Andy Fusco 2003 The Pine The Authorized Biography of Jim Shampine Supermodified

Up For Sale Today is

The Pine
The Authorized Biography of Jim Shampine, the Greatest Open Wheel Short Tracker of All Time

by

Andy Fusco
With George Caruso, Jr.

Trade PB. 4to.  Published by Speedway Press, Oswego, NY. 2003. 122 pages. Illustrated throughout. First Edition/First Printing.

Wrappers lightly worn with some light shelf-wear to the extremities present. Book is free of ownership marks. Text is clean and free of marks. Binding tight and solid.
 
The authorized biography of Jim Shampine, the greatest open wheel short tracker of all time.

One of the most successful drivers in Supermodified competition and an equally skilled racer in asphalt and dirt-track Modified stock cars, Jim Shampine (March 25, 1941 – September 4, 1982) of Clay, New York, had an innate knack for handling these high-powered machines. Shampine began drag racing in 1959 in Empire State Timing Association events at the quarter-mile ESTA Safety Park Dragstrip in Cicero, New York. Then in 1962 he switched to racing at the five-eights-mile asphalt Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway after he bought his friend Nolan Swift’s championship-winning Modified and converted it to a Supermodified. And since Swift’s cars were numbered “Ten Pins” Shampine figured “8-Ball” was as good as an identifier as any and that “call sign” eventually became well-known as the one on every car that he would race.

Shampine won five Modified races at Oswego: 1971’s All-Star League 100 and the track’s Modified 200 Classic in 1971-1972 & 1974. All of these wins came in his Ford-powered blue cut-down asphalt No. 8-Ball Modified 1937 Ford coupe, save for his 1974 victory and the 1974 Oswego Modified title that he won in Ed Cloce’s red No. 69 Hemi-’Cuda. He also ran quite well at New York’s asphalt Fulton, Utica-Rome, Spencer, Lancaster and Shangri-La Speedways. And his Ford-powered blue dirt-track No. 8-Ball Pinto Modified was a multi-time winner and 1970 track champion at the half-mile Rolling Wheels Raceway in Elbridge, New York, and he won several races at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport.

Shampine ran in three (1968 & 1970-1971) National Opens on the old Langhorne (Pa.) Speedway’s one-mile “D-shaped” track. In his first two attempts in the 200-miler he finished 45th and 41st, respectively, but on October 17, 1971, he was second in his No. 8-Ball Ford coupe behind winner Roger Treichler in the 21st and last edition of the event on its original home track.