably down a little bit.
23:47
But he says, uh, hopefully this will be okay.
23:49
But it was a stock 427 big block off the GM shelf with a flat tap at cam in it.
23:56
I don't think that's going to go any better than a four by four.
24:01
Anyways, he was great to work with.
24:03
Unfortunately, the rear torsion bar adjuster.
24:07
Broke just as we were starting the classic and we were down 14 laps.
24:11
And the last thing he said to me was, well, if you win it from
24:14
here, you're doing something.
24:17
But we did pick up a lap on the field.
24:20
The car was phenomenal.
24:21
And I know he changed all the bars after the fact.
24:24
After classic weekend, he changed all the bars.
24:27
He said, I should have done this before classic.
24:29
But anyways, I only ran the car, I would say six or eight times.
24:34
And one win.
24:35
No, well, Oswego, yeah, and then we won Fulton, and we won Flamborough, I think.
24:41
So why did you get out of the car?
24:42
Somebody else called me for a full time ride, and Howard wasn't
24:46
going to run a full schedule.
24:48
Well, Bentley, I think that's one of the interesting things about this car.
24:50
He almost never ran a full schedule, only a couple of years.
24:54
In the 10 years or 11 years that it ran, I believe it was 97, either 94 or 97 races
24:59
total, and the average finish for the car with all the drivers, he had 10 different
25:03
drivers in it, the average finish was 5.
25:06
8.
25:06
Well, most of that was Ronnie Lux.
25:08
Ronnie Lux and Howard and Bob and Ray and Fritz and all of
25:12
them were just such a team.
25:13
Ronnie had a good foot to stand on the gas, I'd say something else to go
25:16
along with the foot, but he, uh, he really got the job done well, and he
25:20
was a phenomenal driver, and he won.
25:22
I think every feature but one, the last year he drove it, before he went to Indy.
25:27
And uh, he was just a phenomenal race car driver, and the car was phenomenal too.
25:31
After that, the guy, the last guy in the car, and I believe it was the
25:33
last time they ran a full season, last time they ran it all, was Jimmy
25:36
Winks, who had quite a career in it.
25:38
Yeah, now Howard put that Reynolds Aluminum big block in it.
25:42
I know Jimmy told me, he said, man, it sure doesn't run out of power now.
25:48
But no, Howard, Howard was before his time, really.
25:51
He was a smart man.
25:52
So Doug, want to sum this up?
25:54
How competitive would it be today?
25:55
What can you get it down to?
25:56
Probably have to ask Bentley, but we would need more power.
25:59
I'm sure he'd say that, but I don't know what the weight and all, I
26:04
don't know, Steve, these guys could probably answer it better than me.
26:06
I mean, if you put a rip today's big block on there, I'm not even sure
26:10
the frame would handle it really.
26:12
It's, you know, it's pretty rusty, you know, it was all blasted and
26:16
powder coated, but it would need to have some, it's bent too.
26:20
Bentley told me this thing's bent, the front's pushed
26:22
over a little bit, but yeah.
26:25
You would, you would probably have to take it all apart and
26:28
just make a new frame and for it.
26:30
Maybe put some better brakes on it too.
26:32
I don't know.
26:32
And get a younger driver.
26:33
Wow.
26:34
I don't know.
26:35
He's still good.
26:36
He's still good.
26:38
All right.
26:38
Ladies and gentlemen, we want to thank Mrs.
26:40
Purdy, son Chris Purdy from Howard Purdy family, Bob and Nancy Hodgkins, and of
26:44
course, Lee Osborne, Steve Miller, Doug Holmes, Bentley Warren and Warren Coney.
26:48
Thanks for being with us here now.
27:02
Make it to your favorite racetrack this year.
27:03
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