There was a time in the late '40s and early '50s when hundreds of people from all over the San Joaquin Valley would gather. The crowd would collect early, despite mosquitoes, heat, dust and the ragged din of racing engines. The place was the Tulare Thunderbowl, a quarter-mile clay race track about five miles south of town on which some of the best car-racing drivers in the country raced. In the early days of the track, they hosted midget races, and it gained a reputation as one of the best tracks in the country. A hot racer on the midget circuit in those days could go straight to the Indianapolis 500, Billy Sr., Johnnie Parsons, Rodger Ward, Bobby Ball and other big time drivers raced there. Later, when midgets became less popular with the crowd, jalopy racing came in, and with the-slam bang jalopies came more local drivers and sponsors and a large following. The crowds loved it. The Thunderbowl jalopy racing was billed in advertisements as “Mayhem on Wheels.” Newspaper stories talked of drivers with nicknames like "Stroker", "Fly Boy," and "Alley Oop." This track in the middle of the California farm belt would launch the career of our next inductee, Allen "Ally Oop" Adkins, this young kid fresh from military duty, was described in the in an article in Jalopy Racing News dated September 3rd 1950 as “driving his Floyd Gibson Ford Special Number 4 with usual skill and daring, captured the main event of the Jalopy Races at the Tulare Thunderbowl Saturday night. It was his fourth consecutive victory in main events at the Thunderbowl. Alley Oop would win over 30 main events at that ¼ -mile bullring, and he was soon racing Stock Cars against the best the west had to offer. His first stock car race came at Bay Meadows in 1954 where he finished 4th in a 1954 Dodge Red Ram, ending up 7th overall in the Pacific Coast Late Model Championship that year. In ‘55 he finished second driving a ‘55 Dodge for the Charlie Vanco Trucking Lines team. In 1956 Allen raced factory backed Dodge’s for Philadelphia Automobile dealer Tom Harbason with good friend and 2001 West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame inductee Danny Letner, They went East to race in the NASCAR Convertible and Grand National Divisions, returning home to the West coast when they could. The following description comes from a 1956 program from Ascot Speedway and describes the hard charging.
Big Adkins, a quite well liked fellow in the pits, was one of the roughest stock car in the Trophy Dash, when starting from the rear (with an inverted start) Adkins could circle the entire field in a grueling race.”
His driving style would be compared to Curtis Turner, Fireball Roberts and Dale Earnhardt. Allen was described by most as a real down to earth genuine nice guy with a huge smile. He would win close to 10 championship NASCAR races in his career and more than 50 in jalopy and modified races as well.
Retiring from driving in the early ‘60s he would become involved in the auto parts business and later gained added success as a garbage company owner.
Pictures of Ron Ail Needed
RON AIL
The truth is, Ron Ail never was that interested in cars.
Nonetheless, when he first saw the crowd go nuts at a demolition derby, the wheels in his head started turning.
Ail was born a promoter - a wheeler-dealer who loved negotiating a deal that would make a buck, and after a half-decade of putting on everything from The Beatles concerts to midget car races, he is being inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame.
"I never looked to be a hero," said Ail, who moved to Salem in the early 1960s to manage Salem Speedway. "The only thing you look for, that's money. Anybody who says anything different, they're a liar."
He got his opening because his father was so successful as a concessionaire that he became the owner of some of the racetracks where he peddled hot dogs and beer.
"Dad had concessions all over God's acres - he had all the grandstand concessions at the Oregon State Fair - and at one time he was the fourth-largest concessionaire on the West Coast," Ail said.
Paul Ail reluctantly allowed Ron Ail to get his foot in the door putting on demolition derbies at Portland Speedway.
"I'd seen demolition derby back East, I wanted to try putting one on, but my folks didn't really want me to do it," Ail said, grinning. "It didn't look good for a nice Jewish boy to be promoting that kind of stuff."
Eventually he was promoting every kind of motor sports race or exhibition he could get his hands on.
Tim Meyer, publisher of Racing News West and president of the West Coast Hall of Fame board of directors, credits Ail - and others like him - with laying the foundation for what allowed NASCAR to become such an outrageously popular sport.
"Our history in the West is so rich," Meyer said. "We had a community of legitimate people who had jobs but wanted to race stock cars, and they weren't just a bunch of bootleggers having a good time. Ron was promoting in the Northwest and was one of the good guys, but NASCAR got its start because drivers were tired of going to races and getting ripped off. They had to watch for promoters promising a $500 purse, then slipping out the back door before the race was done."
"Ron was one of those guys who appreciated the drivers coming to his races, and he made sure they had money going home," Meyer said. "If you came to his race and broke down, couldn't race, he'd come over and talk to you and make sure you had 50 bucks in your pocket. He always paid his purses, supported stock car racing when it was tough to draw spectators, and he always took care of the people who took care of him."
Meyer added: "As I get more entrenched into this, talking to guys from that era, this is one guy I've never heard anything bad about.
"He was interested in keeping stock car racing going when a lot of promoters weren't. That's why he's being inducted."
