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Jack “Jackie” Jiarrusso
1913 - 1974
Jackie Jiarrusso in the Davis Hisso
This photo of the Davis Hisso was taken on opening day (May 31, 1948) at Heidelberg Raceway near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Frank Shoemaker of Benton, Illinois had been scheduled to drive the car in this CSRA sanctioned event but race day found local driver Jackie Jiarrusso behind the wheel. Jiarrusso won the 10-lap third heat race but dropped out of the 20-lap “Inaugural Sweepstakes” that was run before 23,863 fans – W. H. Smith photo
The Davis Hisso in 1947
Click your mouse on this photograph to see a slightly different view of this white car with green numbers and fitted with the Rogers & Tersinor Hisso engine – Jeff Adams collection
Jackie Jiarrusso with the Davis Hisso
Someone got their finger over the lens while they took this photo of Jackie Jiarrusso standing beside the Davis Hisso at Heidelberg Raceway near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the late 1940s– Deek Scott collection
The Davis Hisso in 1949
The driver shown in this photograph is believed to have been Fred Davis, son of car owner Ed Davis. If you know anything more about either of the drivers in these photographs, please contact Bob Lawrence.
The Davis Hisso Today
The 1949 IMCA registration tag on the dash lists Ed Davis as the owner of #69. It also has a 1937 CSRA registration tag on it that reads ‘Rogers & Tersinor Hisso special’. I am not sure if this was an original Tersinor car at one time and then later sold to his close friend Davis (Tersinor used to drive for Davis) or if Davis built the car and then installed Tersinor's Hisso. I would very much like to find that out along with the history after Davis sold it in, or around, 1952. Somewhere in its later days, someone fabricated special intake and exhaust manifolds for this Tersinor Hisso. Hissos were becoming obsolete so one last attempt at getting some additional horse power was tried. What this unknown person, or persons, did was to run the custom intake manifold on the exhaust side of the engine and vise versa with the custom exhaust manifold. The combination was to get the Hisso to "BREATH" better. The two-port exhaust can be clearly seen in this photo. Any information on this car, when, and who did the transformation would be greatly appreciated. It appears to be the only one of its type known to exist.
Click your mouse on the photo above to see several other photographs of this car taken in 2004 after it was restored by Jeff Adams. Adams had purchased the car from Elmer Duellman who had purchased it from Dick Saterdalen - All photos on this web page are from the Jeff Adams collection
