Big Car Racing Association & Hall of Fame, LLC BCRA ESTABLISHED 1958, SPRINGS CO th (50 Anniversary 1958 - 2008 )

BIG CAR RACING CHRONICLES January-February-March 2016

Bcra Staff: Dave Tyson(Mo) Ray Cunningham(Ks), Boyd Adams(Tx), Bruce Budy(C0), Gerry Miller(Tx), Tom Davey(Co), Wayne Panter(Tx), Gary Wolfe(Ne)

Welcome to the first Big Car Racing Association Newsletter for 2016, the 14th year of the revived Historical Club. The last year brought some new challenges and new enthusiasm toward the years to come in celebrating the history of the BCRA.

What a journey it has been as we continue to bring to light ‘50 photo of future CRA& BCRA Fire& Safety Director, Bob Armstrong new things about the organization and the people who made its history. Oh, to have been there for the Hahn -Herring match ups.. Icon Al Sherman and the stretched “Jewell Box”. Midget great Wayne Wieler and his “Fike Plumbing” creation, Grier Manning and his “Revised” 348 truck motor outrunning the competition at Englewood, not once but twice. Curly Doggett and his “Purple People Eater” Kurtis as he stormed the BCRA in ’59 after nearly burning to death in a fire on the Wakeeney track in September ‘58, and winning the ’59 Owners Championship. Harold Leep and Chet Wilson had a profound affect on the BCRA at Norton Ks in ’60 as the club left Colorado for the first time to compete and enjoyed some of the best ever competition with the Kansans in Dale Reed, Red and Pete Forshee, and the great Roy Bryant included in a host of top drivers and owners to come. Many of the BCRA competitors continued at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and making history on the “Race to the Gene and Velie Novotny in a photo at the start of a six decade career Clouds” course and would run the fast, quick handling (see more at bcrasprints.com)

Midgets, throughout the Colorado region. New officers would command the club as Art Myers, Billy Mytan and Glen Majors moved on with Don Budy becoming the President of the BCRA. Don was there in the beginning and would remain involved throughout the tenure of the Midwest Sprint club. Karl Mismach, Andy Anderson, Bob Armstrong, Charlie Gottschalk and Mearle Holbrook were also part of a core group of officials.

Tom Davey 1959 (the only father son Feature winners in the clubs history). Famed

Pueblo Colorado State Fair ‘62

Ralph”Pappy”Parkinson, Junior Parkinson and KC’s Dave Tyson

Fabricator, Don Maxwell of would build cars and race with the BCRA.

The 1960’s brought some Kansas greats with Reed, Bryant, Pete and Red Forshee, including Pius Selenke, Davey Ross, Grady Wade and many others. Cotton Farmer, Gordon Woolley, Indy’s Don Brown, Jack Rounds, Hector Honore and Jimmy Moughan would run BCRA sanctioned races and New venues at Bethany Mo, Gurnsey Wy, City, Hutchinson Ks, Rapid City , Holyoke Co and the newly constructed track at Erie Colorado where the last race of the BCRA would be held in 1977 with the final Champion. The last race on Asphalt was held at Century 21 Speedway in Denver in 1972 with Colorado’s Leo Tucker, out running the field in a Malloy built Roadster, the first Feature win for a Colorado competitor in ten years. 2006 was the first year of the BCRA Hall of Fame housed at the Speedway Motors complex in Lincoln Ne. The Speedway Motors crew were invaluable in the formation of the Hall of Fame as was Jim Mcneil and Joe Haag both of Lincoln. Ten inductees were honored that first year as we became Dale Reed in the first Pius Selenke, “Parker Oil” Sprinter more aware of the age of the nominees from that “Golden Age” era of Sprint car racing. In the past ten years, 93 the membership also included Jerry and Greg Weld of BCRA Hall of Fame inductees have been honored at the Kansas City. Speedways “Speedy” Bill Smith would bring Smith Collection of American Speed Museum in Lincoln the 4X and drivers like Lloyd Beckman and . This years induction ceremony is scheduled for to events and won two championships. Bill’s good friend th September 8 at the Museum with meeting and lunch at The and top driver from , Ralph Parkinson Sr who started South Folsom Speed Shop and on track at the 360 Sprints in the 40’s would run BCRA as did son Junior Parkinson show at Eagle.GW

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Good Ol Trip, Sure makes that hat look good, Don’t He!!

