Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

In the May Speedway Illustrated issue I saw a 1/3rd page ad w/picture about a book on Cheryl Glass who drove sprint and midget cars for a couple years,  a very very short time, (a couple races) for Speedy Bill Simpson's two car team (Ron Schuman the other driver).  He thought having a black driver would bring national sponsorship from companies that traditionall were not involved with dirt racing like Ebony and she was someone he could train/work with to get to be a good driver thus bring in new money.     Speedy talks about the big mistake it was.  She got out of shape in  hot laps in their first trip, to Florida, and collected Lee Osborne who wrecked his sprint car, exiting the speedway fences bigtime.  Bill said Osborne was a very good friend but after that wreck he wouldn't talk to Bill for over two years. Speedy talks about it in his book Fast Company (good book)and didn't say anything good about Cheryl's father who kept telling him Cheryl was in poor equipment and Schuman (a great driver) had a better car.  The cars were built at same time and were identical.  First Lady?  What do you suppose Erin Crocker, Sarah Fisher, Jessica Zemken, McKenna Haase, Harli White, Miranda Throckmorton,etc thought about this book's title..  There is more but I don't want to get into that.  

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Not Simpson, Bill Smith and it's Shuman,not Schuman

Any person that has the drive, determination, ambition and ability to start their own business at the age of 9 in order to pay for their shot to get into racing is aces in my book.

I saw her race at Knoxville my senior year of high school – 1982. She was 3 years older than me at the time.

As a kid in ‘76, I remember saving up 11 or 12 two-week checks that I handed over at the John Deere dealer to buy my first snowmobile, so I can relate. (Yes, it was a tank, I went on to Polaris from there. LOL.)  

I have read about her before but I dont believe I ever saw her race, But all of the other Ladys I have seen! Actually I thought Natalie Sather always held her own pretty well in the years she ran at Knoxville. 

I recall seeing a sprint car  that she drove with a Chrysler Hemi engine at one of the museums..... too heavy!

When I read this particular article written by Marshall Pruett in Road & Track, it made me very sad what happened to my 1/4 midget friend.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/a10307202/the-life-and-death-of-cheryl-glass/

...........

I met Cheryl Glass and her family at the Quarter Midget Grandnations in Tacoma, WA in 1977.  My sister became friends for the  week with the Glass family and Cheryl that week and stayed at their home.  She said they had a phone in every room of their large house

They were just normal racing folks, back than (at least in my circle of racing friends), being black was a the track was nothing that stood out to me.  Just another racing family.  (Maybe it was different for them or others ).  Back in those days, just like today, the fuure superstars of the sport raced each other in 1/4 midgets or karts.  TOO MANY drivers to list that I raced or hung out with, biggest names were Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Vasser, Paul McMaha, Tim Clausen, etc.

 I did write a minor novel below, but cut it out thankfully.  Unless u know someone personally or even talked to them, u might have little compassion for people's lives when it goes sideways or worse.  Many peope struggle from serious mental health issuies, that lead them down a dark path.  People like Cheryl (or even Tyler Walker or Shane Hmiel and others) have made some serious mistakes with serious consequences in front of the public view.  I will celebrate their success and PASSION on the race track, and have prayers for their struggles in life.  Unfortunately sometimes the story comes to a premature sad end.  

'There but for the grace of God go I'

To be fair, perhaps "1st lady "was in reference to the timing of her participation in racing. She was racing sprint cars, long before the other ladies you mentioned. She may have even been racing sprint cars before those ladies were born?

And Janet Guthrie was racing on the national stage back in the 60's until around 1980, and carol14 on this message board was racing her Alpha's back then too. I'll rattle her cage and see if she can add more to the topic...she's a living encylopedia of info on this topic.  

Speaking of early women sprint car racers-does anyone remember the Creech sisters that ran Ascot? Along with their father Everrt,they ran sprint cars and were Hollywood stunt people for a profession.

Yes I do   damn I miss Saturday Nights at Ascot .  Didn't know they were stunt professionals, tks for sharing.

how about Denise Bennet in midgets and also Kara.

