Timing Slip From Oswego Dragway, Used with Buck & Thompson Slingshot Dragster, 1963

As automobile racing speeds increased, repurposed dirt horse tracks became inadequate. In the 1910s promoters turned to wooden boards, which provided a smooth road surface and were less expensive than bricks or concrete. But rotting wood required frequent replacement. Improvements in concrete and asphalt made board tracks obsolete in the 1930s. The 1.25-mile board track at Altoona, Pennsylvania, operated from 1923-1931.

When did Fords use Chevrolet parts? In the 1920s, when brothers Louis and Arthur Chevrolet made special overhead valve cylinder heads for Model Ts. Sold under the brand name Frontenac, they helped racers triple the horsepower of the stock Model T engine. Such "Fronty-Fords" became terrors on the small dirt tracks and in 1923 and 1924 Indianapolis auto dealer Barber-Warnock Ford decided to enter Fronty-Ford powered cars in the Indianapolis 500. Here we see one of the 1924 cars being serviced in the pits. A mechanic with a funnel adds oil, while another mechanic on the opposite side of the car makes an adjustment. Arthur Chevrolet, wearing a tie and a flat cap, wipes his hands in the middle of the picture. Three men in suits, possibly race officials, observe the scene. The Barber-Warnock cars finished fifth in the 1923 race and 14th, 16th, and 17th in 1924.