Ail came home from the Navy in 1947 and thinks he promoted his first demolition derby in 1952. He's 78, and dates are becoming difficult for him to remember. His father eventually owned interests in Portland Speedway, Janzten Beach Arena and Hollywood Bowl, which became Salem Speedway.
"There were no safety rules back then, and cars were hitting and going up in the grandstand," Ail said. "The state eventually came up with rules, but we did it ourselves before it became law, saying we better control things because cars were all over the racetrack. When we first started getting the word out, we turned away 75 percent of the drivers because their cars were dangerous."
He remembers a hardtop race at Salem Speedway in which Wild Bill Hyde and Carl Joiner had a horrendous crash.
"They got mixed up in Turn 1, a steeply banked turn, and Hyde's car tapped Joiner, and he went 65 feet up and landed in the women's restroom," Aid said. "It wasn't funny. Two ladies were injured, and we eliminated that kind of activity and we changed the track."
He said: "I cleaned the sport up and tried to give people a decent show in a decent facility. A lot of safety things were improved, and we put in decent rest rooms, decent parking and concessions. I improved all that."
Nevertheless the Salem track, near Interstate 5 off Portland Road, eventually went out of business and houses are being built over it.
Although he's slowed down, Ail still is working on a half dozen events this year, including a July 2 demolition derby at the Harvest Festival grounds in Sublimity. His Custom Car and Speed Show at the state fairgrounds in January will be the 25th annual event.
So why did a guy who virtually never has been under the hood of a car get so interested in promoting auto-related events instead of, say, concerts?
"Oh, I promoted a lot of different things besides racing," Ail said. "I promoted The Beatles at the Oriental Theater in Portland way back when they started. I had the Grateful Dead, way back. There were a lot of bands like that that were available, but to get them at the right price, you had to have several dates for them, you know, like a date in Portland, one in Washington and a couple in California. I did that, promoting shows back-to-back, and it worked out pretty good."
Most of the Oregon concerts were at what is now PGE Park, formerly Multnomah Stadium and later Portland Civic Stadium.
"That's the place to do it. It's big time, with all those seats, all that room and the concessions," Ail said. "Parking's kind of soft, but other than that, the place was great."
But not every concert went off swell.
"I had Elvis booked, and he screwed me around," Ail remembers. "I wanted him to come in for some promotions, but he kept stalling, then he was supposed to come in the day of the concert. So I go to the airport, and no Elvis. I go to the counter, and he's left a message: he got ill, he won't be making it.
"I got somebody halfway decent to fill in for him, but I had to offer people their money back if they wanted it. We'd sold 23,000 tickets, and 19,000 to 20,000 of them took the refund."
He says he had a similar experience with a singer - he was trying to remember the name - "No, not Sinatra. I had Frank here three times, in Portland and Salem," Ail said. "This one was Neil Diamond, and he wanted to change the parameters two days before the show. You get to hating them so much you forget their names, but I sued his hind end and I won."
Ail promoted boxing - his biggest contract was for closed-circuit telecasts up and down the West Coast - and a few pro wrestling matches.
"I used to put on these exotic car things, auto daredevil kinds of things, where cars fly up over walls," he said. "If you have a good show, you can pack the place."
He shakes his head when asked what's the attraction of demolition derby and such.
"Crash 'em, smash 'em," he said, crushing his fist into the palm of the other hand. "That's basically it, taking a car and seeing it get the heck beat out of it."
The toughest part of the promotion business?
"Tell the newspaper the truth," Aid said. "You have to tell the truth, and that's hard to do. They want to know who'll be there, and sometimes you don't know, but if you tell them nothing, it won't attract a gate. Sometimes you can't answer because one driver is waiting for me to buy them to come. And if I did it to one, then I'd have to start paying the others."
He said he learned to be careful. He was close friends with Rolla Vollstedt, who built Indy cars as well as cars for local races, "but if Len Sutton sees me having dinner with Rolla, then he thinks he has to watch out, maybe I'm telling the flagman to take it easy on Rolla's driver.
"I tried to get certain drivers together to make that war a little softer, but that never worked. They got greedy and went out and made fools of themselves."
Sutton, a Portland native who not only drove in Ail's races but was second in the 1962 Indianapolis 500, also will be inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame. Sutton and Pacific Northwest racing legend Herschel McGriff were the two most famous drivers to race at Ail's tracks.
"But I can't say I ever was friends with the drivers, because that's not a fact," Ail said. "You had to be so careful not to play favorites, and at times they made me so damn mad."
ERNIE IRVAN
Like many drivers, our next inductee into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame was a second-generation driver, and began his racing career in 1968 racing Go Karts near his Salinas, California Home, winning the California State Championships at the age of 15. In 1975 Ernie moved up to stock cars when he turned 16, winning his very first race on asphalt - a semi-main at Stockton 99 Speedway. He was soon regularly winning main events at local tracks In Stockton and Madera. By 1981 he had moved up to the Winston West Series, and was doing well but he knew to follow his dream he had to move east to North Carolina.