Cheryl Glass:

 Erin is 46 years old now.  Sarah Fisher is 45 years old now.  I don't care how old Glass is or was---the book was printed this year claiming she is the first lady of dirt.  

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Cheryl Glass was born in 1961, which would have made her 63 if she were alive now. What's your point? We get it you don't like Cheryl Glass. One can only speculate on your reasons, but whatever they are get over it and move on. find somebody who still living to hate on, I think Sammy Swindell and Tyler Walker are both available Cleetus.

Too funny!

Talk of women sprint car racers from the past brings up a couple thoughts...

I watched Sue Unzelman (sp?) win the first ever IMCA sprint car feature race won by a woman. It was at I-90 Speedway, Hartford S.D.

A lot of years back, I ordered a VHS tape (!) of something like the "PA Posse 1988 season end road-up". One of the featured drivers was Mares Stellfox (sp?). Did she go on and do much in PA racing?

Mares ran mostly URC (360) which still runs mainly in Pa NJ and Delaware.Becca Anderson had a good deal of success with URC and Pa 358s then did a year with Woo for Mike Woodring who also owned Erin Crocker's ride when she won a Woo race.

(OK, I've seen some weird things before, but this reply below IS from carol14, but how it shows it is me posting it, is beyond me...but I didn't want to delete it, as she told me she was going to respond to this post.)

==========

A friend brought this to my attention.  I used to be a regular/constant contributor on hoseheads.

Regarding Cheryl...

First - let's get some history here.  I wanted to race at Devil's Bowl and I was told no way as women were not allowed in the pits.  I talked with other women around the nation who were not allowed to race on dirt for the same reason... therefore I found it amazing when Cheryl showed up on the scene.

Regarding her racing the Speedway Motors car - at the time I talked with one of the most respected sprint car racers at the time who had tried to race the car just before they put Cheryl in the car right after the Knoxville Nationals.  He said the car was heavy and ill handling and the crew would not make any changes to the chassis so he could have a chance of driving it better.   He knew there was no way they would make any changes for Cheryl if they wouldn't make changes for him.

All things considered - not only being one (if not)  the first female sprint car racers but also being black --- I don't know of any black male sprint car drivers at the time...  I was really impressed with Cheryl.

Who am I?  I was around and knew racers such as Jan Opperman, Bobby Allen, Doug Wolfgang (later), Rick Ferkel and Lee Osborn.  Those are the first drivers who come to mind.  Many others like Smokey Snellbaker and of course - Hooker Hood.

I started watching racing - midgets in Tulsa after World War II.    I've been around racing for a while.  When I wasn't allowed to race on dirt I raced sports cars.   I'm not just a fly by night spectator.

Carol

I'm  sorry dmantx

I have no idea how your name appeared on my post - except that for some reason when I tried to log in they said I was already logged in - and again - how that happeded is a wonderment.   Never happened before in all of my posts in the past.

Carol 14 (or Alfacarol)

I just ordered the book....

1. Carol14 & I have been friends for like 30 years. She didn't do anything wrong at all. Some sort of a software glitch is all I can figure. So you can move on from that.

2. Allan does not operate this forum. Jeff does. And according to Allan, Jeff is planning to launch a new forum soon. Allan operates hoseheads.com.

3. Clueless mod squad? If you're referring to me, I check in about 3-5 times a day to make sure spam stays off here...for the past 10 years. This message board used to be riddled with 'fake ID' 'buy cybercurrency' etc. posts daily...has it gone unnoticed that those instances have gone down to just an occasional instance?

4. Rarely I delete a post or a response. If I do, it goes to Allan first because I want him to make note of it. 

5. Sometimes Allan get's tired of hearing at racetracks (by track management) of certain forum users bashing of their track. I would too. So, sometimes he goes in and cleans out those handful (or less) of people that are habitual problem makers. And he has every right to, as this is a private forum.

Carol - nothing to apolgize for. Must have been some cookie that crumbled wrong. LOL.

I forwarded the message to Jeff, who owns this message board for him to research...because I do find it interesting as well.

Back to the main topic, your stories from 'back in the day' are always interesting to hear.