Springboro attorney Mike Thompson now organizes the Winchester Old Timers and spent a recent weekend herding the 63 racecars for some laps on the track.
“Charlie Shaw, who owns Winchester, loves racing and old racers. He donates the use of this place to us, and pays for all the fire and ambulance personnel and everything else. No one, not drivers or spectators, has to pay to get in on Friday when they give us four hours of track time,” Thompson explained.
Thompson got his start in racing in 1964 with a stock car at Eldora and has been associated with the sport as a car owner or driver ever since.
“I had ARCA and NASCAR stock cars from ’74 to ’82 but we never won any races. Back then a small team could compete. That’s why I support this group, people who love the older cars and want to preserve them, but also get some time on the track.
“Some of them are pretty quick, and others just want to drive a bit. I divide up the groups for the slower cruisers, then the caged sprint cars, midgets and a class for the coupes and stock cars,’” he said. “That way, cars of similar style and speed are on track together; it makes it safe. In the five years I’ve been running this event, we’ve never had an accident, damaged a car or taken anyone to the hospital. That’s the way we intend to keep it.”
In the infield area where the cars were pitted, there was quite a variety – 1930s-style sprint cars and midgets, ’50s and ’60s midgets, sprint cars from the ’80s with cage roll bars and some older supermodifieds.
Todd Meinsen of Fountain City, Indiana, had just pulled into the pits after an on-track session in his 1982 sprint car.
“This is just a great time, getting on track in these old cars at speed. It’s a real thrill,” he said. “I grew up around sprint cars, and now all my kids are grown and gone, and so four years ago, I bought this car and I’m having a ball!”
While sprint cars and midget cars were the majority, there was one NASCAR-style stock car in attendance that nearly everyone took a picture of. Dale Oakes of EuroClassics spends his days working on Porsches, Ferraris and other European cars and racecars, but recently acquired a rare 1969 Ford Torino. It’s a replica of Cale Yarborough’s famous Wood Brothers No. 21 Torino.
“I’ve always been a Ford guy, and a friend found this car on eBay and brought it to me for some work. I just fell in love with it, and now it’s mine,” Oakes said.
Four of these replica cars were commissioned by Firestone and Charlotte Motor Speedway to be used to promote the 1980 Winston Invitational race at Charlotte. This is the only one known to still exist. While it looks like a NASCAR car from that era and has a racing interior set-up, the car is street legal and was used to give rides around the track and pace the races at Charlotte.
“I’ve been tracking down the background on the car. I contacted the Woods Brothers and they said they didn’t build the car, but I also had a chat with Humpy Wheeler who owns Charlotte and he said the Woods Brothers built all four of them. It was stored in a semi-trailer for 20 years, and I’m not going to restore it. The patina is what makes it cool.”
The car was such a hit on Friday at the track, officials invited Oakes and the Torino to be the pace car for the ARCA 200 stock car race on Sunday. The car was featured in the opening of the live telecast. Oakes drove three pace laps ahead of the growling racecars before the green flag dropped.
“I was lapping the track on Friday at 75 mph but for the pace laps, I had to drive the pit road speed limit, which was pretty slow, but it was a thrill,” Oakes said.
You can learn more about the Winchester Old Timers on their Facebook Page: Winchester Speedway Old Timers Reunion.
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