Remembering Howard Purdy & The Deuce

[00:00:00] We always have a blast chatting with our guests about all sorts of different topics, but sometimes we go off the rails and dig deeper into their automotive and motorsports pasts. As a bonus, let’s go behind the scenes with this pitstop minisode for some extra content that didn’t quite fit in the main episode.

Sit back, enjoy, and remember to like, subscribe, and support Brake Fix on Patreon. When Howard Purdy and Bob Hodgson chalked out the frame for the Purdy Deuce on the floor of his parents home in 1964, little did they know that the car would be one of the most dominant cars to compete at the famed Oswego Speedway from the mid 1960s through 1974, as well as ultimately become one of the most iconic supermodifieds in the history of the sport.

The car debuted in late 1964 but was plagued by new car issues. The 1965 season however was a relevation as driver Ron Lux won five features in a row and 12 of the 16 races held, easily winning [00:01:00] the track title. In several of those wins, Ron used an alias as he was afraid of losing his USAC sprint car license.

That year the car also made its first and only race ever on dirt, racing in the National Open at the Williams Grove Speedway. Lux was running 5th when he hit a rut and spun out. Sadly, he was fatally injured in a sprint car crash in 1966 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The winter before he died, Ron Lux had suggested a young New England driver, Bentley Warren, as a candidate for the ride.

Howard Purdy wanted a more experienced driver, but after trying several veterans with no success, he put Warren in the car. Bentley Warren drove the car from 1966 to 1969, winning seven features in that span, including the 1969 International Classic, the biggest race of the year. Canadian Warren Conium was behind the wheel in 1970 and 71, winning two features, and the final driver was the late Jimmy Winks who won five features, including the car’s final race in 1974.

Small block and big block injected Chevy motors have [00:02:00] powered the car over the years. The current restoration carries a 1960s small block Chevy, and in its time at Oswego, the Deuce racked up 25 wins, 11 seconds, 5 thirds, and one track championship and one win in the International Classic. The car was competitive throughout the eras of the upright Supers, the sleeker, Indy Roadster style bodies, and even when rear engine Supers were running.

The following presentation covers the history of the Purdy Deuce in more detail and was recorded during the IMRRC’s Center Conversation Around Supermodifieds and the History of the Oswego Speedway and is hosted by the voice of Oswego Speedway, Roy Sova. I want to introduce a few people who were involved in the restoration of the Purdy Deuce.

Up here in the front row, Bob and Nancy Hodgson, who are on the pitcrow. Mary Purdy, wife of Howard Purdy. Chris Purdy is over here. Doug Holmes was greatly involved in the restoration. Jamie Moore had a hand in it. How about a big hand for all of those people.[00:03:00]

I’m Nancy. And you’re Bob. That’s Bob. Oh, he could tell. Laughter. I’m with Nancy and Bob Hodgson who were instrumental in the original deuce that raced at the Oswego Speedway starting way back in 1964. Bob, you were on the, not only on the, uh, crew, but it seems to me like your name was mentioned in winning races.

Uh, yeah, well, I, I drove some race cars myself. That was one reason that Ronnie decided to use my name when he didn’t want Newsac to know that he was running other races. Did everybody think it was you or did they know better? At first I think they did think it was me. But after he won a few races in a row with Airboy, of course he decided he should use his own name.

And he continued to do that the rest of [00:04:00] his career. And, uh, Nancy, what was your involvement in this, other than probably bringing the phone to the track? Well, no, I used to bring food to them when they worked every night until 10 o’clock or so. Tube steak and fried egg sandwiches were their favorites. I did a lot of driving because they worked so many hours that they would be too tired to drive, so I ended up being the chauffeur for the car in the early days.

How do you feel about all that, getting started in that and being such a big part of the crew? Oh, I loved it. We were a big family. We were just all a family. And the story about them taking tape measures and straight edges and chalk and drawing out a frame on the floor of Howard’s parents garage is actually true.

And I was there that night. I could hold the straight edge. Well, good for you. And what did you do during that, Bob? Well, of course, Howard came up with the design of the [00:05:00] new car, and we just started getting materials together to get it built. One thing I wanted to mention about Howard Purdy, when I met him, he was a car salesman in a Ford dealership.

Then he got into, he took over a restaurant near the Ford dealership, and, I guess one or two doors away there was a shoe store. And Nancy was employed in the shoe store. And of course, uh, we would work on the car every night. And then when it come closing time for the restaurant, we would go to the restaurant, clean the restaurant up.

And so that was ready for the next day. I had to thank Howard for introducing me to this lady here She was very cool. This August, we will celebrate 63 years of marriage. Congratulations. Thank you. So, [00:06:00] that’s how Nancy and I got together. But anyway, Howard, after the restaurant, he then went and started the business of Purdy Ford.

Then he had a Campland RV business and a Z Bart rust proofing business. And then there came Lakeshore Ford, another Ford dealership. Another thing that he did, we, in the wintertime, we used to go skiing. He designed and patented a ski boot case for ski boots. I think because he had so many things going on, he never got the opportunity to market it.

And then besides all those things going on, Howard and Mary had a hobby farm where he had registered cattle and he had horses. With all these things going on all those years, Howard actually built [00:07:00] 56 race cars during his career. So he was a pretty busy person In the later years of our racing, uh. When people talked about, we didn’t run the total seasons, and of course with all that stuff going on, that was a reason for, you know, every race at that time.

Now, what about you, during all this time, and putting up with him for 63 years? Oh, it’s been wonderful. And racing was wonderful. Bob met Howard when he was 16. I met Howard when I was 18. They were in one another’s weddings. We’re godparents to one another’s children. It’s been a marvelous friendship. And it’s almost more like family than just friends.

And Howard was a very brilliant man, well beyond his time. And when people say he wanted the best to be better, it’s true. [00:08:00] And it didn’t matter whether it was a car or his business. Or his relationships with people. I think that was, that was his motto in life. It was never It was never just good enough. No, it was, nothing was ever good enough.

It always had to be better. There was a way to make it better. And he’d work at it, and he’d work with people to get that. And that’s a rare talent. And Mary, Mary Purdy is joining us, uh, wife of Howard. You must have led some interesting times with him over the years. probably, yes. . . There were always the race car.

And then after our children came and you know, that sort of went, uh, I think he, he wouldn’t have wanted his son to drive. Right. And so, then we bought a farm and we’re working on the farm. We had Angus cattle. We grew, and that was a [00:09:00] big enterprise. We grew corn, hay. Why did he finally get out of Russia? I think he really didn’t want his son Chris to get it.

Howard didn’t really drive, but he wouldn’t have wanted his son. Too dangerous? Too dangerous. Probably, yes. Well, thank you for joining us Mary, Mary Purdy, Nancy Hodgson, and Bob Hodgson, the iconic Purdy Deuce, here at the International River Racing Research Center at Watkins Glen. We’ll have the next part of our program in just a few minutes.

Thank you for having us. First of all, let me tell you a little bit about the Purdy Deuce. One of the most iconic cars ever at the Oswego Speedway. The whole thing was triggered by a guy by the name of George Offenburg in Florida. On the 26th of November of 22, the car arrived at Doug Holmes place in Auburn.

On the 27th, they started the disassembly, and that was completed [00:10:00] on the 30th of November. On the 2nd of December, the frame went to Lee Osborne and was returned on the 4th of January. The frame in the auto body then went to Steve Miller’s shop in Mexico, New York, and Steve returned it on the 21st of March.

The trailer arrived at Doug Holmes place on July 4th. And was ready to go on July 5th. Trailered it to Lee Osborne on the 14th. Lee returned it on August 9th to Doug Holmes. On the 24th, the fuel filter arrived. That was the last part they were waiting on to complete the car. And on the 28th of August, 2023, The deuce was fired up for the first time since 1974, and that was done at the Romulus Airport in Romulus, New York.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got Bentley Warren, Warren Conium, Doug Holmes, Lee Osborn, and Steve Miller, the guys who primarily were responsible for all of the restoration. I want to mention that the car, as soon as we are done here today, will be loaded up. by Bentley Warren and taken up to Bentley [00:11:00] Saloon in Arundel, Maine, where it will be on display for the rest of the year.

If you’ve never been to Bentley Saloon, you need to go. It’s a fantastic place. He sells more t shirts and hoodies than any racetrack in the world.

He has two large, maybe the size of this room, or bigger. Barnes, with classic cars, and classic race cars, and the uh, Duke’s is going to go up there and do that. People are invited to go in, there’s no charge, there is an honor box if you want to leave some money in the box, uh, to help support what he does there.

But it’s just a tremendous visit, at Bentley Saloon. He has a lot of classic car shows, motorcycle shows, entertainment with music and everything like that. You could pay me like a fortune. No, so, that car is going to be out there, what, for the entire rest of the year? Yes, uh, Chris told me we’d keep it till the end of the year.

And, uh, we’re looking forward to it. And I’m sure a lot [00:12:00] of people are going to love to see it because it was such a great race car. And it just did so much with, you know, different drivers in it and winning races and all that stuff. So, I’m just very, very proud that he, uh, let us have it. That he got it restored by Doug.

A lot of other guys helped restore it. It’s just an honor to have it. Mention a couple of other cars you got there. I got the 61 Junior, then there’s a replica of 49 Ford that I drove in 61. I think I won a championship with it. I look at Fisher and me and I standing with the checkered flags. What the hell happened to me now

But, uh, there was a lot of cars in there, a lot of race cars. President Bush was there once with, uh, his whole entourage and uh, the guy who was in a wheelchair at that time and the guy pushing him was his head PR guy. He said we gotta get out of here. He’s telling me we gotta go. We gotta go like this. But he didn’t want President Bush to hear it.

President Bush says to me, What’s over there? I said Model [00:13:00] T’s and Model A4’s. I want to see them. He turns around to the guy and the guy’s going like this.

I mean, it was just such an honor. He came to the saloon three times. He and Barbara Bush, and they were just wonderful people. I got another cute little story, too. We have, for some reason, the surprise ears hanging in the office. So I’m standing next to Barbara, President Bush was next to her, and luckily my girlfriend, Lisa, who runs the place, was right beside me on the left side.

And Barbara said, Bentley, I have to ask you a question, in this beautiful English language that she just spoke so eloquently. And I said, sure Barbara, what? She said, how do the brassiers get in the rafters? And luckily Lisa, she said, oh Barbara, some of the girls come in with two bras on, and they take, before Lisa said they take, But I was like, oh gosh, I did not come prepared for the occasion.

It was so [00:14:00] quick, so quick, so witty.

That’s happy for me, and a lot of people are going to see it. I want to start with you, Doug, because you were kind of the coordinator for all of this. Well, it took a little while before we received the car. Chris was going to restore it with his son, David. They just decided it was more than they can handle in a reasonable amount of time.

So Bob Hodgson had called me, mentally called me, asked if we could get it done for classic. I said, yeah, if we get the car here, we’ll have it done. We got to get, we didn’t have the car at that point. It showed up at my shop, like Bentley said, the half inch shock stems were about five eighths, you know, with rust.

It’s pretty rough looking. One of the first things I did was call Lee, and I said, Lee, you gotta come over and look at this thing. Give me a plan of attack on this thing, and so we soaked it with WD 40. And, uh, I had it apart in a couple days. Took the frame up to get Lee, cause there was a couple cracks. We needed some motor mounts made for it.

Just some small things fixed on it. Blasted and powder [00:15:00] coated. Got that back, took it to, uh, Steve’s. Got the tail section done, hood. nose, replace the right side door panel, and paint, and lettering. After that, it was just taking every single part apart, and either rebuilding it, or hopefully rebuilding it, but some stuff we had to replace.

