Chicago Whispers
By Stan Kalwasinski
November 28, 2015
Chicago, Ill.—Three members of the Chicago racing fraternity, Dave Roulo, John Kennedy and Bill McEnery, passed away recently. Here are their stories…
Dave Roulo
Chicago area stock car owner and mechanic, Dave Roulo, 79, known for his fast and winning race cars, passed away on November 19. With the likes of Bob Pronger, Jerry Kemperman and others behind the wheel, Roulo’s entries always seemed to be in contention.
The Roulo name had been part of the Chicago area racing scene since the late 1950s when Roulo tried his hand at stock car racing at Raceway Park near Blue Island. Giving up on his brief driving career, Roulo began turning wrenches on various stock cars, building, owning and setting up winning rides. For years, Roulo fielded cars for Pronger, whose reputation and on-track accomplishments are legendary in Chicago racing circles. Pronger won the Raceway Park late model championship in Roulo’s Chevelle No. 3 in 1969. The year before (1968), Roulo fielded a full-size ’67 Chevrolet for Kemperman with the duo winning the Raceway track title. In 1963, Kemperman wheeled Roulo’s ’63 Chevy to the victory in Raceway’s 300 Lap Classic. Over a five-year span (1967 – 1971), Roulo’s Chevrolets won over 50 feature races.
Roulo and his two brothers, John and Tom, tried their luck in the racing promotion business, creating a late model stock circuit in Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, known as Tri-R Promotions. The Roulo Brothers’ promoting days didn’t last too long (1973 through 1974), but some of the races they promoted, featuring drivers like Dick Trickle, Joe Shear and others, are still talked about to this day.
Dave’s sons, Gary, Rusty and Chris, formed Roulo Brothers Racing in 1979 and began fielding a car in American Speed Association action with a variety of drivers behind the wheel. Bob Strait became their driver with the team joining the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) circuit in 1986. Strait piloted a Roulo Brothers Chevrolet to the team’s first ARCA victory, taking the checkered flag at Ohio’s Cloverleaf Speedway on July 5, 1986. The team won the ARCA championship in 2012 with Chris Buescher, who was this year’s NASCAR Xfinity Champion, driving for them. To date, the team has won 36 ARCA events.
Visitation will take place Sunday, November 29th, from Noon to 6 PM. with a service beginning at 6 PM. at Lawn Funeral Home in Orland Park.
Bob Pronger in Dave
Roulo’s No. 3 races Ted Janecyk during stock car action at Raceway Park in
1969. Pronger captured track championship honors at the raceway that season.
(Stan Kalwasinski Photo)
John Kennedy
John Kennedy seemed to race here, there and everywhere during a career that dated back to the 1960s. A former Chicago area racer, Kennedy, who moved to Florida a number of years ago, passed away in South Carolina at the age of 74 on November 23.
During his racing years in Chicagoland, Kennedy, who raced out of Villa Park at the time, seemed to race at all the Chicago area tracks, no matter if they were dirt or pavement. Kennedy enjoyed much of his success on the dirt tracks like Santa Fe Speedway, Kankakee Speedway and Sycamore Speedway.
Kennedy got his start on the pavement at the old O’Hare Stadium in Schiller Park in 1963 in the Cadet (sportsman) ranks. The newcomer finished 11th in the final point standings with one feature win to his credit.
Kennedy enjoyed a great deal of success on Chicago short tracks in 1973 and 1974, winning his fair share of feature races. Kennedy had the distinction of winning feature races at all three area dirt tracks (Kankakee, Sycamore and Santa Fe) in 1974. During his time in the Chicago area, Kennedy supplied cars for a number of other drivers and worked on several other drivers’ cars also.
Kennedy also competed in NASCAR, USAC and ARCA competition. He made 18 starts in NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) competition, beginning in 1969. A 14th place finish at Atlanta and a 15th place finish at Charlotte were highlights of his eight-race season in 1969. One start in 1977, four in 1978 and five in 1979 rounded out his NASCAR career. A 15th place finish at Michigan on August 19, 1979 in his Chevrolet No. 0 was tops among his runs in the 1970s. Speedway ace Jim Hurtubise drove Kennedy’s Ford a couple of time in NASCAR competition in 1977.