With just $700 in his pocket, and everything that he owned loaded into his pickup and a home made trailer, he headed East. With his sights set on the Winston Cup Series, he worked as a welder make ends meet, and waited for his big break. As the often-told story goes, his work included welding grandstands at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, unloading Ken Schrader’s moving van, building Racecars, and endless odd jobs. At the same time, he never missed a chance to talk, prod, wheedle, pester - whatever it took to get himself into a Winston Cup car. Meanwhile he won nine races driving in the late model series at the Concord (NC) Speedway.
Ernie made his debut in what is now the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series in 1987, notching a top-10 finish in one of two starts he made for Marc Reno that year. He was soon behind the wheel of the D.K Ulrich entry, and gaining a lot of attention with his hard-charging style of driving. By 1990, he was driving for Morgan-McClure and his first win came later that year at Bristol. He opened the following season by winning the Daytona 500.
After making the jump to Robert Yates Racing in 1993, Ernie’s career continued to skyrocket. The following year he found himself in the hunt for the championship, trailing the late Dale Earnhardt by just 27 points in the standings as the series headed to Michigan in August. His season ended there, however, as he was severely injured in an accident during practice. Doctors initially gave him 10 percent chance of surviving. Ernie was hospitalized several weeks and made what many consider a miraculous recovery. He battled back and after a 14-month layoff made his return to the series at North Wilkesboro on October 1, 1995. Ernie scored two top-10 finishes in three races that fall. He went on to win three more times, with his most memorable victory coming in 1997 at Michigan, where he had been so severely injured. Ernie’s return to competition came to an end in 1999, however, when another crash during practice eventually forced him to retire. Ernie concluded his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series career with 15 victories, 22 career pole positions, 68 top-five finishes and 124 top-10 finishes. Along the way, he topped $11 million in career earnings. Some of the many honors he has received over the years include:
Super Ford Driver of the Year 1993, Mike Rich Memorial Award 1994, Selected as one of NASCAR’s top 50 drivers of all time, inducted into the national Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2002 and was named by MSNBC Top Ten Greatest Sports Comebacks of all time.
Retirement has not slowed Ernie down, however. Although he was initially involved with some race teams, Ernie now concentrates more of his time on his foundation, Race2safety. He founded it as a means of promoting awareness and prevention of head injuries, especially among children.
He also stays busy with his wife, Kim, and daughter Jordon and son Jared. To induct Ernie into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, please welcome to the stage Jack McCoy.
FLOYD JOHNSON
When World War II ended, our next inductee, Floyd Johnson, began racing early hard tops and modifieds around the Southern California area. His driver was a local hotshot named Jim Cook, and soon after, the team started winning races and track championships, With that success the team joined the Pacific Coast Late Model Series, the forerunner of the NASCAR Grand National West Series, in 1956. Floyd Johnson and Jim Cook, with help from Pontiac, finished that first season in 7th place. By 1960 they had switched to Dodges and found the winning combination, with their biggest win coming September 11, 1960 at the famed 1-mile dirt track at the California State Fair Grounds. That day they battled the factory Holman and Moody Ford Thunderbird of Scotty Cain and won in classic style.
Never known as a team with a big racing budget, they never were able to win a championship but had many race wins over 3 decades and were always in the top ten. After Cook was critically injured at Riverside International Raceway in January 1970, Johnson switched gears and went back to the sportsman divisions with drivers Chuck Becker, Bill Spencer, Rich Becker and into the ’80s with Bob Forester. His cars ruled Orange Show Speedway in the ’70’s, and did well whereever they ran - Dirt or asphalt didn’t matter. He also became the Tech Director for the now Grand National West Series and did that job for a Number of years. Floyd passed away a few years ago but will always be remembered as a tough competitor who raced hard but fair. Here to present the award to Floyd’s long time partner and wife, Gussie, is his Board President Tim Meyer.
LEON RUTHER
Ron Hornaday Sr. would say, "If you could get a car to handle at Saugus Speedway, you could get one to handle anywhere." Leon Ruther began his forty-plus years racing career at this historic, flat, 1/4 mile, paved oval, in Insolo, Bill Sedgwick, PJ Jones, Dan Press, Roman Calczyuaski, Hershel McGriff, Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace and Jimmy Insolo would all drive Leon Ruther prepped cars at some point. Teamed with the Spears manufacturing team, with Bill Sedgwick as driver, they would finish second to 5-time Winston West champion Bill Schmitt in 1989, and then again in 1990, losing by a mere 1 point, the closest finish in West Series History.
Overall Leon would win track championships, a Southwest Series championship with Roman Calczynski, and over 25 Grand National races. In 1994 he was crew chief for the DieGuard Craftsman Truck Series entry , first for PJ Jones and later for Dan Press. He is still active to this day, working with MK Kanke in the Auto Zone Elite Division Southwest Series. Here to present Leon Ruther his Hall Of Fame award is his good friend and Hall of fame inductee Jimmy Insolo.