A master cylinder was lost cause. Fuel filter was also shot. That was a problem. It seemed to be aircraft stuff from back in the day. We just couldn’t find a fuel filter, so we tried the best we could to duplicate it, and that’s where Ted Johnston helped me on that. The brakes went to Martin’s machine in, uh, I think it’s Oklahoma.

The gauges went out, got new bezels put on them. Just took the rack apart, the rear end apart, polished up the axle, zinc flashed it. The wheels were all just done and Cerakoted. I should have brought my thumb drive because there’s pictures or, I don’t know, maybe George did, but I had all the, uh, photos from everything right from start to finish.

But yeah, I couldn’t do it without Lee and Steve Miller and a bunch of [00:16:00] people’s name on that board there. And, uh, I’m glad it turned out as well as it did. Well, we want to mention that Howard Purdy’s wife is here, his son Chris are here. They were responsible for the car finally being turned over for restoration.

And Bob and Nancy Hodgkins, Bob was a mechanic on the deuce for a number of years. Lee, let me get you in here next. What was your role in this? Did some frame repairs, made some bumpers, motor plates, stuff that was just beat up too bad to fix. We got a friend of mine painted part of it, then we sent it back to Doug and he sent it up to Steve.

Now how did you get involved? Doug contacted you about this? It was my lucky day, yeah, he called me. Yeah, yeah, he called me up because I’ve done other projects for him. So just one more on the list. That’s right, just more iron, you know. And Steve Miller, Steve, this is probably one of the fastest restorations that’s been done.

I know you’ve had a number that have been known all over the United States, uh, competed again, not competed, but showed again at Indianapolis and stuff like that. But this has had to be a very quick restoration. We didn’t [00:17:00] seem quick. Body looked like King Kong jumped up and down on it several times. The whole back end of it, I had to fabricate that that was missing because this had a tail section on it when it last ran.

Oh, that was sad. Did you keep the original hood? Original holes have been filled and recut for a big black radiator. They did a couple of things, they, they moved the offset. I think in 68, was that it, Bentley? When they changed the offset on it and put the, uh, open tube axle in it and everything. I, I can’t remember, but it looked so much like original when I drove it in the 69, I think it was 68 and 69.

It looked just like when you guys brought it. I’m like, wow, that’s the same guy, I didn’t think it was touched. Except it looked cleaner. Well, originally the engine was in the center. The rear end is out of an Indy Roadster. They had an Indy Roadster that they were going to replace this car with, but it didn’t work as well as this car.

So they took all the running gear out of it because [00:18:00] originally this car had wide fives and housing rear end and stuff when they changed the offset because it is an offset rear end. Instead of making a new hood, they just riveted a patch over where the engine used to be. So, then they put a big block in it, and then cut up more of it.

They cut into the nose section. There was a lot of it, uh, had to be replaced. This is the original top, though, and the original nose piece. Now, Doug, I’ve been hearing for years this car was put away right after it was raised. It was still in pristine condition. All you had to do was take it out and dust it off.

That was obviously not the case. No. I have witnesses. Yeah, it was rough. It was rough. It didn’t roll at four flat tires. He backed the trailer up to the garage and we picked the back end up with a cherry picker and then we kind of scraped it off the trailer, you know, got the rear on jack stands and we picked the front up with a cherry picker and set it on the ground.

It wasn’t going anywhere on its own. Now what made this car so competitive? It started in, uh, 64, ran through [00:19:00] 74. The roadster era came into being, and yet this car was still a winner. Maybe just the drivers? Well, yeah, that’s probably a lot of it, yeah. But, the car’s very light. We scaled it with the small block, and it was 1, 740 pounds with the iron small block.

Valley said it would have run better if I didn’t have 50 year old shocks on the back. Well, they were relatively new. Well, Bob found them for me. They were in the bottom of one of the boxes there. They’re Monroe Max, is what they are. They were yellow, but in all the photos they’re black, so we painted them black.

One of the front shocks, we had trouble finding that little one that’s on the lower part of the axle. All I did was go in the book and measure lengths and compress and that. That shocks off of a heater built cab or tip flip over cab or something, I don’t know, but that’s the only thing we could find that would fit on there.

Yeah, as far as the chassis, I don’t know enough about what made it fast. Bob Hodgson said it’s basically a three wheeled race car. I don’t really know what makes it so fast, other than I know it’s light. I mean, we’ll talk to Bentley, he knows what made it fast, right? I think a lot of it was Howard [00:20:00] Birdy.

He was a person that was Driven to do everything perfect and make things right and fast. And I remember driving it, we’re out, we’re running practice. And Fritz Kline was, Fritz used to be a big guy that worked on the car. Real nice guy. How is what, why can’t you go faster Bentley? And I’m like, I thought we were going pretty, no, pretty good.

Isn’t good enough. He said, why can’t you, he said, what’s wrong with the car? I said, I don’t, I don’t think anything. He said, well, why can’t you get into the corner deeper? What happens? So then I tell him what, what happened. He said, well, what happens in the middle when you try to pick the throttle up? Does it push or is it, or is it assy?

I said, well, it gets assy when you put the throttle down. He said, what about coming out of the first two parts of the corner? What about coming out? The, I said, well, sometimes it’s pushing, sometimes it’s acting. And then he had Ray and Bob change tires, and he only had four wheels, so he had to take the wheels and tires off the car.

He had a couple of spare tires, changed the tires, and it’d go outward, run the same speed, but it was a little bit different. Fritz told him, he said, you know, you’re the fastest car on the track by two tenths. He said, But Howard always wants to go faster. [00:21:00] And that was Howard’s way. He always wanted to go faster.

And I really believe he did that in his businesses and in life and everything. How did you get in the car in the first place? Now Ronnie Lux, of course, had it in 64, won 12 features, was the track champion. It didn’t do a lot after that. And then you got in the car and in 69 won the classic. How did you get the ride?

Uh, Howard called me up and asked me and I was like, Oh my God. And then I remember practicing in the car and the car was so good and Ronnie Lux helped me get the ride. And Ronnie Lux, I believe. I told Howard that I would be the guy to put in the car. He and I raced a little bit together and talked a little and stuff like that, just on different things.

He thought that I would be a good driver for the car, a good fit for the car. And uh, when I remember getting into it in the first practice I was running, I was so darn nervous and I wasn’t on the throttle wide open. I was just in practice till they threw the green. I thought I was going to break a drive shaft or a rear end.

My foot was shaking so bad the car was going, whoa, whoa, whoa. like this. Like, Holy Cripes, I’m going to break something. When the green flag came out, I practiced the car was, it was unbelievable how good it went. All right. Now, after 69, you won [00:22:00] the classic first classic win. Then you got out of the car. Well, I got a chance to go to the Indy 500 and you took that instead.

Yeah. What? Stupid. But this was like a ladder and I, this climbed me up the ladder to get some recognition and the people involved with this car, just people that saw me and how it just made me look good. And then I just got rides after that. And then, Warren, you got in the car. How did you get the ride?

Well, Howard just called me and, uh, asked me if I had time to drive his car. And you said, sure. Yeah, I mean, the car was so iconic. You know, I said, great, that sounds like a good time. But like Bentley says, Howard always wanted to go faster, and he was great at reading tires. He would just rub his hand across the tires and say, well, this one’s working, that one’s working, but this one’s not.

He’d always say, well, the car’s faster than that. I know when I qualified for the classic, drove it the first week with a small block in it. And I said, I don’t know, this motor doesn’t seem to have much. And he said, you’re kidding. He says, it’s a four by four. And I said, [00:23:00] well, it doesn’t pull as good as four by fours that I’ve run.

So he said, okay. Well, that was a week before classic. He said, okay, I’ll see you next week. Well, I showed up at the track on the Friday night to practice the car. And Gladdy, the girl at the, uh, hotel, said Mr. Purdy called and said he’s gonna be a little bit late. He was making an adjustment on the car. So I said, oh, okay.

Yeah, he probably won’t get in till tomorrow. So, uh, okay. We missed some warm ups. But the next day he showed up and here it’s got a big block in it. And so, uh I said, well, that’s quite a tune up. He said, yeah, well, he said, you said it didn’t have much power, but he says, after I put this motor in, he said, I did find that the four by four had a broken valve spring.

And he said, so it was probably down a little bit. But he says, uh, hopefully this will be okay. But it was a stock 427 big block off the GM shelf with a flat tap at cam in it. I don’t think that’s going to go any better than a four by four. [00:24:00] Anyways, he was great to work with. Unfortunately, the rear torsion bar adjuster.

Broke just as we were starting the classic and we were down 14 laps. And the last thing he said to me was, well, if you win it from here, you’re doing something. But we did pick up a lap on the field. The car was phenomenal. And I know he changed all the bars after the fact. After classic weekend, he changed all the bars.

He said, I should have done this before classic. But anyways, I only ran the car, I would say six or eight times. And one win. No, well, Oswego, yeah, and then we won Fulton, and we won Flamborough, I think. So why did you get out of the car? Somebody else called me for a full time ride, and Howard wasn’t going to run a full schedule.

Well, Bentley, I think that’s one of the interesting things about this car. He almost never ran a full schedule, only a couple of years. In the 10 years or 11 years that it ran, I believe it was 97, either 94 or 97 races [00:25:00] total, and the average finish for the car with all the drivers, he had 10 different drivers in it, the average finish was 5.

8. Well, most of that was Ronnie Lux. Ronnie Lux and Howard and Bob and Ray and Fritz and all of them were just such a team. Ronnie had a good foot to stand on the gas, I’d say something else to go along with the foot, but he, uh, he really got the job done well, and he was a phenomenal driver, and he won. I think every feature but one, the last year he drove it, before he went to Indy.

And uh, he was just a phenomenal race car driver, and the car was phenomenal too. After that, the guy, the last guy in the car, and I believe it was the last time they ran a full season, last time they ran it all, was Jimmy Winks, who had quite a career in it. Yeah, now Howard put that Reynolds Aluminum big block in it.

I know Jimmy told me, he said, man, it sure doesn’t run out of power now. But no, Howard, Howard was before his time, really. He was a smart man. So Doug, want to sum this up? How competitive would it be today? What can you get it down to? Probably have to ask Bentley, but we would need more power. I’m sure he’d [00:26:00] say that, but I don’t know what the weight and all, I don’t know, Steve, these guys could probably answer it better than me.

I mean, if you put a rip today’s big block on there, I’m not even sure the frame would handle it really. It’s, you know, it’s pretty rusty, you know, it was all blasted and powder coated, but it would need to have some, it’s bent too. Bentley told me this thing’s bent, the front’s pushed over a little bit, but yeah.

You would, you would probably have to take it all apart and just make a new frame and for it. Maybe put some better brakes on it too. I don’t know. And get a younger driver. Wow. I don’t know. He’s still good. He’s still good. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, we want to thank Mrs. Purdy, son Chris Purdy from Howard Purdy family, Bob and Nancy Hodgkins, and of course, Lee Osborne, Steve Miller, Doug Holmes, Bentley Warren and Warren Coney.

Thanks for being with us here now.[00:27:00]

Make it to your favorite racetrack this year. Thank you.

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[00:00:00] Brake Fix’s History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Argettsinger family. The Oswego Speedway located in Oswego, New York was built in 1951 when original owners Harry George and William Caruso converted the one-Time Wine Creek horse track into a three eighth mile dirt auto racing facility.

