CAR HISTORY

Oval Track Stories By: Stan Fuller
Age 51
E-mail stanfuller13@juno.com
April 2004:
 
My father, Morrie Fuller, started racing in 1950 at a dirt track called Wilkins Speedway, located a couple miles north of Caldwell Idaho. Morries racing career spanned 27 years. His early cars were 1930 through 1940 Ford Coupes with the fenders cut off. In the early 50’s he also raced at tracks in Nyssa Oregon and McDermott Nevada. His chief competition through 1953 was his older brother Bob. They both had a love for cars and speed. I was born in 1952. Dad said the main reason that Wilkins Speedway went broke was because Meridian Speedway started offering drivers “tow money’ at the gate, so most of the cars started going to Meridian starting in 1954. Fortunately I have been able to find some 8 mm film of the races at Wilkins Speedway and had them transferred to VCR tapes. My earliest recollection of being at the races was when I was six years old in the grandstands at Meridian Speedway in 1958. Meridian was a dirt track at that time and I remember mud balls flying up from the wheels of the cars and hitting the fans in the stands, especially after they would water the track down.  In 1958 dad’s main sponsor was Glen Naylor’s Farmer Oil Service Station @ 24th and Fairview in Boise. In those days it seems like every service station in the valley had a race car parked on its corner.  My brother Sid and I are 11 months apart. In our childhood days we spent two nights a week at Meridian Speedway. Thursday nights was practice. Dad would turn us loose to play in and under the grandstands while he practiced. 
   In 1963 Charlie Shearman, a local business man bought a “straight up” open wheeled super modified from Jim and Jerry Malloy out of Denver Colorado and asked dad to drive it. They painted it a bright candy apple red, with white letters in black trim, #13. The car had a trade mark of carrying the left front wheel as the car accelerated down the straights, the left front tire was a small 4-inch wide tire made for Volkswagen Bugs. It was very small as compared to the ten inch wide slicks which were on the other three wheels. My dad had the trade mark of having a cigar in his mouth, he drove this car from 1963 to the year he retired, 1977. In 1965 Morrie won 14 heat races, a record that still stands. The 1966 racing season at Meridian Speedway was one of his prime achievements. That year Morrie battled Ron Porter who was driving the Pink Lady roadster. Morrie won 5 main events and finished just a couple of points behind Porter for the Season Championship. He finished his career while driving at the Super Oval in 1977. Even then when he would get out of the car he would say, “boy that was fun”. I think he finally decided to quit when the next generation of drivers, those some 25 years younger started to make their marks, plus old #13 was getting outdated by all the offset chassis. He sure got a kick out of beating cars that on paper he should loose to. 
   One time while towing the #13 down Overland road in Boise the trailer hitch broke, the safety chain held for a while as dad tried to slow down, then the chain broke and the trailer with #13 on it made a left turn and drove into a driveway and stopped right in front of a garage, nice parking job. The quick change rear-end on #13 had a slight leak, and dads way of fixing it was to put a diaper at the leak and duct tape the diaper to the leak. So every Saturday morning my job was to change the diaper. Body putty with extra hardener would stop a gas leak on a tank, water leaks and most oil leaks. Dad often used me as a scout asking, who are the guys to beat? and who are hazards on the track. Hazard meaning, who he should look out for that could cause accidents. Gene Klass was the track announcer at Meridian Speedway during the late 60’s, early 70’s. He got in a habit of bringing his guests and friends into the pits before the races. Gene would come by and introduce his guests to dad, then he would say something like “watch this guy’s car tonight” Morrie will do something wild! He usually did. 
   Pocatello was like two drags strips, and a hard tight corner. Dad really liked it because he could gear the car low for hard fast acceleration and then use the gearing as a brake. The track had a 6” curb on the insides of the corners and he could put the little left front tire right above that curb and really hug the inside of the track. I think Pocatello was his favorite track to travel to. We would go there about twice a year. He always did well there and won a couple of Main events. One time he won the main over Norm Ellifson who was driving Jim Tipke's new offset roadster. After the win they asked dad and Norm to go park their cars on the front straight. The funny part was that Norm had a group of pit crew members all in matching uniforms and they were all out there polishing up the chrome on the Tipke car after the race. My brother Sid and I were dad’s pit crew. We were teenagers and did not have matching uniforms. Dad’s car had one chrome piece which was the back X- brace to the roll cage. We did not have any polishing to do, but we accepted the winner’s trophy anyways! In one main event at Poky, dad’s throttle stuck wide open early in the main. Luckily he was able to find the kill switch. Funny thing was, he made a quick decision to drive the remainder of the race by using the kill switch! “On” down the straights and “off” killing it for the corners. After the race Bob Gregg who finished behind him came running over asking why the car would like stop in the corners. After explaining what was going on, Gregg laughed till he cried. 
   Ontario was a quarter mile oval with no walls except on the front straight, which had a three foot concrete wall. Ontario was dirt until about 1963. It was inside the big ½ dirt race horse track at the Fairgrounds. It was a fun place to race. They were not quite as structured as Meridian. They were just really happy to see any Boise cars tow over. They ran mainly on Sunday afternoons as not to conflict with Meridian. They even tried Wednesday nights and an occasional Friday night. After the races everyone would go over to Art Sugi’s Eastside Café and Lounge for Chinese food. About 1962 we were towing the car over to Ontario with a tow bar, no trailer and the right front wheel came off and that wheel went flying into a huge beet field on the right side of the road. We spent about an hour looking for it, but never found it. We put a spare on and continued to the track. I’ve always wondered how the beet digging machine did when come harvest time when it hit that tire! I remember their last season ending championship race about 1965. It was a 50 lap Main event for the Class A cars. Dad led most of the race with Bill Chandler driving the #55 roadster for Don Bowers on his bumper running second. Chandler had tried about every move to get around dad. On the white flag lap and on the last turn Bill tried to pass dad and dad drifted him up and over the front straight wall. Don Bowers ran down to our pits really mad, and all dad said to Don was that “Chandler should have known better as to try that move” The flagman at Ontario went to high school with dad and was the pit stewart. He agreed with dad and no penalty was issued for putting Chandler over the front straight wall. 
   The first time we went to Umatilla about 1970, the promoter was really excited. He figured that he could draw cars from the Tri-Cities and Yakima from the north and the Boise Valley to the south. This seemed like a good idea, but with all the racing we had going, the only time that the Boise cars could travel would be when Umatilla had something special. We were not going to go there (5 hour drive) for a regular Saturday night show. About the only time we could go would be early before our season started or late in September. The Umatilla promoter would always have the first race of the year. During the 70’s he would schedule an “Open Comp” race for the last weekend in March! I can remember going over the Blue Mountains on the drive over and we would see snow, but the race always came off. Fireworks on the 4th of July: Morrie got the nickname of “Fireball” Fuller when his lit cigar caused three fires in one year, so the rules were changed that the cigar had to be un-lit. He just clinched it between his teeth. The cigar was his trademark and he enjoyed it. On the 4th of July they would let him go out on the track with a big long cigar filled with sawdust. He would light it and it would burn down pretty fast from just going around the track fast. He would tie a scarf around his face to ward off the sparks. It really glowed. 
   As for car #13, dad sold it in 1980, and for all purposes it was gone. Then in December of 2002 it was found in a field South of Boise. I purchased what was left of the car and the restoration of the red #13 Malloy straight up has started.  It will serve as a theme car for the Idaho Historical Racing Society. Hope you enjoyed the read. Stan Fuller