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Otto Graham Nostalgia (7/6/08)
Some time ago, March 08 to be exact, my web site
host failed to re-register my domain name (www.o-graham.com)
and eight years work vanished into cyber space. To
say I was bummed would be a huge understatement.
Three came to my rescue. An old friend George
Smith called and said that he and Derak wanted to
offer me space on their enormously popular web site
Dirt Track Digest. The third was Jo Towns, who
called and told me to get off my butt and take
George up on his offer, as fans of racings Golden
Years were waiting. Jo is David Towns mom, and was
going to the races at Fonda during the sixtys, in my
opinion the fun years of stock car racing.
Old engines are often low on compression and are
hard to start. I felt that way when it came to
making the effort to sit down and get this story
going, but the e-mails keep coming from fans of my
old site, plus George, Derak and Jo's encouragement
made me get up on the wheel and get this adventure
started.
Thats me Otto Graham in the center, Dutch Hoag on
the left, Cliff Kotary on the right. Photo taken by
Roy Kotary at the "Dirt" museum in Weedsport, the
day Harry Peek and "The Canadian Blast" Davey Moore
were inducted into the "Dirt Hall of Fame".
This isn't about me, (I'm retired these days and
have eleven grandchildren to keep me busy when I'm
not playing golf or taking photos at the races) but
I thought I'd show you one of my favorite photos.
Cliff and Dutch are famous wheelmen (Cliff won the
Labor Day race on the Syracuse Mile six times, and
Dutch won the Langhorne National Open five times),
but were considered invaders (invaders: Future hall
of fame category drivers that came to the speedway
only occasionally) by the Fonda regulars. Both won 1
feature each to show for their efforts at the Track
of Champions. Fonda was one tough place, ask Ned
Jarrett or Bobby Isaac.
At the start of this journey back into the
sixties I'm going to concentrate on Fonda Speedway,
I raced there, I knew the people that raced there, I
had a front row seat. Lew Boyd raced there. Lew,
Andy Fusco and Jim Rigney wrote a book about Fonda,
and it's super. If you don't have it, you can get it
at
coastal181.com. Say what anyone wants about the
Golden Years at Fonda, no we didn't turn the lap
times they do today (a 24 second lap was fast then),
but we sure did know how to fill the grandstands.
The Fonda grandstands were full to overflowing every
Saturday night. Races started at eight, and if you
wanted a good seat you had better be there by four
thirty.
Picture this: your back in time to the start of
the sixties, and want to get a stock car together
and take it to Fonda to race. You have a
thirty-seven Chevrolet coupe, it's all braced but
needs an engine. Get a 283 cubic inch Chevy engine,
get used racing pistons and a used Giovannoni
camshaft, new Shaeffer flywheel and magnesium
pressure plate from Frank Trinkaus (Frank's Speed
Shop in Fly Creek NY). B & M Speed Shop balances the
engine and Willy Seamon puts it together for you.
Now your ready, you have your NASCAR license and on
Saturday afternoon off to Fonda you go. When you get
there the ten guys below will be waiting for you,
have fun.
Pete Corey, 50 feature wins.
Bill Wimble, 43 feature wins, 2 time National
Sportsman Champion.
Steve Danish, 32 feature wins.
Kenny Shoemaker, 54 feature wins.
Lou Lazzaro, 113 feature wins.
Rene Charland, 18 feature wins, National Modified
Champion.
Ernie Gahan, 1 feature win, National Modified
Champion.
Jeep Herbert, 25 feature wins.
Buck Holiday, 9 feature wins.
Irv Taylor, 10 feature wins.
The ten above are only the tip of the iceberg.
I'll be posting more of the Fonda regulars in the
weeks to come, and will tell some stories about them
that you may or may not have heard. And, I'm
planning to do a photo album for each driver. After
that, who knows.
A quick story about a couple of the drivers
above: The feature race is lined up on the dragstrip,
and Rene Charland is going up the line of waiting
stock cars with a snake in a cardboard box (Rene is
always the jokester, but tonight he's playing a
different game). He telling the drivers if they pass
him he'll throw the snake in their car, and then
shows the driver the snake. He gets to Pete Corey's
car and goes through his intimidation story, and
then shows Pete the snake. Pete reachs into the box,
grabs the snake between his thumb and forefinger and
flips the snake's head off. Then throws the headless
snake back into Rene's box. "I like snakes" Pete
said.
See ya again in a week or so with the supporting
cast of the above ten. MORE NOSTALGIA PAGES
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