CHICAGO WHISPERS
by Stan Kalwasinski

September 14, 2008

            Chicago , Ill. —Illiana Motor Speedway’s 47th annual Tony Bettenhausen Memorial 100 presented by Lisa Thomas Salon was rained out this past Saturday evening with four inches or more of rain being the culprit.  Apparently, next Saturday will NOT be the makeup date for the traditional late model stock car event at the half-mile paved oval in Schererville , Ind.  Check out the track’s website at www.illianaspeedway.com for more details. 

            Recent Bettenhausen dates have not been affected much by the weather.  Looking through the record books, it took four weeks for the Bettenhausen 100 lapper to be run in 1974.  Tom Reffner of Rudolph , Wis. , won the race that year in his 1970 Mustang.  Originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, October 6, the event was finally run on October 27.  Reffner made the 290-mile or so, one-way, five hour-plus trek each week and eventually scored the win, taking home nearly $1,500 of an $8,500 purse.

            A pretty stellar field was on hand that final Sunday afternoon with Larry Schuler, Dick Trickle, Michigan ’s Rick Knotts and Illiana regular Don Axtmann chasing Reffner’s No. 88 at the checkered flag.  Others in the field included Ray Young, Jerry Kemperman, Jimmy Pierson, Jim Cossman, ’74 Illiana champion Bobby Wawak, Tom Musgrave, Joe Shear, Ed Hoffman, Tom Jones, three-time Bettenhausen winner “Moose” Myers, Dave Evans and Mike Miller.

            The legendary Trickle, Reffner and Musgrave battled for the lead with Musgrave dropping out on lap 61 with mechanical ills.  Trickle set the pace from there with the ever-present Reffner not too far behind.  A yellow flag on lap 73 bunched up the field.  On the restart, Trickle seemed taken by surprise by starter Art Kelly’s green flag with Reffner shooting by him for the lead.  With daylight growing dimmer, Reffner and Trickle ran bumper-to-bumper the rest of the way with Trickle driving hard into turn three on the final lap, looking to get by Reffner.  Trickle’s purple Mustang No. 99 slid high in the turn, allowing a fast-closing Schuler to take over second place at the end.

Racing at the Kamp Motor Speedway in Boswell , Ind. was also rained out this past Saturday.  This coming Saturday, September 20, the dirt oval will again try to host the Lucas Oil Products/Kamp 50 for United Midwestern Promoters (UMP) late models.  UMP open-wheel modifieds, UMP sportsman and UMP street stock divisions will also be in competition. This will be the final points-paying event of the season at Kamp.  Go to www.kampmotorspeedway.com for starting times, etc. 

Shadyhill Speedway in Medaryville , Ind. will host its “annual awards evening” on Saturday. September 27.  A full program of racing is slated for the north central Indiana dirt oval, including a 10-lap, $1,000-to-win, winner-take-all, race for all feature winners this year in the UMP modified ranks.  Racing begins at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) or 4:00 p.m.( Chicago area time).

            Looks like there will be over 40 super late models on hand for the 43rd annual National Short Track Championships (NSTC) at the Rockford Speedway during the weekend of September 26 – 28. Three-time NSTC titlist Eddie Hoffman heads the current list of entries.  Wisconsin ’s Jeremy Lepak, winner of the last two NSTC’s at the high-banked, quarter mile paved oval, is also entered, along with 2002 titlist Steve Rubeck and 1990 winner Rich Bickle.  ASA Midwest Tour star Dan Fredrickson, out of Minnesota , and veteran Wisconsin ace Steve Holzhausen are also among the entries.  The super late model 200-lap headliner is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

            How about that Blake Brown?  The 16-year-old “kid” from Franksville , Wis. won his second super late model victory in only second appearance at Illiana on September 6.  He passed 2007 Illiana champion Jeff Cannon like a “seasoned veteran.”

            Brown, who won his first career super late model feature at Illiana on August 16, drove his Chevy Impala SS to an impressive win after battling Cannon for the lead in the closing laps of the race.  Starting ninth in the 22-car field for Illiana’s 35-lap Season Championship race, Brown drove to the front, wrestling away the lead from Cannon on lap 32.  A late-race yellow flag closed up the pack, but Brown took off on the restart and held a 0.438-second margin over Cannon at the checkered flag.

            “Those cautions seemed to fall into place for us,” Brown said after the race. “We were able to pick up a few spots after every restart.  The cautions would bunch things up and that helped me get to the front.  The car was just fast once we got up there.    

            “This is my fourth or fifth time in a super late model.  It’s the coolest thing racing out here with all these guys that have all the experience.”

            For late model front runner and champion Tracy Schuler and long time crew chief Tom Lambie are among the crew for Brown’s top flight ride.

            Sorry to hear of the passing of Tom Magnabosco.  Magnabosco crew chiefed a number of late model cars over the years, including those of Tracy Schuler, Wayne Para and “Doc” Bertolini.  R.I.P., Tom.

            60 Years Ago (1948)—Short track stock car racing was introduced to the Chicago area late that racing season at the old Gill Stadium at 1111 E. 87th Street on Chicago’s southeast side.  The girls’ baseball field saw United Auto Racing Association (UARA) midgets invade the stadium during the summer of ’48. 

            To “spice up” the midget programs, Chuck Scharf and Eddy Anderson brought over some “used cars” and began putting on stock car “exhibitions” during the midget races. 

            “Those early stock car races at Gill Stadium were something else,” reminisced Wayne Adams, who handled the announcing duties for UARA during its early days and “called” the first stock car event at Gill.

“It all started when Scharf and Anderson brought out about a dozen or so used cars from their used car lot and put on a little exhibition,” remembered Adams some five decades later.  “With mostly midget drivers handling the cars, the sport took off, with fans screaming as headlights and windshields shattered, doors got smashed and fenders were knocked off.  It seemed like the fans kept screaming and cheering long after the races were over.”

            The stock cars were given their own racing program at Gill on Labor Day evening, September 6.  UARA midget racer Larry Johnson won the first stock car feature race that night, wheeling a 1937 Ford to the victory over Johnny Werner, Harvey Sheeler, Harold “Wild Willie” Wildhaber and Sam Koske.  Tom Cox, Bill Van Allen and the Sheeler Brothers, Ed and Harvey, won heat races, while Johnson won the 6-lap “handicap” heat.  Ralph Smitt was the winner of the 15-lap semi feature.

            A total of six “all stock car” programs were held at Gill during September and October in 1948.  Ed Sheeler won on September 17, while Van Allen, who would go on to a championship-winning career on Chicago short tracks, would win the following Friday night.  Mike Relja captured feature honors on October 1 with UARA midget driver Bill Palmer winning the final two feature races of the season on October 8 and October 15.

            The stock cars were done for the year at Gill Stadium with a few more events slated for Raceway Park and at Schererville , Ind.  We’ll review those final 1948 races at a later date.

            The address for news and comments is 9618 Cypress Ave. , Munster , Ind. 46321-3418 or e-mail to skalwasinski@yahoo.com.

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