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Man, 88, revisits motor track
HARTFORD
Ed Winner hasn’t raced in more than 50 years, but his love of motorsports never ceased.
He still remembers driving a Dodge at Canfield Fairgrounds in the early 1950s. It was No. 7.
The 88-year-old Shepherd of the Valley-Niles resident returned to dirt track racing Saturday at Sharon Speedway. It was part of the Second Wind Dream program.
“This year, in 2011, Shepherd of the Valley really signed on with the Second Dream Program,” said Shepherd’s marketing director, Kristin Taylor. “It’s sort of a Make-A-Wish program for seniors who are living in assisted-care facilities.”
Taylor contacted Sharon Speedway General Manager Dave Willoughby after learning of Winner’s dream to return to see live race action. She said he was instrumental in helping to coordinate the trip for about 25 people, including Shepherd of the Valley staffer Dani Iser and Winner’s family.
“Dave Willoughby, who’s the general manager [at Sharon Speedway], said, ‘Yeah, that’s a great idea, we’ll do whatever we can to help,’” Taylor recalled.
Among those with Winner Saturday at Sharon Speedway was daughter Debbie Hutchins of Champion. She remembered that it was she who made Winner hang up the keys to his race car.
“He raced at Canfield, and my mom was six or seven months pregnant with me. He’s down there racing, the wheels are falling off, and she’s in the stands, yelling at him,” Hutchins, an employee of Great Lakes Cheese, said.
That was in 1954, the last year Winner raced. Hutchins said Winner is a World War II veteran and retired truck driver. While he raced, she says, Winner’s pit crew included two of her uncles, who are deceased.
Winner spoke in a quiet whisper Saturday, but with the help of Hutchins and sister Bonnie Stumph of Cortland and brother Ed Winner of Troy, he recalled his own racing career as trucks readied the racing surface on the 3/8-mile dirt oval.
As the evening’s preliminary events ended, the Shepherd staff and family helped get Winner ready for his dream: a ride in the pace truck. Winner was also presented with a commemorative trophy in front of the flagstone by announcer Jim Pollock and Willoughby.
The dream was also posted on the Second Wind Dreams website, which allows Internet users to contribute funds to make the wishes of elderly assisted-living residents come true.
Taylor says a donor in New England supported Winner’s dream by donating $100 for the trip. She says the donation was used to buy NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon memorabilia and apparel, which Winner and Stumph wore Saturday evening.
Stumph said she, Winner and Winner’s late wife, Lyda, were avid Gordon fans and would gather on Sunday afternoons to watch NASCAR races.
Some of those same drivers will appear at Sharon Speedway on July 12 as part of the annual Lou Blaney Memorial.