Mike Davey and BCRA Hall of Fame Father Tom with Ray Cunningham

BCRA Champions and Hall of Fame Inductees Jon Backlund and Lonnie Jensen at Lincoln Ne

Tom and Gerry at Belleville 2011

Bob Finney on his way up the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in a Frenzel.’54

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Thad in the R and H Farms Chevy

Harry Ivers Frenzel (Previous Finney driven Frenzel) at Pueblo ‘62

"Carolina Jayhawk" a True Racing Legend! Ray Cunningham

In the 1950's big car racing was a top attraction at several fairgrounds across the nation. Topeka, Kansas, had one of the best half-mile dirt tracks around. Every year the

I top drivers from the IMCA Big Car ranks would venture to In 1961 the jalopies of the 1950's had turned into the sleeker the Mid America Fairgrounds for some of the best sprint super modifieds of the 1960's. The purpose built racing car races of the summer. Drivers that included Bobby Grim, machines had taken over the Heartland region as the top Jud Larson, Bob Slater, Buzz Barton, and Don Hutchinson attraction at many venues.The Topeka Fairgrounds had were just a few of the stars that raced at Topeka in the joined in the fun as well racing every Friday night during the 1950's. What Topeka didn't have was a star driver of their summer. The first big race to be run at the dirt track was own in the sprint car ranks. That would change over the next named the "Jayhawk Nationals". This race would become two decades as one of the best of the era, Thad Dosher, one of the top attractions in the Midwest for several years to would emerge from the rough and tumble super modified come. Dosher, driving for Duane Vobach in his #15 super division. And when his career ended after twenty plus years, would win the inaugural event that season. he would be known across the nation for his racing prowess. During Thad's career there were many highs and lows, and Thad Dosher was born in 1935 in Southport, . for several years after this first big win, Dosher remained in In 1953 he came to Topeka, Kansas, where he was stationed relative obscurity.In 1967 that would change in a at the Forbes Field Air Force Base South of town. After he monumental way! was done with his tour of duty he decided to stay in the Luther Brewer was one of the top builders and owners of Capitol City. super modifieds in the Heartland. Brewer's relationship with The Tar Heel turned Jayhawk started his racing career in driver Ray Lee Goodwin, led to multiple track 1956 with a 1936 Plymouth he bought for a whooping championships and several feature wins during the 1960's. In $12.50! He first raced at Windy Hill Raceway, in Maple 1967 the race team of Goodwin and Brewer were having Hill, Kansas. Those early races resulted in his car upside another outstanding campaign. At the mid-point of the down about as much time as it was right side up, according season Luther decided to build a new super for Goodwin. to Thad. Besides Windy Hill, the young racer would cut his Brewer in turn sold his old car to veteran midget owner Jack teeth at other tracks, including Shawnee Speedway, East of Cunningham. Thad Dosher, became the new driver for Topeka, Riverside Speedway, in North KC, and Savannah Cunningham's car for the in August. Speedway, in Savannah, where Thad would take The biggest super modified race of the year was the his first track title in 1960. Knoxville Nationals in 1967. Little Joe Saldana of Lincoln

was the favorite to win the race in his version of the "Mechanical Rabbit" roadster. Saldana set the bar early by