The track was paid during 1952 and remained a three eighth mile until 1961 when it was enlarged to its current five eighth mile size. The Oswego Speedway has been a continuously run weekly racetrack since it opened in August of 1951. Dick O’Brien, former public relations and track manager at Oswego Speedway, kicked off this IMRRC Center conversation about the history of supermodified racing, where he spent 40 years in motorsports and spoke to the early history of the track and how it has significantly involved this discipline [00:01:00] of racing.

Following his presentation, drivers from Oswego’s over 70 year history were invited on stage. Bentley Warren, Warren Conium, Eddie and Brandon Bellinger, Allison Slode, the only woman to win a super modified feature, nine time champion Otto Siderly, Dave Danzer, and car owner and promoter John Nicotra answered a wide variety of questions posed to them by the voice of Oswego Speedway, Roy Sova.

Enjoy this fun and insightful view on how Oswego and Super Modified Racing has been a major influence in their racing careers. Welcome to the center conversation. Oswego Super Modifieds, a legacy of speed at the Steel Palace. We’ve got some outstanding Hall of Fame drivers, future Hall of Fame drivers here at the International Motor Racing Research Center.

And to start our program I’m going to call on Dick O’Brien, long time track manager at the Oswego Speedway, who was involved in the change from the Modifieds to Supermodifieds and the growth of the Supers. Dick? I think we’re going to have a [00:02:00] great afternoon for Supermodified racing right here. We’ve got a lot of great drivers, owners, a lot of people that donated to the sport.

I’d like a special thanks to the Purdy family for, uh, Bringing their iconic race car here and making things happen. But what I want to talk about initially is what happened before the Supers got there and the changeover into the Super Modified Division. And Harry, Bill, and George Caruso always loved auto racing.

In the late 40s, they bought a modified stock car. They raced it, Sandy Creek and Vernon tracks. Dante Rapone was their driver. The car wasn’t very fast. Being the sportsman that they were, they went out to Chicago to Andy Granatelli and bought a motor from him of STP fame, put it in their race car. It still wasn’t very fast.[00:03:00]

So, the next step, they went out and bought the Long Dorman. Vine Creek Racetrack, which was located on the site of the Oswego Speedway. And they were going to clean up the dirt track and use it for a practice track, so that Dante could pick up the pace, maybe, and be a little more competitive. Well, this was a period, post war, racetracks were popping up all over the country.

And then he says, We’re, we’re sort of messing with maybe the wrong end of the deal. Let’s build a racetrack. So they built Oswego Speedway. It opened in 51. It’s a half mile dirt track. They ran seven races that year. Charlie Berry of Salve won the initial race of her run at Oswego. One of the winners that year was John Terese Sr.

And his son, John Jr., and Eric now own Oswego Speedway. They ran seven races there. They opened up in 52 with a [00:04:00] half mile dirt track, rough, bumpy, dusty. They were sailing dust all over Sweden. Didn’t like it. They shut the place down after four weeks. Paved, reopened in August, is a half mile racetrack. The next thing, we had the three brothers, Harry was upstairs, overseeing the tower and the finances.

Bill was good inspecting the cars. He was good with tubing and welding, and he was our inspector. And George Sr. ran the concession stand. And he’s the man responsible for bringing those world famous Hoffman hot dogs to Oswego Speedway. So things rolled along during the 50s. And in 57, two things happened.

They added a second division. These were for flathead motor stock cars. They were called B’s. And then the overheads that had been running, they were the A [00:05:00] cars. And they were the big hitters. You know, Swifty, Irish Jack, Ellinger, Bliss. The A’s got a bigger purse than the B’s. They were a faster car. Their motors were a little more expensive.

At the end of that year, the Carossos decided to run a big race. They had some cars there. They had a decent turnout of fans. So they ran a 100 lap international class. Irish Jack Murphy won it, won 1, 000. So things moved along. In 1961, that was a very, very important year in the history of the racetrack.

First of all, the track was enlarged to its present 5 inch mile size. So the racing got a little faster. They were having some problems with the B’s. The B’s had more cars than the A’s, and they wanted equal cars. The Caruso brothers talked it over, and they didn’t feel that, you know, the A’s were drawing the people, and they went back and forth.

And finally one night, they [00:06:00] struck. So the B’s came down and blocked the racetrack. You couldn’t run any races. The Carusos asked the police to come, and they opened the gate, and they asked all the B’s to leave the property. And to my knowledge, I don’t believe there’s ever been a flathead race at Oswego since that day.

They also had a deal for Nolan Swift, who was the top dog with the 10 pins. He built a two frame modified for the 61 season. By the rules of the day, that was an illegal car. And it kept going back and forth. You know, he kept demanding, you know, let me run, let me do it. So at the end of the year, as a compromise, they said they could run it in the And the classic race had been building since 57, it now is the biggest asphalt modified race around.

And it was billed as an open competition modified race. So what happened, cars [00:07:00] came from Michigan and Canada, these were super modifieds, but they came under this open competition rule. The crucials were in a tight spot. You had a pit full of modifieds, and you had a few supers. What are you going to do?

You had a big crowd. Finally, I guess, it came down to Harry. And Harry said, I like these supers. Everybody’s got modifieds. Around Oswego, Fulton, Utica, Spencer, Lancaster, Shaverlock, Albany, Saratoga, all had pavement modifieds. Harry liked these supers. It was different. He says, let them run. It wasn’t popular.

They dominated. Bennett, Lloydy John got a Trump role. Bennett wins the race. A lot of crumbling fans. So, in 62, he opened the rules up. He says, We’re going to run Supers. Well, that sounded good. The Michigan cars come in. There were no [00:08:00] local cars. Other than Swifty, he’s the only guy that could stay on the lead lap.

But, Harry, Put money into the purse and he said some of you local guys go out and build some cars or get some cars Guys are taking the bodies off the cars. Jimmy Champlain was there had an old 10 pins car He took the body off in 62 and started his career. He wasn’t very good, but obviously he picked up the pace a few years later.

And he turned out to be the man out there for many, many years. But he kept putting money into the purse, and now you’ve got a situation where the field is building. We’ve got a really good weekly show. The next thing you know, the, uh, switch to supers was basically complete. It took a while. When it took money, he had a little motto.

Money brings cars. Cars bring people. And he used that. Even though the crowds weren’t that big, once he kept getting these cars, [00:09:00] we went from a local modified truck to a regional truck. Guys started coming in. Todd Gibson. Norm Becker came in from Canada. Bentley Warren comes in from New England. The people liked that mixture.

Of the out of town invaders. Versus the local guys trying to pick up the pace. I’ve been there an awful long time. I was there 40 years at the racetrack. I think the most important decision in the history of the Cerrico Speedway happened in 1961 when they went against the grain while they basically threw the modified rulebook out the window and they brought in the supers.

But, they followed it up with money and made that class develop at the Cerrico Speedway. I got one other quick story and then I got to stay out of the way. Everybody wants to keep things moving. You know, they were running in the 60s, Saturday night. Superzone. 3H, 2 semis, Patsy, 45 lab, A main. [00:10:00] I was working up there then, in the early 60s, 64, 65.

I used to talk to Harry, I said, Harry, we got to run a race. We got to do something a little different. The classics coming along. And he says, well, what would we run? He says, well, We could run USAC sprint cars. They had Indy type drivers, Rutherford, Branson, Plusky, Omsers, were all running sprint cars back then.

He wasn’t too excited about that, mainly because they never ran in upstate New York. He never saw a USAC sprint car race. I did. I used to go from Reading and go here and there to the races. And then I said, you know, if we ran a race, I think I could get Mario Andretti up here in a sprint car. And I did. To an old guard Italian, like the Caruso family, having a Mario dread on their racetrack.

That was a big deal. He said, Dick, if you can get a dread over on the race. So I says, okay. So I went down the line on to a USAC Champ car race. I went up to [00:11:00] Mario, introduced myself. I said, we’re running a big hundred lap race in August. I said, we’d really like to have you up there. He said, I’d love to. I got a really fast.

Wally Muskox was my owner, and he’s, he’s good. He said, I gotta have some travel money though. I said, well what do you gotta have? He said, a thousand dollars. Well, 1966, a thousand dollars was a lot of money. I buzzed right over to the pay phone, called Harry up. I said, Harry, I can get Andretti to come to the suite on Mars.

It’s gonna take a thousand bucks. He thought for a minute, he says, make the deal. We’re ready to go. So I went back, shook his hand, we’re ready to go. No contract, no paperwork, just a one on one, shake the hand, there we go. August comes, we’re upstairs, Harry and I, we’re looking off the tower roof, along the lines of the concession stand, it’s a beautiful day.

We’re going to sell out the Trump grants. I get a [00:12:00] call from Danny Bartlett, Pitt signing, he said, There’s that drainage down here. He won’t sign in until he gets his money.

I said to Harry, I said, Harry, I’ll run down, I’ll get him signed in and get him inside and he’ll be ready to go. Harry said, no, I’ll bring him up here, I’ll give him the money. I want to meet Mario Andretti. So I bring him upstairs, I bring him upstairs, Harry Caruso, Mario Andretti, shake hands. Next thing I know, They’re talking in Italian.

Where they’re from, where they did, you know, the whole deal. Ten or fifteen minutes. Back and forth in Italian. I have no idea what they’re talking about. Then I get a call from the bitch. It’s Wally Muskowski. He says, get in dirty over here. We’re ready to warm up. They only give you two warm up sections for the sprints.

I gotta have him over here. So I told Harry, Harry, he’s gotta have his money. So Harry always [00:13:00] carried a big lot of bills. That’s it. Pulls him out, big thick rubber band around him. Takes the rubber band up and it flips open. There’s a stack of ones.

Takes down to the bottom part. And there’s all the hundreds. And drives like this. There he peels off ten 100 bills. He was in his driver’s seat. Takes them, pulls them up. Puts it in the separate pocket. Closes it. Goes down. Sets fast time. Wins the 100 lap race. We got him back the next year. In 67. In 67. And he, uh, had the leader card.

Sprinter with a big Ford 4 cam motor. Dominated. Twin 50s. Wins them both. He’s got his twin brother Aldo there. And they raced for the first time in USAC competition together. Aldo wasn’t very good. Sorry. [00:14:00] But Mario put on the show again. So we ended up the deal. Mario Andretti’s career record at Oswego was unbeaten.

Three feature wins out of three. We were, at that time, the top super modified track in the country. And having IndyCar drivers and people like Andretti there elevated our status as one of the top pavement short tracks in the country. That’s it, folks. The early years of the SWCCO speech. One other person I want to recognize is one of the former track owners and one of the sons of one of the original owners, Romy Caruso, who’s back here.

Now the main part of the show. I’m going to introduce all of the people who are down here on our page. I’m going to introduce them in alphabetical order [00:15:00] by their first name. Which is also ladies first. Ladies and gentlemen, Allison Sloan. Bethany Warren.

Brandon Bellinger.

Dave Dancer.

Eddie Bunyan, 83. John Acotra. Arnold Sidderly.

And Warren Coneyan.

Just to run down a few things. We’ve got, uh, Eddie Belminger with two track championships. Brandon with one. Arnold Sidderly with nine. [00:16:00] Eddie Belminger with two. Warren Coneyan, he had two. And of course, Bentley had six. Classic wins, Dave Dantzler with one, Otto Sidderly with five, Eddie Bellinger with five, Bentley Warren with six, and Warren Coney with two.

So we’ve got some high powered people up here. What we’re going to do is we’re going to ask questions. Uh, we’ve got two microphones, they’ll pass them around as we ask questions of the individuals up here on the stage. And I want to start out with Bentley. Bentley, you won your first ever Classic in 1969 in the Purdy Deuce.

