Roger Mauro was a Colorado native and highly respected auto dealer. He became interested in auto racing after his brother, Johnny, finished eighth in the 1948 Indianapolis 500. He purchased his first midget race car in 1970, which driver, Dave Strickland, raced to...
Art Ward moved to Colorado from Oklahoma in 1958 at age 18. Soon after, he became a feared street racer behind the wheel of his two hot ‘57 Chevys. He and his friends would hang out at drive-ins looking for races. In 1959 Ward graduated from the streets to a track in...
Eddie Jackson, a Colorado native, started his racing career in 1951 driving stock cars at Englewood Speedway. He raced there through 1955. In 1956, Jackson purchased the famed Number 5 midget race car from Lloyd Axel. Doing all of his own mechanical work, both engine...
Mark Williams began a lifetime involvement with drag racing in the late 1950s owing and driving an Olds-powered ’34 Ford coupe. By 1960, he built and drove his first dragster primarily made out of old drive shafts. A trained machinist, Mark worked for John Bandimere,...
Windy Windholz was born in Kansas in 1923, the youngest of 15 children. In 1943, he was drafted into the Army Air Corp. and was sent to Aviation Mechanic School. One of Windy’s World II assignments was to work on a top secret aircraft later to become known as the B-29...
A native of Colorado, Junior Kaiser grew up in the Washington Park area of Denver. He attended his first drag race in 1955, at age 16, at Lowry Air Force Base. Like many, he was first a street racer cruising the streets and drive-ins looking to take on anyone with his...
Bill Hill was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1930. Before coming to Denver, he served as a Paratrooper with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team from 1950 to 1953 and is a Korean War veteran. He then attended the University of Illinois working on majors in...
Sonny Coleman saw his first midget race at Lakeside Speedway in 1942. Little did he realize he would be driving at that track a few years after World War II. Like many others, Sonny built a street roadster and went looking for street races. Harvey Wilson was impressed...
Buddy Shay was born in Ohio but spent most of his formative years in Indiana. His older brother, Vic, bought a midget race car and decided to take it to races in Kansas City and Denver. In 1939 Shay left Indiana, worked in Chicago and then went to visit his brother in...
Born in Colorado, Johnny Pachello was the oldest of nine children and as he grew older he participated in working at the truck farm his parents, second generation Italian Americans owned in Arvada. He still retains four acres of the original farm. Although he is...
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