4 posting a new track record in qualifying. Dosher Williams. This car also happened to be the former super meanwhile adapted quickly to his new ride, winning modified that Thad raced to his Knoxville Nationals win in the Thursday night qualifier. On Saturday Saldana was the 1967. Reunited with his old car, Thad won the Topeka class of the field, leading the feature while Dosher dueled track title and the "Jayhawk Nationals" both for the second with "Tiger" Bob Williams for second place.Unfortunately time that summer. for Saldana he lost a wheel on the 14Th lap of the feature. The one thing missing from Thad's career was a major sprint Dosher went on to lead the rest of the race and earned almost car championship. In 1972 Dosher teamed up with the R&H 3,000 dollars for the victory. Farms team, and mechanic Wayne House. In "72" the In 1968 Thad continued his momentum from 1967 by tying race team finished in 5Th place in the final standings of with Dick Sutcliffe for the track title in his #74 Super IMCA. That season included Thad's first IMCA win at Modified/Sprinter at Topeka. Thad also drove his white racer Lincoln, Nebraska on September 2. The day was a special with Lavender trim in BCRA and IMCA races without the one for Thad as he was reunited with the singing "Sausage cage required for super modified competition. Dosher, King" Jimmy Dean who was there to perform that night at picked the #74, because it was the number of his the Nebraska State Fair. Thad first met the crooner turned winning ride at Knoxville in 1967. His new mount had Breakfast Sausage Magnet in 1962 at a sprint car race in already had a great pedigree in the sprint car ranks, winning Hutchinson. Before the start of the feature, the country races across America. Originally built by Willie Davis in superstar called Thad out, saying he was rooting for him in California for owner Clem Tebow, the racer was used in the the main event, but also that he had bet the house, the car, early 1960's in USAC as the C&T Automotive Special. the wife, and dog on him to win, or he would lose it all! The Tebow then sold it to Kansas City racer Greg Weld in 1965. crowd was delighted to hear Dean's declaration, and Dosher didn't disappoint, winning the race in a tough battle with long time rival Sutcliffe once again.

With his new ride Weld took USAC by storm that season, almost winning the sprint title before losing it by a mere 2.5 points to . In 1966 it was sold to another KC area owner Bill Hoback. The Claycomo, Missouri, owner would win a BCRA feature with it when Gordon Woolley came home first at the KSF in Hutchinson during a three day show in September. Later another BCRA legend Jon Backlund would drive it to a top 10 points finish in IMCA points in 1967 for Hoback, before Dosher bought it in 1968. Thad also drove for other prestigious owners during this time, including the Nebraska tandem of Swenson & Williams in their #24 super/sprint in 1969. Driving for the BCRA HOF owners the Topeka racer would win at outside of Lincoln. 1970 was one of the best years of Thad's career. Gary Hanna, long time owner for Dick Sutcliffe, who drove his black #29 sprinter for many years was without a car or driver in 1970 after selling his car and losing his driver to the R&H Farms team out of Williams, . Gary in turn bought the Jack Cunningham owned #14 sprinter that had won 46 races and three track championships in 1969 with "Tiger" Bob , Jimmy Dean, Thad Dosher and unkn official

