Contributed by Art “Fireball” Fehrman as a "Back in the Day" Article
(illinoisvintageracing.com)

Opening day each year at the Fe was always exciting. Fans couldn’t wait to see what kind of car body styles were built over the winter. In the pits it was always neat to hear the stories of where each current year car came from.

When we travel down memory lane to the beginning of SantaFe, the most popular car used was the ‘40Ford Coupe. The 2 DR Sedans and 4 DR were too long. The coupes were the hot ticket. The guys used to trim the fenders and cut out half the passenger door for easy entry & exit. They always cut out the rear window to a large square for better visibility to see who was pushing them down the straightaway. They even cut half of the trunk off to shorten the length of the car. The Hudson Hornet won a lot of races in its day. Even though they weren’t as fast as the coupe they won because they had a 6 cyl with factory dual carbs. They were heavy but stable and if you had one that handled real well the small coupes had trouble beating it to the checkard flag on the ¼ mile track.

Arnie Gardner had a fast ’54 Ford. It was originally a 4 DR but his crew made it a very short 2 DR. In the mid 50’s almost everyone switched to ’55 or ’57 Chevys. They were small, light and they had overhead V8’s that left the flathead motor coupes in the dust.

In the early sixties the Stutebaker Golden Hawk was the car of choice. They were low, sleek and fast. Everybody wanted one until 1963 when Bill VanAllen came out with his Stutebaker Lark. It could out maneuver any large Chevy Impala or full sized Ford. Then the Chevy guys switched to the Chevy II for the short bodies. In the mid sixties ’64-’66 Chevelles dominated the field. I remember Lee Powers had a Hemi powered Plymouth with dual 4 Barrel carbs. It was the fastest car I ever witnessed down the straightaway on the ½ mile. He never did get it to handle because he couldn’t slow it down enough for the turns. It was clearly a big track race car.

In the seventies the Chevelle was still the top car until Tony Izzo introduced the very first lightweight Camero, which they called the Pony car. It immediately made the whole field of race cars obsolete. The days of heavy 4500lb cars were over. Cameros and Firebirds were the order of the day. Body styles were starting to fade away. Larry Jackson recently remembered his last all steel body was his ’78 Camero. After that it was all aluminum and fiberglass bodies. The days of hunting for body shells to build into a stock car were over.

Convertibles for the fans were very popular. They could see every arm & body movement during the race that the driver made. As a driver you had to be real careful because you were in the spotlight. If you’re going to give other drivers finger gestures, you better made sure it was because they were #1. Every Fan in the house could see exactly which finger you were using. There weren’t that many convertibles but historically they held their own. Skippy Michaels won the 1966 250 lapper driving an Olds convertible. I was there that day. He did a fuel only pit stop under the green and still won. Dave Hirshfield had a ’64 Impala convertible and had such a huge point lead ¾ of the way through the season. Had he not received a broken arm, he would have easily won the Championship. Larry Jackson did win the Championship in ’67 driving his Buick convertible. It was unique because it had a chrome roll bar. Whitey Fisher had one of the 1st ’57 Chevy convertibles. With it’s bright Pink paint job and Red 711 numbers it was one of the most popular cars at the track. Especially after his many feature wins when Lucky the Clown would stand up in the back and hold onto the roll bar and wave the checkered flag to salute the Fans. Al Johnson campaigned a Chevy Nova convertible. It was his trademark for many years. The last convertible to race at the Fe was Errol VanAllen’s immaculately prepared Camero. Years later Pete Parker brought out the 1st wedge car and proceeded to win the 200 lapper. The fans could no longer relate their favorite driver with a specific model of car.

Do you remember these Driver Car combinations??

Ken Finley – Cadillac #777
Art Fehrman Sr. – Ford Coupe #3
Dave Thompson – Hudson Hornet #21
Ken Boyer – Oldsmobile #8
Arch VanDuser – Stutebaker Golden Hawk #200
Bill VanAllen – Stutebaker Lark #6
Lee Powers – Plymouth #22
Bobby Berger – Chevy Impala #9
Red Swanberg – Buick #1
Ray Sasso – Pontiac #30
Earl J. Hubert – Ford Torino #43
Dick Nelson – Chevy Chevelle #11
Jerry Kling – Ford Mustang #89
Al Johnson – Chevy Nova #3J
Bob Pholman – Dodge #340
Tony “Shaggy” Izzo – Chevy Camero #66

Stock Car bodies certainly added excitement to each and every race at the Fe. The Fans loved them. We as competitors loved them. It was great competition Ford against Chevy and Buick against an Oldsmobile. Sadly, all of the cars today look the same, flat sides and shovel nose pieces.

Art “Fireball” Fehrman