Remembering Those Who Left Us in 2016
As the calendar flips to the new year, media outlets present tributes to the celebrities and pubic figures lost during the prior twelve months. Here at CarShowSafari.com, we are doing the same, but with a more narrow focus: People from the world of automobile racing.
Bob Harkey competed in the Indianapolis 500 six times between 1964 and 1976 and finished in the top ten three times. He was one of only 11 drivers still living who drove in the “500” with a front-engine car and was one of only eight survivors who had competed with both a front-engine and a rear-engine car. In February 1959, he took part in the very first event at the then-brand new Daytona International Speedway. In addition to his racing career, he was an accomplished pilot, performed as a stunt man in several motion pictures, and he even boxed as a professional. He performed all the stunts for Robert Mitchum in “Thunder Road;” was one of the drivers in “Winning,” starring Paul Newman, and performed stunts in “Speedway” with Elvis Presley. Harkey was part of Champion Spark Plug Company’s Highway Safety program. But the word “gentleman” best describes Harkey’s character.
Rex Robbins founded the midwest-based American Speed Association in 1968, which at first promoting sprint car races in Indiana before developing into a widely-known and respected sanctioning body for short track racing. Eight years laterRobbins and a group of investors purchased the Sun Valley Speedway in Anderson, Indiana, and operated the track for the next twenty-one years.
Barney Hall was a broadcast announcer for Motor Racing Network, calling NASCAR races from the network’s founding in 1970 through his retirement in 2014. Hall’s career began in local radio in the 1950s before adding speedway public address work to his resume and then joining MRN first as a turn announcer before moving to the anchor position. Hall had been inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame created of the Squier-Hall Award for Media Excellence, named for Hall and retired MRN reporter Ken Squier. Hall’s work was loved and respected by listeners and colleagues alike.
Lennie Pond was a NASCAR driver from Virginia who NASCAR’s Rookie of the Year honors in 1973, besting another new driver by the name of Darrell Waltrip. Pond won his only NASCAR Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway in 1978, setting what was at the time a world record speed of 174.700 miles per hour in a caution-free 500-mile race.
Ron Chaffin was a California-based Sprint Car racer who won more than 125 non-wing Sprint Car races on the West coast and 15 regional Sprint Car championships. His race car was nicknamed the “Little Red Sucker.”
Bobby Johns was a driver who raced in NASCAR and in Indy cars, making 141 career starts in the stock cars and two Indianapolis 500 starts. In NASCAR he had two victories and 36 top ten finishes, and at Indianapolis he finished seventh in 1965 and tenth in 1969.
Roy Pauch was a tough-as-nails racer of Modifieds on the dirt tracks of the East coast. From a rural New Jersey town along the Delaware River, Pauch possessed a seemingly innate knowledge of how things worked, how to fix them, and how to make them better. When his son Billy began to race, Pauch retired from the cockpit and became what today we would call a crew chief, helping “Billy the Kid” become one of the winningest short-track racers anywhere. Prior to his passing Pauch was able to see his grandson, Billy Pauch Jr., achieve success on the dirt tracks also.
Bill Wimble was a northeast-based stock car racer who captured NASCAR’s National Sportsman Championship in 1960. In an era when drivers were largely an assortment of tough guys, the bespectacled Wimble was an easygoing gentleman, remembered fondly by fans and competitors alike. In 1963, Wimble was one of several people who rushed to the aid of 1961 Daytona 500 winner Marvin Panch when Panch was trapped in a burning car after a crash during a testing session at Daytona International Speedway. Tiny Lund, Wimble and several other men rushed to Panch’s aid and pulled him to safety. A winner of numerous track championships in the northeast, Wimble qualified for and finished 11th in the 1962 Daytona 500.
Dutch Hoag was a New York-based driver who, in addition to winning races and championships on the short tracks of his home state also won the Langhorne National Open five times during a period when that race was the most prestigious event for Modified racers. Hoag was the only driver to win at Langhorne Speedway both when the track’s surface was dirt (1956, 1960, 1963) and when it was asphalt (1967, 1968).
Mario Fiore was an owner of NASCAR modifieds, whose cars won the 2000 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship and track championships at Riverside Park Speedway in 1979, 1984, and 1988; Monadnock Speedway in 1979 and 1988; and Stafford Motor Speedway in 1983. The Connecticut-based Fiore was the winning owner in the 1987 Race of Champions at Pocono International Raceway, a two-time winner at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway, and a repeat champion of the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway.
