"Mystery Solved"

Back in 1996 when I found my first Danbury car to restore, I made a very big effort to locate as many old Danbury cars as I could. I would track down every lead or story that I heard. The end result was over the years I have located probably 15 to 20 Danbury cars. Many have since been bought and restored by other people, three I have done myself. The one that I spent the most time trying to find with very little success was Chick Stockwell's 1934 Ford coupe. The only 1934 coupe he ever built.

I first became interested in this particular car after meeting and becoming friends with Chick. We had many discussions about the races and the cars he had built over the years. The one he regretted having sold was the 1934 coupe. He couldn't remember the name of the person he sold the car to, only that he sold it complete for around $1800.00. Checking with other people I knew, I found the car had been sold to Reed Boullianne in Bethel. Reed drove the car at Waterford as the # 13. The car was sponsored by Charles Chips, this detail comes into play later in this story.

After Reed stopped driving the car it laid in his yard in Bethel for several years. At the time no one was interested in the car because it was out of date and no longer competitive. Reed sold the car to a guy named Jimmy Banks in Chelsey, N.Y. Jimmy was another enthusiast that loved the old modifieds. Jimmy had the car for awhile and tried to place it to a good home with no success. He told me he 
couldn't give the car away. No one was interested. This was around 1991. New England Antique Racers (NEAR) was a fairly new club and restoring the old cars hadn't caught on. He wound up selling the car along with another he had to a collector out in Ohio named Larry Rust. Larry had a fairly large collection of old race cars and was very well known. This is where I lost track of the car for several 
years. Larry Rust died and his collection was sold off at an auction. The 1934 coupe disappeared at that time.

This information took me at least 2 years to track down. Once the trail went cold I started hearing all kinds of stories . I heard the body had been used to build a street rod and the frame cut up and junked. I basically gave up on finding the car. I had no other leads to track down, as far as I was concerned the car was gone.Two years ago I got an email from someone I didn't know, his name was David Bentley. Dave was another guy, like me, who had restored his Dad's old modified down in Virginia.. At one of the shows he attended he had taken several pictures of a car he liked. The car was a 1934 coupe. Although Dave had never been to Danbury or knew much about the Racearena, he felt the car looked like it might be from this area. Through another friend he got my email address and sent me the pictures along with a message . When I opened the pictures I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I immediately pulled out my pictures of Chick's car and compared the two. Sure enough, the car still had the original rear bumper, the correct hood and several other features that made me believe it was the car. I contacted Dave and he gave me the name and phone number of the current owner.

I contacted the owner, his name is Mike Sykes and introduced myself. I asked him not to tell me anything about the car when he found it. I wanted to describe it to him. I told him my story and that the car when it last ran was a maroon and white #13 with Charles Chips as a sponsor. Mike said that was exactly how he got the car. He had bought it from a friend in Ohio, who had bought the car at the auction. Mike brought the car home and put it back together as a tribute to an old driver from his 
area. The car was now painted black with a white # 0 on the side. I showed Chick the pictures I had been sent and he also confirmed it was the car. He had used the hood off of a Pontiac GTO to fabricate the hood on the car. It made it very distinctive.

This was two years ago. Last year I went down to the North/South shootout race at Concord Motor Speedway in North Carolina. I had the opportunity to meet Mike and shoot pictures of the car. I told Mike that if he ever wanted to sell the car to please contact me. Well, last week he did. The car was for sale. My only problem, I have a son getting married in March and the money is going to that cause at this time. As I write this article, I am desperately trying to find someone to buy the car and bring it 
back to this area. If that doesn't happen, I have at least found the car and will continue to keep track of it through the next owner.

This car is probably the most historic and most popular car that ever raced at the Racearena. Now that it has been rediscovered, maybe some other lost treasures will been found in the same manner. Keep looking, they are out there.

Story by: Kevin Brown

After this story written, the car was purchased by Mike Flanagan who brought the car back to Danbury. As Mike passed the old Danbury Fairgrounds, he got off  I-84 and made a victory lap around the parking lot. The 151 is back home and will soon be restored back to its original look.