LEN SUTTON
Most racing fans remember Len Sutton for his second place finish behind Rodger Ward in the 1962 Indianapolis 500, or his six other appearances in the 500, but up in the Pacific Northwest Sutton is remembered as a whale of stock car driver. One we are proud to induct into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame. Len will be 80 in two weeks and he's not getting around much, preferring to stick close to home in Lake, Oregon, so he won't be with us tonight. Except in spirit, and let me tell you, that spirit is indomitable.
When he was 20, Sutton decided he wanted to drive a race car. In his first try, on a little dirt track near his home, he spun out on the first turn of the lap. He always said that was a good lesson, it taught him that racing was not as easy as it
looked. From that day on, though, he just made it look easy. Always known as a man who was easy on his equipment, and with a record as a finisher, he won championships in the Oregon Racing Assn. in 1949, 1950, 1954and 1955. A versatile driver, he also won midget championships for Portland car owner Rolla Volstedt before heading East toward the more lucrative national circuit, where he was a winner for Ray Nichels in late model stock cars. As you all know, racing was different back then. Drivers wore T-shirts and flimsy helmets, and drove cars with skinny tires and no roll bars. Sutton had his share of scares.
In 1954, during the Mexican road race, Len careened into a ravine trying to avoid a small herd of cattle. That put him in a full body cast for four months. Two years later Sutton was at Indy for the first time and flipped during practice while trying to make 140 mph. He landed upside down with his helmet scrapping the asphalt for nearly 1,000 feet. In the Indianapolis News the following day, it said, "Sutton was at first believed dead by observers on the scene." He had a skull fracture, broken shoulder and serious abrasions over his back. A year later he was back and qualified for his first 500. In 1964 he was not injured but the had the scariest moment of his career when he drove through the inferno that killed Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs. "I guess it wasn't my time," he said of that experience. If this sounds like he was always in an accident, that's not true. It is meant to show that he was a survivor, a man who could go as fast as the next guy, but who rarely made foolhardy moves. As he told Paul Buker of the Portland Oregonian recently, "If I was in good equipment, I was one of the guys who would be running right up front. But I wasn't the boldest driver out there, because I didn't take that many chances. Some of the guys didn't mind banging wheels. I wasn't that aggressive. I wanted to finish every race." That philosophy kept him racing for 20 years, winning at every level, before he made up his mind to quit during a race at treacherous old Langhorne in 1965. That was the race where Mel Kenyon was severely burned. Len Sutton is still a survivor. Lung cancer, prostate surgery and a heart attack may have slowed him some, but not enough to keep him from rooting for Danica Patrick this year in the 500.
"I wanted to send her a telegram, letting her know that qualifying fourth isn't that bad because I qualified fourth the year I finished second," Lenny said. "But she wouldn't know me from a bale of hay." We do, though, and it's an honor to have Hershel McGriff, another Oregonian Hall of Fame of Fame member, here to accept the award for Len Sutton. Come on up Hershel..
MARION COLLINS
Our next inductee into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame is the patriarch of a racing family who built and has operated one of the nation’s top short tracks for nearly 30 years. The hard work and dedication by Marion Collins and his family has kept Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, California in the racing spotlight since it opened in 1977. Marion’s career in racing involved more just operating a race track, however, and he has been A very big part of the community of Bakersfield and Kern County.
Marion was born in Vernon, Texas. His family moved to California when he was little and by the time he was a teenager, Bakersfield had become home. He met his lovely wife Shirley and they married in 1956. By 1962, Marion and his brother, Frank, were in the tire business as co-owners of Oildale Tire. It was not long before Marion and his brothers decided to go racing. Although his younger brother, Pete, was initially going to drive, Marion ended up getting behind the wheel. Each year they would load up and head to Ontario Motor Speedway or Riverside International Raceway for the NASCAR Grand National Division combined event. Marion did not focus all his racing effort just in the Grand National Division, however. He also raced closer to home, and in 1974 won the championship in the mini stock division at Bakersfield Speedway.
Marion eventually became involved in plans to build and operate a new speedway in Bakersfield. Although the initial partnerships changed, with his brother’s help, Marion forged ahead to purchase the land and begin carving out a high-banked, half-mile track in the wide open foothills east of town. And in 1977, Mesa Marin Raceway held its first race. The track quickly developed, and was soon known as a major racing facility on the West Coast.
During its 28 seasons, Mesa Marin Raceway has been a popular stop on the schedule of various racing circuits – including the NASCAR Grand National Division, West Series, which has visited 44 times since 1977 and the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series, which has visited 61 times since its inaugural season of 1986.
Mesa Marin is also considered the birthplace of NASCAR’s newest national series – the NASCARCraftsman Truck Series. Marion and Shirley’s oldest son, Gary, built the first prototype truck in his shop adjacent to the track, and the first of four exhibition races took place on July 30, 1994 at Mesa Marin Raceway. The track, which served as a regular stop for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series through 2003, even attracted major national television coverage with ABC’s Wide World of Sports.
Not to be overlooked, however, is the weekly NASCAR racing program at Mesa Marin Raceway, which continues to feature some of the most exciting short track action in the country. Nationally known stars that have emerged after winning championships there are Kevin Harvick and Rick Carelli.