What do you remember most about that race? Winning it. Okay, Allison, next question for you. No, go ahead, Ben. It was certainly a unique opportunity for you, the iconic number two, to take it to the win. And then, of course, next year you left the ride, Warren and Cody took it over and went to USAC racing for a while.

Yeah, so what?

Batman can be like this, he can [00:17:00] also be a nice guy. Alright, Warren, Pauline, what are you next? That’s a hard act to follow. Well, you gotta be able to say one or two words. We’re good. Warren, when you drove the Ferdie Goose, it started out as a Small block car and you talked to the Purdy crew and, and Howard Purdy and had it converted into a big block.

Why did you do that? Well, I told him the first night I drove the car the week previous to the classic, told him this car’s a little short on power. And he said, no kidding, it’s a four by four. I said, well, all the cars I’ve driven are four by fours, and they had more snot than that. So he went home and, uh, made a couple changes.

He put a big box in it. Came back and, uh, surprised me the week later with a big blockhead. What difference does it make? Power? Well, it didn’t have a heck of a lot more power than the 4×4. Like, a good 4×4 is a pretty good motor. Anyways, it did the job. Interesting, since it got the pretty goose, [00:18:00] it almost never ran a full season.

It had under 100 total feature races at the Oswego Speedway. And the average feature finish for that car was a 5. 8. Eddie Bellinger. You were the first driver, and I think the only one, who made a pit stop and won the classic. A lot of other drivers have tried it before you and after you, but you made it work that year.

I know it was a plan you had going in. Why did you decide to do it that way? The tires weren’t really holding up all that great. We just kind of felt like, We just had to do something to get a chance going. And did you practice the pit stop? Oh, the boys did. I didn’t. So they’re still doing the work for you now?

All I had to do was pull it and stop. Get it out of gear. Get it back in gear. Alright, Brandon. Your grandfather was a track champion three times at the Oswego Speedway. Your father’s been a track champion. You won the track championship a couple of years ago. First ever two generation family to win. First ever three [00:19:00] generation family to be track champions.

What does that mean to you? As a competitor or as a person? It was definitely a pretty special win. I feel like getting a swiggle, even winning a heat race is hard. But much less, you know, if you can do anything beyond that. I mean, winning a feature is hard. And to have the opportunity and to be able to deliver one in a championship is pretty special.

You’ve got the classic win as well. Your grandfather never won a classic. I don’t have a classic win yet, but I’m going to change it this year. Oh, that’s right. That’s right. That’s right. That’s right. That’s right. Alright, Alison Sloan, in last year’s classic. They’re the first woman who ever won features at the Oswego Speedway.

I know you yourself consider yourself a race car driver, but in the history of supermodifieds at Oswego, there have only been three women who have ever competed. Sheila Hayes, who was quit a few years ago, probably before you were born. Jen Chesbrough, and now you. When you get into a car, what do you think?

I mean, does that ever enter in your mind at all? No, being a woman is not something I consider on the racetrack. How did you get [00:20:00] started? I know you started in, what, TQs? I started at quarter midgets when I was seven, and I raced locally until I was sixteen, and then I jumped into a three quarter midget with Lou Ciccone.

It was Lou Ciccone. He wanted to get out of his ISMA Supermodified, and he reached out and said, You want a track championship in a TQ with the ATQMRA? You know, he’s like, here’s your next step, buy my car, and that’s kind of where we headed. Dave Danzer, you come from a long racing family at the Oswego Speedway.

They’ve been there practically from the beginning. Through all those years, they had never won a feature. until you started driving. What did that mean to you, to be able to put your family’s name up a little bit higher at the track? A lot. I mean, I remember going back in the day, and we didn’t even make the show.

It was huge, and, uh, I remember showing up at Classic Weekend a lot of times and counting cars, thinking, yeah, they ain’t gonna make the race. Moved to the next steps, been [00:21:00] pretty nice. Hopefully we can continue to move up more. It’s just been a lot of work and a lot of effort in the graduate program. Now Otto, you got your start on the dirt.

You had a pretty good career going on the dirt. You moved over to the small block super modifieds at the Oswego Speedway. What got you to make that move? Probably going to the track in 1990 the first time. I’m watching, my high school buddy sat next to me and we drank Miller Genuine Draft, so we used to say this guy was one of our picks, and Bentley was the other pick, and just watching the cars, you know, um, the speed, the noise, the thrill, the feel in the grandstands, so yeah, I was racing probably a stock car on dirt then.

You know, I think I got to a point where I had to make a decision. I was going to move out of the stock car class and go into a modified type class, and the limited super modifieds came about. So for somebody on the outside, I, you know, so many kids. That race. Super modifieds now are [00:22:00] third generation, second generation.

I had no roots. I was a, basically a relative. Nobody I, I think it was just something that I looked at and said, that’s attainable to race. A small black, super modified. So that’s sort of probably what brought me There was a limited super modified back then. And then you moved into the supermarket buys, which again was a pretty good step.

You owned your own car for a while, had a lot of success in it. Yeah, I ran part years with the small block. I really didn’t have the funds, so I crashed it. I basically was out of business, temporarily, until I could patch something together. And, you know, after we won a few races, and I had a car that was a commodity, I sold it and did well.

And all the equipment, and really I didn’t have to put a lot of money with it to buy out a team. I bought Jeff West’s backup car. It was the entire operation. You can’t buy an engine. today for what I bought that whole entire outfit for. It was not even 20, 000. I actually talked to Eddie about [00:23:00] his, and they were along the same lines, but there was a lot of equipment that came with Westy’s car.

So yeah, then we ran, you know, Rookie of the Year in 2000. I won a couple of races here and there. I ran really consistent, and then when the Hawk car came along, and I bought a used, needless to say that was the right move. I won a lot of races that last year, and basically at that point I was out of money.

So, uh, pretty much I decided I was going to be finished. And then he hit it. One phone call. And it’s been an interesting 18 years. John, I remember you and I talking on the roof at the Oswego Speedway before you got your deal together with Otto. And we talked about it as being a good choice for you to go in that direction.

But what made it your final choice to pick Otto? The whole plan was to get a car ready for Davy Hamilton, if he ever recovered from his serious injuries. And I had talked to quite a few different guys. I was friends with Muldoon, and you know, I talked to Otto, and I talked to this one and that one. And honestly, Muldoon called me one [00:24:00] time, and he goes, Otto’s your guy.

Because, you know, I was even thinking Muldoon, Timmy Snyder, I didn’t know. You know, I was so green. But I knew Otto, and Doug Caruso introduced me to Otto, and I watched him. I could see that he was the real deal. Went that way, and uh, I took Muldoon’s advice, and it turned out exactly what I would have hoped for.

Alright, Dave Ganser, we talked about your family history and everything, and being the first driver in your family to take a car to Victory Lane. When you first switched to the super modified, your very first time on the track, it was not a real pleasant experience. I think you got two laps in. I think I got about 40 that day, but I think I had 41 on the trip to the hospital.

But, uh, yeah, that was, uh, throttle hung up, and that was actually, I think, that was a Furlong car. That’s the one he won all the classics with. So that one’s a write off. Yeah, that’s how I started. Then I went back to the small blocks. That was the interesting thing. A lot of people didn’t think you [00:25:00] would go back to small blocks and take the year off, but you did.

You went back to small blocks, put another supermodified together, and came out the following year. Yeah, I went back, and then I started talking to Hawksby, and we started putting something together. We spent all winter long, and he really took me under his wing, and I just really fine tuned that thing we did together, and every rookie year we came out swinging, we were really good.

John, you were saying? When, uh, he got the hum thrall and crashed that super first time out, I was coming through the walk through gate, and he was coming out. And I felt so bad for him. It bothers me right now, but he had tears in his eyes. You know, he’s put a lot of work and effort into becoming the Dave Dantzler we all know today.

He started in a bad way. Well, you know, the whole family over the years has done a tremendous job of putting race cars on the track and having some good drivers, having some mediocre drivers on the track, and now they got one of the best in Dave. It was a bit of a classic last year. Well, let’s go back to your first feature, Winner on the Squiggle.

I remember talking to you after the race, and you [00:26:00] said in the interview at the track, that all you had to do was concentrate on hitting your marks. You had the lead, you just had to hit your marks. Yeah, so consistency has been one of my strong points. It’s out on the racetrack, especially at Oswego, and it’s pulling off the corner in the exact same spot and entering the corner in the exact same spot every time, one and two and three and four.

It worked out for me. The classic last year, you were running in second late in the race. At one point it looked like you may be able to make a pass. I think a yellow flag came off maybe? And that kind of ended your day in terms of winning the race. Yeah, to be honest the entire race I was just focused on getting around Dave.

And when, uh, Barnsey came around both of us at one point. I was like, eh, we’re just going to let him run off and, you know, we’ll catch him later in the race. I don’t know about you, Dave, but I had no idea that he ran out of fuel. So I was so concerned about catching him, that I had no idea going into one, we had both passed Farnsley running out of fuel.

And in the meantime, you ended [00:27:00] up with a podium finish, finishing second. Right, right. Great race. Now Dave, in that race, that was a very hot day. And I know a lot of drivers suffered a little bit of heat exhaustion. When you get out of your car, you look a little bit tired. Did that affect you in the race at all?

No, uh, usually once you’re in the mode, you get palm effects and you’re probably going to be fine for a little bit until you realize what the hell happened. I just got out of the car, I just thought I threw it away. There you go, you see Barnes you’re driving out of your life, it’s kind of like I just needed to free the car up just a little bit and you got what you got in that race.

I mean, you can’t really change what you got and with the way the cars are right now is where you start is where you’re going to finish. Our goal was to put the thing on the front row and kind of hopefully stay there all day. Well, luckily I didn’t lead all 200 because I had a couple people tell me they were probably going to kill me that night if I did.

So, luckily Barnsley went around and I had no idea he ran out of fuel. I thought that was Jack Patrick, so I thought it was between me and Allison for second and I had no idea I won the race [00:28:00] until Chuck came across the radio and said pull outside. Now, we’ve got three of the four drivers from Eddie B and 83, which Chance started just as soon as you, well, pretty much as soon as you passed through the lead.

If you don’t remember the race, or if you haven’t seen it, Eddie B and 83, the last lap and a half of the race, Doug Hagerhund was winning first. Bentley Warren was running second. Warren Coney was running third. Eddie Bellinger was running fourth. Before they came down to the white flag, Eddie was able to get by Warren to take over third.

And then this is where the action really started, coming out of the second turn. Now I had started to say, Around lap 195, that Havron was running out of fuel. At which point, Doug Caruso said to me, Roy, this is a dog race, you’re not going to make it exciting by doing that. Doug Havron was running out of fuel.

Warren, you were running third at the time, Eddie got by you, how did that happen? I was [00:29:00] right close to the back end of Bentley. And when Dougie ran out of fuel, It’s sort of freight train, and I got right up close to Bentley, and I couldn’t get out and go around him. Eddie was back far enough that he got a good run.

And I couldn’t get by them until I let out of the throttle. Now I think you told me at one point, other than that in the race itself, you felt otherwise you had a chance to win in that feature. Yeah, well, you almost go there, but I think you’re not ready. Bentley, you were running in the number two spot, going into that white flag lap.

Doug had been running out of fuel. He was bogging down particularly bad, coming out of turn two. You came off the second corner right behind Doug, and he almost stopped, and you ran into the back end of him, which caused you a couple of positions, and that’s when Eddie and Warren both got by you. I didn’t want to pass Dougie because he won the thing twice in a row.

And they were just taking me as an invitational driver. And the car [00:30:00] was running beautifully. Ed said, pass it, pass it. And I, I didn’t answer back. I don’t know if he had two way radios or not. I didn’t say anything. I just followed him. And I said, he’s going to win. And when he bought, I hit him, and that’s when Eddie and Warren and all of them got Eddie B in 83.

