Calistoga Racing Traditions and the Gift of a Race Car

Calistoga was a pretty special place to grow up. When people ask me what it was like, I tell them that we knew almost everybody in town. That as a kid I could ride my bike down any street and knock on just about any door and that person either knew my parents, my grandparents, or me. My grandparents on my dads side lived in what is now the “Wine Way Inn” and I remember once when one of the guys working at Benny’s Exxon across the street caught a drifter looking through cars to see if they had keys in them. In those days a lot of people left their keys in the car. There was a knock on the door and he had this guy by the back of the neck. My dad and uncles had a little fun scaring the poor guy before the police ran him out of town. The point is that people looked out for one another.
The local racers were no different. There were a handful of guys from Calistoga that raced at the fairgrounds speedway. Guys like Stan Vermeil, Donny Meyer, Ron Schlegal, Augie Grube, Les Blakeley and his brother Lonnie. There were some local car owners also. Louie Vermeil, Charlie Wolleson, Jim Rodolph and Eddie Bratton owned and maintained their cars and put some hot shoe behind the wheel come race day. They all had a similar dream of bringing home the trophy at the end of the week. They all had that disease that keeps you out in the garage until the morning hours, trying to fine tune their cars to get that little bit of speed that might be hidden in some part that is just a slight bit out of adjustment. In those days most of these guys were buddies. Willing to help out one another in order to make that next race. Racing is one of those sports that if you do it long enough, you will end up in a situation where helping someone else could cost you a position or maybe a win, but these guys grew up together and were good friends.
My dad never drove a car or even owned a race car, but he sure spent a lot of time working on them. He painted cars for just about every racer in town and a few from out of town as well and I don’t think he ever charged a single dime. One year the reigning champion, Lem Toliver started out the season with a car that looked so bad that Terry Sereni and Frank Brocco bought some paint and my dad painted it. Lem had earned the right to run the #1 on his car and they wanted it to look good. That’s the stuff that I remember about racing and that’s the stuff I learned from racing.
When I was about 15, I had a garage full of go kart tires that I probably wasn’t going to use, so when Mike Benson asked, I just gave them to him. That was probably my first selfless act concerning racing. When I was finally given the opportunity to drive a sprint car by my aunt Marcie and uncle Jim, and I was buying a helmet and saving for my other gear, Les Blakeley had me stop by one day and he gave me his brand new drivers uniform. He had never worn it and it even had his name on it. You have to understand that to a driver, his uniform and helmet are just like those of a war veteran. Items that they usually save forever. I used that uniform for years and after Les passed away I gave it back to one of his sons. I did keep his gloves though. Even after they had holes in them, I would wear them during qualifying at Calistoga as a tribute to Les. He loved that track as much as I do.
A bunch of local people pitched in to help out when I was first getting started. I remember Tim Fechter and I went around town with the freshly painted hood off of the race car. Bill Shaw at the Cal Mart, Bob Fellion’s Deli, Red over at Susies’ Bar and the folks at Duffy’s all pitched in to help out our team. When we needed a high tech oil pump, long time family friend Jamie Zink, put up the money. It was really cool to have that kind of support. Most of these people barely knew me, but had known my family for years.
Louie and Alice Vermeil invited Greg Brush and myself for dinner at their house one night. I had been to their home after the races a few times, but never formally. They showed us newspaper articles about their kids and a letter that someone had sent to Louie, thanking him for stopping and towing his car one night and for Alice feeding him while Louie got his car fixed and didn’t charge him a dime. Then Alice slipped me a hundred dollar bill when she gave me a hug goodbye and said it was for the race car. I’ll never forget my first time racing at Calistoga either. Louie leaned in before qualifying and said “I know this is your home town, but don’t get your britches in a bunch” or something close to that.
We had plenty of help at the shop during the week. Tim Fechter and Greg Brush were there almost every night. They knew how long I had wanted to race. Rob and Rick Sereni and even their dad Mario helped with that car and our own car for years to come. I remember one night when Mario was all dressed up to go out to dinner and there he was machining something for me on the lathe. His wife, L’Vere usually took pretty good care of me, making sure I was fed and so forth, but she wasn’t too thrilled with me on that night.
The fact is that I had a lot of wonderful friends who helped make my dream come true. When I thought I was done racing around 1995 I tried to carry on the encouragement that my friends from Calistoga showed me. When I was offered an opportunity to drive a competitive car for a good friend, I instead helped Mike Benson land his first sprint car ride. Mike had won go kart and mini-sprint championships and was ready to make the move up. It was actually one of the coolest things I’ve ever done for someone. Since then I’ve enjoyed encouraging other drivers with positive feedback and any help I can offer. Chad Vermeil’s stepson Marcus started out racing outlaw karts and is now racing non-wing and winged sprint cars. Chad and I raced together for years and Marcus is a good kid and a pretty good driver, so on a few occasions we’ve sold some used equipment from our business and given the money to Marcus to go racing on. He’s even raced one of our outlaw karts on an off weekend to stay sharp.
Another long time family friend that started racing was Josh Blakeley. As I said earlier, my dad worked on and painted some race cars for Josh’s dad Les. They were good friends and I remember many nights cheering for Les when he drove for my uncle Jim. Us kids grew up at each others homes and have always been close friends as well. Helping Mike Benson get his first ride was cool, but the 4th of July 2002 was even better. My dad and I spent the weekend before reassembling a sprint car that Les Blakeley owned almost 30 years earlier and had been sitting in pieces in Sebastopol ever since. Josh had pictures of his dad driving that car, but had no idea that the orange #80 still existed until we opened the doors on the trailer that morning. He was blown away and it was so neat to share that moment of friendship with all my kids and his kids looking on. Josh drove that car through the parade with his race car and all the kids in go karts following behind. The icing on the cake was when we won a first place trophy in our division. That trophy sits with the car back at Guy Smith’s ranch in Sebastopol.
Since then Josh and I have gone back and forth helping each other with repairs to his equipment and repairs to my yard and after a 10 year hiatus, a night of racing at Calistoga that I will never forget. I’ve been told that the best thing about Christmas is the joy you receive from giving. As a kid you just don’t get it, but when you become a parent and get to see your child’s face when he first sees that shinny new go kart filling up the living room, it gives you a feeling that nothing else can. I hope that’s how Josh felt, because thanks to him Christmas came early this year for my oldest son. A couple of weeks ago Josh asked my son over just like his dad had done to me many years ago. He wasn’t giving him a driving suit or helmet, but something so big that I still can’t believe it. He gave him his entire race team. He hadn’t driven the car in quite a while and had it all wrapped up and stored away. He gave him the car, the trailer, wheels, wings, axles, shocks and springs. Josh handed him the keys to a fully loaded trailer and said “It’s all yours”. Marty was blown away. Josh had told Marty that he wanted to help out by sponsoring his go kart racing or something. When Josh told me of his plan to hand over the sprint car, I gave him weeks to think about it and even back out if he changed his mind, but his mind was made up. He said he didn’t want to spend anymore time racing away from his family, but that he couldn’t bring himself to sell it. He wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it and race it.
I raced in my last Vermeil Classic in 1985 and this Labor Day my son, Marty will race in his first Louie Vermeil Classic. He will be driving “The Blakeley Family, Calistoga Special” that was given to him by Josh Blakeley. I hope your planning on being there to cheer him on.

See you at the races
Chad Hawkins