43
Reflections of Fast Times
Photo
Bill Forney, of Boardman, was recently inducted into the Cloverleaf Speedway hall of fame. He was a big-time local racer who also drove at the Canfield Speedway, among others.
The Boardman resident was inducted into the Cloverleaf Speedway Hall of Fame.
BY RICK ROUAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN — At one time in Northeast Ohio, a racer could find a track to tow his ’57 Chevy to almost every night of the week.
And Bill Forney did just that, staking a reputation at the Cloverleaf Speedway, Sportsman Park and Canfield Speedway that would make him a hall of famer.
Forney was one of nine members inducted into the 2009 Cloverleaf Speedway Hall of Fame last week. He won championships in 1961 and 1962 at Cloverleaf, which opened around 1960, drawing some of the area’s stiffest racing competition and about 6,000 spectators to the Cleveland track for 30 years.
Now, the Good Olde Daze Bar and Grill, a tavern in Parma, is trying to honor the track as it collects memorabilia to remember Cloverleaf. Among its collection now is Forney’s 1962 championship trophy.
The Boardman resident’s racing career began in 1949 at a gas station — not an uncommon occurrence in those times when Forney said almost every gas station had a car to run.
“Three of us guys hung around this gas station, and we all decided we were going to run,” he said.
“Back then it was easy to find a fixer-upper at a junkyard or a sponsor with its own wheels,” Forney said.
“It wasn’t all who had a big checkbook,” said Mike Forney, Bill’s son. “You could go to the junkyard and work.”
Like the NASCAR races of today, drivers in Forney’s day were always looking for an advantage, whether it was stripping a car down to make it lighter or finding a way to make it corner better.
Forney’s specialty was handling. He would tinker with his car’s springs, shocks and front-end alignment to make his No. 199 car easier to handle on the dirt tracks.
Today, Forney is quiet and reserved about his racing days and quick to recognize fellow racers before himself — a soap-box-derby trophy in which he beat his biggest rival, Jim Bickerstaff, another consistent winner of the time, is among his favorites.
His son said it’s a throwback to his racing days, when Forney developed a reputation for consistency and smarts that would lead him to multiple championships across a 22-year racing career.
“It’s not just about him. It’s about who he raced with,” said Mike, who carried the racing torch for three years after his father retired in 1971. “They say he would go around you instead of going through you.”
The shelves in Forney’s basement trophy room glitter with championships — in 1964 he won nine feature races and finished second eight times — but photos of Forney on the wall and in scrapbooks tell a story of a man committed to clean racing and family.
Forney would race on the weekends, bringing his wife, son and daughter to the track for picnics on race days. His wife, Martha, would score the races.
“It was a family deal,” Mike said, adding that his father had a reputation for finding any crevice between cars to pass the competition.
While her husband was whipping around quarter-mile and half-mile tracks at about 70 mph, Martha said she always wanted to be with him at the racetrack.
“It was less stressful being there than being at home wondering what’s going on,” she said.
Although Forney was elected into the hall of fame and won several championships in his racing career, he said it was never a viable option to support his family.
“By and large, it was just the fun of racing,” said Forney, who worked for 33 years with the garbage-removal company Browning-Ferris Industries. “It’s like driving in rush hour, but you don’t have to worry about the other guy.”
rrouan@vindy.com