It was a hell of a win for him, and I was very, very happy for him, and I think I drank half of his beer. But I’ve done that a lot of times, you know. Now, going into that race, about halfway through it, I thought, you thought your car was running pretty badly, and you had even given it thought to dropping out.

Yeah, I was just an average car, in fact, I had a real bad front end shake, so I couldn’t really go in the turn crate bar. One time I actually thought about pulling in, and I thought, well, I’m not going that bad, I’ll just stay here and get what I can get. And so that’s basically all I was doing the whole race, was just hoping to get what I could get, and it just got more than I thought it was going to get.

When did you realize Doug was running out of fuel? Well, you know, we were at a little bit of distance in there. I actually could see him kind of really [00:31:00] slowing down in the turn. And like Bentley said, he conked out and they kind of hit. And it opened up a hole. I just happened to be there. It was his luck.

I was on Doug’s crew that day and uh, he was running out with 10 to go. We knew it. But we knew it with 10 to go, he was in trouble. And then whatever these guys ended up doing, that’s, that’s, that’s for the history books. When we talk about classic wins, Otto, Bentley’s got 6, you’ve got 5. I don’t know. I know you’ve had a couple of shots and at the end, you know, you’ve had car problems or something, but is six doable for you?

I would think so, yeah. One said that every time you go to the track, any of these guys would say the same thing. If you didn’t think you had a shot at winning, you wouldn’t go, so. We have a good car, for sure. We’ll see what happens, you know, there’s a long time between now and the end of the summer, but just a little side note, everybody’s got their stories.

You can talk about all the races you’ve won, and you’ve done this and that. There’s some races that I didn’t win, that I can’t even shake the memory. And one of them is the [00:32:00] 2015 Classic. I had a car that was driving itself, it was, It’s just a little tight all day, and I mean it was just on rails, anybody could have drove this thing, and it got out front, and it just had a nice, almost a little too much of a push to it, and I came around a lapper, I think it was four or five laps to go.

Nine laps to go. And he was still pushing. So, and I, and I, it was Brian Silvis, who’s a friend of mine. I helped him along when he was, you know, first starting. And, um, you know, I think he got a land flag. But, it was two or three laps in a row. And he really just didn’t move. And he was right sort of where I needed to be.

My car was tight enough that. I had to be careful, and I had a guy signaling me, you know, that I had a nice lead, but I still didn’t want to just sit there that long. So I went down into one, and this car never slipped a rear wheel all day. And I went to the outside, and then all of a sudden it just like, stepped, and I turned to the right to catch it, and it did the slowest, longest slide [00:33:00] sideways from, you know, the exit of one all the way over to the exit of two.

And I sat there smiling. As the leader, not many laps to go. I have to track ahead. So if you think that something like that doesn’t weigh on you, the wins don’t mean anything. Whenever I think of that year, because we gave the championship away too. We won six regular races that season, and lost the championship by two.

Three and a half points. So those are some memories that I have that don’t go away . Now Brandon, you got your first feature with a couple of years ago, your first track championship. You’re still working on an international classic. When you started the oh two, the first car that had the, the tail wing they’re using now, how did that come that you were going to do it?

And what did you think about it at the time? To be honest, I think it was a surprise. There was kind of two generations of super modifieds at the track at the time. Some cars had more engine offset, other cars didn’t. You know, the ones with more offset, they were able to get a lot of air to their tail, which we had an older generation car that we [00:34:00] couldn’t get that.

So I feel like we were competitive, but just lacked a little bit, it seemed like. So, I think that’s why we got picked. It’s just, we were a competitive car that we could compare to the newer generation of the Hawksby cars at the time. And see how, uh, that tail wing compared to the rest, and it was, it was an experiment.

I think the way they set it up was, wherever we finished, like, everyone else got moved up a spot, we got paid money, and, and, I don’t really, the first night we went to try it was a Friday practice. We got one time on the track, and someone had an engine problem and oiled up the track really bad, so, like, I couldn’t even really get up to speed after that.

So, I think they decided, like, well, we want to try it again the next day. It was kind of an in the moment decision. We were game to try it. I guess the rest is history now. Now that’s what we all run, so. But there’s a little change to it this year, isn’t there? Yeah, there’s a little bit of an angle change.

Definitely going to take away some downforce. I think all of us are probably looking forward to getting to the track and seeing exactly what you’ve got to adjust on your car. And, uh, how much it’s going to change, you know, what it fits up. It’s going to slow them down a lot. Maybe, maybe it only slows them down with, won’t be that much with new tires, and it’s more of a slow down [00:35:00] with old tires.

Right now, Allison, Otto was just talking about it, that there’s always the one that gets away, or the couple that get away. Before you won your first feature, you lost a couple, when you had a great race car, but didn’t make it to the checkered flag. Now I’m going super modified. It took me a little bit of time, not as much as I thought, originally, to get used to the car.

Because I was used to the Isma wing, and the downforce, and You know, going a lot faster. I remember Otto and Johnny both telling me, like, Hey, you can’t drive this like an Isma Super into the corner. And I said, yeah, okay. And I, and I went in the first corner, I was like, oh shit. Yeah, I can’t, I can’t drive it like that.

So, it did take me a little bit of, you know, learning curve, but I tried to listen. You know, it doesn’t, doesn’t often work out that way. But, you know, I’ve been very fortunate to race with both these guys, so. Thank you for that. Bentley, you won your last classic driving a Jeff West car in 1998, I believe. It was kind of a last minute deal to get in the car.

Nobody expected you to win, maybe not even you. And [00:36:00] all of a sudden you’re in victory lane with your sixth classic. Well, Jeff gave me, you know, we always say everybody gives you a great car, he gave me a really good car. It was set up for him, and he liked a tighter car than I liked, or a looser car. And I remember taking the front wing off it because it was too loose for me.

And he did a whole bunch of stuff, changed shocks and everything, and I just rode up there on a coin like I called, he’d asked me to drive earlier and I wasn’t going to, and then I called him back and said yeah, I’ll drive if you want to. He said, no, I already got somebody driving. I said, okay, well no problem, I’ll just stay home and ride my motorcycle.

So then he called me back, he said, well if you want to come up and drive it, you can. So I jumped on my motorcycle, I threw my fire suit in the thick middle of this trailer, and rode my motorcycle up. And we, I drove, I drove the car. It’s just kind of a Funny win, cause I think Mike Muldoon lost a rear end, Eddie Shaysky was winning, came around for the green flag, with about 10 to go.

I remember I straddled the oil, [00:37:00] a line of oil, in the middle of it, and uh, it was clean, but it still had the speedy dry down, and I straddled it, and uh, Eddie Shea’s car went through it, and he got a little bit sideways and just gave me enough bite that I could win, and then, uh, then I think Dave Hamilton was coming up on me, and I could hear him, so I, my car became very wide.

Now, that race, you time traveled pretty well. When did you think, I gotta shut the windows. I, I told Jeff after practice. When I went up with the full fuel load, the car felt awesome. I said, we got a good chance, we got a good car. We can really probably win this race with a little bit of classic luck. And we had the classic luck.

John? So Davey ended up second that day at the classic, right? The sheet panel was all dented on Bentley’s car. He had gotten some kind of tangle and looked like a junk rolling around there. And, uh, Davey comes in after the race, he goes, God, who the hell’s in that black car with all the damaged [00:38:00] bodywork? I go, oh, you mean the winner?

Yeah, that was Batman. Oh, no wonder he was riding. No wonder that car got wide. He got a spark. Eddie, when you got started racing, you know, I understand your dad had been racing at the track for a while, was a three time champion. As I recall, he didn’t know you went out and bought a Todd Gibson car. Yeah. No, actually he didn’t.

Of course, you know, I grew up my whole life around the speedway. My dad never really, you know, he wasn’t the type of guy to just go buy cars and all that stuff. If I wanted one, it was going to be up to me. I had saved up a little money, borrowed 500 bucks from one of my buddies, and I put 500 bucks on a credit card, and I had some cash, and I called Todd up.

Made a deal on the phone. I paid an extra 400 bucks for that old single axle trailer he had. I was working for my dad at the time. Well, my dad got to work that morning. He was got there before I did. And Tom Gibson was sitting in the yard waiting. [00:39:00] Dad comes out, he goes, what are you doing here? He goes, well, your son just bought this car.

I think all he said was, hmm. Now, Warren, you drove for a number of different owners over the course of your career at the track. We mentioned earlier you were in the, uh, the Purdy Deuce, got a feature win in that car. You drove it for one year, and then the next year, you switched. You went to somebody else.

Why was that? Howard wasn’t going to run a full schedule, and I wanted to run a full schedule. That’s why, you know, we changed rides. Who was the best in order you had? That’s not a good question. They think it is. I, I, you know, I drove for so many great people. A lot of Rutledge dates. You name them. I drove for a lot of good people.

Came out of it with a lot of great friends. What more can you ask for? And you drove 25 years and then pretty much just walked away. Yeah. It [00:40:00] was not too many races after your last classic win. Yeah. It was the classic win when I retired. That year I got driver of the year. You know, they had the banquet at the end of the year.

I got driver of the year and a few accolades. And I’m thinking all the time, you know, Ryan, my son, wants to start racing karts. I thought, you know what, a fella doesn’t get a chance most times to go out and race. With Classic Wynn. I got up to say a few words at the banquet. My wife had gone to the washroom.

And I was supposed to drive the following year with Joe. And, uh, That’s Joe McGarry. Yeah. I just got up and all of a sudden the words came out of my mouth. That was my last race. And my wife was standing at the back of the hall, came down, I sat down at the table. She said, so now what do we do on Saturday nights?

And I believe your response was, go to the window and throw 500 out. Yeah. Yeah, that was, uh, that was [00:41:00] about it. And I don’t regret a minute of it. A lot of drivers retire and then come back and run a race or a couple of races and start racing over again. You’ve never done that. No, I did drive a race, well, not a race, an event up at Cayuga Speedway when Brad Littke had bought the track and they had a bunch of old race cars.

I had a buddy of mine, well, Al Webster owned Gary Witter’s car. Al Webster bought an old Teddy Hogan car. And I don’t know whether you remember Teddy Hogan, but he did ride a Swiggo years ago. But anyway, he bought this old Teddy Hogan car, and he asked me if I would drive it in this race. So I said, well, yeah.

Then Brian looked at it, and I always looked at race cars that Brian was going to drive, and I’d say, no, Brian, you’re not getting in that race car. And Brian went over and looked at it, and he says, Dad, I wouldn’t. So I said, that’ll be fine. It’s just, you know, warm up sort of thing. A buddy of mine, his name is Bernie Redick, had built a brand new [00:42:00] Jimmy Howard car, exact replica of Jimmy Howard’s, for Howie Standall to drive.

So Standall wanted to race, we get out there, we start racing, going faster, and this car, this Hogan car, that I’m driving, is going down the straightaway, and it’s like from one wall to the other, and I’m just saying, please, throw the checkered flag. It’s like I was getting nervous. They threw the checkered flag and went to pull in the pits, and the pitman arm fell off.

So, I’m in the pits, and I said, Al, the nut for the pitman arm came off, and the pitman arm fell off. And he said, oh, well, he says, uh, I’ll see if I can find another nut. And I said, no, the one behind the wheel’s done. I’m going up there in the tower to drink beer. It’s just another Warren Coney of not story.

