Born William J. Gerken on May 26, 1930, Gerken got involved with stock car racing around 1953, serving as a pitman for Gene Marmor at Chicago ’s Soldier Field – the huge, multi-purpose arena on the city’s lakefront.

Gerken, who called both Melrose Park and Villa Park home during much of his career, started to become a frontrunner in Chicago area late model stock car competition, racing at Soldier Field and at the new O’Hare Stadium in Schiller Park . Showing his talent, Gerken soon got a ride in the Skinner Brothers Pontiac, competing in selected events on the United States Auto Club (USAC) stock car circuit. He made a total of 22 USAC starts from 1958 through 1960.

Gerken’s first USAC start in the Skinner Brothers GMC-owned 1957 Pontiac No. 71 came at the Wisconsin State Fair Park – the "Milwaukee Mile” in West Allis, Wis. on July 13, 1958. He started fourth and finished seventh in the 150 lapper behind winner and fellow Chicago area racer Fred Lorenzen. Gerken made four starts at the “Milwaukee Mile” during his rookie USAC season, winning the pole for the September 14 race and leading a total of 121 laps over the course of four races – a pretty impressive start for the USAC newcomer.

Gerken’s best USAC finish in 1958 came on August 30 when he grabbed third place in the 100-lap grind on the one-mile dirt oval at Illinois ’ DuQuoin State Fairgrounds, again finishing behind winner Lorenzen. Trailing Lorenzen again at the checkered flag, Gerken finished sixth in the first ever stock car race held at the new Meadowdale International Raceways in Carpentersville , Ill. on October 19, 1958. Gerken and his ’57 Pontiac qualified 16th fastest for the USAC-sanctioned event at the 3.3-mile road course.

Gerken was with the Skinner Brothers again in 1959, having a ’57 Pontiac and a new 1959 Pontiac at his disposal. The team competed in both USAC and Midwest Association for Race Cars (MARC) events. A third place finish in MARC action at Ohio ’s Dayton Speedway on April 5, 1959 was one of the highlights of the season.

1960 saw Gerken and the Frank and Richard Skinner team compete in the Daytona 500 in February. Gerken and his ’59 Pontiac No. 63 started 31st and finished 17th, completing 195 laps and picking up $325 in prize money. He ran a total of seven USAC races in 1960 with a fourth place at Dayton and a fifth at Milwaukee being a few of Gerken’s best efforts. He was the division’s sixth ranking driver.

Gerken’s 1960 Daytona 500 experience was not his first in NASCAR competition. In 1956, NASCAR records show “Bill Gerkin” in a 1956 Dodge No. 155 competing in several late-year NASCAR convertible races.

“I helped Whitey build that car in Tom Pistone’s shop on North Ave. (in Chicago ),” remembered former driver Bill Vesper. “That was the first time he raced down there. We put No. 11 on it. It wasn’t even a race car. We took the body off of it and did all the welding on it. Whitey was Gene Marmor’s mechanic at one time.”

Gerken made five starts in NASCAR “rag top” action in ’56 with a 14th place finish at Virginia’s Martinsville Speedway on September 23, 1956 being his best effort during the “Old Dominion 500” – the 250-mile/500-lap grind on the half-mile paved track. Gerken started 19th in the 29-car field and completed 423 laps, picking up $225 for his afternoon of work.

Gerken had a “fast” 1961 Chevy, entered by body shop owner Tom Fukuda, for the 1961 season, taking home a third place finish at Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 4th. He followed that up with a second place run at Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville , Ind. on August 2. Gerken’s first USAC win came in dramatic fashion in 1961 at the “Milwaukee Mile.”

On September 17, 1961, Gerken drove Gene Marmor’s “backup car” – a battle-scared 1960 Chevrolet at Milwaukee after demolishing his potent 1961 Chevy a month earlier at the one-mile fairgrounds oval. Gerken was reported to have suffered broken ribs in a multi-car wreck.

