The following story on “Gentleman” Bryant Tucker, also known to fellow competitors and fans as “The Bad Cat,” first appeared in the 1950 Raceway Park program and was written by long-time Raceway Park public address announcer and renowned motorsports journalist Wayne Adams.

Bryant Tucker

by Wayne Adams

Stock car racing fans here at Raceway Park have been cheering for Bryant “Gentleman” Tucker ever since he made his first appearance here in 1949 at the wheel of his Buick No. 25. Thruout ’49 he was bounced from one car to another and on to the wall until one evening his Buick was completely demolished when caught between two cars—the front end was torn off; the wheels smashed; both fenders torn off, and the hood gone. In addition the engine was practically flat on the track, but Tucker crawled out—took one look and smiled. So what?—he had it back on the track the following week. That’s Gentleman Tucker—never gets excited—and we found that the reason he sticks to Buicks is because they have never had any other make car in the family and the garage is stocked with hundreds of spare parts which Bryant is trying to use up.

Born in Detroit , September 25, 1924, Tucker came to the Chicago area with his family in 1935 when they settled in Berwyn later moving to Oak Park , the current residence. Bryant saw a midget race here at Raceway Park in 1939 then went home and started to work on a “hot rod” for his own pleasure. His creation became known as the “Plumber’s Nitemare”—a mass of queerly contorted pipes of various sizes with very little in the way of a body and powered with a Buick engine. Seated in this contraption, Tucker closely resembled a man from Mars in an old fashioned flying machine without wings—but the car would run and our hero was happy. He ran this car in competition at the DeKalb, Ill. , half miler in 1948 before switching to stock car racing. One of Tucker’s own inventions is an important feature of this “rod”—that is a combination accelerator and brake pedal.

Bryant joined the Championship Stock Car Club early in 1949 to compete at Raceway and around the circuit and is again with the group for 1950. He received his greatest thrill here just a few weeks back when he broke the qualifying track record, setting a mark which fell only two weeks later. Recently he came out with the entire front part (fender and hood) of the Buick welded into one piece. When asked why, Tucker replied, “this year they are going to tear it all off in one piece.” Tucker demonstrated how to put water in the radiator thru a hole cut in the top of the hood and when asked about oil or working on the engine, he said, “this Buick does not use oil and I never have engine trouble.” He is a confident young man, and usually backs up any statement regarding cars or engines. He has a spark adjustment lever on his present Buick which allows spark changes while the car is in motion, during a race.

In a race Tucker is a slow starter but really rolls after about two laps. He claims he starts slow intentionally to save his transmission and cites for example that he has never had any transmission trouble yet in his racing career. Several of the drivers have reported that on the highway, Tucker buckles his safety belt, dons the crash helmet, and takes off, “flat out” or wide open. At any rate he has never had an accident and is a strict observer of speed laws in populated areas. He has never driven a midget but thinks that someday he might like to try big cars because he likes lots of speed.

Tucker attended the St. John’s Military Academy and also Oak Park High School where he was a top-flight track man—running the 440 yard distance and participating in broad jump events. He has no superstitions whatsoever and his hobby is photography. He works every day as a camera man for the Newman-Rudolph Lithographing Co. at 400 Jefferson St. , in downtown Chicago .

So—keep your eye on the red and yellow’46 Buick No. 25—someday Bryant Tucker is going to romp home with his first racing win and when he does you will see one happy lad shaking that victory flag. He has won several preliminary races in stock car action but his desire naturally is to win a big feature event.

Attention girls: Bryant Tucker is not married.

Thanks to Todd Miller for his editorial help with this story.  Todd and his brother Craig were long-time Bryant Tucker fans with the Millers’ father, Marv, sponsoring Tucker’s No. 25 Buicks.