The race track has continued as a family-run operation – with Marion serving as the owner and president; Shirley overseeing the office and Administration and their younger son, Larry, serving as the vice president and general manager. The track has been heavily involved in numerous programs in the local community, and Marion and his staff have received many awards in recognition of their involvement and hard work. Marion was inducted into the Bob Elias Kern County Hall of Fame in 2002 for his community involvement. The Bakersfield City Schools Foundation awarded Marion and Mesa Marin Raceway the Community Partner Award in 1999, and the Greater Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce has awarded two “Beautiful Bakersfield” Awards to Mesa Marin for its role in economic development for the Bakersfield area. Among the many local programs at the track is the high school racing series which began in 1997. The program started with one school and grew to include a dozen teams in five school districts. The program received much recognition, including the 2000 Community Service Award from NASCAR. During its 28 years, the track has been involved in many, many other programs in support of the local community, as well.
It was with great sadness that we learned last month that 2005 would be the final year of operation for Mesa Marin Raceway. The property where the track is located has been sold. It was also announced that Marion would be retiring at the end of the year. Considering everything that he has accomplished, it is a well-deserved retirement. Of Course, anybody who knows Marion, may wonder if he will really ever slow down.
We are glad to have Marion and Shirley Collins with us tonight, and we are glad to have this opportunity to thank them for of their hard work and their contributions to our sport. And now to make Marion’s induction into the West Coast Stock Car Hall Of Fame, Please welcome to the Stage his son, Larry Collins.
HARRY SCHILLING Although Harry Schilling was a driver at the very top level of the stock car racing sport, he’s better known as a promoter. But let’s talk about Schilling’s three years dabbling in Cup racing. He raced three events in 1971, three in 1972 and 1 in 1973, for a total of 874 laps and 1,654.2 miles, according to racing-reference.com. And he earned a whopping $6,799 for the seven races. Although most of those races were in California, at Riverside’s road course, he also ran in the Delaware 500 in 1972.
Harry lives in Northern California and made his money with Oakland Auto & Truck Rental, before Hertz and company took over the rental car business. He lived in the Oakland hills and got interested in racing after World War 2. He owned cars that Johnny Soares drove. Really good cars. He had Fords and Oldsmobile 88s. He won Bay Meadows, numerous races on the high wall at Oakland. He owned Oakland Speedway. He’d show up there in a Cadillac convertible with the top down in the summertime.
He was the Roush and Hendricks and Childress of his day. He also owned midgets that ran indoors at the old Oakland Exposition.
Harry now lives at Discovery Bay part of year and Palm Springs part of the year.
Schilling was a dapper guy. He wore tailored slacks and Italian shoes before their time. He was a man of his word and highly respected. He put some real money into the sport. He and a partner owned West Capital Speedway. After that, he disappeared. His son showed up a few years later and ran Pacific Coast Late Models – later Winston West.
Selector Ken Clapp says, "He was on my very first draft" for the Hall of Fame, and I’m pleased that he’s been elected.
DICK MEYER
Driver, car owner and potential superstar, Dick Meyer competed in NASCAR’s earliest days. Born and raised in Porterville, Meyer owned Sniffin & Meyer Auto body. The family owned a mortuary. The #98 Burgundy Mercury that he, Marvin Panch and Hershel McGriff drove was partially sponsored by the mortuary.
He won at Bay Meadows on the mile, Carrell Speedway in a Hudson in ‘52 and the high wall at Oakland. He also won on on the mile at San Jose. Danny Letner was a teammate. He won a race at Reno once and several others.
Ken Clapp said, “He knew how to win races. He’d come up through the roadster and jalopy ranks. I’d rate him as a Jimmy Johnson. Meyer could be rough. He was no pussycat. In his total career in Cup from ’49 until his death, he won about a dozen races.
“He did so many things in his short time and the future was so bright for him. If he’d have been around for a few more years, he’d have been as well known as Joe Weatherly. He climbed in sprint cars and won and set records in sprints. He wanted to go to Indy. Back then, that was the “big gee,” you didn’t have the Daytona 500. He drove a Hudson only three times and he won all three races. We went to Daytona in ’52 and he ran the beach in one of the first beach races and he had a bad deal with Ford and that’s when he quit and went full time with Chrysler on the Plymouth deal and he was Plymouth’s “golden boy” and he was ahead of Lee Petty in the pecking order when everything came to an end.”
He did not win a championship, likely because he didn’t really pursue a championship. From the west coast, in those days, the fast guys would go to Phoenix or Portland.
When he began racing he was driving Mercury’s. Later he drove Hudson Hornets and Dodges. He won the bulk of his races in V8 Dodges in 1953. He finished 4th at Darlington that year in a Hudson. He also had great success in Oldsmobile’s. He was a teammate to Marvin Panch. He was #1 and Panch #2.
Dick Meyer Jr. said that his dad “gave Marvin Panch his start. Mom asked if he’d lost his mind. He had a factory Mercury ride then. Marvin and him were buddies and Marvin was trying to dig up a motor.”
