Posted by wtrial99
on August 20, 2008, 1:24 pm
96.230.245.117
I have been meaning to post this for some time and best do it now lest my memories fade, I grew up in the shadows of O'Hare stadium in Schiller Park IL, a high banked 1/4 mile asphalt. Elmer raced there for a few years. I recall 62 Mercury and 59 Ford sheetmetal and possibly 63 Mercury. He always made the trophy dash, sometimes won it and once held the track record in qualifying. I talked to him in the pits at O'Hare. I also saw him at Illiana and Milwaukee where I also talked to him after the race. I personally think road racing is the ultimate challenge for a driver and chassis setup and saw him at the Meadowdale road course.
In an era of flagrant cheating and drivers who would sell their mother to race I must say no finer man ever sat behind the wheel of a race car than Elmer Musgrave. A friend once wanted some tips on building a big block Ford for drag strip use. We drove to Elmer's house which I recall was in DesPlaines at that time and he readily shared his knowledge.
As for his USAC Mercury being a 'factory' car, wrong! He built it but did get the latest engine parts for free from Bill Stroppe. WhY? Well USAC had a rule that a brand could only use newly issued parts if they were available to all drivers of that brand. Since Elemer had the only non factory Mercury, his having the parts allowed Parneli Jones and Roger Ward in the Stroppe Mercurys to use the parts. There were over 20 Fords and the factory cars could not use the parts until a few more races when all 20 could get them. Elmer did not have an acid washed body, nor the aluminum headers cast with the factory molds which saved over 60 pounds used by factory Mercs. Nor did he have 483 cubes and a roller cam like the factory Fords and Mercs. I learned of this from other drivers, pit members and engine builders I knew. He was consistently the best non factory, that is non cheating, car at Milwaukee. I don't know what the Dodge's had engine wise but after the races at Milwaukee they would let the fans on the track (pit stalls) and you could actually open the doors on the Dodges and see the welding seam across the entire door where they had been sectioned! Not much of a factor at Milwaukee but they were the very same cars used on super speedways. USAC would not enforce the rules or the factories would pull thier teams.
I vaguely recall hearing second hand that at season end in 63 or 64 Elmer towed south for a 500 lap all comers race. I don't recall the track but he won it. However his track supplied scorer had left and they awarded him 7th. He protested and the drivers awarded 2nd thru 6th readily admitted that he had passed them, some several times. But the driver given the win (wish I knew his name)refused to give it up even though several drives said they saw Elmer pass him. Elmer was given 2nd!
Hope you enjoy. I'll add more as I think of it.
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