Big Car Racing Association & Hall of Fame, LLC BCRA ESTABLISHED 1958, COLORADO SPRINGS CO BIG CAR RACING CHRONICLES

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1 Big Car Racing Association & Hall of Fame, LLC BCRA ESTABLISHED 1958, COLORADO SPRINGS CO (50 th Anniversary ) BIG CAR RACING CHRONICLES April May June 2011 Bcra Staff: Dave Tyson(Mo) Ray Cunningham(Ks), Boyd Adams(Tx), Bruce Budy(C0), Jerry Miller(Tx), Tom Davey(Co), Wayne Panter(Tx), Gary Wolfe(Ne) Welcome...The BCRA Hall of Fame selections have been made and Biographies of the inductees are included in this issue of the Newsletter. For those attending on June 24 th and 25 th remember to contact the Days Inn ,on West O street in Lincoln for accommodations and just mention you are with the BCRA Hall of Fame for the special rates. Grain Valley. R Cunningham With the BCRA Hall Class set for 2011 it was time to go racing for the first time since the Chili Bowl in January. The venue was Valley Speedway,in Grain Valley, Missouri, for the POWER I Midgets. Hall of Famer"Jonny Boy" Backlund was behind the wheel, as we drove to this dirt short track outside of KC on a beautiful spring evening in early May. Valley Speedway has become the home to wingless sprint car and midget racing in the area for the first time in decades.from the 1930's, until the mid 1970's, Olympic Stadium in Kansas City, MO was the home to weekly midget, and later super modified racing every Sunday nite during the summer months. BCRA Hall of Famer's Backlund, Ray Lee Goodwin, and Dick Sutcliffe, among others honed their racing skills running the rough and tumble supers during the 1960's there, before assaulting the ranks of the BCRA. When the midgets were King of Olympic Stadium, drivers that included Lloyd Ruby, Jud Larson, Bob Slater, and A.J. Foyt, were among many that competed at Olympic. In 1957, A.J. Foyt won his first USAC race at the Stadium in midget competition. In 2011 USAC returns to race at Grain Valley on August 14th, running a non wing sprint car race, but on this night the midgets were in town, and they ran a great program. A trip to the pits before the races found Jonny holding court with several second and third generation race teams. Backlund spoke with the Knepper's, Siner's, and McVay's. Steve Knepper, son of Junior, and nephew of Indy vet Arnie Knepper, spoke with Jon about racing in the midget ranks. Knepper won two Belleville Nationals, before turning the family midget over to his son Nick a few years back. The McVay family was represented by Jimmy McVay, who along with his brother Eddie, raced in BCRA. Jimmy's grandson Todd, would run the family midget on this night. Jimmy and Eddie were two of the finest open wheel shoes of the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. Jonny and Jimmy had a great time discussing racing during that time. After leaving the pits, (we snuck in without a pit pass), Jon and I proceeded to the grandstand where we saw and talked to Hall of Famer Junior Parkinson, and his son Chris. Chris Parkinson it was learned, will drive a non wing sprinter this summer at Grain Valley on a weekly basis. The feature race was outstanding, 2008 Power I Champ Brett Anderson took the win over former National Midget Driver of the year Brad Kuhn, and point leader Nick Knepper. BCRA Member Joe Boyles finished third in his heat, and 9th in the feature. We talked with Joe, and later his father Ray before the races as well. The entire Boyle's family has been a big part of the KC racing scene for several decades. Also at the races were BCRA followers Dave Tyson, his mother Judy, and Dennis Chaney. The Valley Speedway will be running non wing sprint car races every Friday throughout the summer. If your in KC drop by, and see sprint cars race the way they did in the BCRA, without as Leroy Byers coined, the "Hogsheds"on top. See you at the races.

