RON OLSON’S RACING HISTORY 2-2-2013

Starting in 1955, I was 21 years old, and just returned home from serving a couple years in Korea ! I did 15 years in oval racing on dirt and pavement,

and pavement was my favorite. I have or had 15 championship trophy's at home, but have given away hundreds of those trophys, which included lots of trophys, clocks and plaques. Gave away boxes of trophys to the Scouts for their pinewood derby events.

I still have boxes, and 2 display cases full of trophys, plaques, silver bowls and lots of paraphernalia from a lifetime of cars, which my slogan is- "Born To Drive"

I even hauled a trunk load down to Arizona to my southwest friends.

I had 5 championships in early model,,56 57 58 59 60

I had 2 championships in late model Modified, 58 59

I had 4 championships in super modified, 61 62 64 65

I had 4 championships in late model, 66 67 68 69

I raced a number of old Ford coupes, a few later late-model modified sedans, some at that time current late model sedans, built 2 supermodifieds, a few road race cars, a Trans-Am Porsche, a modified Pinto sedan and numerous vehicles of friends that are just too many to remember all and name. Built engines for a few of my competitors, designed suspension systems and exhausts for some.

I had 15 championships in early model, latemodel, latemodel modified, and supermodefied. That would be in the area of 1700 to 1800 races, with 65 to 75% of those being wins.

At one time with the early models, we had 17 clean sweeps in a row and then 15 more sweeps in a row after that. Won so many races that they made me start at the rear of all my races after that. In 1967 or 68 I won both legs of the Minn Stock Car Asphalt Championship held at Elko & Raceway Park.

I Raced on many of the tracks in the state, plus around the upper midwest. Held track records at the Minn Fair for many years at 20.19 in that late model, and may still have the outright record at Raceway park in the 12 second range, with the Supermodified.

After the 1969 season, management at the 2 local tracks told me they didn't want me to use that car anymore, so basicly we were legislated off the track after winning so many races, and they did not want the car to continue running, even after I offered to put a new body on the car. So I sold the car and went road racing.

I raced a couple of my friends cars to get started in road racing, one was a GT 350 and then I decided to buy a 911 Porsche and do the Trans-Am and B sedan class, under 2 liter class. I no more than got started, when SCCA outlawed the Porsche because of a complaint from Alfa Romeo, so I continued to run the car in the B sedan class. See insert below. I needed a FIA divers license to compete in the Trans-Am series.

Trans-American Sedan Championship was evolved over time from its original format as a manufacturers championship for modified racing sedans to its current form as a drivers championship open to GT style cars.

The series was formed at the dawn of the pony car era and was derived from the SCCA's A & B Sedan amateur Club Racing classes, based upon commercially produced cars which had been modified for racing competition. Originally the series was open to FIA Group 2 Touring Cars and it featured two classes, Over 2.0 Liter and Under 2.0 Liter, with both classes running together. The series was best known for competition among American V8 sedans such as the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Plymouth Barracuda, Mercury Cougar, AMC Javelin, Pontiac Firebird, and Dodge Challenger in the 1960s and early 1970s. Marques such as Porsche (until its 911 was reclassed as a "sports car" and not a "sedan"), Alfa Romeo, BMW, Datsun, Mini Cooper, Saab, and Volkswagen competed in the series' Under 2.0 Liter category.

I was pretty succsefull with the Porsche and won more than my share of the races. The car had to weigh 1 lb. per cc. engine size, so 1991 lbs. It also had an opposed 6 cyl 2 liter engine that we turned 10,200 RPM , never broke a motor.

The biggest race win I had at Donnybrooke was the Uncola 500 which needed a co-driver for the long event, and my good friend Dan Fowler co-drove with me and we won our under 2 liter class and came in 4th overall in the race. Only John Greenwood, & Jerry Hansen in the Greenwood Corvets and Dick Kantrud in the Trans-Am Camero were ahead of us after 500 miles.

The Porsche was very fast for a 2 liter car, it used to run 180 MPH on the front straight at Brainerd depending on wind.

I sold the Porsche after a few years and got into what SCCA called "Showroom Stock" class which was an absolute ball to race, and it was really cheap too. I bought a Pinto and raced it for 2 years and then bounced around in a couple differant cars to keep my FIA license.

Eventually I bought another B sedan Modified Pinto from a friend of mine and raced that for many years, with many wins, and I also took the car out to Elko and ran it in their "Mini Stock" class, where we won every race we entered in about 2 years, which was only perhaps 6 races, due to the road race schedule. The Pinto was very fast, and was able to run about 158 MPH on the front straight at Donnybrooke at 10,800 RPM, it was a real screamer, especially with a 2 liter 4 cyl engine. We never broke a motor on the Pinto either.

Well in 1988 it was finally taking it's toll on all of my friends and crew after 33 years of running all those races in all those places, and 55 years old, the decision was made with the crew, my wife Josie and myself to sell the race car, trailer and all spare parts so as to not be able to restart with something else.

We had 2 championships in our division in 1986 and 1987

I still have my Championship Hinchman Nomex drivers suit and nomex underwear and nomex socks and my Bell Magnum helmet and Gig bag, and don't know quite what to do with them. Hinchman would put it up in their showroom on display. One of their earliest Nomex drivers suits.

Hinchman was the 1st suit maker to use Nomex. 1966. But I don't know yet.

We also did ice racing for about 4 or 5 seasons. Tryed drag racing a couple times---nope.

So all in all there were 17 Championships between all the racing types. It has been a lot of fun.

I would like to mention the following people that helped during those many years,

and are and were some of my best friends ever, with their help and support.

Ray Fosse, John Whiting, Fritz Driver, Tom Whalen, Jerry Steelman, Erling Olberg,

Bob Bolz, Bill Pearson, Don Belkengren, Bob Strom, Vince Strom, Jim Anderson,

Uncle Sid, Bob Hofmeister, Dean Crook, my Mom and Dad, and especially my wife Josie, and please forgive me for all the ones I can't remember.