Lining up 27th in a 40-car field for the 250-mile chase, Gerken piloted his red, E&R Auto Supply-sponsored No. 44 to victory, besting a talented field that included USAC stock car greats Norm Nelson and Don White and Indianapolis 500 speedsters Rodger Ward, Eddie Sachs, Paul Goldsmith, Dick Rathmann and Len Sutton. Running among the leaders all day and leading several times during the race, Gerken moved into the lead for good on lap 238 and took the checkered flag ahead of Nelson, Colorado’s John Rostek, Rathmann and Goldsmith. The victory marked Chevrolet’s only win in USAC competition that year. Gerken again finished sixth in the USAC standings.

“It was a remarkable win,” said Marmor years later. “His regular car had been wrecked shortly before and we put his engine into one of my old cars for the race. Nobody thought that the car would hold up.”

The following year, Gerken captured another USAC victory, this one coming at Illiana Motor Speedway. On July 21, 1962, Gerken and his Tom Fukuda-entered ’62 Chevy No. 44 defeated Curtis Turner, Don White, Norm Nelson, Marmor and Troy Ruttman at the half-mile paved oval. It again proved to be Chevrolet’s only USAC win for the year. He finished 10th in the USAC stock car standings after competing in 17 of a total of 22 events held during the 1962 season. Two pole-winning qualifying efforts at Milwaukee also highlighted the season. Earlier in the year, Gerken crashed his Chevrolet at Riverside , Cal . He was also at Daytona in February with a ’62 Chevy, but did not start either one of the twin qualifying races.

Gerken had a Mercury “factory ride” for the start of the 1963 season. In the 100-mile qualifying race at the Daytona International Speedway in February, Gerken finished 24th in a Bill Stroppe-prepared 1963 Mercury. Although Gerken was pretty much the fastest Mercury at Daytona, a crashed car caused things quite not to “jell” between Gerken and the Stroppe team and he did not compete in the “500” or any other NASCAR races that year.

Gerken competed in 11 USAC events and was ranked eighth in 1963 with four top five finishes, including a couple of third place runs in Bill DuBose’s Golding Transfer Lines-sponsored 63 ½ Ford. Gerken and Chicago garage owner Mike Terrafino got their hands on a wrecked Holman-Moody Ford for the 1964 USAC season.

“We got a Ford “factory car” from Holman-Moody to campaign in USAC (in 1964),” reminisced Terrafino years later. “That’s the ’64 Ford that ran Daytona and got crashed there. It was wrecked in the right front and we fixed it up. They (Holman-Moody) dropped off I don’t know how many wheels and three complete engines with carburetors. I thought I died and went to heaven.”

(See Editor’s Note below)

Gerken, however, dropped to 14th in the points in 1964, appearing in only seven races but with four “top 10” finishes to his credit. 1965 saw Gerken make only one USAC start (at Milwaukee), but 10 the following season (1966) – mostly in Mike Carlson and Erv Nowosel’s red and blue ’66 Chevy No. 44. Suffering a lot of bad luck, Gerken finished 54th in the USAC standings.

Gerken competed in six USAC races and two NASCAR events in 1967. A fourth place finish at Milwaukee in September in his new Pre Heat Racing ’67 Ford highlighted the year. NASCAR runs at both Charlotte and Rockingham saw Gerken knocked out of the races because of accidents.

On October 15, Gerken started 16th and finished last in the 44-car field at Charlotte in his ’67 Pre Heat Carburetor Adapter ’67 Ford Fairlane. Gerken completed two laps on the 1.5-mile track before getting into the guardrail and ending his day. Two weeks later, Gerken was at the Rockingham 1-mile speedway, starting 17th in the field. Gerken and his No. 54 Ford ran a total of 405 laps before a crash put him out. He was credited with a 15th place finish.

From 1968 through 1970, Gerken earned more than $10,000 each year in USAC stock car action. He posted his final USAC victory at Ohio’s Tri-County Speedway on September 28, 1969, wheeling his ’69 Chevelle, with Ced’s Muffler Service sponsorship, to victory on the half-mile dirt track, getting by Don White on the next to the last lap for the win. Gerken’s USAC appearances became more limited into the 1970’s. He drove for Jack Bowsher on three occasions at the “Milwaukee Mile” during the 70’s, grabbing third, sixth and seventh place finishes.