It is said that only the good die young and in Dick Meyer’s case, it’s literally true. A Porterville, California native, Meyer was killed in his race car, not on the race track, but on the way home to California from Darlington in 1954. In those days, it was not uncommon to pull the tape off the headlights and drive the race car home from the track.
Outside Henderson, Nevada, Meyer and his crew got stopped by the police chief and went with him into town. The police chief knew a bit about racing and thought Meyer might have an idea of how to fix up his police cars to make them faster. The Chief of Police’s son had a Red Ram V8 and challenged Dick to a race on the highway. Meyer said OK and the chief said, “when we get done we are going to keep right on going and thanks for the info on shocks and springs.”
Unfortunately, Meyer hit a bridge abutment and he and his two crew members were killed, but Meyer’s legacy didn’t stop with his passing.
His grandchildren now work for Richard Childress in the fabrication shop. Dick Meyer Jr., who’s here tonight, makes his home in Troutman, NC. Adam Meyer is also here. He did all the aerodynamic work on Earnhardt’s Daytona and Talladega deal. Meyer Jr. scratch-built cars for A.J. Foyt and worked with Jr. Johnson. “{I’ve been in victory circle at Daytona,” he said. Of his father, Meyer Jr. said, “He left a heritage.
“I came back [to the Southeast] in the mid-seventies and I didn’t realize how many people still remembered him. It really amazed me how many people remembered my dad and told me good things about him.
Photo's needed
TOM HAMILTON During the mid-60s, stock car racing had started changing. As the speeds increased, the need for specialized parts purposely made for the rigors of racing were in demand. A few of the teams made some of their own, but most could only modify what they had. In 1969, Tom Hamilton, a local Southern California racer saw that need and started a small company called “Stock Car Products.” The company opened for business in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., Soon the majority of NASCAR Grand National Series regulars were running his spindles, hubs, steering arms and rear end housings. The company later added brakes, shocks and steering components to it's catalog. To racers, Waiting for the new SCP catalog to come out was kinda like mom waiting for the new Sears catalog to appear. In 1973 the demand for Stock Car Products had spread across the country selling to customers like Hutcherson-Pagan, Banjo Mathews, Tiger Tom Pistone and Virginia racer Emanuel Zervakis. Zervakis, who was Stock Car Products biggest customer, became the East Coast distributor in the spring of 1973.
With a two-coast operation, Stock Car Products soon grew into one of the largest suppliers of racing parts and chassis in the United States.
Tom was also a successful car owner fielding rides for the likes of Hershel McGriff, Jimmy Insolo, Timmy Williamson, Follmer, Ivan Baldwin, Tom Maier, Terry Bivens, Ron Esau, Jim Cook, Rusty Sanders and Vince Giamformaggio. Tom Hamilton was truly in the big leagues when he ran the Daytona 500 two times with drivers Timmy Williamson and Rusty Sanders. In the ‘70's Tom and Vince Giamformaggio won what was then the biggest stock car race on the west coast. A $10,000 to win feature at Speedway 605 pitted the Stock Car Products team with Tom Hamilton as the crew chief against drivers such as Ivan Baldwin, Larry Phillips, Joe Ruttman and Freddy Fryer. By 1988 Hamilton was ready to retire. What had as a hobby had turned into a multi-million dollar business, and Tom's son Steve spun off a division of SCP and continues to supply racers with high quality race car dry sump systems. Emanuel Zervakis purchased Stock Car Products from Tom and moved the company to the east coast. Since the purchase, SCP has steadily added to its inventory and now stocks over 7500 racing parts and components.
Tom has been married to wife Sheila for over 45 years and in addition to their son Steve, Tom and have a daughter, Sherry, and are now proud grandparents.
Here tonight to present to Tom’s son, Steve Hamilton is current Grand National West Team owner and a long time Friend Joe Nava
RICHARD ELDER
In 1966, a team of racers, consisting of neighbors, relatives and farmers from the Fresno area, showed up on the NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model Circuit with a used Dodge that they purchased from Jack McCoy’s team. No one gave them much thought at the first race, which was at Stockton, however, the very next week at Ascot they won their first of 47 victories, second on the all-time Grand National West Series win list. The driver was Ray Elder, but the piece of the puzzle that made it all work was Ray’s brother Richard. Richard Elder as crew chief, crafted a bunch of friends and farmers into the “Racing Farmers” from Caruthers, California. This team was just plain good everywhere they went. In 1971 and again in 1972 Ray Elder won the Winston Cup Race at Riverside International Raceway aboard Richard Elder prepared cars. Not only did the driver win on the track, the team led by Richard, won in the pits as well. Their pit stops ran like a well oiled machine, catching the Southern NASCAR regulars completely by surprise. The west teams could run with the “good ole boy’s” on the track, but never before had they been beaten in the pits. When they went to Daytona, Richard Elders group of guys were a top-ten team and in the hunt all day long. Dirt tracks, road course, super speedways or short asphalt ovals made no difference to Richard, the set-up was always right-on, giving Ray the advantage in his powerful Dodges. It was unlikely that anyone would ever win six titles as a team on the west coast, but Richard and his brother Ray,
and those racing farmers from Caruthers, did just that; 1969, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’74, and ’75. Interrupted only in 1973 by Jack McCoy. For eleven years, Richard’s team ranked in the top three in championship standings. Along the way, he won the “NASCAR Mechanic of the Year Award” six times.