2 Hill on Wheels Bill Hill began in racing as a fan at Olympic Stadium in Kansas City after an enlistment in the Army and College, Hill returned to Auto racing and was Publicity Director for the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association and the Big Car Racing Association in Colorado. During this time he also began announcing for the RMMRA and the BCRA in several states in the Midwest. In 1960 Bill became a columnist for National Speed Sport News with Hill on Wheels, as he reported the racing in the Heartland for many years. Hill went to work for JC Agajanian in 66 and in 1972 began a long tenure with the United States Auto Club as Assistant News Director and then moved to the Terre Haute, Action Track with Don Smith and was in charge of Publicity. Bill Hill s next stop was the Devils Bowl in Texas and then the Tulsa Speedway. Hill s tireless work along the circuit yielded him a wealth of experience resulting in prolific methods of promoting Auto Racing in the Midwest and Southern United States. Hill spent nearly twenty years accumulating information for a book on Midget Racing and in 1998, One Tough Circuit on the history of Midget racing in Kansas City, was released to an eager public and was hailed as the Best Ever on the subject. Soon another Stellar effort in Decades of Daring on the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing hit the shelves and both publications are now common to every racers collection across the U.S. Bill and life long partner and wife, Ruby are retired and live in Arkansas where Hill is engaged in a Prison Ministry in the area. Californian Bill Robison was born in 1946 and the family later moved to Independence Mo and he began racing Jalopies in 1964 at Topeka Ks. With the help of Red Andrews, Bill entered the new class of Hoodoo racing with success and then went back to the Jalopie class and met Thad Dosher who had an old USAC motor he sold to Bill. Robison went out and won the next six Features, paying Dosher for the motor. Spider and Richard Walker built two Sprint cars in 1970 and Bill would drive for the next three years. He then joined the Gary Mussato team driving this car for two years. He was runner-up to Edd French in the Big Car Racing association in1973 running against drivers likerager, Backlund, Maxwell,Woodside, Cecak, Troxell and Jensen. In 74 Bill took the helm of the Charlie Jones Trostle with great success until a horrendous crash at Lincoln in 74 put Bill in the pits for the next season. He returned to competition and became a force to be reckoned with on the new NSI and NSCA circuits. He began driving for Gill Sonner in 81 and would win his first race at Knoxville followed by two more impressive victories and would finish 6th in points in 83 and 84. Bill Robison would drive for owners including Leonard McCarl, Marty Johnson, Fred Caine in the 4J,Marvin Metcalf, George and Buddy Marsh and Bob Trostle and left the Sprint ranks for the Modifieds in 1986 and is still competitive to this day in a career that has spanned over four decades. Robison s dynamic personality and lead foot brought him recognition with the induction into the Knoxville Speedway Hall of Fame in

3 Don Budy s Wingman Clarence Froid was born in Colorado in Clarence was a railroad artist and became involved with the Big Car Racing Association from the start becoming Don Budy s right hand man involved in nearly all facets of BCRA operations. Froid was a man of many talents and served the club as a timer,scorekeeper,bcra secretary for 8 years and... as an artist. In need of an Association Logo Froid developed the art work of the Open wheeler, the color scheme Bonnie Ivers took the work and reproduced several copies in the form of Jacket Patches, with needle and colored thread for officials, competitors and friends of the BCRA. When the BCRA would go into a town to compete drivers and owners would seek out sponsorship from local merchants in the form of advertisement on the cars. Clarence would then create an ad or recreate an existing ad, on the car or on white Butcher paper which was then affixed to the car. It is not known if Froid was ever an auto racing competitor in his younger days but he was a Pilot for a number of years. Clarence would also serve the Rocky Mountain Midget Association for many years as a club official with son-in-law Isador Lucero, he passed away in January of The Froid family continues in Midget racing to this day based out of Denver and are regulars at Belleville and