Chet Fillip

[unclebuck50]

Wasn't the family involved at one time (years ago) in a large mail order circle track supply company, based out of Texas, of course?

[indybigjohn]

Prob not.

It was either a silver crown or a sprint car because the last OW race I saw was at Eldora (4 Crown Nat'l) or Richmond.

Honestly at the time when I heard his name I was surprised since the last time I heard it was at Indy. The people I was around told me that he builds suspensions and he's always trying new things, the car he drives is more for R&D I guess.

You're right in that he is a suspension genius of sorts. His cars don't always look "normal," but they're usually fast. I admire the guy for what he tries to do.

[Novi-]

Are you thinking about his Little 500 car? That was a unique design for sure.

Prob not.

It was either a silver crown or a sprint car because the last OW race I saw was at Eldora (4 Crown Nat'l) or Richmond.

Honestly at the time when I heard his name I was surprised since the last time I heard it was at Indy. The people I was around told me that he builds suspensions and he's always trying new things, the car he drives is more for R&D I guess.

[drtuba]

I thought Chet drove Eagles at Indy?

I saw him run a SC of his design not to long ago. Definitely had a different look to it, especially the front end.

Are you thinking about his Little 500 car? That was a unique design for sure.

[Shadow101]

I thought Chet drove Eagles at Indy?

I saw him run a SC of his design not to long ago. Definitely had a different look to it, especially the front end.

He ran Eagles in 1982 and 1983. The 82 backup was a year old Wildcat, which is shown in one of the pics.

The modified Penske's were from 1984 in collaboration between Team VDS and Circle Bar. John Paul, Jr. did crash the VDS car in practice, suffering another leg injury which kept him out of the 500 for the second year in a row; while Fillip failed to find the speed to make the 500.

Circle Bar ran Lola's in 1985 but DNQ for Indy.

VDS came to CART from the Can-Am series, and Brabham had driven for the team in Can-Am (winning the championship) so he was an easy and logical choice to replace Paul in 1983. He drove a whale of race in the 500.

[Novi-]

I thought Chet drove Eagles at Indy?

I saw him run a SC of his design not to long ago. Definitely had a different look to it, especially the front end.

[Z28]

Yeah, I think I had '83 and '84 mixed up. The modified cars were from '84, right? Brabham's great drive was in '83. I liked that VDS team. They had raced in F5000 and something in Europe with the same paint job before they came to Indy and CART.

It was later in 1983 that John Paul jr in the VDS car came back and made the dramatic turn three pass on Rick Mears in the PC11 who then crashed to win the Michigan 500.

[richie]

A couple of names with asterisks next to their name include Dick Rathmann and Bill Holland. These two raced in the Little 500 and Indy 500, but did race on the beach at Daytona preceding the first running of the Daytona 500.

[richie]

Thinking of guys from that era...Bruce Jacobi...Bobby Marshman

Good guesses, but incorrect. Jacobi raced in the Daytona 500 and the Little 500, but never qualified for the Indy 500 in his 9 appearances at IMS.

[richie]

Parnelli & Jim McElreath.

Larry dickson

And there's the rest. Good job, guys!

Chet Fillip
Johnny Rutherford
Larry Dickson
Parnelli Jones
Jim McElreath

[cbreez99]

Thinking of guys from that era...Bruce Jacobi...Bobby Marshman

[#1jackhewittfan]

Larry dickson

[jandj]

Parnelli & Jim McElreath.

[richie]

smoke

Never raced the Little 500.

[racer47201]

smoke