Trying to Fool
Mother Nature
Report By Rick Kavanagh
I am sure that the
summer of 2009 will go down in “car guy” history as one of
the wettest ever. After battling Mother Nature over the
last few seasons, the Merrittville Speedway Reunion
Committee decided to see if we could fool mother nature in
to gracing our 58th Reunion with sunshine by changing the
date. So on July 18, 2009 we opened the gates to our
invited Alumni to again celebrate our 58th continuous year
of dirt track racing under cloudy, but dry skies. All of
our guests congregated at the turn one lounge, where we had
set up an array of memorabilia and photos back to the
beginning of our sport, as well as a great display of
vintage race cars, that would take to the track and show all
of the race fans the way our sport used to be. As race time
drew near, all of the race fans in attendance were wondering
who the members of the Reunion Committee had voted on to be
inducted on to our Merrittville Speedway Alumni Wall of
Fame, sponsored by L. St. Amand Enterprises.
Our first inductee was Doug Gordon of St.
Catharines whose career started in the late 60’s in the late
model division, but by the mid 1970’s graduated into the
ranks of dirt modifieds, where he would compete for the rest
of his driving career, before handing over the driving
chores to his son Todd in the late 1990’s.
Doug Gordon
While race fans of today enjoy the
talents of drivers such as Todd “Sparky” Gordon- the Gordon
family name is like so many others that have graced
Merrittville Speedway’s Pit area. Racing is in their blood
and before Todd’s XXX-his Dad made his history in first his
#71 and then the 8D. Back some 41 seasons ago, Doug Flash
Gordon would get his start in racing in the former late
model division in 1968 with a 1958 Ford. In his first time
out he won his qualifying heat- a victory that he probably
still remembers to this day. Soon Doug would move on to
drive a 1963 Chevrolet in the same late model division for
car owner John Cosby.
Cosby bought the car from Lyndon Wood
with the #38 changed easily to a 39 for Doug. Winding up
his close to 5 year late model career, Doug would purchase
another car-the #71 from John Swartz. Another opportunity
soon surfaced for Doug as a former Terry Edwards driven
Coupe became available for car owner Phil Gerrie for the
move to the modified division. Doug would get his start
with the former #51 just as the Gremlin-bodied tube chassied
racers were coming onto the local racing scene. In the mid
70’s Doug would soon land in a former Dave Lape car and what
was interesting about this car was that it was the very
first show car engineering car built by the late Howard
Conkey. With this car and Doug’s rising talent-he and
fellow racer Don Turner would share the Most Improved Driver
Award in 1974. With this car Doug would race from the 70’s
into the 80’s at a time when Davey Moore would dominate
winning a string of championships. One night in 1980
however was all Doug’s though, as he would win his first
Modified Feature.
Larry Lampman Jr
He did it in such a fashion, blowing his
engine crossing the finish line. The recession years of the
80’s drove Doug into other areas of the sport-first serving
as a corner man and then as Assistant Starter while his wife
Judy was developing as a scorer herself-working in the tower
at both Ransomville and Merrittville Speedways. His first
love was to be behind the wheel and as the 80’s became the
90’s he would make his return teaming up with Neil and Ken
Sharp to form Sharp Gordon Racing.
While Doug’s name never made it to the
annual Jerry Winger Trophy which we are also celebrating
tonight-it did make it to the Sterling Silver Award that
honors Bill Willard Senior every Labor Day. Doug was the
first winner of the Trophy for the Sportsman Division
donated by former racer Ken Walsh in 1990 and still
continues to this day. As Doug’s driving career was winding
down-it was his son Todd’s that was winding up.
In the late 90’s Todd would join the
former Pro Stock Division before joining the Modified ranks
himself. In a career that has spanned some 40 years, Doug
would get back behind the wheel in an instant. In fact that
happened in recent years with Doug in Victory Lane after
winning a Mechanics Race in Todd’s car. “If they were all
like this,” relayed Doug about the 15 lap Fun Event, “I’d be
back every week!” Back in a late 90”s interview with
Merrittville Speedway Reunion Committee Chairman Rick
Kavanagh, Doug took the time to thank those that had helped
with his racing career-one that started with fixing their
race cars in Gary Saunders’ and Paul Christie’s driveways.
