Walter Zoomie’s World: Stoned Race Cars
March 18th, 2007 | Category: Walter Zoomie's World | 4 Comments | 
By Walter Zoomie
You may or may not remember when I said this a long time ago in the My Town Indy post.
“I love Indiana limestone. It is cool. My father and his father and his father and a bunch of former Zoomie fathers all were cutters down in southern Indiana.”
Well, I figured I’d show you some pictures I took way back in June of 2003 down in Bedford, Lawrence County, Indiana. Lawrence County was, and probably still is, considered the limestone capital of the world. Many famous buildings all over the U.S. were built with Indiana limestone… too many to list here now.
These are life sized limestone carvings of famous Indy and dirt track racing machines from way back in the olden times. In case you didn’t realize, these works of art are very cool. I just thought I’d tell you in case you were unaware. These carvings were sitting outside some kinda auto racing museum which was located in a run-down shopping mall.
This is the 1953 Indy 500 winning sled of Bill Vukovich.
This is one of Mel Kenyon’s dirt track racers from back in the day.
I bet that cross behind the cockpit makes some people mad, but not me.
I figure religion is a personal and private thing, and if you wanna put a crucifix on your racer, that’s OK by me.
This is a dramatic side view of a vintage flat bed tractor trailer unit with its precious cargo of limestone art.
Feel the drama!
This is a reasonable limestone facsimile of the car Rufus Parnelli Jones drove at Indy.
Only the coolest real racers know Parnelli’s real name is Rufus.
I knew it only because somebody told me a few years ago. Otherwise, I’d be wallowing in my own ignorance right about now…
Here we see a rock hard version of the venerable Novi racing unit which used to scare lots of people at Indy because it was loud and obnoxious and difficult to drive.
This Novi isn’t near as frightening as the real ones, unless you tried to pick it up by yourself.
You’d better get a helper if you want to lift this rig properly! You might hurt your back otherwise!
This is a close-up view of the vintage stone hauling rig. You can almost smell the diesel fuel and the rust and the rotted and mildewed vinyl seats!
It is so old, my dad may have driven it!
I have been to this area of Indiana since I took these photos. All of the limestone racers you see above are now missing. I heard that the museum which owned these works of art went out of business or fell on hard times, or something. Maybe they just lost interest in keeping cool and large and bulky limestone art hanging around, and they had better things to do. Maybe George W. Bush had something to do with it.
Who could honestly say for sure? Certainly not me. I guess I could Google it, or something.
Yes. Maybe I should do that sometime.
Update… kinda
I Googled like a mad dog for more info on these sculptures and the Auto and Race Car Museum. I couldn’t find any more scoop. However, in the course of my employment, I made a trip to Bedford and inquired about the museum and the limestone cars. I was told that the museum owner had died and the museum closed. The folks I talked to had no idea of the whereabouts of the sculptures.
I noticed a gleaming new Lowe’s Home Improvement store in place of the Stone City Mall and the museum.
That’s progress.
Sorta.
About Walter Zoomie's World: Walter Zoomie has kindly allowed a number of his entertaining tales of adventure to be published by IndianaRacing.net. You can read more at his official blog: Walter Zoomie's World. Also, be sure to check out the hundreds of fantastic vintage racing photos taken by his father Rick, a former Indianapolis newspaper reporter and photographer.
- Related Posts:
- Notebook: Dave Miltenberger’s Customized Art in Motion Car
- Walter Zoomie’s World: 2006 Indy 500 Pictorial - May 15
- Notebook: Hoosier Artist, Ex-Racer Has Online Racing Gallery
 |
| Choose an event » Indy 500 Brickyard 400 Indy GP |
Comments
There are 4 comments for “Walter Zoomie’s World: Stoned Race Cars”. You may add a comment or trackback from your own site.
#1 - Flamin41 (June 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 am)
I live in Bedford and knew Eddie Evans who owned the museum and who had the sculptures created. Eddie owned a Limestone company here in Bedford and to say he Loved automobiles and racing would be an understatement by far. He had one of the nicest and diverse colections I have ever seen. He had several midget racers form back in the day powered by the ford V-8 60 and winged sprints to old front engine and modern Indy cars. He also had several old cars from model T touring and Rolls and Buick limos and some of my favorites 5 sweet Super Birds one of which was painted up just like one of King Richard Petties racers.
Eddie was a great guy in so many respects of the word. Before he opened the museum he would let people come out to his house to look at his indy car collection which he would set out in the yard during the end of May for the Indy 500. He was always willing to stop and talk with anyone who wanted to and he had so much knowledge of racing it was like talking to a racing encyclepedia because he had seen it all.
Unfortunately Eddie’s health began to decline and Lowes was wanting to buy the old mall and his museum, and since he couldn’t find another venue to house his museum he decided to close it and move the cars back to his house. Not long after Eddie Evans passed away and he will be greatly missed by his family and this community as well. His wife Mary continued to have folks out to see the colection but it was becoming to much for her and she made the decision to sell the colection at auction this past weekend. As for the stone cars I don’t know if they were sold as well or not they are definitely works of art and seeing them up close you know that a lot of time and love went into their creation!
#2 - rlk (January 6th, 2009 at 4:14 am)
In 1997 I moved to Terre Haute, Indiana from St. Paul, Minnesota to finish up a career with a railroad that operated between Bedford, Indiana and Terre Haute. One day while looking the railroad over in Bedford, I came across the limestone race cars referenced above. As a youngster I grew up a few blocks from the Milwaukee Mile, got racing in my blood at a very early age and still had a bit of it left when I came across the limestone racers. Naturally I visited the museum, and made it a point to return every two or three months. On one occasion I had the very real priviledge of meeting Eddie. When I told Ed of my connection to Milwaukee and the Mile he invited me to the back of the museum to watch some Milwaukee Mile video. Eddie thought I might like to watch highlites of the June 1962 150 miler where Don Davies in an outdated dirt car chassis with a Chevy engine gave AJ a serious lesson in open wheel racing. “I was there”, I exclaimed, “I was at that race.” “Let’s watch it”, Eddie said with a grin. I figured out two things very quickly: 1) I was in the presence of a very kind and considerate human being, and 2) the guy loved racing deeply. I believe we’ll meet again Eddie, and that’s not meant as cheap, sentimental talk. I miss you, the museum and the good talk. Thanks for letting me sit in your Miller Ford.
#3 - Sierra Evans (February 6th, 2011 at 9:32 pm)
I am one of the granddaughters of Eddie Evans. The sculptures of the stone race cars were actually carved by my father, John Evans, Eddie’s youngest son. Only one of the stone cars was sold at the auction in 2009. The others remain in the possession of our family.
#4 - rlk (July 26th, 2011 at 5:03 pm)
I recall on one of my frequent visits to the museum Eddie greeting me with a grin, saying Duke Nalon had just been there and wanted to buy the stone NOVI for his grave’s headstone. Like Eddie, Ironman’s time has come and gone, and only a few of us noticed. But the wonderful memories both gentlemen left are ours to cherish. Zoomie, thanks for keeping this stuff fresh in our minds.