In 1970, Gerken stopped his car during a race at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis to help an unconscious Bowsher out of his overturned car. In the August 3, 1970 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, Gerken was quoted as saying about his actions, “Aw, why not? I wasn't running well, anyway.”

Gerken made his final USAC start at Milwaukee on September 9, 1973, driving a ‘72 Monte Carlo and finishing 36th after dropping out with oil pressure problems with 45 laps to his credit.

Located in the shadows of O’Hare International Airport, O’Hare Stadium saw Gerken do quite well there until the track closed after the 1968 season. Billed as a rookie driver, Gerken won his first feature race at O’Hare on August 3, 1957 in the Keystone Chevrolet ’57 Chevy – formerly handled by Jimmy Maentanis.

Gerken finished eighth in the final points at O’Hare in 1958. 1959 saw him move up to fifth in the standings, winning one main event in the Skinner Bros. ’56 Pontiac No. 71. The next two years (1960 & 1961) saw Gerken run pretty a limited schedule at the high-banked, quarter-mile paved oval.

In 1960 and 1961, Gerken captured a number of feature races at Soldier Field. Driving for Mike Terrafino, he won three straight main events to close out the 1960 season, including the 100-lap Season Championship headliner ahead of Bill Lutz and Don Oldenberg. He repeated his Season Championship race win laurels the following year (1961), driving Terrafino’s black ’57 Chevrolet No.22 to a 50-lap victory. The year before, a visit to Raceway Park near Blue Island saw the Terrafino-owned mount almost destroyed in a high-speed wreck.

The Gerken/Terrafino team also made several successful ventures to the Rockford Speedway, including one “we cleaned house” evening at the high-banked, quarter-mile oval.

“Whitey was a charger,” simply stated Terrafino many years later. “He was a tremendous chassis man. He worked with Gene Marmor (a two-time O’Hare and Rockford champion himself). Marmor was a good chassis man, but Whitey was exceptionally good. He could get out of a car and tell you exactly what it was doing.”

Commenting about how he and Gerken got together for the short tracks, Terrafino said, “I was driving my own car. I thought I was a pretty decent mechanic, but I was coming up short as a driver. Steve from Steve’s Frame and Axle said I should put Whitey in the car. Whitey ‘hot lapped’ the car and the first night finished in the top five. He said the car needed a change in the shocks and a little more power.

“Whitey told me to put two shocks on the front and we went with a bigger Buick carburetor. We started winning some races. I remember Whitey pushing Bryant Tucker around (at Soldier Field). I was watching the hood of my car bend ever time he’d go in there. That Buick (of Tucker’s) was so heavy and you could see the hood of my car buckle in every turn.”

Still pretty much chasing the USAC stock car circuit and running a limited local schedule, Gerken finished 15th in the points at O’Hare in 1962, grabbing one feature win in Terrafino’s ’61 Chevy. He climbed to 10th in the final points tally in 1963, winning two feature races including the O’Hare American 500 in the recently-built, Terrafino-owned, Ced’s Robin Hood Muffler Shop-sponsored ’63 Chevy convertible. Gerken raced “non-stop” to the checkered flag in less than two and a half hours, a new track record, and finished nine laps ahead of second place finisher, Elmer Musgrave.

“We built that car in about two weeks or so,” said Terrafino. “Whitey came back from down south and needed a ride. (Bill) Lutz was already driving for me. We used a Chevy ‘X’ frame. We plated it down both sides and got the ‘wiggle’ out of it. The car was built from the frame up. Those cars were heavy though.

“A lot guys said that Whitey was too hard on the cars. He wasn’t too hard on the cars. I never had a blown engine, a broken transmission or rear end when Whitey was driving for me. He use to use up brakes a little bit, but I expected that. I use to tell him to go out and win, not to hold back and save the car. He got what he could get out of the car. There were nights when we were off and there were nights when we were on, but when the car was on, he was there on the wheel.”

Gerken tallied up five feature wins in the Ron Heiber-owned ’63 Ford convertible and finished second in the points at O’Hare in 1964. He dropped to 18th in the standings the following season (1965), also racing at the Rockford Speedway, where he won several main events.

