his name was ralph. he worked for my dad don crites
[QUOTE=ancrdave;110486]Don’t remember a lot of them from OSW… I’m getting brain fade worse & worse every day…
There is “Bomber” Bill Loomis
George “The Animal” Murphy
“The Bithlo Bullet” Bobby Crites
Carl “Peanut” Green
Mike and Timmy Todd - The “Todd Squad”
Jim “The Crusher” Erb
Jerry “The Hammer” Symons
“The Old Die Hard” Bobby Sears
“Terrible” Ted Head
John “Believe It Or Not” Ripley
and I’m sure some of you can remember some more…
Some already had their own like William “Dink” Sullivan, Jeff “Jinx” Moyer, “Leapin’” LeRoy Porter, Chuck “Junkyard Dog” Rush, Jack “Punky” Cook, “Professor” Duke Southard etc. And who can forget Bob Hiner “Damn Yankee”…[/QUOTE]
can’t forget mine and bobby crites dad Dandy Don Crites 9 time champ in thunder car division. he won so much they had a bounty on him.
[QUOTE=Frasson118;110285]I got a few…:
Bugs Stevens is Carl Berghman (great guy, and total goof-off)
Langis “Punky” Caron
Harmon “Beaver” Dragon
Sal “Dee” DiRoma
Sonny O’ Sullivan (another great guy)
Travelin’ Man, Pete Fiandaca
Flyin’ Greek, Ron Narducci ( who may be coming to 2013 Reunion)
Thinking I just remembered the Ted Tappet answer… Phil Walters?
And I’m SURE I know the Les Ley answer, but it’s trapped behind a fog of Budweiser right now…![/QUOTE]
You have a couple of errors. Punky Caron’s first name is Howard, not Langis. There was a driver by the name of Langis Caron who raced on old NASCAR North Tour. Sal Dee’s last name is DeLucia not DiRoma. You are confusing Sal with Mike DiRoma.
Les Ley’s real name was Harry Dominick.
Am not sure if these were listed:
“Coo coo” Marlin
“Ironman” --Jack Ingram and Ab Jenkins
“Wild Bill” Holman --from Orlando Speedway
And the newest:
“Whiny Little Ass” Busch!
ps–“Sideways Sid” Stites was aptly named.
Nice work Berti. Thanks for the corrections.
At least I was close enough to be in the ballpark, not out in left field.
trivia
Wild Bill Kinley #17 NSS
how bout Black Jack ( Hackney —black cougar with orange cat on door )
Name the driver
Out of West Haven Ct. Wild Bill Greco. Modified Driver and with many track championships.
Drivers
Out of West Haven Ct. Wild Bill Greco Modified Champion
“hurricane” ross eldridge
“DANDY DON” or the people in the stands called him CRASH CRITES- Don Crites
Bumping this because it is a good read. Great giving a shoutout to Riverside Speedway last night at Citrus, John. Wild Bill Greco was my favorite. Two great drivers I didn’t see mentioned here were 3 time sportsman champion Rene (the prankster) Charland in the 3, and no nickname that I know of, Dick Dixon in the 8ball. Those were the nights.
[QUOTE=Roadtrip;174584]Bumping this because it is a good read. Great giving a shoutout to Riverside Speedway last night at Citrus, John. Wild Bill Greco was my favorite. Two great drivers I didn’t see mentioned here were 3 time sportsman champion Rene (the prankster) Charland in the 3, and no nickname that I know of, Dick Dixon in the 8ball. Those were the nights.[/QUOTE
Rene “The Champ” Charland was mentioned in this lengthy thread. Go back through them one more time as I’m sure you’ll find them.
Many referred to Dick Dixon as “Dirty Dick” as he developed the uncanny ability to spinout the car in front of him with the greatest of ease and continuing on like nothing ever happened. Never seemed to get put back to the end of the field.
It was a tragedy when Premier Parks went back on their word that Riverside Park Speedway would not be closed when they took over ownership of the Riverside Park Amusement Park and speedway from the Carroll family. It didn’t even take a year before they shut it down and had it demolished for a site on which to construct the Superman Ride of Steel Roller Coaster.
I think most tracks had a guy who picked up the nickname Crash or Flip
But a few from around my old home state and hometrack were these.—“Gentleman Jim” Cushman.“Captain Sizzle” Mark Malcuit.A guy who raced the same division as me had a nickname of “Panooch”.A long time drag racer turned stock car driver was named Ed “Hillbilly” Duncan.
An interesting piece of Ohio Racing History.But we’re there more like it?
I remember back in the 1970s Mansfield Speedway in Ohio (at that time a dirt oval) had a latemodel race team called the HI WALL Special.It was driven by Sgt.Jerry Campbell who was a guard at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.The car was built,maintained,& pit crewed by Campbell and prison inmates.They campaigned the car for several seasons before budget cuts and institution rule changes forced the team to disband.I wonder if there are any similar stories out there.All these years later both the prison and racetrack still stand but stand abandoned merely an afterthought.
A new one (for me) that I heard recently:
“Furious” George Gorman, Jr.