I’m pretty sure, might have been a classic. I can’t remember, he’ll verify this. The caution’s off, he’s in front of me. And all of a sudden, [00:43:00] this wheel duck comes off and lands right in my lap. What the hell? Where the hell did that come from? I’m hoping it’s not mine. Well, pretty soon, about a minute later, his left rear, I believe it was, was flying so that it was his, it was his.

Luckily, we’re under caution.

Alright, Dave Dancer, you had a, uh, pretty decent year last year. Winning the Classic, and then going out to Vegas and winning the East West Shootout, 5, 000. What made you decide to go and do that race? I talk to Doug Kells every once in a while, and he kind of got in my ear, and I got a little one coming in June, so I just found out, and I go, Hey, I don’t really want to stop racing, I just want to go do something wild.

I talked to my father, I said, Hey, let’s go to Vegas and try to run with it. He looked into it as well, and we started getting the car ready. I’ve heard the story. I don’t know if you can verify it or not. Early on in the race, you lost your radio and it was down on the floor. And you turned in some pretty erratic laps while you were trying to get it back.

Yeah, I was [00:44:00] swerving all over the place. I was afraid to tug on it. I usually clip a radio over on my left side, and usually it’s tight in your belt. As soon as I did, it fell, and then I got caught underneath the fuel filter. So, it took me about 8 laps to get that thing out of here, but, I was up against the wall, I was in the, I looked drunk, I’ll be honest, it was, it was pretty bad, it was, it was some pretty bad 8 laps, and, then on the restart, I said, alright, time to get focused, and, I just buried the top, just kept that thing longed up, and strode around everybody.

Now, there’s going to be a rerun of that race this year in California. And there’s also going to be a kind of an east west shootout at Carraway Speedway in North Carolina. You can go to either of those. As of right now, we’re gonna hit them both. Good. Brandon, what about you? You gonna hit some out of town shows?

Yeah, I’m sure we’ll probably hit a few this year. We don’t have, like, an exact schedule or anything. We’re probably just moment decisions, almost like how Dave was for the Las Vegas race. You know, if the car’s in good shape and it’s an opportunity to go, you know, it’s something we’ll probably consider taking it.

For [00:45:00] some reason our car is all smashed up. Well that complicates things to make another race. You’re making that decision based on Dave’s success last year? There’s a few people that have actually done it now. I mean, Ableton had success with their car going to, you know, some ISMA races. Dave had success with his going to ISMA races.

And even for ourselves, you know, we went to Evans Mills last year. Kind of solve some of our heating issues that we’ve had with the top wing. And we didn’t win the race, but it was a pretty good run. And I think there’s a lot of room for improvement. So it definitely gets you motivated to take your car and do some more racing with it, you know, with different rules and different organizations.

Allison, on your rollcage, it says Chick. Where’d that come from? It’s been my dad’s nickname for me since I was a kid. And Johnny, uh, adopted it as well, so. There’s two people in this world that can call me Chick, it’s Johnny and my dad. Now, I know there’s some question about what your plans are for this year.

I’ve been told before that Johnny and Otto want a downside, so they officially did it this year, and, and shook my car off to Canada. They want to focus on [00:46:00] running ISMA and the Wing Shows and everything that Johnny’s put together, so I’ll take a backseat to that, to the champ, right? And he can, uh, go win some races for the team, and, um, I’m gonna enjoy a little bit of the shore this year, and getting to travel not to Oswego.

I’ll hit the track every once in a while, but I’m looking forward to having the summer off. Okay, but I don’t see this as an end. You never know, Roy. You never know. Bentley. Now here, here’s another story I heard that maybe only you know the true answer. When you first got into racing, you were building your first race car, modified or something like that, and you weren’t a very good welder at the time.

And you finish welding something, and we’re working underneath it, and it fell down and knocked out. I was working on a farm in Essex, Mass., 14 years old, and riding my bicycle after work, which we got done milking cows and stuff, around 3. 30. So I’d walk to Danvers, which is about 15 to 20 miles away, and I was welding the roll bys and bumpers and all that stuff on my car.

Long story short, a guy welded a [00:47:00] wheel for me, offset wheel, I was wicked proud. Put a Buick tire on it, it was a blown out tire, but I put a patch in it, and I looked like a real big time racer. Went out and practiced, and I blew the right front tire in the cab, went off the bank, and Hit the telephone pole.

My back bumper fell off and went under the car. The right front wheel of the guy welded stayed on, the front bumper stayed on, and a rope out on the back of the roll cage hit me in the head, shoved my head through the uh, shifter lever. They counted me out to the hospital at 14. Before they got to the hospital, the nurses were all P.

O. ‘s because What the hell is this kid doing driving a race car? They made me sit that wheel like a stuck pig. But that was my first race car. Alright, now Otto, you’ve had, as I said earlier on, you’ve had a tremendous career at Oswego, nine track championships, an all time record, and of course your five classic wins.

You haven’t raced full time at Oswego the last couple of years, you’ve done some ISMA, [00:48:00] MSS races, you’ve got a title there. What’s your plans for Nothing was written in concrete. This guy’s got the five race series. The first two races are his races. So we’ll be there, oh, the opener, with the car we call, now, Betty.

It’s, it’s blue. That was Joe Moriarty’s old car. Great car, that’s the car that Al ran last, the last two seasons that he ran for us. And then the next week is the ISMA show. That’s gonna go his, his race. And then really, if opening night goes good, we could be there the third night, with the small wing again.

See what happens from there. I’m not going to say that it’s impossible that we couldn’t run every race, but I don’t know that. I was talking to John a couple of months ago or so. You had the lead going into the ESMU final, didn’t you, this year? Uh, last year, yeah. Yeah, last year. Yeah, we had, uh, we had the point lead the last two shows.

Oh, so many things. So many thoughts because, you know, like if you have one super modified, that is so nice. If you crash it really bad, maybe you’re handy, maybe you can [00:49:00] fix it, maybe you can put it back together, spare parts, what have. If you have three, that’s like, is it really nice? Is it three times as nice?

It’s probably not. It’s three times the work. set up for a race car times three. There’s so much to that. I know it’s very unfortunate to have the equipment that we have but sometimes I feel like it also maybe holds me back. Having the workload and the responsibility of not just physically taking care of it, thinking about all of it.

You know, like Brendan was saying, you know, they’re looking forward to putting a wing on their Oswego car. You know, you look at like the A bolts. One car and you can massage that car and you can learn it and get better and better and better with it. So, um, we acquired another car late in the season. We sort of thought we wanted an engine because we’ve had some restart problems with our wing car.

And we ended up with a whole other package. So, great car, great equipment, but that’s the one concern I have at this point. I’m [00:50:00] 56 years old, you know, I work a day job, and I come home and I work an entire another job. And you’re also down a couple of people that would crew with you. Yeah, yeah, we’ve got, you know, there was a guy named Fish, he’s retired, he’s 83 years old, he just doesn’t want to do it.

Wiedemeyer, same thing. Older, Tinney, older. They’re just not around anymore, so guys that were in the shop that, I don’t know how old, but these guys were workers. You know, uh, this fish and, and weed and those guys were really hard workers. They didn’t, they weren’t really a mechanic, but it’s repetition. Week after week you pick that car in the air and you peel the body.

They learned what to look for and cleaning, cleaning is super modified. You would think it rides around on a pavement track. It’s just as dirty as any dirt car, in a different aspect, in a different way. So, the maintenance program, really, to have a car run every lap of every race, and we’ve had seasons that we’ve literally finished every lap of every race.

Now, Warren. Through your career, you mostly ran for other [00:51:00] tribes. So you didn’t have to go through what Otto went through with the constant maintenance of a car. I built my own cars in the start. And I really didn’t enjoy that. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t like working on it, but I was capable. I found it a lot better to show off my helmet and my bag and get my percentage off the top.

That was pretty nice. And, you know, my time was my own. Now I worked on Ryan’s race cars, never excited about it, but you do it for your kid. I mean, a lot of guys really get a lot out of it though. You know, I know a lot of drivers that really enjoy working on the race car. I mean, I know my son, he really enjoys working on his race cars, not me.

Eddie, you have been behind the wheel of the two seat Supermodified. In real terms, it’s a real race car, it’s just an extended Supermodified. Things differ to put a person in the back seat. But I remember that I think the first time we did the [00:52:00] Ride with a Legend series, down by the start finish line, and you’re on the track, and I hear this loud squeal of tires, Which finally stops, and I ran down and I said to you, Eddie, what broke?

You said, just me. Okay, I’ll tell you that, that scared the crap out of me. The guy behind me, you thought he just won a million dollars, he was so thrilled. He said, you going to do it again? I said, no, not today. John, Otto was talking about the series, the challenge series, that has started, you know, you’ve had great success with it.

Honestly. How did you get started with that? You know, a bunch of the fans and car owners got together and things were kind of MSS had their series, Oswego had their schedule, ISMA had their schedule. Nobody was really breaking down the doors, you know, with an abundance of cars, so Uh, you know, I got some owners and fans together and we put some sponsorship [00:53:00] together to help out the Speedways, you know, subsidize some of the purses and the point funds and stuff like that.

That’s really how, just trying to help pay. Speedways can only do so much. In today’s world, you know, everyone has so many things that they can do on a Saturday night. Crowds might not be, well they’re certainly not what they were years ago. It’s where Harry Crusoe generated money, but in today’s world, you gotta try to find the money somewhere else.

Or, like Dick O’Brien said, money can bring cars, a car can bring people. You gotta have the money in the cars first. Well, you’ve, you’ve come up with some unique ways to get money, like Business is paying to sponsor the draw. Yeah, A. B. Hamilton actually gave me that idea, and I’m thinking, you’re crazy. Well, then I tried implementing it, and it was pretty successful.

You know, you take in 30, 000, you pay out 5, 000, and it keeps 25, 000 for the points. You know, each guy pays like 500 a night. to be a pill sponsor. Right. And if their driver wins they win a thousand. [00:54:00] So, you know, it gives the sponsor a little something to root for and involve them and they know they’re helping.

And I mean, let’s face it, you know, that’s what we all want to do is help keep supers alive and the tracks alive and you got to try new stuff and that’s how it started. This will be our third year. I think it’s been very successful but I feel like we’re only on second base. Well, it certainly helped bringing ISNA and MSS together, where they were way apart.

Well, that had to happen. That had to happen. And with, uh, the scheduling is the most important thing. After that is money. Once you get to scheduling, everybody working together, and putting money up, then you know, you kinda gotta let us take its course. Like I was saying a minute ago, I feel like we’re on second base.

I need that one big corporate sponsor to get us home. We’re looking, looking, looking, but so far, you know, no check. Bentley. Going back to the two seat super modified, you were one in the first group that [00:55:00] did a ride with the legends. And we auctioned you off to the highest bidder. And it came down to, uh, Chris Hagerty and Bernie Finnegan.

And the bid was 650 by Chris. Bernie apparently misread what’s going on and lost the last call on it, so Chris was going to get the ride. Now, you went over to Chris and said, if Bernie also paid 650 Do you mind if I give him a ride too? And Chris said yes, as long as I go first. It was just a great idea, a great thing for you to do that day.

Well, I just wanted to help the fund. I think it was a cancer fund, wasn’t it? Something like that? Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s a passion that I think all of us drivers and everybody in the room has a passion for. Helping things like that, and I just thought if we could help. I do it, and uh, I did it, and it worked out well, and we had fun.

I don’t even think I came off the track when I was supposed to at one time. I think, I think you guys were throwing the checkered flag, then you threw the red flag, then somebody ran out in the middle of the [00:56:00] track and said, What the hell is this guy doing? Did you like that part? Yeah, it was, it was fun. It was a race car.

