The "Round and Round We Go: Part I" Story

Jerry and his #75 car on the left with Tom and Harry
Brooks and their 1934 Ford coupe #17 on the right.

It was an ordinary day.  Just put an obit in the mail to my lifelong friend Jerry who lives in State College and was friends with Don Doutrich who had recently died at the age of 79.  Don was a retired auto mechanic who owned his own business for over 50 years.  But, Jerry's relation to Don had to do with Don and Jerry's passion and hobby, stock car racing.  Don was a big fan of racing and raced against some of the biggest names in racing such as Richard Petty and Carl Yarborough.  Jerry's dad was a member of Don's pit crew when he raced at the old Lancaster (PA) Speedway in the 50s.  Jerry's entire family went to the races, both at Lancaster and Lincoln Speedway in nearby York, PA.  It was during this time that Jerry developed his love and passion for racing.  In wasn't until the early 80s that he decided to try the sport himself.  He and I were both Industrial Arts (shop teachers for those older readers) teachers at our high school alma mater, Manheim Township High School, where we also were both in the same graduating class from MT years before.  Jerry taught metal working and had his senior class build a dune buggy which, when finished, was towed to a local woods to give it a tryout.  After the school year was over, Jerry transported the dune buggy to his home on the south end of Lancaster and made it into a stock car.  He rebuilt it to resemble a car he used to root for at Silver Spring Speedway driven by Frank Hacenda who had won the point championship in '56 and '57.  To make a car race-ready you have to remove the hood, bumpers, fenders, running boards, windows and strip the interior as well as install safety bars all around the drivers seat.  Since the original dune buggy car was missing most of those items in the first place, it wasn't too big a chore to have the car ready to go.  In 1983 Jerry painted his first stock car black and yellow, but later changed the color to red and white (red bottom and white top).  Was called "Taxi" and had a big #75 hand painted on each side.  In 1988 he again changed the colors of the car to white on the bottom and red on the top.  Evidently he had a lot of red and white paint stored in his garage.  Jerry's hobby of car racing also led him to friendships with brothers Tom and Harry Brooks who owned Brooks Auto Restoration, a neighborhood garage that was in a remote alley on the west side of Lancaster.  Tom and Harry also had built a stock car and with Jerry they began weekend racing at tracks within a day's drive of Lancaster.  Jerry started racing at Grandview Raceway, which is near Pottsville, PA, with his #75 car in 1983.  His ace mechanic when he began racing was "Peanut" Brubaker who also helped Don Doutrich years before.  Eventually his son Tim would be a pit crew member.  Jerry and the Brooks brothers did most of their early stock car racing at Hagerstown, MD,  Williamsgrove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, PA, Big Diamond near Reading, PA, Hill Valley, PA, Trailways Raceway in Hanover, PA, Huntingdon Co. (PA) Raceway, Harrington, DE and Lincoln Speedway in York, PA.  In 1989 Jerry found his "new" race car in a junkyard south of Strasburg, PA.  It was a 1941 Plymouth coupe which he had to remove the fenders, shorten the car's body, remove the glass windows and hood.  After all the prep work he took it to Brooks Restoration for painting and then home again to install the motor.   Tom and Harry's car was #17 and Jerry wanted them to paint a "real" number on his new car so told Tom to change the 1 and 7 around and therefore Jerry's "new" '41 Plymouth stock car was #71.  New colors for the car were blue and silver, since he had run out of red paint.  Two years later, Jerry thought it best to retire from driving so he had one of his pit crew, son Tim, take over as driver.  Following year Tim took the Feature Win at Hill Valley and a year or two later #71 was retired and Jerry returned to being a spectator again.  Jerry had been a fan of the sport since his childhood and ended up living his dream by owning his own stock car and finally capturing a feature race at one of the tracks on the stock car circuit.  Now Jerry putters around in a orange Jeep but in a little more comfort than the stock car provided him.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - Tomorrow's story will share some of the highlights of stock car racing with photographs.