5 News. A request was made for a return of the ,”Tom In 1973 the race season started as it always did in those days and Jerry Show”, of which we were rewarded. with the IMCA Winternationals in Tampa, . From the For those of you who weren’t able to enjoy the beginning the R&H Farms team showed they would be a Tom(Davey) and Gerry(Miller) show in your young contender for the championship. Over the five races contested at Plant Field, Thad finished second twice, third lives, here is a sample of the great humor, and ingenuity once, and fourth. The best in the nation always came to racers can produce, as told in the long ago tales of the Florida during that time. And that season was no exception dirt ovals of the country. as Dosher raced against Kenny Weld, and Jan Opperman, among others when they were at the peek of their rivalry during the 5 race series. Thad got his first big win of the year at Wakeeney, Kansas in BCRA action besting Grady Wade in the Nance #1. In IMCA, Dosher won at 81 Speedway in Wichita, Kansas, “ The Show Lincoln, Nebraska, once again, and Spencer, Iowa. In the 20 dirt races held by IMCA that year Thad finished in The Tom and Jerry Show the top five eleven times! When the final standings were You have no idea how flattered we are that BCRA &HOF posted Dosher was the 1973 IMCA Champion over Gene wants us in their newsletter. They seem to think that we Gennetten, Bill Utz, Ray Lee Goodwin, and Buzz Rose. This might have some memories to share, and we’ll hope they’re accomplishment was even more significant because only two interesting. But you’ll be the judges of that. They won’t be in other drivers would win both the Knoxville Nationals and any chronological order either. Whatever our disordered the IMCA title during their careers. 's Jerry minds come up with. Richert was the first, and later Ray Lee Goodwin became the We do have definite tastes…we like dirt. We like our second. racecars without wings (or “Hogsheds” as Leroy Beyers Over the next few years Thad cut back on his racing calls them) but we’ll accept the lunch counters if we must. activities, but still had some great moments. In 1974 Thad We like Midgets. While we think we remember everything raced in the USAC Dirt Car Division, finishing 7Th at from 50 years ago with crystal clarity, we forget what we Sedalia in the Don Duerst #56. Also in 1974, Thad won a had for lunch; so we’ll do the best we can, secure in the IMCA feature at Oklahoma City in the R&H Farms Sprinter, certain knowledge that, when we stray from the straight and and finished 7Th in the NCRA Winternationals at Enid, narrow path, there are those of you out there that will waste Oklahoma. In 1975 Thad started off the racing season no time in putting us right. running for Bobby Hillin in his Longhorn racing #48 sprinter Now then. in USAC competition. Dosher raced in 10 events in USAC, We hear people today complain about “dirt” and “dust” at finishing in the top ten four times, while recording a high racetracks and we wonder where they saw their first races. In finish of seventh at Reading, and Terre Haute. the old days. ( be prepared to hear a lot about the “Old After 1975 Dosher raced sparingly in the USAC Dirt Car Days”.) dirt was a part of the fun. If you didn’t come home Division, and the NCRA, finishing 6Th place at Dewey, from an afternoon’s racing covered in dirt, it wasn’t a very Oklahoma in a NCRA Nationals for his best result. good race.An example comes to mind. Greeley, Colorado. The long time sheet-metal worker was elected to the Fairgrounds. Sometime in the middle to late 60’s we think. It HOF in 1979, The BCRA HOF in 2011, was one of those beautiful clear days that Colorado has in and the National Sprint Car HOF in 2012. Dosher, the 1967 the summer time with a few puffy clouds in the sky and just Knoxville Nationals winner, and the 1973 IMCA Champ, is enough wind to blow the dust away from the track so now retired and can be found fishing back in Carolina where everybody could see what was going on. (The people in the he is happily retired today. pits had a small problem but the folks in the stands were fine Thad Dosher, the Carolina Jayhawk, a champions champion, with that.) It was a combined Sprint and Midget program and a super modified and sprint car racing legend out of and, while we don’t remember all the participants, we do Topeka, Kansas, during the heyday of the BCRA and recall that the big duel of the day was between Cotton IMCA. Farmer and Lloyd Axel. If memory serves Lloyd won, but Cotton pulled into the pits and bailed out of the car like a This year at Belleville will be the first time in 35 scalded cat…which, it turns out, he was. Seems a water hose years that neither Tom Davey or “Uncle”Gerry Miller had broken and he was slowly boiling his right foot. will be in Corner #1, shooting pictures. Ten years ago There was a strange pair of guys sitting right in front of us the masses were starving for a return of the Davey/ that day. One was a younger feller, probably in his late 20’s, and the other 40-ish. The older one was, in his opinion, an Miller stories once heralded in National Speed Sport, expert on and was giving his young friend a Open Wheel, Circle Track and Southwest Auto Racing thorough explanation of everything that was happening. At

