When Howard Purdy and Bob Hodgson chalked out the frame for the Purdy Deuce on the floor of his parent’s home in 1964, little did they know that the car would be one of the dominant cars to compete at the famed Oswego Speedway from the mid 1960’s thru 1974…as well as ultimately become one of the most iconic supermodifieds in the history of the sport.
The car debuted late in the 1964 season but was plagued by “new car” issues. The 1965 season however was a revelation as driver, Ron Lux, won 5 features in a row and 12 of the 16 races held, easily winning the track title. In several of those wins, Lux used an alias as he was afraid of losing his USAC sprint car license. That year, the car also made its first – and only – race ever on dirt, racing in the National Open at the Williams Grove Speedway. Lux was running 5 th when he hit a rut and spun out. Sadly, Lux was fatally injured in a sprint car crash in July 1966 in Tulsa.
The winter before he died, Lux had suggested a young, New England driver, Bentley Warren as a candidate for the ride. Purdy wanted a more experienced driver, but after trying several veterans with no success, he put Warren in the car. Warren drove the car from 1966 – 1969, winning 7 features in that span, including the 1969 International Classic, the biggest race of the year. Canadian Warren Coniam was behind the wheel in ’70 and ’71 winning 2 features and the final driver was the late Jimmy Winks, who won 5 features including the car’s final race in 1974.
Small block and big block injected Chevy motors have powered the car over the years. The current restoration carries a 1960’s small block Chevy. In its time at Oswego The Deuce racked up 25 wins – 11 seconds – 5 thirds with 1 track championship and 1 win in the International Classic.
The car was competitive throughout the eras of upright supers, the sleeker, Indy roadster style bodies, and even when rear engine supers were running. The historic Purdy Deuce will be on display at the IMRRC thru our May 11 Center Conversation “Oswego Supers: A Legacy of Speed at The Steel Palace”
Check out this recently discovered footage from the early 1970s from the Oswego, NY area, comes a look behind the scenes with the legendary super-modified race car “The Purdy Deuce” – learn more at our Center Conversation in May. The video below is courtesy of, and with special thanks to, it’s creator Robert Syrell.
Learn from Kip about the importance of this legendary race on this TL:DR “pit stop” episode provided by The Motoring Podcast Network.
Transcript: Our current display car is one of the more iconic cars in the history of Oswego supermodified racing. It’s a car called The Purdy Deuce. The Purdy Deuce was built by a gentleman by the name of Howard Purdy. And he and his partner, Bob Hoxton, laid out the chassis on his parents floor in 1964. This was going to be the 56 car that Mr. Purdy had built in his career. And little did either of them realize that this car would subsequently go on to become one of the dominant cars in the mid [00:01:00] 60s through the early 70s at Oswego.
It’s what they call an upright, and you can see that by looking at the pictures. The driver basically sits upright behind a big steering wheel. The engine and the drivetrain are offset 7 inches. The car is powered by a 1960 small block Chevy engine. Now, this car competed at Oswego from 1964 to 1974.
It won 25 features, including the 1969 International Classic 200, which is the biggest race of the whole season at Oswego Speedway. That race was won by Bentley Warren. It won its last race in 1974, and then it disappeared to Howard Purdy’s bar. And it sat there, and it sat there, and it sat there. And for people like myself who are old enough to remember having seen it race at Oswego, the lore grew each passing year.
Are we ever going to see the car again? Is the car just going to rust away to nothing? What’s going to happen of it? For whatever reason, Mr. Purdy was never intent on having it restored. [00:02:00] But interestingly enough, Sadly, after Mr. Purdy died, his son, Chris, and only within the last couple of years, has there been kind of a groundswell from a lot of the people that actually worked on the car originally in the mid 60s to actually get the car out, restore it, and get it so people can see it.
So that project went on last year. Multiple people: Doug Holmes did the engine, a fellow by the name of Steve Miller did the body, Lee Osborne did the power coating. It all happened, and it was all done interestingly enough in time for last year’s International Classic in September, and the great Bentley Warren, who was driving the car when it won that 69 Classic, actually took it for some laps around the track.
Now, the current engine, Is dynoed at something like 580 horsepower. So Bentley was running 18 second laps at Oswego, and he could have run faster, got a brand new motor in it, but it’s got 50 year old shocks. So he couldn’t really run quite as fast as he’d like to. Bentley is in his early 80s. Bentley is probably one of the coolest guys walking the [00:03:00] face of the earth. He made the Indy 500 twice. He was a multiple time Oswego Speedway champion, multiple time international classic winner. One of the interesting things about this car is that this car ran through a number of different styling changes and types of cars that were running at the Speedway. You went to a more traditional offset car, farther offset car.
There was even rear engine cars at that time that were competing against it. It’s Zenith year was in 1965 where it won 11 out of 12 features driven by a guy named Ron Lux. Mr. Lux was sadly killed in a sprint car accident. Several different drivers hopped in the seat after that. Then Bentley got in the car.
Bentley drove the car for two or three years, did very well with it. A fellow by the name of Warren Conium from Canada drove the car for a couple of years, did okay with it. The last driver to actually win in it was the late Jimmy Winks, and Jimmy won multiple features during the two years he raced in it.
For those of us that have been fans of Oswego Speedway, or simply those of us who are simply fans of iconic and game changing [00:04:00] race cars, the Purdy Deuce is one of those cars that’s really high up on that list. I’m blessed with the fact that I never thought I’d see it again, much less be fortunate enough to actually have it here on the, on the center display floor.
And it’s going to be one of the centerpieces of our May 11 conversation. Oswego Super is a legacy of speed at the Steel Palace. Oswego is aptly known as the Steel Palace because the walls that surround the entire track, which is a five eighth of a mile oval, are steel. They are hard and they are unforgiving. So we are going to be doing a center conversation on May 11th, dealing with kind of the evolution, the history of super modified racing at the track, as well as fortunate enough to have the deuce here on the floor, and we’ll be recognizing the various people that were instrumental in the restoration of the car.
We’re going to have Bentley Warren here. We’re going to have Warren Conium here, and we’re going to have both Eddie Bellinger. Who won a fantastic 1983 international classic when both Bentley Warren and Warren Conium ran out of fuel on the last lap and we’ll have Eddie’s son, [00:05:00] Brandon, who is a current competitor at Oswego. So we’re hoping to tie together the generational aspect of racing at the Speedway. We’ll tie together the evolution of the car itself. And again, we’ll have truly one of the iconic cars in the history of the Speedway here on the floor, The Purdy Deuce.