New Book Captures Essence of Raceway

BY TONY BARANEK

Southtown Star  February 12, 2010

You can't go to the photo booth at Raceway Park anymore. It's been gone for nearly 10 years now.

But thanks to Samuel Beck, Stan Kalwasinski and Arcadia Publishing, you can now find visual memories galore of one of the Southland's historical treasures.

Grab a seat in the garage and crack open a can or two of motor oil as you enjoy "Blue Island's Raceway Park," a pictorial history of the quarter-mile oval at 130th Street and Ashland Avenue in - never mind the title - Calumet Park. It's set for a Monday release.

Known for many years as the "World's Busiest Track," Raceway was in operation from 1938 through the 2000 season, before the Jenin family sold the property. The track was torn down in spring 2001.

The book, part of Arcadia Publishing's Images of America series, is the brainchild of 18-year-old Samuel Beck, a senior at Marian Catholic High School. The son of longtime Raceway Park devotee Paul Beck, Samuel spent a lot of time attending races with his dad during the closing years of the track.

"My dad works for UPS," Beck said. "A couple of years ago they asked him for a work goal and a personal goal. He said his personal goal was to write a book on Raceway Park. So I took that idea and ran with it.

"Also, with many of the legends from the past passing away over the last decade or so, I wanted to get the book done before they were all gone. We were saddened by the death of (1963 track champion) Bill Cornwall about a month ago. He was pretty predominant in the book."

The Becks, who have a wealth of photos in their own collection, enlisted Kalwasinski, a noted area racing writer, photographer and announcer, to help put it all together. Also brought into the project as an advisor was Wayne Adams, who announced at Raceway Park for 42 years. Adams, still looking great at age 90, wrote the introduction.

There are more than 200 photos spread out over the 128 pages. All have captions identifying the drivers. Many have mini-stories about the drivers and significant events in which they were involved.

"I've got to credit Wayne Adams," Kalwasinski said. "Raceway Park is probably the most well-documented race track. I don't even know what to compare it to. Wayne had it documented back to 1938, and when Wayne retired George Rowlette picked up the baton and carried it until the track closed.

"Wayne wrote all those great stories in the Illustrated Speedway News. You just had to go out there and pick up some of the information. A lot of it was easily available because of Wayne."

Kalwasinski, 59, owns a sentimental gold mine of Raceway Park photos, many of them taken by longtime area racing photographers Bud Norman and Bob Sheldon.

"I was fortunate to obtain the negatives from his good buddy and fellow Chicago-area racing photographer Vince Mayer," Kalwasinski said. "I ended up with the Raceway Park negatives from the '50s and early '60s, and also Santa Fe Speedway stuff from Vince.

"It sounds kind of corny, or hokey, but I remember when I got those negatives I told my oldest son, Jack, 'This is the stuff that when I was 10, 11 years old, I was buying those pictures. Here I've got the negatives.' "

The book covers the pictorial history of the track from start to finish, including a photo from opening day in 1938 and a few from its demolition.

The vast majority of photos, however, focus on the '50s, '60s and '70s, and colorful drivers such as Bill Van Allen, Bob Pronger, Bud Koehler, Ted Janecyk, Ray Young and Stash Kullman.

"That was the primary target because it was much more successful then," Kalwasinski said. "From right after World War II and into the '50s, the place was a very popular sports venue for Chicago people.

"The Chicago-area newspapers covered it. And it was on television. The place was running four nights a week, with thousands of people there."

The toughest part, Beck said, was leaving so many stories on the cutting room floor.

"Captioning-wise, we had to put in as much factual information as possible, but we incorporated stories in there such as Stash Kullman's first race, where the steering wheel came off in his hands."

The book can be ordered through amazon.com and arcadiapublishing.com.

RACEWAY PARK FACTS

130th and Ashland Avenue, Calumet Park

Years of operation: 1938 through 2000

Surfaces: Dirt (1938 to 1950); asphalt (1951 to 2000)

Original owners: Ed Rippe and Harry Malone

Last owner: Peter Jenin

First track champ: Ted Duncan (1939, midgets)

First stock car champ: Bud Koehler (1949)

Most track championships: Koehler (11)

Last late-model champ: Kevin Reidy (2000)

NASCAR drivers to race there: Mark Martin, Dick Trickle, Neil Bonnett, Jim Sauter.

Racing deaths there: 4 (three midget, one stock car)

END