McCool Junction as well as other locations in the Midwest region. Prince of Darkness California s Don Brown became involved with racing in the early fifties working for George Shilala and later Luigi Lesovsky and Eddie Kuzma on the state of the art Indy Cars. In1961 Brown built his own Sprinter and won Rookie of the Year honors with the California Racing Association before moving on to USAC and the International Motor Contest Association in 1963 where he finished 13th in IMCA points. Over the next two seasons Brown had good success on the IMCA circuit with a 7th place point standing in 1965 behind such drivers as Gordon Woolley, Jerry Richert, Jimmy Moughan and Tom Bigelow.True to form, Brown would run the Big Car Racing Association in 66 and ran to a 6th in points after winning the last Feature of the season at Hutchinson Kansas.On the IMCA,Brown would win a Feature at Spencer Iowa. In 1966 Brown s fabrication expertise would achieve a new pinnacle with the design and fabrication of his Mechanical Rabbits that were, As good on dirt as they were on pavement. Working with USAC great Greg Weld and Joe Saldana three of Brown s Roadsters were put to the test beginning in 66. Weld ran the USAC with four Feature wins and 3rd in 68 points with Saldana barely missing a 67 Knoxville Nationals title and outran the field at the Highbanks in 69.Brown and his Roadster were as fast as anyone on the USAC in 68. Don would become a resident of Indy repairing wrecks with AJ Watson in the cool of the night during the time trials at the Brickyard and became affectionately known as the Prince of Darkness. 3

4 Grier Manning was born in New York in 1929 and came to Colorado in 1951 with the U.S. Army. Manning s first taste of Auto racing came as a partner on a Stock car as he worked the Pits but watched and learned. He went to work for Emmit Mann at the Antlers Hotel Garage in Colorado Springs and started driving for Mann in 53,crashed, built a second car which he also destroyed. Manning then built his own 32 Ford and became a top driver on the local speedway. In 59 Manning drove for Clyde McFarlin with the Big Car Racing Association finishing 8th in points behind fellow Midget ace Earl Kouba. In 61 Manning built a 348 cu.in truck motor and won two Features at Englewood Speedway in the Podell #7 with the BCRA. In 62 Grier became partners with John Hollansworth, Buck Shaver and Chip Wendt on a Midget, started driving in 63 winning eight Main events and finished runnerup in the RMMRA.Over the next five seasons Manning finished in the top three four times winning the RMMRA Championship in1969. From 63 to 70 Grier finished in the top ten 6 times at Pikes Peak driving for J.C. Agajanian, Art McKee and others. Mannings superb skill as a mechanic took him to the USAC with Hollansworth and Lindsey Hopkins and the the new Gurney Eagles. Manning became a top technical inspector at the Hill Climb for over three decades at the Springs where he still works his garage 8AM till 8Pm six days a week and has assisted in the restorations of several historic Vintage Pikes Peak and oval track open wheelers most recently the Vince Conzy Offy which now resides in the Unser family Museum in New Mexico The Kansas City Texan Ralph Parkinson Junior was born in 1948 at Wichita Falls Texas and grew up assisting Ralph Senior at the race tracks. In 65 Junior and brother Frankie took advantage of Ralph Senior s absence on the IMCA trail and took his sprinter to Lawton Ok and finished ninth at age 17. Junior would move to Kansas City in 1970 and worked for Whitey Harmon an IMCA regular, while becoming a regular himself on the IMCA and BCRA circuits. Junior would win his first IMCA Feature in 1970 at Lincoln Nebraska driving for Red Forshee and followed with a 71 Feature win at Smith Center Ks making the Parkinson s the only Father and Son team to each win a BCRA Feature. Junior soon moved to Pennsylvania and became a full time racer. He found a ride with Russ Smith and in the #17 car engaged the tough competition on the 73 All Star Circuit of Champions which included Jan Opperman, Kenny Weld and Bobby Allen. Parkinson would not win a race that season but would finish second in points to Jan Opperman at seasons end.the 70 s were a great decade for Junior and in 75 while driving for Conyers and Ward won three Features and finshed 4th in IMCA final points behind Bill Utz, Jan Opperman and Ralph Parkinson Sr. Junior moved to Gladstone Mo in 1977 and engaged the USAC circuit for three seasons with a great finish at Terre Haute in 77 behind Bubby Jones and Gary Bettenhausen. During the 80 s Junior would win a championship at I-70 in Odessa Mo and would win his first race at Knoxville becoming the first father and son to win events on the Iowa track. 4

