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The central Missouri Supermodified enjoyed much success winning races across several different venues with two tip notch drivers, a sharp mechanic, and a well-heeled owner willing to finance the operation.
The car was constructed in a shop located in Carrollton, Missouri in the winter of 1966-67 at the hands of Clifford Jones and Tom Corbin. Using a spaced frame design, torsion rear suspension and adjustable weight control devices along with features such as 4-wheel disc. brakes, knock-off hubs, and championship drive line components; the car was on the leading edge of design for the cars of the area. It utilized a small block Chevy V-8 with Hilborn injection, Crower Roller cam, and a Vertex Magneto. The first season, 1967 the car painted blue and white with the number 44 driven by Tom, wrenched by Clifford and funded by George Miller (Miller Fertilizer) decimated the competition at Sportmans Speedway in Marshall, Mo. The team went on to capture the Track Championship. The effort provided Tom the impetus to make the move for the 1968 season to the premier rank of the USAC Sprint Car Championship trial. With the seat opened for the upcoming season Roy Hibbard of Marshall, Missouri was selected to take over the driving duties with Clifford and George still on board. The car was repainted red and white with the number 26 placed on its panels. In a season to cap all seasons the car won a Triple Crown of Supermodified laurels by winning Track Championships at Sportsman in Marshall, Missouri, Capital Speedway in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illnois plus the Memorial Day Jaycees Special at the Missouri State Fair in August of that year. Hard to top a season with that much success, 1969 came with the team intact and several more feature wins throughout the season for another round of Sportsmans Speedway and Capital Speedway Track Championships plus a second Missouri State Supermodified Championship.
The 1970 season saw sponsorship and a paint scheme change to orange and white with Kelley Pontiac on the hood and Here Comes the Judge painted on its side while Mr. Miller still retained ownership. At this point the transition to full caged sprint cars became more of the norm, but the car remained competitive at several dirt tracks and made the transition to race on the pavement at the high banks of I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Missouri. Mr. Miller discovered a new attraction in Arizona and relocated to spend more time with his new found female companion. Having decided racecar ownership was no longer a need he advertised the car in National Speed Sport News in 1971. A racer from Pennsylvania made the trip to Missouri to purchase the car and take it back to race with the URC club located in his home state. The car was transitioned to a more traditionally looking sprint car with the addition of a sprint tail and cut down side panels. The modern Sprint cars of the day were becoming a factory produced racecar with lighter materials and fully machined components readily available. The Miller Fertilizer Special was retired from competition and languished in Pennsylvania until 2011, when Chuck and Debbie Hines brought it home to Missouri and started the two year restoration process. |