Contributed By Art “Fireball” Fehrman
In 1954 NASCAR Grand National Drivers competed in a 200 lapper at SantaFe. It was NASCAR's very first venture into the Chicagoland area and their only appearance at the clay oval. It was standing room only and the attendance count was 6,208 screaming fans.

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NASCAR's biggest stars were there. The Top 6 finishers were: Dick Rathman, Herb Thomas, Hershel McGriff, Lee Petty, Buck Baker, and Jim Reed. There were some local drivers who made the race also: Art Doogan, Bill Moore, Frank Ropp, Al Ruyle, Bill Brown, Legs Witcomb and Bay Darnell. Our local drives who made that race continued to drive locally at SantaFe and were popular competitors through the 50’s & 60’s. Frank Ropp became the official Flagman for Grundy County Speedway and Sycamore Speedway for many years.

In the 50’s & 60’s it was common to see selected SantaFe drivers race at SantaFe on Saturday nights and then run Usac events on Sunday. Art Derry (Ford), Ken Finley (Pontiac), Red Swanberg (Buick Rivera), and Arnie Gardner (Ford Fairlane). Arnie had two ’66 Ford Fairlanes. One was for Santa Fe’s 1/2 mile and the other a long track Ford for Milwaukee. He also had a Holman & Moody Ford that he drove at Daytona and Charlotte. Former Champion Rich Clement had a ’64 Plymouth that he raced at Daytona . In the 70’s he had a Dodge Aspen that he ran on the USAC Circuit and he was still a regular on Saturday nights at the Fe. In the late 60”s John Kennedy ran at Rockingham and he also raced at Atlanta and Darlington in a Ford formerly driven by Darrell Derringer. Don Marmor was another Fe regular who also competed on the big tracks in the Usac circuit.

Bay Darnell competed in the 1954 race and then became one of Usacs biggest stars and later returned to SantaFe in 1974 for the National Clay track 200 lapper racing his USAC Trailer Train Dodge. It left many SantaFe drivers wondering why he would enter such a beautiful long track car on such a small track. Amazingly he made the race. He was running in 12th place when a cut tire ended his night. Bay recently remembered that every car seemed to lean on it that afternoon. There wasn’t a straight panel or fender on the car when he packed up to go home. He just wanted to race and he didn’t have a short track car. The whole body needed to be replaced before his next race. Bay would continue on in Usac and score his biggest win ever in the Texas 500 in 1978. Today he happily provides cars to his son and grandson. Bay fondly remembers being invited in the 80’s to a NASCAR Night with Buddy Baker, Dick Trickle and Sal Tovella. Sal remembers receiving more press and TV time that night racing at SantaFe than when he won USAC races all over the United States.

Some drivers would occasionally show up for the Santa Fe 1/2 mile show sporting pretty good credentials. Bob Pronger held the Pole position in 1953 on the old beach course in Daytona. Whitey Gerkin, two time Milwaukee winner, even raced at Santa Fe in his signature checkered flag shirt. Dave Hirschfield and Gene Richards ran SantaFe and competed in Usac. In the 60’s Merle Bettenhausen occasionally competed on the ¼ mile shows on Saturday nights in the Sportsman’s division. He went on to race Usac midgets and Indy Cars later returning to SantaFe annually running Usac Midgets. Also appearing in an end of year 200 lapper were Rusty Wallace in the Childs Tire Company prepared Camero. That was long before he made it in the Nascar premier circuit. In 1978 Ramo Stott, who was a 1975 USAC Champion and a 1976 Daytona 500 Pole winner, brought a short track car from Iowa to race in the 200 lapper. I finished second that day driving Larry Jackson’s car. I was more excited about out-running Ramos Stott than finishing 2nd in the 200 lapper.

NASCAR Nights:
Bobby Allison was the first paid Winston Cup driver to make an appearance in the late 70’s. His car was provided by close friend Bobby Brown of Mississippi. His car was extremely competitive. Shortly after that, Top Track Management decided to rent regular top five cars for Nascar Nights. Car owners were paid to prepare cars to resemble each Driver’s Cup car. Many events featured 2 or 3 NASCAR Stars. Buddy Bakers debut at the Fe was one that he would probably like to forget. His beautiful Boyce Engineering #15 Norris Wheel replica blew a motor in the pits and never made it on the track. Baker hastily climbed into John Kennedy’s Camero. While he was hot lapping his foot became tangled up in the gas pedal and he climbed the third turn wall. It left him limping and the car totally wrecked. He was done for the night but he graciously signed autographs. He returned years later to have successful runs against some of NASCAR's finest champions.