Doug also mentioned Stan Friesen and Kurt Uhl, Ivan Little
as well as pete Bicknell and Randy Williamson. Doug’s
racing involvement also included a stint working at Bicknell
Racing Products where he learned a tremendous amount of
technical knowledge. 2009
Old friend Barry Robertson and the
Sharps-Neil and Ken, last year’s Crew Chief of the year Bob
Walton and crew member Derek Miller have also been a big
help to Flash. While Doug and Judy now cheer on their son
Todd and keep his racing career developing-it’s only fitting
that he meet up with those that have helped his racing
career. Doug- it’s your turn to join Gary Saunders, Ivan
Little, Stan Friesen, Kurt Uhl, Lyndon Wood, Terry Edwards
and Don Turner and host of others on the L. St. Amand
Enterprises Wall of Fame at Merrittville Speedway. Our
second inductee was Howard Disher, who now resides in
Welland, Ontario but also had a storied driving career, also
from late models to B-class modifieds, finally on to the
modified division by the mid 1970’s.
Tonight we honour an individual who loved
stock car racing and was successful in all divisions in
which he competed while racing in all of the era’s top
divisions at Merrittville Speedway, Humberstone Speedway and
Ransomville Speedway.
Howard competed against the likes of
Davey Moore and Bob St. Amand in modified to Bruce Parkes
and Harold Sonnenberg and Don Ledingham in “B” Modifieds,
and even competed in full bodied Fords in the late model
division against Don Shirton and Don McGinnis. While Howard
considered Merrittville Speedway his home track during his
modified career from the late 60’s until 1979, probably his
most memorable victory lane was winning the 50 lap All
Canadian in 1972 at Humberstone Speedway driving his #11 “B”
Modified coupe, with Don Shirton of Wainfleet winning the
late model feature in his #55 Dodge.
Howard Disher put Wellandport on the map
as a consistent competitor, whether it was in his #11 Ford
sponsored by Robert Rowe Motors of Dunnville or later when
he moved up to what used to be called an unlimited
sportsman, later to simply be called Modified.
The early to late 1970’s was a transition
era in modifieds. Veterans such as Ivan Little, Lloyd Holt,
Bob St. Amand, Harry Sittler, Don Turner and George Treanor
had to contend with new comers Harvey Hainer, Don McGinnis,
Brian Stevens, Howard Disher, Mike Granton and Mark Elsie,
but one newcomer was to make the 1970’s his own, Davey Moore
of St. Anns, Ontario.
By the mid 1970’s the newcomers were
definitely making their mark at both Merrittvilleand
Ransomville Speedways and by 1978 they dominated the
modified division.
While 1979 will go down as Davey Moore’s
5th straight modified points championship and over 50
feature wins, it would be a career changing year for 37 year
old Howard Disher. Howard and his #11D Pony Express”
modified were definite challengers to Davey Moore’s #6 at
both Merrittville Speedway and Ransomville Speedways early
in the 1979 season.
However, on May 29, 1979 while competing
in a special Memorial Day 75 Lap feature at Ransomville,
Howard’s #11D tangled with another competitor and flipped
over 15 times landing Howard in a Buffalo Hospital.
While we aren’t here to dwell on Howard’s
career ending accident, we must emphasize how promising a
career Howard Disher had experienced up to that fateful
evening.
By the way, Merv Treichler driving the D
& H potato wagon won the event with newcomer modified pilot
Pete Bicknell #42 finishing second and Don Turner #39,
third. Everyone in the pits, however, were concerned about
fellow competitor Howard Disher.
After a long recuperation, Howard Disher
hung up his helmet for good. From that time on, Howard and
his wife Gale, would travel from their Wellandport home
following both dirt track racing and asphalt racing, meeting
greats such as Bobby Allison, Richard Petty, Buddy Baker and
even stopping by the Dawsonville Pool Room, hometown of Bill
Elliott.