Richard Elder passed away July 20, 1997 at the Tender age of 56. At this time I would ask Hall of Fame member Jack McCoy to come forward and present his award to Richard’s nephew Kendal Elder.
VEL MILETICH
Vel was born in 1925 in Lead, South Dakota, the only son of Yugoslavian immigrants. Moving to Southern California with his parents, Vel graduated from high school in Torrance, California, and served in the Pacific Theater in WW l l as an aerial photographer with the US Army Air force.
Upon returning from the service, Vel entered the car business at Oscar Maples Ford running that dealership, and in 1954 he was able to buy his own Ford dealership in his home town of Torrance. He learned early on while working at Maples that the motto “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” was the way to sell cars. It didn’t take him long to have a winning team, Hall of fame members Scotty Cain, Eddie Gray, Marvin Porter and the legendary Parnelli Jones all drove the Vel’s Fords. From the mid-fifties through the late sixties the Vel Miletich Ford team ruled west coast stock car racing, running as many as 3 cars and winning over 30 main events. Winning races helped make Vel’s one of the leading Ford Dealerships, In nearly thirty years of existence, Vel’s Ford won several national sales awards, and set several Southern California sales records for the Ford Motor Company.
One of his drivers was Torrance’s Parnelli Jones who later with Vel’s support, would win the 1963 Indianapolis 500 and become a racing legend. The relationship with Parnelli grew to the extent that they soon became business partners. Parnelli Jones Enterprises was formed in 1964 by Vel Parnelli and Marvin Porter. Under his guidance as chairman of the board, in a few years the business grew from a single local tire store to over 45 retail locations, three wholesale warehouses and a racing tire distributorship in a multi-state area.
In 1967 Vel brought Parnelli Jones on board as a partner in his successful Ford Dealership where it operated continually until the mid eighties when Vel decided to semi-retire. At about the same time, Vel and Parnelli formed what was to become one of the most formidable auto racing teams in that era. In a span of less that ten years, their race cars won back to back Indianapolis 500’s, five USAC championships and victorious in a total of 53 Indy car races with 100 top three finishes.
Through Vel’s leadership the team was the first to introduce several innovative racing systems, from quick release refueling and venting, the first Cosworth Formula One engine turbo-charged for Indy car use, and in car radio use, Vel’s was the best and his drivers were also, Mario Andretti, Kevin Cogan, A.J. Foyt, Joe Leonard, Danny Ongias and Al Unser.
Let’s welcome to the stage, Parnelli Jones, who will present the award to Vel’s wife Ljepa.
ROBERT ESTES
Following military service in WW II, the next inductee built one of the most well known Automobile dealerships In the country during the ‘50s. After securing the Lincoln-Mercury dealership franchise in Inglewood, California and while keeping an eye on his new business, Bob Estes quickly became involved in various Automobile racing endeavors. His prominence in the sport was achieved by virtue of the total commitment he made to automobiles and
automobile racing. In time, his racing pursuits encompassed virtually every aspect of the sport. His participation included midgets, sprint cars, Indy champ cars, hill climbs, timed runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats, the Mexican Road Races, the Mobile Gas Economy run and of course, west coast stock car racing.
In 1948 Estes, in partnership with Conrad Weidel, he entered his first car in championship competition at Indy, a Mercury-powered flathead. That same year he started his long association in stock car racing with California driver Bill Taylor, winning the Pacific Coast stock car title in an “Estes” entry. Estes sponsored or owned cars driven by Pacific Coast Late Model Champion and Hall of fame inductee Eddie Gray and many other top drivers. The name Bob Estes Special or Estes Lincoln Mercury painted on the side of any race car told fellow competitors that this was the team to beat. In short, Bob Estes raced to win and everyone new it.
The high profile provided by the appearances at so many motor sports events generated a great deal of publicity.
But Bob’s entry into automobile racing was not only driven in order to promote his business, but rather to provide him an outlet for a deeply ingrained love of auto racing. Estes was also responsible in starting the racing careers of Jud Phillips and A.J. Watson two of Indy’s most famous crew chiefs and car builders of the 60’s. Estes was a quiet, soft spoken individual who possessed a wide, boyish smile and soft eyes.
Bob Estes passed away in 2001 at the age of 88. Here to present his hall of fame induction award to his son Dale is Walt James whose brother Joe James was one of Bob’s first open wheel drivers and who was killed in his prime at San Jose while leading in November of 1951.
Sam Hanks died on June 27, 1994 at the age of 79.
SAM HANKS
At first blush it might seem a bit strange to be inducting the great open wheel driver Sam Hanks into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame. His popular 1957 win in the Indianapolis 500 is most likely the first thing that all of us think of when we hear his name. But, from 1954 to 1957 Sam Hanks was also a name to be reckoned within the ranks of west coast stock car racing and that’s an important component of why we’re honoring this man’s memory tonight.