Behind the Scenes:
Preparing the cars for NASCAR night took a lot of time. Usually only 4 nights were available to accomplish the changeover. Some owners did it for the money, but most of them did it for the exposure that their local sponsors received when the big time Nascar Stars drove their cars. Plenty of TV coverage was shown on all of the local news stations. Dennis Marcelle recently remembered that he provided cars for Darrel Waltrip and David Pearson on four occasions. He saved all the money he earned and bought himself a brand new 1980 Oldsmobile. In 1979 my car owner, John Papp probably spent more money preparing his car for Cale Yarborough than he received. After my Sunday night race, the crew installed a new body, freshened the motor, put on new tires and had it painted and lettered by the following Friday for media day. The effort by the Papp family and crew clearly paid off not only was Cale competitive, he set a track record on Saturday night. Al Johnson and crew went the extra mile one year. Indy car veteran Janet Guthrie blew a motor hot laping in her Kelly Girl Johnson car. They loaded the car, drove home to Justice, Il. and changed motors. They had it back to the track just before the start of the Feature. Now that’s a Pit Crew.

Media Day:
TV and newspaper coverage always took place on Thursday or Friday before the race. SantaFe would usually pick 5 or 6 cars to run regulated laps with the NASCAR Stars while the TV cameras were rolling. This would also give the Nascar drivers time to get used to the cars and track. All of us had to take off of work to participate but it was well worth it. Why would I want to be at work when I could be running down the straightaway with Bobby Allison & Buddy Baker with the TV cameras rolling. After all, the Media stuff was over, Howard always bought lunch and we ate Kentucky Fried Chicken under the main grandstand with Allison and crew exchanging racing stories. This was the one time when it was acceptable to talk with your mouth full. There were some races that didn’t allow time for Media days and it clearly showed because the Winston Cup drivers didn’t get a chance to familiarize themselves with the cars or track.

Jan Gabriel was the master of assembling the NASCAR nights. He coordinated everything from radio commercials to personally making sure every Nascar Star was at the track on time. He would pick them up in his car and bring them to the speedway. He fondly shared with us two very comical stories.

Bobby Allison was racing in Milwaukee and running late. Jan picked him up and was determined to get him to the speedway on time. With the pedal to the metal and doing in excess of 90 mph Jan meets up with a State Trooper. Lucky for Jan, the trooper was a big Bobby Allison fan. He hinted that he would pretend this stop never happened if Bobby would give him the Alabama Gang hat he was wearing. Unfortunately for Jan, it was Bobby’s last hat like it and he refused to give it up. Jan’s jaw dropped and he hissed at Bobby “just give him the hat”. Bobby dug his heels in and loudly replied “No Way!!” The trooper promptly wrote out Jan his ticket, which cost Jan a small fortune and valuable traveling time. You have to remember that “The Alabama Gang” had great sentimental value to Bobby.

On another memorable night, Jan picked up David Pearson, Buddy Baker and Darrell Waltrip. As usual they were running late and Jan was driving like a bat out of hell. He made it all the way to Route 66 & Wolf Road and an Indian Head Park police officer pulled him over. Well Jan started talking a mile a minute using his famous announcer’s voice and all the bull he could muster. He cleverly had talked his way out of the ticket when Pearson leaned forward from the back seat and loudly enough for all to hear said “Hey Jan tell this officer to go screw himself’. Jan was speechless, believe it or not, he couldn’t believe his ears. He composed himself and smoothly told the officer not to listen to Pearson because he was joking and didn’t mean it. No sooner had Jan mouthed those words when Pearson louder than before said “Hey Jan tell this officer to go screw himself and I do mean it”. While the officer was writing out Jan’s hefty ticket, Baker and Waltrip were laughing so hard they almost fell off their seats. Pearson was clearly a fun character to be around. It was sure funny hearing Jan tell the story, but I bet it wasn’t funny then especially when Jan was forking over the dough to pay the fine.

History shows that of all the NASCAR drivers who competed on NASCAR nights, Kyle Petty and Cale Yarborough faired the best.

Kyle, while driving a Tony Izzo prepared car, had the best 1/2 mile feature result finishing 4th. Ironically he had duplicated what his grandfather, Champion Lee Petty did in 1954 in the very first Chicago Nascar race. Lee also finished 4th.

Cale, driving a John Papp car, qualified in the top five, won the heat and set a race record that still stands today. He was in the top 4 in the feature until he developed a clay-filled overheating radiator. He was born on the dirt and he wasn’t there to just look pretty and wave to the fans, he was there to race and to win! He brought along one of his Nascar pit crew to time him with a stopwatch so Cale knew exactly where he could improve his driving at each end of the track.

Listed are the NASCAR drivers who competed on NASCAR nights over the years:

Bobby Allison Mark Martin Kyle Petty
Buddy Baker Darrel Waltrip Janet Guthrie
Benny Parsons David Pearson Dick Trickle
Davey Allison Cale Yarborough Ramo Stott

It was obvious to all that these guys were having fun driving on the dirt again and enjoyed returning to their roots where their careers had started. Howard Tiedt and Jan Gabriel put on a tremendous show for all of the fans and competitors. Each and every NASCAR night was a huge success and enjoyed by all who were present.