Racing Tales

It all started in 1964. Somebody, probably Dave Bridger, heard there was going to be a sports car race out in Wentzville. And so it was that we trekked out one Saturday. Due to mud and other factors no cars got on the track that day, but Sunday saw the first race at Mid-America Raceways.

Next I met John Egley, also known as "Little John" because he was about my size. His girlfriend and mine lived next door to each other. It developed that he raced a bug-eye Sprite so we became part of his pit crew. Also on Little John's crew were Bobby and Frank Eggers. That Sprite was subject of several good racing stories, including the one about the time John spun off course during the pace lap at Road America. The corner crew waved him back onto the pavement and he methodically worked his way through the field to finish first. John was the smoothest driver I have ever ridden with.

The Sprite was also the source of the legend of Grass-ti-gage, a paddock invention (also at Road America) and the subject of an impromptu song sung to the tune of a Ken-L Ration dog food ad -- but that's a story for another time.

Little John's racing circle included Dick Durant. Dick drove this home-built C-Modified (later ASR), welded up on a barn floor and powered by a small-block Chevrolet. Somehow Dick drove it at blinding speeds, so much so that at a Daytona Speedway USRRC race one year it attracted the attention and admiration of Denny Hulme and others on the McLaren team. But that, too, is a story for another time. I also have to write up the story of me, and Bernie's Formula Ford, and Dick Durant standing in the middle of Turn 1 at MAR.

That barn was part of "The Ranch" on Shackelford Road just west of New Halls Ferry. Another resident of The Ranch was "Big John" Martin, so named not only because he was twice the size of Little John, but also because of his ability to throw a recalcitrant floor jack several yards. Big John raced a Corvette and later was a mechanic and sometime driver for the AMC Javelin Trans-Am team. I remember the night Big John tuned my girlfriend's Corvette and then took me for ride on the back roads off Shackelford at what seemed like racing speeds -- on street tires. To this day I have no idea how he kept it out of the weeds. One night years later we got word that Big John was dropping in on a party at Dick's house. Sure enough, he soon appeared -- driving a huge open-sided car hauler with two or three AMC Javelin Trans-Am cars strapped on.

Other denizens of The Ranch included Fred Watkins; Bob Klempel, who the last I heard was restoring old train engines at the Museum of Transport; and John Hulsman, an aerodynamics engineer for McDonnell. It turned that the aerodynamic designs of supersonic aircraft did not scale down well to ground-based race cars powered by inline 6-cylinder Chevy engines.

Racing at MAR and crewing for Little John and Dick led to associations with Rick and Libby Ross, John and Loie Riehl, Dorsey Schroeder, and so on. Let it be known that Dorsey's skills as a driver and commentator are exceeded only by those as a boogie-woogie piano player -- yet another story for another time. Some where along the line Dave Bridger decided he wanted to race, too; and prepared a MiniCooper S. Of course, that meant he had to race against Jim Boehm -- no easy task. Friendship with Jim also led to friendship with Fred Splisgardt, who maintained a couple of my cars later on. Walt Kiwala also joined the Mini racers and is now a University Professor back east.

A fellow graduate student at Washington University, Boulter Kelsey, also started racing in a Sprite. That led to association with Ralph Tremaine, Mark Weber (first-rate racer and racing photographer), and with Bernie Sunier and his Sprite/Midget/Formula Ford/SAAB/Formula Atlantic successes.

In 1974 the regional SCCA publication "Wheelspin" was having some problems meeting its publication dates. In December 1974 I was roped into editing it and with endless help from Linda Armstrong, Ruth and Dave Bridger, Norb Butler, Carol Cohn, Gayle Carreiro, Ted Forster, Walt Kiwala, Jackie Licis, Pat Oder, Libby and Rick Ross, Bernie Sunier and others I have forgotten we managed to publish 13 issues in 12 months. A lot of great stories appeared therein, and Mike Cobine has scanned those issues (many thanks!) which will be indexed here, a month at time, for your amusement.

All of this took place long, long ago in a land far, far away; and the memory cannot always be trusted; so if you have any corrections (or new stories!) send them on to dan@landiss.com. More photos can be found at http://landiss.info/racing/.

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