Carl Haas begin racing sports cars in 1952 but retired from driving in the early 1960s and built highly successful racing-related businesses. From his Chicago-area base Haas first became widely known after becoming the exclusive American importer for Lola Cars and for fielding entries in the Can-Am Series for drivers such as Masten Gregory, Peter Revson, Jackie Stewart, Brian Redman, Alan Jones, Patrick Tambay, Jacky Ickx, and David Hobbs. In 1983, Haas joined with actor Paul Newman to form Newman/Haas Racing in the CART Indycar series with marquee driver Mario Andretti. Newman/Haas Racing won multiple series championships and employed drivers including Andretti’s son Michael and former Formula 1 World champion Nigel Mansell.
David Sisco was a driver who competed in 133 NASCAR Winston Cup Series races from 1971 to 1977, and who had previously raced Late Model stock cars at the Nashville Fairgrounds, where he was the track champion in 1969.
Gary London was a columnist and correspondent for the National Speed Sport News whose caustic and irreverent style made him loved and hated – but mostly loved. London favored both the grassroots racing with which he grew up on Long Island and the Indianapolis 500, and was a frequent if not incessant critic of NASCAR. London wrote what was on his mind and never pulled punches, but infused his work with humor.
Bryan Clauson was a charismatic short-track racer best known for his achievements in dirt track open-wheel racing, although he competed in ARCA, NASCAR, and the Indianapolis 500. In 2016 Clauson set a goal of competing in 200 races including the Indianapolis 500, sprint cars, and midgets. Midway through what he had dubbed his “Circular Insanity Tour” Clauson was fatally injured in a midget car crash at Belleville High-Banks Speedway in Belleville, Kansas.
Bill Alsup was a driver who was the first CART Rookie of the Year in 1979 and who competed in the 1981 Indianapolis 500, finishing 11th. He made a combined 57 starts in CART and USAC Indycar racing, recording a best race finish of third three times and finishing second in 1981 CART points after a winless but consistent season for Penske Racing.
Lanny Edwards was a racing promoter for 50 years, best known for being the co-founder of the Chili Bowl Midget Nationals with Emmett Hahn. In 1978, Edwards’ Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, held the first World of Outlaws sprint car event, and at one time he operated five tracks, one of which was State Fair Speedway in Oklahoma City. He was still operating three tracks – Devil’s Bowl Speedway, RPM Speedway in Crandall, Texas, and the Lawton Speedway – at the time of his death. Edwards was the 2002 Racing Promotion Monthly Promoter of the Year and was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2006.
Shane Unger was a dirt track racer from Ohio who lost his life in a racing crash at the Eldora Speedway during a qualifying race for the late model World 100 event. Unger, like so many racers across the country, enjoyed racing not as a profession, but as a hobby.
Brock Yates was a writer best known for his work at Car & Driver, but who also wrote numerous automotive-related books including Sunday Driver, Against Death and Time, and Enzo Ferrari. Highly influential and both admired and loathed in Detroit, Yates thumbed his nose at the 1970s 55-mph speed limit by conducting the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, nothing less than an entirely outlaw cross-country road race. Yates also did television work as a pit reporter for CBS coverage of NASCAR Cup races in the 1980s, was also one of the main commentators on the TNN motorsports program American Sports Cavalcade, and served as a commentator on racing and vintage cars for the Speed Channel.
Bob Beidleman was a popular sprint car racer from Pennsylvania who succumbed to aggressive brain cancer. His racing began with stock cars at the long-gone Dorney Park Speedway before he moved to Sprint Cars. Eventually he joined the KARS 358 Limited Sprint Car Series where he went on to become a three-time Champion in the series and fifth on the all time 358LS win list at Williams Grove Speedway.
Herm Johnson was a Wisconsin racer who rose to prominence in the late 70’s by winning the SCCA Super Vee Nationals in 1976 and USAC’s Mini Indy championship in 1977. In 1981, Johnson qualified for the Indianapolis 500 but was bumped by three-thousandth of a second. Johnson then raced the 1982 and 1984 Indianapolis 500s, finishing in 9th and 8th respectively. Johnson had 35 CART Indycar starts with a best finish of sixth at Atlanta in 1982. His professional racing career ended in 1986 after a devastating crash during practice at Indy. After retiring as a driver, Johnson remained involved with the sport via a successful graphics design business specializing in helmets, race cars and motorcycles called Just Herm Designs.