5 Nebraskan Roger Rager began racing Super Modifieds in the late 60 s and by the early 70 s Rager was one of the top drivers in the region with back to back 3rd place finishes on the Big Car Racing Assoc in 72 and 73 winning a Feature on the Belleville Highbanks for Larry Swanson. In 1975 Roger won the track championship at Knoxville after finishing 2nd to Fast Eddie Leavitt in the Knoxville Nationals and finished 5th with IMCA. In 76 Rager moved to USAC finished 23rd in points and won Rookie of the Year. From 76 to 78 Rager would run 59 USAC Sprint car Feature events. At Lakeside Speedway in 78 Rager set a new track record won his Heat race and was on his way to a clean sweep when his flawless effort was spoiled by Doug Wolfgang. In 1980 Rager fulfilled a life long dream of racing Indianapolis as he financed a Low Buck Ride with the now Legendary School Bus Motor built by Wayne House. Roger qualified 10th gaining National attention and at one point led the race later to spin out missing Jim McElreath who had lost control. Roger continued in USAC with a 4th place finish at Flemington driving the Robinson Fiberglass Special in 83 followed with a 4th at Williams Grove for Boston Louie Seymour, Rager retired for a time but was back in the late 90 s and won the Wissota Championship for Winged Sprinters and in 2000 and 2001 won the Midwest Sprint Series. He added three victories at the Knoxville Masters Classic in 99,01 and 05. Roger Rager raced, and won in five decades, a BCRA Legend that has made an impact on American Racing History. Thad Dosher of Topeka Kansas began racing at Shawnee Speedway in the late 50 s. Thad would win the inaugural Jayhawk Nationals in 1961 driving a Super Modified for owner Duane Vobach. Thad continued to gain experience over the next few years before driving for Jack Cunningham. At the Indy of Sprint car racing at Knoxville Iowa Dosher ran 2nd to Joe Saldana for 14 laps before overtaking the future Sprint star and winning the race. In 1968 Thad bought the Bill Hoback ride painted it Lavender and White and the #74 ran the IMCA and BCRA in the Midwest. His success continued as he tied with Dick Sutcliffe for the track championship at Topeka. He also won a feature at Eagle Ne driving the Swenson-Williams #24. In 1970 Thad was reunited with his Knoxville Nationals winning ride now owned by Gary Hannah and won the Topeka Championship and the Jayhawk Nationals both for the second time. In 1972 Dosher, now teamed with R&H Farms and mechanic Wayne House finished 5th in IMCA points and won his first IMCA race at Lincoln. A 1973 trip to the IMCA Winternationals in Florida yielded two seconds,a third and a fourth place finish. Thad s first big win of the season came with the Big Car Racing Association at Wakeeney Ks followed by IMCA wins at Lincoln and Spencer Iowa. Of the twenty races held Dosher finished in the top five eleven times and was the 73 IMCA Champion. In 75 Dosher ran USAC for Bobby Hillin and finished in the top ten four times. Thad Dosher was one of the few drivers to win the Knoxville Nationals and an IMCA Championship. Thad is retired and lives in South Carolina. 5

6 House Power Nebraskan Wayne House burst onto the racing scene in 1968 when history was made at Belleville Kansas as Lloyd Beckman in the Swanson Chevy wrenched by House, turned the worlds fastest half mile at Belleville Kansas. Lonnie Jensen would win the 1970 BCRA Championship and in 1971 House turned his talents and expertise to the R&H Farms cars out of Iowa. In 1972 teamed with owners John Ricke and the Hill Brothers and driven by Thad Dosher, R&H won at the State Fair in Lincoln and finished 5th in IMCA points. At the 1973 IMCA Winter Nationals held at Plant Field in Florida the R&H Farms Sprinter finished second twice, third once and fourth. The success was even more amazing considering the field of drivers included Jan Opperman and Kenny Weld who were at the pinnacle of thier historic rivalry.back in the Midwest at the BCRA contest in Wakeeney Kansas Dosher and the R&H team outran Grady Wade and the Nance team for the win and repeated the feat at 81 Speedway in Wichita in IMCA, another at Spencer Iowa and at Lincoln. In 75 House and driver Eddie Leavit would win the Knoxville