Stan Friesen and Kurt Uhl
Stan Friesen and the famed #52 Coach
Stan Friesen like many others in the 1950's
became interested in trying his hand at the sport of stock
car racing. He along with Terry Edwards and Wingy Barron had
a stock car and would take turns driving it at Merrittville
Speedway, until one night on a dare, Wingy Barron rolled the
car on the front straight away, some say it was on a dare by
starter Bob MacPherson. Some of my first memories of seeing
Stan Friesen race as a kid in the late 1950's was behind the
wheel of one of Bill Willard Sr.'s #78 Coupe.
This was in an era of Willard's having as
many as 4 cars, the #77 of Terry Edwards, #78 Stan Friesen,
#79 a short career for Allan Willard and 777 Bev MacTavish.
In 1961 -62 when the late model division started, Stan along
with friend Kurt Uhl and Neil Sharp decided to build a late
model. A 1957 Chevrolet was constructed, painted green and
yellow and the #52 painted on its sides, all to match the
colours of Kurt and Neil's Geneva Street B.P. Station. This
car was campaigned with much success at Merrittville
Speedway, Humberstone and Speedway Park. In 1967 they
decided to purchase an ex Ray Stevens sportsman coupe and
move up with the top runners of their day, fellows like Fred
Hurst, Ivan Little, Jeno Begolo, Mike Zajac, George Treanor
and many others.
The red and white coupe sponsored by
Kurt's Ace Alignment of St. Catharines, was potent threat
wherever it ran, with Neil Sharp acting as crew chief. With
the Friesen family in the Dry Cleaning Business with Modem
Cleaners on Lake Street, as well as Kurt Uhl running his
successful Alignment business, their focus on racing was
changing. Stan, around 1970-71, still drove the race car,
but it was more part time with the likes of Gil Cramer and
Terry Edwards. It was at this point that Davey Moore raced
the #6 coach for Ray Stevens, however in 1972 the #52 would
re-emerge as a red and white hump back coach with a Canadian
Flag on its trunk, replacing Moore's #6. It was also late in
1971 that Stan and Kurt would become partners in buying
Merrittville Speedway from my father, Ken Kavanagh and Bill
Russell.
For some reason the two had the ideas for
change and there were three major ones. The traditional 1/4
mile perfect oval was ripped apart and replaced by a larger
D-shaped pattern with its now notorious turn four. Secondly,
the old wooden bleachers were replaced with metal ones from
the now defunct Niagara Drag Strip. However, the third
change was probably the most memorable one and that was
bringing the fledgling DIRT of Western New York sanction and
its Schaeffer Beer sponsorship for a qualifying race from
Syracuse. That event is still the biggest modified event on
Merrittville Speedway's calendar some 28 years later.
Alex Friesen 1992
While getting their feet wet as race
track operators, Stan was still pursuing his desire to race
modifieds, while occasionally racing at Merrittville, trying
to balance the racing against the administration of a race
track. It was during this period that Stan and Kurt and Ray
would run at Merrittville as well as Weedsport, N.Y. with
Stan winning the 1972 modified point championship at
Weedsport, N.Y. In 1973 the ownership of Merrittville
Speedway demanded their time and Stan and Kurt focused their
attention on operating Merrittville Speedway as a business.
Like those of us before them, the wives and kids all played
a part on Saturday nights, selling popcorn, programs and hot
dogs, it all went with the territory. Speaking from personal
experience, it was a fun place to grow up. Stan and Kurt,
along with their wives Diane and Deanna took a very active
roll along with the kids, Jamie, Joel and Alex Friesen and
Janice Uhl, in the running of not only Merrittville
Speedway, but now Ransomville Speedway which they purchased
in 1973.
Alex Friesen with a feature win at
Gasport in 1992 The Friesen and Uhl families were now
operating two dirt tracks, as well as running their
businesses. Stan Friesen had his trucking company and Kurt
still operated Ace Alignment. The families ran both tracks
until 1981 when they sold Merrittville Speedway to a group
of 5 St. Catharines investors. While continuing to operate
Ransomville speedway on Friday nights, the Friesen kids
interest in stock car racing grew. In 1987 two events
happened. Kurt Uhl was bought out as partner at Ransomville
and young Alex Friesen along with his father Stan, purchased
Lancaster Speedway.
The Friesen family now owned two U.S.
race tracks, with Ransomville operating on it traditional
Friday nights and Lancaster operating both a drag strip and
a paved oval on Saturdays. Stan, Joel, Jamie and Alex were
now deeply involved in the sport and business of auto
racing, but it was Alex who wanted to promote and cultivate
N. Y. state stock car racing into the 1990's. However, Alex
was tragically killed in a snowmobile accident a couple of
years ago. The Friesen family still carries on today with
its ownership of Ransomville and Lancaster.
Jamie Friesen 1992
Son Jamie, carries on the family racing
tradition by racing his #10 sportsman when he can, with the
memory of his late brother's #68 on its tail panel. Jamie
Friesen with a feature win at Gasport in 1992 While Kurt
Uhl is no longer active in stock car racing, he and his
family were an integral part of Merrittville and Ransomville
Speedways' history and success.
It was Kurt Uhl's ownership and
sponsorship of his friend Stan Friesen's race cars that led
to their life long friendship and partnerships in racing. On
the Uhl side, daughter Janice has been married to Raceline's
Eric Tomas for 10 years.
I've always stated that stock car racing
is a family sport at any level, to make it successful as the
Friesen's and Uhl's are proof of that, just as the
Kavanagh's and Russell's before them and the Cullen's and
Marino's before them.
Sincerely, Rick Kavanagh