Drag Strip Days OSWEGO RECALLS DRAG STRIP RACING GLORY DAYS From muscle cars to souped-up, modified dragsters, Oswego’s 60-year history of drag racing offers enthusiasts a slice of Americana right in their own backyard. The Oswego Drag Raceway, open from 1955 to 1979, is best known for the hundreds of muscle car drivers and amateur racers who flocked to the venue from across the Midwest every Sunday from May-October. Former Oswego resident Ben Brown recalls those early days as Kendall County hot rod enthusiast Darold Cutsinger first approached brothers Wally and Danny Smith about building a drag strip on their farmland. Brown was among the first drivers on the original dirt track, racing his ’48 Chevy coupe with its mildly-reworked engine. “It didn’t turn out so well due to the dirt,” recalls Brown, who reports the drag strip was paved the following season. An avid racer for years, Brown handled racing circuit publicity and wrote weekly for Drag News. From 1969 to 1984 he worked as a national booking agent, scheduling race professionals at the Oswego Drag Raceway and tracks across the country. Cliff Wackerlin, a retired City of Aurora employee, remembers well his first visit at age 16 to the drag strip located just west of the Village on Route 34. From 1958 to 1967 he became one of the regulars, running his ’55 Chevy with a 301-cubic-inch Hilborn-injected engine against countless friends and setting a track record. “Before the strip, as teenagers we used to race on multilaned rural roads like Route 59 or New York Street,” recalls Wackerlin. “Within just a few years of its inception, the Oswego Drag Raceway was drawing hundreds to its Sunday races – often more than three times the population of the Village turning out – when famed drag racers and dragsters would compete for top speed honors.” A fixture at the track, Wackerlin says he and his buddies originally helped test and calibrate racing clocks, staging their own unofficial pre-race day Saturday afternoon challenges down the track. At the time, scores of fuel-injected ’57 Chevys vied for speed and bragging rights. “In just a few short years, there were rapid advances in technology and we witnessed the start of many touring pros,” recalls Wackerlin, who says all too soon the racing world became a rich man’s sport boasting corporate teams. Wackerlin recalls Al Thompson of Al’s Speed Shop and his six-carb Chrysler Hemi in a Classic Research frame, who won a 1959 meet. “Al’s Speed Shop eventually became the place to go for the newest racing technology, expertise and parts,” says Wackerlin. Other racers like Larry Teeter of Elgin, who became an early nationally known Chevy racer, record-holder and winner of the 1963 and 1964 nationals, and Palmer Lazarus, one of the godfathers of Midwest racing with his 56 Chevy racer – driven only on race days and never on the street – soon drew Wackerlin’s attention with frequent appearances. “Donny Hausler of Plano was a big-time gas dragster racer 18 | OSWEGO Chamber of Commerce
and Roger Clayton, an Aurora iron worker, made a name for himself with dragsters, altered dragsters and fuel dragsters,” recalls Wackerlin, who notes Clayton’s son still races his dad’s cars today. Wackerlin also recalls the day in the early 1960s when Chris Karamesines, one of National Hot Rod Association’s early pioneers and a main Sunday attraction at the Oswego Drag Raceway, ran his fuel dragster known as the Chizler, setting a speed record at 204 mph in Alton, Illinois – becoming the first to turn the 200 mph milestone. While the days of rebuilding an engine over a weekend may be long past, Wackerlin says cars are still in his blood – pointing to his current collection of a 1965 and 2014 Corvette, a 1965 Mustang with Cobra engine, a 1955 Chevy with a 502 engine, a 1932 Ford Roadster and a 1931 Ford pickup truck with a Corvette motor. NOSTALGIA CONTINUES WITH ANNUAL EVENT Oswego’s long drag racing history and its nostalgia continues today as residents and racing enthusiasts celebrate Drag Strip Days in early September. “The event features a Saturday night cruise night and Sunday car show with over 300 cars, food, vendors, nostalgic music and much more,” says Harry Warner, owner, Harry’s Auto Repair, and co-owner with his wife, Fran, of Carousel Sound.