Not competing at O’Hare in 1966, Gerken was tough to beat that year though as he grabbed season track championship honors in late model action at both the Rockford Speedway and at Soldier Field. His rapid-running, white No. 54 Chevelle convertible, with sponsorship from Ced Kotowicz’s Ced’s Muffler Service on the side, carried him to 11 feature victories at the high-banked Rockford oval, including six in a row. Gerken set a new qualifying track record of 14.98 seconds for the quarter mile on June 11. He also captured three feature wins during the “short” Friday night season at Soldier Field in ’66.

Gerken teamed up with driver/car owner/mechanic Eddie Jast in 1967, returning to O’Hare, where the team finished second in the points with 12 feature wins in Jast’s Ced’s Muffler Service-sponsored ’64 Chevy “hardtop” No. 54, the former Terrafino-owned winner. Gerken established one-lap, 30-lap and 50-lap records by mid-season. Gerken seemed to have the O’Hare track championship in his grasp only to miss several races as he got ready to enter both USAC and NASCAR competition again.

“Whitey loved driving,” commented Jast. “He would drive anybody’s car to get a ride at any race track. Whitey never really bragged about his accomplishments. Whitey gave me some pointers when I started racing. He drove my car at Soldier Field. A lot of people wanted to hire Whitey as a chassis man, but he wanted to be a driver. He was one of the best in the business with a chassis.”

1968 would be the last season of racing at O’Hare and Gerken got a late start in the year’s action. Taking over the driving chores from Ed Biernacki of a 1966 Chevelle No. 77, owned by Triangle Service and sponsored by Black Angel Haven Pet Shop and Ced’s Muffler, Gerken seemed always to be a contender, battling with Roy Martinelli and Erik Johnson most of the season.

Weekly Friday night stock car action at Illiana in 1968 saw Gerken grab overall season championship honors over season-long nemesis Buck Hinkle and Ray Young. In late September, Gerken visited the Rockford speed plant and made off with top honors in the track’s third annual National Short Track Championships 200 lapper.

Setting a blistering pace during the first 90 laps or so on the Rockford oval, Gerken was slowed by an ailing engine as he dropped several positions as the race progressed. Lady Luck was smiling on Gerken that day as leaders Joe Shear and Minnesota ’s Dan Prziborowski dropped out of the race, giving the lead back to Gerken. Gerken raced another Minnesota driver Larry Smith hard in the final laps and took the checkered flag in first place, taking home $1,745 for his winning efforts.

Bad luck “reared its ugly head” though in 1968 as Gerken’s new USAC Ford Torino, a former Fred Lorenzen-driven, Holman-Moody car, and hauler were mysteriously stolen from his garage.

“One morning, Ron Norgaard saw the car going down Grand Ave. ,” remembered Jast. “We all helped Whitey with the car. They cut the roof off the car to hide it in a garage. They found it later in a junkyard.”

Norgaard was another one of Gerken’s crewmen, who helped with the new Torino and on other Gerken cars.

“The car was loaded on the hauler, ready to go to the races on Friday morning, remembered Norgaard. “I saw the car going down the street at five o’clock in the morning (on Thursday). It kind of confused me. I went to the shop and it was wide open. The car was gone.

“Whitey rented a garage from Skinner Brothers. My friend and I later found the car in a junkyard in the city ( Chicago ). We were walking by this car with the roof cut off. It was premiered. I recognized the rollbars. I climbed underneath it and saw the a-frames that we made. They had taken the radiator out, took the heads off, but left the motor in it. It was all seized up from sitting for years.”

Norgaard also added to the fact of Gerken’s chassis expertise.

“Whitey was a good chassis man,” Norgaard said. “You find that a lot of good drivers are also good chassis men. Freddy (Lorenzen) was a good chassis man also. Whitey could feel what was wrong with the car. We did a lot of work on his cars. He would set a track record and come in the pits and say, ‘The car doesn’t feel right. Take all the springs and shocks off.’ Whitey would fool around with them and then we would put them back on the car and he’d go out and break the record again. You were never clean when you worked on his car.”

