1973 Grant King Sprint Racer
On loan from: Terry Klatt, Hastings, NE
Engine, etc.: 370 cid; 5/8” 030 Over Stroker; McGurk dry sump; Hillborn injectors; Vertex magneto; Hildebrand 3” Quick Change rear end
This car is a reproduction of the 1973 Grant King Sprint Racer and was constructed by Craig Hitchcock in 2009.
It had seven wins in a row at Knoxville.
Grant King, son of Chinese parents, was born in 1933 during the Great Depression. His parents moved to Victoria, British Columbia to seek a better life and he was born and raised there.
He became obsessed with race cars when young and learned the trade in his brother Len’s garage. When a customer brought in a sprint car for winter storage, he helped run the car.
He eventually built his own sprint car and a succession of better and faster cars in future years. He moved to Portland and worked with many drivers building sprint cars and as a mechanic.
Cars he built won championships with the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA), the U. S. Auto Club (USAC) and other outlaw circuits. They were driven by such well-known drivers as Mario Andretti, Al Unser Sr., A. J. Foyt, and many others.
Grant King was inducted into the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1994. He died in an automobile accident in Indiana in 1999.
Additional information:
https://www.motorsport.com/usac/news/grant-king-dies-in-traffic-accident/
http://victoriaautoracinghalloffameand museum.com/grant-king-1994-inductee (Scroll down to link.)
