After two straight weeks of chasing my tail from track to track every night in Florida, I have to admit that it was nice to have a quiet weekend and with no tracks racing this weekend within reasonable driving distance, it was an easy choice to take a weekend off. Of course, a weekend for me is almost impossible to handle without some kind of racing related involvement, and such was the case yesterday.
I made the three hour trip to Rochester Minnesota to be a part of the second annual Old Timers get together hosted by the Steve and Jordan Yaggy Racing Team. For the second straight year, they made their expansive race shop available as a meeting place for drivers and fans of the "old time" racing to gather for a day of comradeship and story telling.
The idea for this event first took route last year with southern Minnesota Modified icon Mark Noble heading up the activity. Mark's father, the legendary Dave Noble, had often talked about doing something like this, and with his father(as well as many others who raced during this time) not getting any younger, Mark thought the time was ripe for such an event. With very little advertising or advance notice, the turnout last year was remarkable and the event was even bigger this year. With old racing videos playing, picture albums all over the place and with several old restored race cars on hand in their shop, Yaggy's were even forced to move their transporter and Late Model outside where it was on display! There were so many people on hand for the event that they were forced to have parking attendants on "mules" roaming to find available parking spots on the expansive Yaggy property to properly park all the visitors. With the huge number of cars parked all over their property and on both sides of their long driveway to the county road, neighbors and passers by must have thought that someone either got married or passed away, the number of visitors the family appeared to be receiving!
Mark Noble again headed up the organizing of the event but he received much assistance from Todd Narveson, the "voice" of the Deer Creek Speedway and someone who has become very interested in the history of southeastern Minnesota racing. Todd has researched the history of racing at the Olmstead County Fairgrounds in Rochester along with the other tracks of the area and I believe his goal is to eventually write a book, something that I strongly hope he achieves.
Speaking of books, Bill Haglund from Waukee Iowa was on hand so I finally got my chance to get an autographed copy of his book "Racing Through Time." I've known Bill since back in the early eighties when he was traveling the country, spreading the news about IMCA and trying to see the concept of their "Modified" division and it was great to see him again.
I was had the opportunity to view another great book that I didn't even know existed and that is the two volume set detailing the drivers from the now closed Tunis Speedway between Waterloo and Cedar Falls. Compiled by Bob Dixon, there are a huge number of fascinating pictures detailing the drivers from an era gone by at that northern Iowa speedway and I will be acting to get a copy of that book too. I did get to Tunis a couple of times before they closed it for good and a lot of the Waterloo area drivers were ones from the Hawkeye state that I was first introduced to many years ago. Bob can be reached at 319-233-2322.
While some of the drivers on hand raced before I was very acquainted with southern Minnesota racing, some drivers like Wendell Kuehn, Dick Sorenson, Mert Williams, LeRoy Scharkey and Paul Fitzpatrick among others that attended were racers I was very familiar with and whether I knew them or not, their stories of racing "back in the day" were priceless.
Also on hand was Elmer Duellman, who ran what is now the Mississippi Thunder Speedway for many years when it was known as the Tri-Oval Speedway just across the river from Minnesota in Fountain City Wisconsin. For those that don't know, Elmer, among his many exploits, has built a huge museum on his property that houses a collection of over one hundred antique, classic and muscle cars as well as motor cycles, scooters and the world's largest display of pedal cars, airplanes and tractors. The museum is generally open only on weekends so check out it's schedule at www.elmersautoandtoymuseum.com for more information.
It was a great afternoon of reflection into the history of dirt racing in southern Minnesota and the huge gathering showed just how much interest there still is for the history of the sport. The Yaggys did a great job of hosting the event and thanks to everyone else that put so much work into the event, one that is appreciated by those of us that still think the '57 Chevy or the '78 Camaro was the greatest race car ever invented by man!
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