Most of the time, Gerken wore a black and white checked sport shirt while racing. His mother would make the shirt and give him a new one before the start of every racing season. Gerken “cleaned house” at Illiana on Sunday afternoon, September 26, 1971, winning the trophy dash, a heat race and the feature race.

When the new Grundy County Speedway in Morris , Ill. opened in 1971, Gerken was among the late model competitors during the track’s first few years. In 1973, Gerken scored four feature victories at Grundy in Bill Hahnlein’s 1969 Chevelle, including a 50 lapper on September 7, taking the checkered flag ahead of Tom Jones and Larry Schuler. He won three feature races in two days during a late August weekend, winning at Grundy on a Sunday afternoon in Hahnlein’s No. 77 and that night winning his first ever victory at the Waukegan Speedway in Hahnlein's car. The night before, Gerken drove a brand new Bob Boyce-built ’72 Camaro to his first Illiana feature win of the season. Gerken was crowned the overall Grundy County Fair late model champion in ’73.

Wrecking his Hahnlein-owned ride in a multi-car pileup during a Tri-R Promotions event at Grundy earlier in September, Gerken drove Tom Cellini’s 1972 Camaro to victory at Illiana on Sunday afternoon, September 30—his final feature win of his career. This was the same car that Elmer Embry drove to the Illiana track championship the year before.

The following Sunday at Illiana for the track’s annual Tony Bettenhausen Memorial 100, Gerken, behind the wheel of the Cellini No. 79, crashed hard during qualifications, the victim of an apparent stuck throttle. Gerken careened into a small guard rail outside of turn three that separated the track from a crowded pit area, flipping over and striking Dennis Shelton in the process. Shelton was killed. Gerken, at the age of 43, died from his injuries the next day – October 8, 1973.

After Gerken’s death, motorsports writer Harvey Duck commented in the Chicago Daily News newspaper, “Whitey Gerken was a “charger”…a race driver with a compulsion to be first. He must run as hard and as fast for as long as his car holds together.”

Midwest Racing News writer John McKarns maybe summed it up the best, saying “When Whitey slipped behind the wheel, you knew you were in for a good race.”

END

Editor’s Note…

In the summer of 2012, it was learned that the original Gerken/Terrafino Holman-Moody ’64 Ford had been found by stock car restorer John Craft of Sour Lake, Texas. The car was last entered in NASCAR Grand National competition by journeyman driver Jabe Thomas. The car was found in Wirtz, Va. in a field, where Thomas abandoned it in 1966, with a tree growing through the engine compartment.

The car began its NASCAR career at Riverside, Cal. with sports car racer Skip Hudson driving it in the Motor Trend 500 in January of 1964. Indy car driver Bobby Marshman drove it during Speed Weeks at Daytona in February with Marshman finishing 35th in the Daytona 500. Augie Pabst wheeled the No. 06 Ford to a victory in SCCA sports car competition at Sebring. Fla. in March. NASCAR veteran Larry Frank was behind the wheel of the car at Atlanta, Ga. in early April when the car was involved in a hard crash with the ride front corner of it being badly damaged. (This is a correction to Mike Terrafino’s statement that the car was wrecked at Daytona.)

Gerken and Terrafino got the car from H-M with Gerken driving it at Indianapolis Raceway Park and at the Milwaukee Mile in July with Gerken finishing fifth in a 200-mile USAC race. Gerken became the driver of another H-M ’64 Ford (It was supposed to be all “tricked out” and fast as “stink.”), which he drove in three races at Milwaukee with his best finish being a sixth in a 150-mile race on August 16.

With Gerken in the No. 28 H-M Ford, Bill Lutz took over the Terrafino No. 26 and ran three USAC races at Milwaukee. Lutz turned in a third place finishing performance for Terrafino at Milwaukee on August 16.

Gerken got back behind the wheel of the No. 26 entry for two more events – racing at Missouri’s Mid America Raceways and Illiana Motor Speedway in October events. Once the season ended, the Holman-Moody car was returned to North Carolina and was later sold to Thomas.

Photos show the old Holman-Moody 1964 Ford found in a field, the completed restoration by John Craft and an old picture of the Whitey Gerken-driven No. 28 lined up at Milwaukee.