THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG??? 

by Bobby Berry, editor, MultiMedia Racing Publications

    When I was a kid, my Dad always teased me with crazy little puzzling questions or statements which never made sense.  One of them was, "What came first, the chicken or the egg"?  Another was, "Don't wash your face with your gloves on" which meant, wash your hands before you wash your face), and last was this one: "Dirt never goes down".  He would never explain meanings, as he would always expect you to ponder and decide for yourself; which was nerve racking.  Well, in later years I learned that, "Dirt never goes down" meant that real estate is your best investment.  But the Chicken or the egg bit, I still haven't figured out to this day!  Well, for the purpose of this months insight article, I will refer to the Chicken as (the Dwarf Car), and the Egg as (the Legend Car).  I've heard discussions between people who swear that either their mother or their uncle invented one or both of these car concepts.  Finally, the mystery got to me, so I decided to investigate thoroughly.  Not only do I have the truth, but have verified it as gospel.  So here is how it all happened.  (the chicken and the egg) 

   In the early 1980s, a guy from the Phoenix area, decided to build himself a toy for fooling around in the desert areas of Phoenix.  His name was Ernie Adams.  This is when the Dwarf Car concept was born.  So, all you guys whose Mom's and Uncles invented the concepts; sorry, they were lying to you.  I know, Mom's don't lie.  Another guy by the name of Darren Schmoltz was Ernie's best friend.  By putting their minds together, the concept got better and better.  There was no intention to make a race car from this concept, but merely to beat about in the desert.  The cars they made were 5/8 scale (and they are still), but these guys were true geniuses in that the bodies they hand made were almost perfect replicas of the cars of the 30s and 40s.   In 1983, a fellow by the name of John Cain, a racer from Bowling Green, Ohio, who moved to Phoenix in 1963 to enjoy the sunny weather of the desert, joined in; kind of accidentally.  John, an ardent race fan and driver, showed up at Firebird circle track and saw, for the first time, six or seven of these little toy cars fooling around in the dirt.  John decided, "hey, this is the cat's whiskers", and bought one of the cars for $500.  The body was fascinating to John, but certainly not crude, however.  It was chain driven, and John said it looked like a "1937 something or other coupe", but couldn't really tell for sure.  John and his son Casey (yeah, another Casey Cain, but spelled differently) went to pick up the coupe.  Casey had a 79 Blazer with a removable top which he removed to put the car up on the Blazer to get it home.  When John and Casey pulled into the yard, John's wife Joan walked outside, and after studying what her son and husband had brought home, said, "Boys, what the hell is this?"  Naturally, John looked at Joan indignantly and said, "a race car".  Joan's reply was, "Oh, really", with a smirky little smile.  As time went by, John's knowledge of chassis and race car geometry with these 5/8 scale cars, in general, caused him to get together with Ernie Adams.  They became very good friends.  They began to build chassis and bodies out of mild steel.  So by about 1985 a guy by the name of John Proctor comes on the scene.  He decided that he wanted one of those desert toys, so Ernie helped John Proctor to build one from scratch.  Needless to say, "a Dwarf Car Company was born" with Ernie, John Cain, and John Proctor at the helm.  I'm sure that Joan must have said, "OH REALLY!!!" when she heard of the company formation.  The Dwarf Car Company became the first in the United States building these cars.  Through their insight, they saw a great way to revive the nostalgia of that era and, at the same time, turn these little guys into 'RACE CARS'.   They rented an old tin building in Tempe, Arizona (a town right next door to Phoenix).  Nobody beyond the borders of Arizona either knew of, or heard of such a concept car for racing.  John Cain then decided to get a racing class going at Manzanita Speedway, with the help of the other partners.  John's wife Joan told me that John was so obsessed with these little cars that he always had one in tow behind him, even if he went to the super market.  In his way, this was a method of getting people to look at it and ask, "What the Hell is that".  While Ernie and Darren were the absolute "Daddy's of the Dwarf Car", John Cain and John Proctor continued on after Ernie retired from the company in 1990 because it interfered with his real job, making John Cain and John Proctor the ongoing "Pioneers of Dwarf Cars", coming up with greater safety for racing concepts, so they would have a fast, cheap, and safe racecar, while protecting the integrity of the original body styles of that era.  To the two Johns, body styles that represented the era properly was their passion.  It had to be as perfect as possible.  As a matter of fact, I have one of their 35 Ford coupes that is so detailed, body wise, I kind of hate to race it.  So, the Dwarf Car Company shop began it's existence at 2418 W. Grant in Phoenix, where it exists today, and is run by the Cain's sons, Kevin and Casey.  Over the years, John Cain, Kevin, and Casey, have one track championships at Manzanita Speedway.  Kevin likes the mechanics of these cars and fabricates them from the ground up, while Casey keeps the books, pays the bills, and counts the money. (Watch him Kevin)!  