I remember the last Super Motorcycle you were in, the number 15. The Napa car, and it was really kind of a boat anchor, you weren’t going anywhere with it. And I said to you, Bentley, you can use the two seater, it’s faster. I probably grieved you. I know the other 15 car was a good car, but it just wasn’t fit for me for some reason.

They changed it, tried to make it better, but it just didn’t work for me. I said, wow, I must be all done that I got in a couple of other cars and won again. So I said, well, maybe I’m not. So I was, I was happy to have a chance to drive something else after that. Now, Otto, going back to you and maintenance and everything like that, working a full time job, a lot of people really don’t understand what goes into maintaining a quality race car and putting it on the track.

See, it’s more than just getting in the car and driving it. Yeah, [00:57:00] yeah, a lot of work. Your last question too, yeah, we were leading the ISMA points. Right. And we decided, we tested it at Evans Mills the week before the race. Took our ISMA car and the new John McKinley car. Ran them both basically back to back.

I didn’t really fit properly in the out of threshold, we called it the out of threshold car. It felt like the car was really, it had a really nice feel, and the engine, it was really what we’ve been looking for. We opted all of us. It was unanimous to go with that car. And ironically, probably a 3 part broke fuel injection nozzle.

It’s like an long extension during the race. It may have been busted and been floating on top of the intake valve. Somebody broke in the red flag, came out, they cleaned the track up and we were fifth at the time that the car felt really, really good. I think, you know, a hundred laps. If there’s only maybe 15 or 20 laps in.

But we really just need it to be around the top ten somewhere to finish the point deal. And when they went to push the car on the [00:58:00] restart It may have gone from here to that paper and it locked up. And that was it. So, ironically, all this maintenance you’re talking about, it wasn’t our car. It was somebody else’s work and it broke.

It took us out of contention. Well, John told me that was the first time you were ever in the lead in points going into the last race and didn’t take it. Eddie, talking about race cars and maintenance, was it Trevor who drove the other super? Uh, Jared. He had just a horrendous crash on the front street.

And I know you spent many, many, many hours trying to find out what had happened to that car. Well, we actually kind of just kind of stumbled onto it. We didn’t really know at first, but I started looking at it. Basically what happened was, it was kind of a high man’s fault, but it was a little bit my fault too, because I, I had a washer, just a safety washer, over a, you know, in behind the I mean, just in case it ever pulled apart.

And then my washer was a little bit too small, so the I man actually came right off. You know, so I’m sure that’s [00:59:00] what happened, because Nothing was even back right there where that came apart. Has he ever thought about racing again? Ah, I’m sure he probably would if I said, There you want to go, but you know we don’t have the cameras.

I need the crew. He’s our guy right here. So, my kids are my crew. Back to Dave, you know, talking about things that happened like that, with your stuck throttle. It’s just one of those things that you can’t go into a race and say this may break because you think it’s all set before you ever get in the race car and when you get in the car you think it’s going to have some trouble.

Yeah we were trying to get the car around for like three days it ended up being a mag issue. So the entire time we got those injections, so we kept screwing with an arm and the arm stripped and my father had an arm sitting on the wall and goes, Hey, this will work and he put it on and lasted for a little bit.

It came loose. So you learn your lesson pretty fast with these things. So every time I go out the back gate, I always. Give us some throttle, and first thing I check, make sure that throttle comes back. Well, Allison, you haven’t been [01:00:00] in, I don’t think any real serious crashes at Oswego. Have you been in any bad crashes?

One? John says you’ve been in one. Yeah, you know, one that basically totaled the car. That was me driving ahead of myself, actually. We were going into turn one in the start of a heat race on, you know, like a July afternoon, and And I was worried about making it to the corner first, and wasn’t paying attention to the two cars that were in front of me.

And I clipped Joe Gosek’s left rear with my right front, which ultimately broke the whole front end on me, and I shot off into the My husband likes to joke that he’s never seen a race car accident take out so many appliances within the house because it took out the dishwasher and the laundry machine and the snacking container all in, uh, all in one swipe.

So, uh, I was pretty sore after that. Put my head down and get to the shop and, you know, fix what I broke, because it was 100 percent [01:01:00] my fault. Did you ever think about giving up after that? Absolutely not. No, never in consideration. It was more How quickly can I work in the shop and let the guys to run parts and pick up body panels and do my piece of it so that Otto can put the car back together in the shop?

So, in all fairness, it was her fault, but the week prior to that was a wing show and she ran the car with a wing. And what did she say about her first time when we told her you can’t go in the corner that way? So she just ran the week before with that car with a wing and it’s entirely different. And she went out and was the first lap of the heat race.

And she just was an athlete. So, I mean, she still was sort of a little bit, it was the very next race that that happened. So, chalk it all up to experience. Warren, I know we’ve talked about you retiring and never really thought about going back, but when you look at some of the cars today, the way they have evolved, have you ever thought about just getting to try one to see what it was like compared to the ones you drove before?

No, [01:02:00] not really. I mean, Ryan said that car that he had, he says, Take it out, Dad, see what you think. But no, you know, when you quit, you quit. Back when I drove that car of McGarry’s, that’s when they were starting to evolve. Like, Muldoon was a better car. A lot of them had more downforce. I just thought, you know, now you’re done.

I don’t think you ever go back. Well, I just meant to not race again, but just, just to drive it, just to see. No. That’s fair. What about you, Eddie? No. Ever, ever thought about getting back out just to drive your own, your own car? Every time, Brady, he couldn’t get to the racetrack. He was living out of state at the time.

We had just put the mower together, so I just wanted to run it to make sure it was okay. So I went out there, of course he’s on the phone going, Jesus Christ, he’s going on kind of slow. You know, and then I, when I came in I said, You know what? I remember why I quit.

Just a cab of that. We were racing, my son was racing a [01:03:00] modified, up at Flamborough Speedway. And it was raining and everything else. Junior Hanley, I’m sure you’ve heard of him, was there giving us a hand. He’s very sociable. Ryan was off somewhere and the cars were ready to go up the track. My wife says, uh, Warren, you better move the car up.

It’s in line. They’re in line to go up to the track. And it was a big race. So I said, well, Ryan can move it. She says, no, you got to move it. So I said, all right, put my leg up to get in the car, rip the ass out of my pants. I said, I’ll never get in another race car again. I started going to Dave. Obviously, I said, you had some success in the Small Block Super Modifieds and moved into the Supers.

Were you surprised? That’s your success in the Supers? Yeah, because everybody tells me I was the worst SPS driver of all time. Hopefully I’m not like Bruce.[01:04:00]

Our SPS you know, the Super career, you put yourself around good people. Like Furlong and Hawkspeak. They took me underneath their wing and they guided me all the way. I mean, I was going over there some nights where I’d go out and run top five. And I’d go over to Greg’s track and put the thing on. It was great.

Or the tape, and he’d sit there and yell at me for 45 minutes. Then he’d put his lead race on, where he goes from 18th to 1st, and he’d start screaming in my face. I’m like, I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. Cause he was just so out of control, but he was an awesome coach to have. And now he’s got, uh, Taylor Hodgkin on his way.

Yeah, he has helped not only you, but a number of other drivers, and he does it kind of quietly. He doesn’t make any big deal about it. No, he’s humble at times, but when he wants to get his point across, he’ll definitely get his point across. Well, I’ve seen him in that mood. He talked me through my first win, and, uh, it was a whole road blew up with like two laps to go when I was leading.

And, so it was a red flag, and Kozak comes rolling up next to me and gives me a little [01:05:00] wave. And that just got in my head, and Greg comes out and starts. Just hit your marks, that’s, that’s a big thing. Try not to overreact and be smooth with the throttle, don’t light them up, and, and just hit your marks. I think Joey Payne took out Otto that night, so it made things a little easier.

It just, it just worked out. When you had the car, you got your first feature win. I know your dad, Craig, you know, as I said, family has been involved in racing all the time. He was, let’s just say, very emotional with you in Victory Lane. Yeah, I mean, he He started in 86. He traded, uh, he traded a boat for a race car.

All them years going in there, and, you know, I think they had maybe two top fives. So our rookie year, we came out, we were really fast. There was like three weeks where I should have won. And just, we kept having mistakes, and we just didn’t think it was gonna happen. It was just a lot of relief. To have all these years, to put all your time and effort into everything, and finally you’ve come out on the good end.

And you’ve won a couple dozen since then. Fourteen. Yeah. Brandon, [01:06:00] same thing with you about winning your first feature in a Super Modified. You haven’t driven anything else before that, right? No, just the Super. Like any other driver on the stage, you probably lost a couple of races before you won your first.

Yeah, actually I think the, the week before my first win, we had a, a real good going. It was actually a, I think it was the first time they did retro night. I was actually racing Maldoon too, ironically enough, and we were both going for the lead and, uh, we made contact and kind of Ben, our up, so I didn’t go very good.

After that, ended up not finishing good. We ended up winning the bumping week, I think it was. And, and it was, it was definitely, it’s a feeling of relief. Like there was a period for me, like when I first started, it was kind of the, the older, uh, like Shoveled Hill Super and. We had some pretty good runs towards the end of the year.

We did some investment racing and built our own car, and when we built our own car, it was kind of a struggle, like, we just, we weren’t even working on handling problems sometimes, we had so many other problems, and, you know, not a lot of great finishes, and certainly, like, to get your first win, especially, like, for me, I saw my dad win a million races, it’s like, [01:07:00] Jesus, I’m at the back of the field, I gotta, you know, I should, I gotta do better, so.

So when you do finally get going good and get your first win, I mean, it’s feeling relief, excitement, all of the above. Allison, the same question that we talked earlier about, you lose some before you win some. Once you win, you win your first. It’s a tremendous confidence builder. Yeah, it was. I had really big shoes to follow with Otto, so I didn’t want to disappoint the team.

You know, I kind of, on a whim the year before, we were getting out of ISMA racing and my dad and I didn’t really want to put in the time and the effort to work on a car anymore and travel as much as we were doing. So, we saw that, um, I guess Schulich jumped out of Johnny’s second car. I had never spoken a word to Otto or Johnny before my dad made the phone call after the Classic one year and said, Hey, heard you have an opening, can we come run?

And I’m sure, I don’t know what Johnny was thinking, but obviously it worked out, so. I had really big shoes to follow and I was just happy that I could prove myself in that [01:08:00] sense. Wait, 1971 I think, or 70, I think you went USAC racing. And you had a crash that put you out of racing for about a year. I was running a sprint car.

It was just kind of a bad wreck I had. And I ended up in the hospital for a while. And actually Mary Purdy saved my foot. Because she was a nurse or a technician in the hospital. And she was in the hospital when I was in the emergency room. And they were going to chop it off and she said, No, wait a while.

And I said the same thing and uh, Ended up with a doctor in Toledo, Ohio. Fixed me up pretty good. That’s why. I could drive again, and I could ski again, and I could do all kinds of stuff, so I had to thank Mary Ferdie and Howard Ferdie, and I just wanted to say one thing about people talking about early driving, and the first time I drove Howard Ferdie’s car, it was such a, it was a thrill, a huge, huge thrill.

And I had huge shoes to fill, like a lot of people hear from Brandon, trying to fill his father’s shoes and stuff like that. And I was trying to [01:09:00] fill, uh, Otto’s shoes. And I was trying to fill Ronnie and Lex’s shoes, which were impossible to fill. But the first time I drove the car, I was in practice. The green flag wasn’t out yet, and I was so nervous.

That my throttles go up, up, up, up, up like that. And, and finally we threw the green flag for the practice. I thought I was going to break a drive shaft or a U joint or something in the car. It was just such a wonderful car to drive. Alright, Otto, since you’re holding the microphone, I’ll ask this question.