Kennedy raced six times on the old USAC stock car circuit in 1965. After a USAC race here and there over the next 15 years or so, Kennedy became pretty much a regular competitor on the circuit in 1980. Kennedy would make 10 starts in his Chevelle No. 0 with a sixth place finish on the dirt at the one-mile oval in Springfield his best effort. A few more USAC and ARCA starts in 1984 would bring Kennedy’s racing career to pretty much an end although he raced from time to time in Florida in later years.
Bill McEnery
Racing stock cars in the Chicago area for a number of years, Bill McEnery, who owned the chain of Gas City gas stations throughout the Chicagoland area, passed away on November 24 at the age of 73.
A Southside of Chicago native, McEnery began his stock car racing career in 1968, competing at Raceway Park near Blue Island. He was not listed about the top 15 drivers at the season’s end, finishing off the year driving the ex-Rich Kleich-owned ’65 Chevelle No. 50.
McEnery wheeled a full-size ’65 Chevy in 1969 and started the ’70 season in the same car. A fresh Chevelle, again black in color with number 50s on the sides, was debuted later in the year. McEnery finished seventh in the final standings at Raceway Park in 1970.
McEnery finished sixth in the points in 1971, scoring his first career feature win at the tight quarter-mile paved oval. With master mechanic Rich Kuhn in his corner, McEnery enjoyed his best season of his career in 1972 at Raceway Park as he ended up third in the finals points tally at Raceway Park, winning eight feature races in his ’71 Camaro.
Branching out from Raceway Park, McEnery would be seen competing at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris and at Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, Ind. He competed in Illiana’s Tony Bettenhausen Memorial 100 lappers in 1969, 1972 and 1973 with a 10th place finish in ’72 being his best effort. He competed in Tri-R Promotions races in 1973 and 1974. He raced weekly at Grundy in 1974 and finished fourth in the final standings. During the season, he set a track record during qualifying in his Chevy Nova.
Building a successful business empire, McEnery made his final run, competing in the National Short Track Championships 200-lap event at the Rockford Speedway on September 29, 1974. He was involved in a late-race, multi-car crash and was credited with an 18th place finish.
******
A recent visit to Raceway Woods in Carpentersville, gave the opportunity to walk the old 3.27-mile Meadowdale International Raceways road course, which was located right off of Illinois Route 31 in the northwest Chicago suburbs.
From 1958 through 1969, sports car, stock car, motorcycle, drag and snowmobile racing took place at this speed venue. A demanding road course, the track featured its famed 45-degree banked “Monza Wall.” Chuck Daigh, who won the first sports car race at Meadowdale in September of 1958, Fred Lorenzen, Gene Marmor, Augie Pabst, Curtis Turner and Mark Donohue were some of the winners there. Over the years, Mother Nature has swallowed up most of the track, although a view structures remain including the refurbished Pure Oil silo. The 122-acre open space is part of the Forest Preserve District of Kane County with paved trails marking the old raceway course.
Meadowdale’s
refurbished Pure Oil silo in 2015. Countless race cars passed the familiar
landmark during the road course’s years of racing from 1958 through 1969.
(Stan Kalwasinski Photo)
For the 20th year in a row, motorsports crusader Bill Wildt, best known for his cable TV Motorsports Unlimited show, gathered with various other racing enthusiasts on Thanksgiving Day in Chicago’s Jackson Park to celebrate the anniversary of the first automobile race in the United States. Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1895 saw J. Frank Duryea win the 54-mile race from Chicago to Evanston and back, which was hampered by cold and snow. Duryea’s entry was among six competitors that day. A plague just north of the northwest corner of Cornell Drive and Midway Plaisance commemorates the event.
This monument sits in
Chicago’s Jackson Park, commemorating the first automobile race in the United
States in 1895.
(Stan Kalwasinski Photo)
The address for news and comments is 9618 Cypress Ave., Munster, Ind. 46321-3418 or e-mail to skalwasinski@yahoo.com.
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