Nationals and in 77 Wayne built a new Sprinter and with driver Ron Shuman won the Western World at Manzy and followed with the Pacific Title at Ascot in California.Wayne built an engine for Roger Rager in 1980 when Rager made the field at Indy. House would also build motors for Klatt Racing and with Dave Strickland Jr won in the RMMRA. Wayne is retired and lives in Lincoln Nebraska Jerry Everhart Former Wichita racer Jerry Everhart passed away October, 8th 2010 in Arkansas. Everhart was one of many great stars who cut his teeth racing in the rough and tumble jalopie contests that took place around his hometown. Everhart's first season of racing was in 1953 when he was just a teenager. During this early period he had to race against drivers that included Harold Leep, Frankie Lies, and Billy Mears. Everhart came from a racing family that included his dad and uncle. His cousin Tony Everhart who has lived in California for several years, drove a midget in this years Chili Bowl, in Tulsa, Oklahoma and has competed regularly with the SCRA, Sprint Bandits, and USAC in Non Wing Sprint Car racing. After several years of racing in the jalopie and later super modified ranks, Jerry moved into the sprint car ranks in the mid 1960's. Everhart raced with the BCRA and IMCA Sprint Car Clubs during this time. Racing with the BCRA in 1967, Jerry finished 7th place in points behind champion Roy Bryant, Keith Hightshoe, Dale Reed, David Ross, Lloyd Beckman, and New Mexico's Jerry Miller. The competition that year was stellar, as the top 5 points are all now in the BCRA Hall of Fame! Everhart also excelled in the super modified ranks, winning several races over his career. Jerry had one of the top rides in NCRA Super Modified racing in The 35 year old veteran finished 6th place in points at the Tulsa Fairgrounds that year, while finishing 4th in the NCRA race at Tulsa.Over the years Jerry could be found at the races, or spending time with best friends Dale Reed and Grady Wade. At one point all three best friends had retired together in Arkansas, eventually Reed moved back to Wichita to be close too relatives. The bond between these former racers would last a life time though, and everyone involved in open wheel racing in the BCRA, IMCA and NCRA, who came in contact with the Wichita threesome will be the richer for it. Rest In Peace Jerry, you were one hell of racer, and great friend to everyone in the racing community. Subject: : J.Hower :Dave Tyson and R. Cunningham Jr. Hower was a great one. He was one of the top drivers at Olympic Stadium and greater Kansas City area for a number of years. And raced against (and often beat) some of the greats that would go on to 6

7 Knoxville Nationals titles, IMCA titles, and to race in Indy 500. My folks really liked watching Jr. Hower race at Olympic. The story "Speedy" Bill tells about coming to KC to race against the best and losing to Jr. Hower is one of the best of stories. Bill Smith's car came in 2nd and he knew something was up with the car Jr. won race with. And said so to a number of people. Years later Freddie Vance said he was at an auction and found the tricked out carburetor Jr. used to win that race. Speedy Bill wanted that carburetor. It now sits in Speedy Bill's wonderful museum up Lincoln Forwarded by Dave this is a shot of Jr. Hower Butch Hardman and one of the last uprights on the Hill. who was a race winner where ever had put his car on the track from the late 40's to the late 50's. And I go to his house and "chat" with him on Saturday mornings and scan and make copies of his pictures. He raced many of the Indy 500 guys on the dirt ovals and beat them all while raising a family and working 60 hours a week. Remember We will start at the Museum at 2PM (24 June), meeting at the front door for the tour, Don t be late At 6 PM we will gather at the meeting room inside the museum for the Induction ceremony with tours of the facility to follow. On Saturday Morning We will meet at Joe s Speed Shop on South Folsom around Noon for Bench Racing until time to go to Eagle Raceway at 4;30 PM. Sunday morning is breakfast at the Days Inn restaurant before departing Lincoln. Any questions call Thank you GW BCRA at Pueblo Colorado 1958 Bob Unser spinning his way to the top of Pikes Peak 7

8 Three time BCRA champ Gordon Herring receiving Trophy for RMMRA Feature win Great shot looking down at Herring and Mechanic Jack Kline at Continental Divide Raceway (60) Big Car Racing Association 306 Montrose Ave Bertrand Ne