DON ODELL

By Stan Kalwasinski

          Don “Digger” Odell was a winner both on the local Chicago area stock car racing scene as well as in “National” stock car competition in the early 1950’s.   

        Driving a 1940 Ford coupe in 1949, a 19-year-old Odell won three consecutive 300-lap races with wins coming on the dirt at Raceway Park (Blue Island) and at dirt ovals in Springfield and Peoria.  A remarkable part of the feat was that Odell never made a pit stop during those 900 laps of competition.

            In late October of 1949, Odell defeated Chet Ogrentz, Al Knoebel and Bill Van Allen at Raceway Park.  A week later, he defeated Irv Wurm, Bill Yancey and Van Allen at Springfield and, a day later, bested Bryant Tucker, Bill Brown and Rich Irvine to the checkered flag at the Peoria quarter-mile.

            Odell was in the starting field for Raceway’s first 300 lapper in 1948, wheeling a 1941 Studebaker to seventh place in the first ever stock car event held at the south suburban oval.  Odell won a dozen feature races during his career at Raceway, notching six alone in 1951 in his ’49 Ford No. 75.  Odell was also in the lineup for the first stock car race ever held in 1948 at the half-mile dirt oval in Schererville, Ind., which would become known as Illiana Motor Speedway 

Later in his career, Odell drove Hank Salat’s Packard to several American Automobile Association (AAA) stock car wins.  At the time, the AAA stock car circuit could easily be compared to the NASCAR Grand National tour of the day as many Indianapolis 500 drivers and winners competed in the events.  Two of Odell’s victories came at the “Milwaukee Mile” in 1953 and two at Illiana the following year.

 Odell won a 150 miler at Milwaukee on August 27, 1953, posting a new speed mark of 72.449 miles per hour for the distance.  He came back and won the AAA stock car finale at Milwaukee, a 200-mile chase, on September 20.       1954 saw Odell win at Illiana on July 3, a 100-lap affair on the half-mile dirt oval, and a 200 lapper on August 14.                                                                                                                  

 Odell closed his own driving career with some appearances in both USAC and NASCAR events in the early ‘60’s.  Odell was in the field for the 1961 Daytona 500, finishing 54th after finishing 10th in one of the twin 100-mile qualifying races.                                                                                                                       

   Odell would help his son, Bruce, with his racing career, which included a six-cylinder championship at Raceway Park in 1976.  Odell’s grandson, David Odell, who was a front runner on the O’Reilly Southern All Star Supertruck Series, made his debut in both ARCA and NASCAR Busch Series competition in 2005.   

            Odell passed away at the age of 73 on May 24, 2003 in Lawrenceville, GA, where he and his wife, Jean, had relocated to several years prior.

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