This is Dan Belinsky. Is there any race that you can recall that was just a lot of fun? You enjoyed that race more than any other race you’ve been in? Oh, boy. Anytime you win, but usually, you know, all the work you put involved. The fun factor really is about an hour time window at the end of the night, when maybe you think you have the race won, and it happens.

And then you and all your buddies are celebrating, and that might last about an hour. And then you work for a whole week to try to go back to get that hour. What [01:10:00] about you, Eddie? Favorite places? Now, obviously, anything in 83 has got to be at the top of your list. Well, almost everywhere you went is just fine.

I don’t even know if you could Probably 83, watch this, because there was so many people that never left. There was like thousands of people, they never went home, they just stayed. It was just a weird situation. Just a minute ago you mentioned Dan Heletsky’s name, you know, his dad built a lot of Superman back in the day.

A lot of people know that. Warren Coney, going along with the same vein, what about you and the most exciting race you ever had, or the best way, the best feel you got? Every win is great. My first win in Oswego with The Rutledge car was great, of course, seeing the smile on their faces. The rear engine car, the Champlains, was probably the most fun I’ve had in a race car.

I mean, I knew it was fast, you know, when I was warming it up. But just to get to drive for People like Champagne callin and askin you to drive it. Captain Gates, [01:11:00] he came off a winning championship and puts me in his car. I drove for a lot of great people and I came out of racing with a lot of good friends.

Friends sittin right here in this room today. Makes racing all worthwhile. What about the Champagne car? That race really ended the rear engine cars at Oswego. Had you not had the leak in it with 15 to go, it was, it was the obvious winner of the race. To watch you, it was an effortless race. You didn’t seem like you were ever in trouble, that you were battling the car, ever had a problem with it?

No, I mean that car would just go anywhere on the racetrack. You know, you get up in the dirt, near the fence, and the car’s in the fence normally. That car would go anywhere. Hats off to Jimmy, he’s teamed up a great piece. Do you think the car should, the rear engine cars totally should have been banned? To run rear engine cars with roadsters is probably tough.

At that time, there wasn’t a lot of people capable of building a car like that, I don’t think. There’s been a lot of rear engine cars that have been [01:12:00] tried and just didn’t finish. I would guess they probably came up with the right idea, probably going back, Roadster the Jimmy Champagne is the one that really made antiques out of most of the cars when he came up with the, you know, the radically offset Roadster.

Well, then that’s one of the reasons why the track decided to ban their rear engines at that point. Because the Champagne car had just revolutionized super modifieds. People were still trying to catch up with that, and now here’s another one that they had to try to catch up to. And that was much more sophisticated.

Well, like, Eddie and I used to joke, we had, what, 12 inch offset race cars, and all the guys would run 19s. Oh, wait, finish. You know, one or two or three in the future. We used to joke about having the best antique in the field. All right, Eddie. Every track has some good rivalries. Not every driver has a rivalry.

But every track has some good rivalries. And at Oswego, [01:13:00] you had a good rivalry with Steve Choi to the point where when the two seat super modified came out, I asked you to drive the car, and you said you would. And when I told Steve and Pat that you were going to drive the car, And Steve said to me, How did you get him to do that?

I said, he likes me. This is true. Alright, but what about rivalries? I know you had one with Steve. Anybody else? I never really, you know what, I think we all have a weekly rivalry, but sooner or later, you know, we all get over it. Being mad at somebody forever is a lot of work. So, I don’t, I don’t really, Dave, anybody you’d like to beat on the racetrack?

One person you want to finish ahead of? No matter if it’s 10th or 15th or 1st. Otto. I mean, I think everybody down in Oswego looks to beat Otto. He doesn’t race very quickly, but he’s still the guy that you want to go in and beat. You look [01:14:00] down, you don’t turn one. That’s the best in the business, in one. So, if you beat him at night, you’re partying pretty good.

Brandon, what about you? I don’t know, I’d say every competitor really, I mean there’s just, you know, even right now there’s still a lot of fast cars, fast drivers, hard working teams. I mean, I don’t know if I can single one person out that I want to make sure I beat because I, you know, I, kind of like other people have touched on earlier, when I go into the night I want to win the race and so there’s, there’s a field of cars that you’re going to have to beat to do that, so.

2024. You’ll be racing on Oswego. What are your other plans? Well, definitely going to focus on Oswego. That’s something, you know, we’ve done for years and we’re going to do again this year. Running the last race at Evans Mills last year kind of gave us an opportunity to finally cure our, a heat problem that we’ve had in our car and the foot box just getting too hot and burning up.

So I guess, having solved that and finishing a race with a wing on for once, I think it gives us, uh, A little more optimism to, to put the wing on a few times is, you know, as far as picking it out, It’s kind of something like for us having one car just [01:15:00] Sort of depends on how the week prior goes. If for some reason our car ends up all smashed up at Oswego, well, that complicates, uh, going to a wing race after that.

So it’s, for us it’s easy to decide in the moment. We’re last minute on everything anyway, so. Okay, gave the answer. Same question, what are your 2020 vote plans? We talked about, uh, you’re probably going to go to California, maybe Carraway, and the Oswego Speedway. Is that about it? Yeah, I plan on running a full Swiggle schedule, the Swiggle Wing and the Yzma Wing.

I’d really like to maybe hit the high miler and maybe run lead too, uh, transport as many Super Shows as we can. So that’s, that’s the plan right now. Okay, I hope plans are a little flexible, but you’re gonna be on Swiggle at least for the first two shows, you’re on Yzma, MSS. Yeah, if we were successful the first two weeks, then we would probably try to go.

So, maybe we, Johnny says, stub our toe kind of thing. Going to Berlin and all those places with work, with travel, with, with help. Really tough thing. We’ve done it the last two, three years in a row. So [01:16:00] it’s, we want to race, but it’s just, you know, work commitments, all that. We’re going to just have to take it week by week.

I’m not going to rule out one in every race that we did run, but, you know, we’ll have to see. And the high miler, Sandusky, will be there? Yeah, I think so. Okay. That’s about it. I’m going to start with Allison, and come across one by one. Just any last thoughts on Supermodified Racing here today, anything? You asked earlier about a really fun race.

It wasn’t a race that I won, but it’s a race that I raced Otto against in an ISMA Super at Oswego. The best part of it was hearing the entire crowd boo him after I got out of the race, because they thought that he was jumping the start, and I actually had, I had a stumble in my motor and it ended up being a fuel pick up issue, which the crowd didn’t know that at the time.

They just had thought Otto was kinda being Otto. And, um, it was really, we had a really great time after that race. Busting balls and having a good time and, uh, that’s just [01:17:00] something that’s always stuck in my mind with racing. I’ve had a hell of a lot of fun, met a lot of friends, and I did all, all my businesses came from learning stuff that I learned on Race Guys, all my friends, and it’s just been a wonderful career, knowing all these people that do it all, embracing me and everybody.

I can’t ask for anything more. Okay, don’t give the mic away yet. Alright, Brandon, last thoughts from you. I’d like to ask, uh, Bentley and Warren pointed my question. So, for me growing up, watching my dad race, like, he made no mistakes at all. It was perfect. So, I guess, from another guy’s perspective, there’s two guys that race against him.

Do you have any dirt that you can give me? Like, um, How do you tell him? What was that move? What was he thinking? Eddie was very, very clean. A good racer. And I enjoyed This is what you always say when you retire. Everyone’s like 1980 something. I say, what an asshole he was. No, he was always a good guy. I actually everything I had to race with was wonderful.[01:18:00]

You had your heated moments. Of the day, and I’m sure Andy had some with me, because I remember him talking to me in funny ways, different ways, but uh, No, we, we, we had our racing instruments, because we both, like Brandon says, and, and Allison says, Everybody wants to win. You go there with one thing in mind.

You want to pass the car in front of you, and if there’s another car in front of him, you want to pass him. And that’s what you’re trying to do, so you get PO’d and people that are in your way. Even though they’re not in your way, they’re going faster than you. That’s how they’re doing it. So that’s about it.

Dave, last thought before we end, did we do more? No, I was just wondering if more coin had any dirt, maybe two. Maybe that’s the way to go. I bet he does. I bet he does. He’s telling a story. Maybe you better. I’m telling a story. Because I’ll tell the truth. Anyways, it was funny. Two different times. Well, here we are.

We’re up to [01:19:00] queue. It was your fault. I’m running third, right? I’m running third. Well, at that time, back in those days, we always had a passive flag and everything. So here I am, third. The race is going on. Pass the flags out, there’s some lap cars in front of me. So I figure, well, you know, they’re for us.

Well, little did I know, he’s leading the race. And he’s behind me. He’s working a lap me, and I’m working a lap him. I didn’t get a good look at him or whatever. So I come out and flip the front wheel and smash the shit. And then, I went down the track, and I was going to throw my helmet out. He’s in the cruise lap.

I didn’t want to throw a 300 helmet at him. So I just threw my gloves for something to do. Bentley comes in after a race and says, Hey, you dropped your gloves.

And then he comes over and puts his arm around me and says, Come on, let’s go have a beer. [01:20:00] Okay, Dave. Dave Gansel, last thoughts on today. You’re racing anything. Glad it was a good turnout. I mean, I love the stories. I love all the history and stuff about racing, so this has been a pretty cool day. You know, it’s been a dream to sit up here with these types of people up here.

I mean, people I’ve looked up. I stayed up in Turn 4 for 20 years and just get to watch these guys race for all these years, especially. 80s and 90s, so it’s really cool. Any last thoughts from you? My whole life of Soygo Speedway was just no regrets. Great place to go. All my kids go to the race and we’ll meet on Saturday night.

That’s always a good thing. You were with your dad. It was always nice to see your dad. And your dad was my favorite driver all the time. Three track championships. But he was with you in the pits all the time. You ask these guys about their favorite race, and of course it’s not fun to come back from a wreck the previous week and win the next week.

But we have been lucky enough to do that, I think, three times. Brandon mentioned it [01:21:00] earlier with Joy, or Dave, he mentioned it. Joy Ping took out Otto, last race of the year. You know, we had run three cars for class a few times. Every time I’ve done it, I look at my buddy and I go, don’t ever let me do this again.

Right? Because it’s a circus, right? Yeah. So, we were debating on whether to bring two or three for plastic in two weeks. When I went out on the wall, and it was kind of a dirty deal, I thought, I didn’t tell all of them. I gathered all the troops, like, everybody take off work, we’re going out, I want three cars here, right?

I was mad, right? So, we get the three cars for plastic, and I happened to be walking through tech that day, I told the crew, I go, get ready for a lot of blue in here. All full of it, right? And that day we came in first and second in the Classic. And, uh, so to come back from that rack, and pull off, I think, I don’t know if it was 11 or 12, but it was one of the 1 2 finishers that we had there at Classic.

That was one of my favorite races, you know. Echoing a lot of these guys, I feel very [01:22:00] fortunate. Been a lot of hard work, been a lot of fun. I’m very thankful for the career that I’ve had to this point, especially Swiggo. To go there as an outsider and become somebody, and leave a mark. It’s been an accomplishment in racing.

I’d like to say thanks to everybody for, uh, coming to this event. Thanks for being invited. Just great running against, uh, All these guys over the years and met a lot of super people over the years that are still my friends and Great to come away with racing come away from racing with a lot of good friends Let’s hear it for Allison slow billy gore and Brandon Bellinger Dave Dancer Eddie Bellinger John Nicotra Otto Siddeley and Warren Codingham

Make it to your favorite racetrack this year. Thank you[01:23:00]

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