However, the Disher’s love of dirt track
racing brought them “full oval” back to their roots-for
decades, Howard and Gale have been superb spiritual
ambassadors of our sport with their Racing to Jesus Ministry
with Howard giving the invocation tonight.
Tonight Howard, it is our turn to say
Thanks for your devotion to our sport and congratulations on
being inducted in the L. St. Amand Enterprises Merrittville
Speedway Alumni Wall of
Fame.
With the inductions complete it was our
pleasure to ask “Pastor” Howard Disher to conduct the
invocation before the evening’s racing program started.
With over six divisions, including the vintage modifieds to
compete, it was a busy evening but probably one of the most
memorable annual events, where the fans would experience the
thrill of the vintage modified competition and later we
would host the 50 lap Jerry Winger Memorial modified feature
sponsored by Lucas Oil, for our modern dirt style
modifieds. This truly would be a celebration of 58 years of
dirt track racing, experiencing the sights and sounds of
decades of Canadian Dirt Track racing at the oldest
continuous operating dirt track in Canada, while remembering
Alumni no longer with us. Merrittville Speedway has hosted
the Jerry Winger Memorial since 1959.
Jerry Winger was young talented racer,
who started his career when Merrittville Speedway opened its
gates on July 1, 1952. Immediately this 18 year old’s
driving talents surfaced as he would win Merrittville’s
track championship in 1953 and would repeat again in 1957.
During this time, Jerry would establish his talent for fast,
clean, sportsman-like driving, that brought him not only
success, but also admiration from his competitors. From
1958-1959, Jerry Winger would not be able to defend his
championships due to illness and would pass away during the
1959 season. At that time, Merrittville Speedway’s owners
would retire his #10 forever and his crew would establish
the Jerry Winger Memorial Award, which would be awarded to
the winner of a special feature night once a year.
The award was lost for many years and was
finally tracked down by Merrittville Speedway’s Reunion
Committee, and was returned to us. Rick Kavanagh and his
father, former track owner Ken Kavanagh, restored the
trophy, so it could again be presented, this time on our
Annual Reunion Night. In 2008, Nostalgia Night once again
fell to the curse of Mother Nature- not just once, but
twice. The Committee proudly inducted Dave Halliwell and
Gary Saunders as the rains fell on July 12th and then again
on September 12th. While we watched a hard fought vintage
feature won by Dave Charczuk of Lewiston, N.Y. the upcoming
Jerry Winger Memorial feature turned out to be a very hotly
contested battle amongst former track champions Chad
Brackman and Larry Lampman, while track owner and 20 time
modified champion Peter Bicknell was eliminated, being
involved in a rare crash early in the event.
Larry Lampman emerged the winner and was
very enthusiastic about the win in victory lane. So with
the evening’s race program completed, we definitely fooled
Mother Nature in to giving us dry skies while we celebrated
another anniversary in Canadian motorsports.
The Merrittville Speedway Reunion
Committee, of chairman Rick Kavanagh, Erica Bicknell, Wall
of Famers Jeno Begolo and Ted Renshaw, Jim Irvine and Mark
Swartz and Terry Huffman, owe a debt of gratitude to the
volunteers, Alumni, and most of all the owners and drivers
of the vintage race cars who came from as far away as New
York State and Michigan to participate.
For more information on Merrittville
Speedway, stay tuned to our web pages at
www.merrittville speedway.com and the Merrittville
Memories stories. We had one more event on our racing
calendar as on Labour Day weekend the Merrittville Speedway
Reunion Committee hosted the 50 lap John Spencer Memorial
modified feature which was the final modified event of our
58th season. It was a hard fought battle won by Mike Bowman
of St. Catharines, a rookie in the modified division.
It’s hard to believe that our 58th season
is over, but we are already planning for our 60th
anniversary in 2011, hopefully under clear skies.