And … everyone should know that this is far from the first award that has been bestowed on Hanks over the years. Tonight we add to a long roll of honors paid to him In 1957 alone he was the recipient of the following:
· The Helms Foundation Southern California Athlete of the Year
· The New York City Auto Racing Fraternity’s Sportsmanship Award
· KNXT’s Athlete of the Year Award
· The City of Los Angeles’s Resolution of Congratulations for Outstanding Achievements,
and He was also awarded the prestigious Hickock Belt in ‘57
· In 1958 Hanks entered the Helms Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame.
· He was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1981
· In 1984 he received the Jim Clark Award for outstanding personal contributions to the sport of motor racing, and In 2000 Hanks was inducted posthumously into the National Motorsports Hall of Fame in Novi, Michigan
Hanks was born in Columbus, Ohio but moved with his parents to southern California at the tender age of 6.
Hanging around Van Nuys Airport while growing up, Hanks became an accomplished mechanic and pilot. His friend Bob Falcon over there (nod toward BF) will tell you that flying was as much a part of his life as car racing. Hanks may well have been the prototype for today’s flying racing drivers, with their multi-engine certificates and with hundreds, if not thousands, of hours in the cockpit criss-crossing the country from race to race. Hanks did all that in the late forties and throughout the fifties. Hanks also predicted today’s emphasis on driver fitness as well. In a day when drivers regularly crawled out of booze halls to climb almost directly into their race car cockpits, Hanks worked out. Hanks reasoned that, if he was physically fit he could race harder and longer than the other guy … Which he did every time he got in a race car. Now the gym is as much a part of a driver’s life as the race track … If Hanks didn’t start that trend, he certainly was one of the first to fully embrace it. As everyone knows, no one raced during the WW ll Fittingly Hanks became a First Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps and was involved in the testing of airframes and engines, a perfect assignment for a guy so adept at diagnosing race car ills for so many years on the midget racing circuit. Hanks may well be the only West Coast Hall of Fame inductee to have broken the sound barrier (TWICE!) flying with Chuck Yeager. He’s surely the only member to have flown a Lockheed F104A more than two times the speed of sound over the Mojave Desert. He truly was the flyer’s flier and the airmen’s airman. His wife Alice is here with us tonight, and she can tell you about the many cross-country instrument flights that she slept peacefully through at his side as he flew on through the night … Right Alice (his wife)?
Sam Hanks started his stock car driving career late in his life but more than made up for that with outstanding results. In 1954 he finished a very respectable second in the AAA National Points Standings. In 1955 Hanks teamed up with the late great Bill Stroppe and his boys to drive for the Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company. That propitious pairing produced many wins including victories at the very first California stock car road races which were held at the Paramount Ranch and the Pomona Fairgrounds. Some here tonight might be surprised to know that in1957, the year he won his Indy 500, Sam Hanks also finished a strong third in the National USAC Stock Car standings. He could drive (or fly) just about anything, and he won in every kind of racing car that he ever sat in. But the thing that the people who knew him remember best about Sam Hanks is the way he carried himself, the way he treated people, and the classy way that he represented motorsports in the United States for more than six decades. Sam Hanks retired from race driving at the end of the 1957 season right at the very top of his game. He had won races starting in 1936 and championships in ‘37,’39, ‘40, ‘41, ‘46 and ’49. Just for good measure in 1954, he set a world’s closed course record at the Chelsea, Michigan Proving Grounds at 182.554 miles an hour driving what they then called “Big Cars” … Open wheel Indy 500-type machines. His career-crowning win at Indy was behind the slanted steering wheel of the Belond Special built by Quinn Epperly and wrenched by George Salih. That radical-for-its-day racing car featured an Offy motor canted over only 18 degrees away from being parallel with the track surface. It surprised no one at the time that Hanks handled that beautiful, tall-tired, tail-finned machine to victory the very first time that the car was ever on a race track. They’ll all tell you: be it stock car, champ car, midget, or sprinter … Sam Hanks was ALWAYS very easy on the equipment. If anyone could bring a race car home it was Hanks. When he stepped out of the driver’s seat at the end of 1957 he hopped into a much hotter one as the Director of Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a position that he held for more than 20 years from 1958 to 1979. A lot of “very interesting” things took place at the Brickyard during Hanks’ long tenure there, chief among them the rear-engine revolution and the second wave of “imported” drivers.
By the time he bowed out at Indy over a quarter-century ago, the cars racing there were routinely clocking 200+ mile-per-hour laps. Hanks personified all that was noble in American Motorsports. He excelled at everything that he ever tried in his 60 years in the business, and he was considered by fans and friends alike as a consummate gentleman and a good guy. Sam Hanks driving prowess clearly recommends him to membership in this Hall of Fame … But it’s his performance as person that’s the real reason he’s being inducted this evening. Sam left us in late June of 1994, just short of his 80th birthday, only weeks before Stock Cars finally took to the track at his fabled Speedway. We honor the memory and the accomplishments of a truly great man here tonight … My friends, please join me in welcoming to this stage his wife, his co-pilot, and his best friend: Alice Hanks …