Shortly after 1992, as John Cain was becoming very confident with his chassis geometry, he, Joan, and Kevin went to Daytona for Speed Week, taking one of his Dwarf Cars with him.  After Speed Week, they went on down to Hialeah, Florida to race their Dwarf.  By this time, Dwarfs were spreading around the country like the plague as John had shared his concept with others and sold several cars around the southwest.  Little did John and Kevin know that these guys were serious, however until they saw that soft compound race tires were being used, and modified engines to boot.  Kevin, seeing this said, "Wow, these guys are serious".  John said, "Lets get the chassis hooked up, borrow some tires, and kick their ass".  The rest is history.  Kevin did kick their butts, winning a trophy for fast time, and another for winning the main after starting from the back.  This became the very point at which John Cain became a pretty suborn guy.  After that, you never could convince John that power beyond "STOCK MOTORS" was the way to go.  John said to me, "Oh yeah, you'll probably get a little more speed out of the racing tire concept, but not enough to spend more than you have to in order to have inexpensive racing and fun while doing it".   He went on to say that a Street Tire would prevent people from going the wrong way with their engines. I asked John what he really learned that day.  He replied, "I learned that Kevin was a good driver, and that with proper skill, you could actually out duel the hotter cars by waiting for them to make mistakes.  John, a low budget racer himself in his hey day learned that you exercise patience and wait for mistakes.  John explains that, "it is not rocket science but a simple fact that these little motor cycle engines scream like an offy, and if you over-do it, you don't hook up, and hooking up is what racing is all about".  So, what does all this have to do with the Chicken and the Egg?  Well, I have that answer also.  The Legend Car definitely came after the Dwarf Car.  The Legend was the outgrowth of the Dwarf.  So I guess the Dwarf is the Chicken and the Legend is the egg.  Here's why....While Humpy Wheeler and Elliot Forbes Robinson are credited with the birth of the Legend, the basic concept of the Legend IS the Dwarf with a fancy fiberglass body that is also replica looking.  And, here is actually how it all came about.  Elliot Forbes Robinson called John Cain and asked him if he would bring or ship four chassis up to South Carolina to Kenny, Ronnie, and Donald Allison where the Allison boys were going to build the cars for them. John said he was thinking, "Wow, now we'll get our concept going nationally".  Well, that didn't happen.  Instead, the Allison boys took some close looks at the four Dwarfs that EFR bought, and thus,  the "FIRST LEGEND CAR" was born.  Later, EFR and Humpy formed their own company (the 600 club) and no longer needed the Allisons to build their cars.  Both cars are close cousins in that they are motor cycle powered, have 4 coil over shocks, and resemble the cars of the 30s and 40s.  The big difference however is that the Legends have bulging fenders over the tires, whereas the Dwarfs have no fenders.  John felt that fenders would hinder running on dirt, and besides, this is the way the stock cars ran back then.  The fenders fill up with mud and pick up excessive weight on dirt, so the Legends are, basically, an asphalt car, while the Dwarfs can run on either Asphalt or Dirt.  The main thing is that they both provide a relatively inexpensive form of racing, except for those tracks that continue to open the rules, and, they put on a heck of a show.  Nascar and Indy drivers love getting into them and having fun when they are at Vegas and Charlotte especially. The more you open the concept from stock to modified in any form of racing, the more costs are involved, which is perhaps the sad story of racing in general through the years.  So, when it comes to what came first the chicken or the egg, it was the Dwarf Car, and it came from Dwarf Car Company in Phoenix.  By the way, although John and Joan Cain have stepped away from the business to take care of their mules, which they dearly love, Kevin and Casey are actively engaged in the operation of the business.  This has been a family business for over 20 years and is the longest standing Dwarf Car family owned and operated business in the United States.  The gal who said, "Boys, what the hell is this" has actually been the glue in keeping her brew in place over the years, and deserves much credit for the company's long standing.  During the November 2004 Nascar Race at PIR, Tom Busch, Kurt's Dad, visited with John Cain at his shop to revive old times.  Eleven years ago, Tom was a distributor for John's cars, and Kurt (at 15 years old) won Rookie of the year back then in a Cain car (now called Hurricain Chassis).  Eleven years later, Kurt wins the Nascar Championship through hard work and determination.   I therefore respectfully submit the following Innovators and Pioneers into the Final Lap Hall of Fame for their courage and hard work in developing one of the most sensible forms of racing in the country:  Ernie Adams, Darren Schmoltz, John Proctor, John Cain, and Joan Cain.  Here's hoping you had great seasons holidays and that you enjoyed this issue of "Racing Insight".  As I always advise, race hard, race safe, and as long as you can drive the car up on the trailer after the race, your night was a success.

Bobby Berry.