6 one point one of the Sprinters pulled in and drove right by his pit. This led to a speech by the “expert” on what a mistake the driver had made and how they were now going to have to push him back to his pit, etc. (There’s a lot of you way ahead of us here aren’t you.) We don’t remember who it was but it was one of the guys that ran Pike’s Peak regularly and, of course, being a Hill Climb car, it had a . When he flipped it into reverse and backed into his pit the silence from the row in front was deafening. The high point, if you can call it that, of the Midget portion of the entertainment was when many times RMMRA champion Foster Campbell ran over a wheel and got on his head. Foss climbed out of the basement and out from under the car and gave it a look like a man that had just been bitten by his own dog. He walked away and, we were told, retired on the spot. They said that it was the first time he’d ever been upside down…and the last. It wasn’t a “National” event, and it didn’t decide any great Championships…Lots of action and nobody got hurt. It was just a nice weekend of racing, and the best thing was that we could do that almost every weekend! We ended that one up with an impromptu drag race on the way home with Eddie Jackson… that we won! Barely. Maybe Eddie had a slight handicap since he was towing the Gerry’s article in the High Banks Induction manual for racecar, but, Hey! A win’s a win! 2006 when he and good friend, Tom Davey were inducted T&J”……… into the High Banks Hall of Fame, was used as a base for With..... the recent passing of Gerry Miller, requests went this story. Interesting to note that Tom and Gerry both got out for info on this Photo- Journalist and all round Midget “souped up” on Midgets in 1951, Tom as an owner and fan, a short bio and notice of his passing was recieved …. Gerry, working at a gas station in Denver, got involved with I knew Gerry was once a Cab driver, on occasion gave fans the offer,“Hey kid, wanna go to the races tonite?” He was a tour of the Pike Peak Hill Climb road, and was a trucker unable to resist and became “The” pit crew on a,”V-8 60 S for many years over the US byways from Colorado to box Midget, sittin on a rattletrap trailer”! As Gerry put it, “ to California and the Southwest on occasion. the midget was the most decrepit assembly of Nuts and Bolts In my travels to the west and north I would often give Gerry ever to take to the track”. They ran with the Denver Midget a call while on the road and the familiar, “where you at Racing Club started by Ade Butler and BCRA Hall of today”, began a conversation of his experience on many of Famer, Willie Hardman at Englewood Speedway. This the same roads and in all kinds of weather, before shifting Association was an attempt to ignite the Midgets again after gears to the Midgets or Sprints in the Midwest region. One a fall off of interest and money, in the sport in the early story Gerry related was as a teen ager, and at a dance one 50’s. It’s reported they ran six race dates in its short history. night, he met a young lady and at her request left the dance for a stroll in the moonlight. They walked down the street and then into an alley and surprise, they were soon standing in Lloyd Axel’s garage. The young lady thought he might like a look at the shop and she turned out to be related to Axel.

Mike Davey, Tom Davey and Gerry Miller(80’s)

7 Banks it is stated “They’ve visited a great many race tracks since then, from Ascot to Texas Motor Speedway… Manzanita to Hussets… to Knoxville and a whole lot in between but the one that really grabbed them was their first trip to the High Banks for the 1982 Nationals, and they haven’t missed a race since. The team was able to do the write ups on the Nationals for a number of years, for Open Wheel magazine and pictures for Open Wheel and Circle Track .The last few years the duo cut back on their traveling. I remember the tales of month long pilgrimages to different parts of the country, different tracks and garages of some of the greatest in the sport, always to wind up at the Belleville Nationals in Kansas..Tom repaired cameras in Denver and Gerry continued hauling out of Dallas until his retirement and became instrumental in the handling of historic photos and correspondence for the BCRA&HOF. Miller received the prestigious Big Car Racing Assoc., “Don Budy Gerry Miller(High Banks Hof and BCRA Don Budy Memorial Award) Memorial Award” in 2014 for his, “Obvious and Passionate And BCRA and High Banks Hof’er ,Tom Davey, always found in corner Dedication to and it’s Competitors”. #1at Belleville Ks Gerry then went to the service for a couple of years and then back to Denver and the Yellow Cab Company where he met Tom Davey and “Little Did he Know”? The two began, “Chasing race cars all over the state of Colorado, from the local tracks to the far flung county fairgrounds”(and Pikes Peak). Gerry told of Tom Davey’s last race in 61’, driving the Holman-Moody Ford Falcon at Continental Divide Raceway at Castle Rock Colorado, which he won. In 1974 Gerry was transferred to Texas and Tom went to Omaha to manage the Yellow Cab company. Tom and Gerry would make a couple trips to the Speedway, until 1981 when Gerry started covering the racing for,”Southwest Auto Racing News”, and Tom began his “Pit Notes From the Rockies,” for NSSN. This rebirth of the dynamic duo was to last until 2012. In the “Tom and Gerry” Ray Cunningham, High Banks Hall of Famer Gerry Miller and Gary Bio for the High Wolfe, presenting the Don Budy Memorial Award to Gerry in 2014

Big Car Racing Assoc. and Hall of Fame. 306 Montrose Ave Bertrand Ne 68927 308-325-5455 or bcrasprints.com

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