By Stan Kalwasinski
Tom Cox was a Chicago area stock car racing pioneer.
A racing fan at a young age and after serving as a pit man for midget racing teams, Cox embarked on his own race driving career in 1948 when short track stock car racing was born in the Chicago area. Cox was in competition at the old Gill Stadium on Chicago’s southeast side when the stockers competed for the first time in September and October of that year. Cox was on hand for the first stock car event at Raceway Park (Blue Island) that same year, finishing fifth in the track’s 300-lap event in a 1940 Ford.
Earlier that year, Cox drove a Ford in the first stock car race held at the famed Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis., coming home 15th in the 100-mile chase on August 22nd. Later in his career, Cox would make several stock car starts in American Automobile Association (AAA) at Milwaukee before AAA officials began to frown on “outside” drivers competing and barred drivers who did not devote 100 per cent to AAA interests.
Cox was on hand for the first full season of weekly stock car competition at Raceway Park in 1949. Cox captured his first feature win at Raceway in 1950 behind the wheel of a 1949 Ford. The following year, he devoted much of his time to following the competition at some of the Midwest’s bigger tracks.
Cox became a front-runner at Raceway in 1952 and would go on to win 59 feature races at the south suburban speed plant during his career. 1955 saw Cox capture 22 features at the tight quarter mile paved oval, wheeling his 1950 Olds 88 to Raceway’s season track championship.
Cox turned his attention to the new O’Hare Stadium (Schiller Park) in 1956 and finished in the runner up spot in the final points both in 1956 and 1957. Cox would capture seven feature wins at O’Hare from 1956 through 1959.
Cox also competed in the United States Auto Club (USAC) stock car ranks, racing at Milwaukee and other tracks on the circuit from the 1950’s through 1962 when Cox retired from competition. Cox drove Skinner Brothers GMC-sponsored Pontiacs for a number of years on the USAC trail. Cox was involved in a sensational looking wreck at Milwaukee in July of 1962. Hitting an oil slick on the backstretch, Cox’s 1962 Ford rode up and over the concrete outside wall, sending the car into a tree on the outside of the track. Cox’s mount was knocked back onto the track, where it landed on its roof. Cox escaped injury and was back in action for USAC’s next visit to Milwaukee in August.
Cox passed away on December 30, 1999 at the age of 72. Cox was survived by his wife, Donna, and children, Thomas, Robert, Jerri, James, Marcy, Richard and John. END