Depending on your perspective, car builder/owner/mechanic Wally Meskowski was cantankerous as a bear fresh out of hibernation, or a dedicated, focused professional unwilling to settle for second best with his creations.
A glimpse at his record and the caliber of drivers who handled his beautifully crafted sprint and Championship Cars discloses it’s the latter.
Former IMS Historian, Donald Davidson, compiled a list of Meskowski’s accomplishments. Of the 172 USAC National Championship races competed between 1959 and 1969, his cars won 32.
Twenty-six of A.J. Foyt’s record 59 Championship wins came in Meskowski-built cars, including six Hoosier Hundreds, and five wins each at Springfield and DuQuoin. And, it was in a Meskowski that Foyt produced one of his most extraordinary performances.
When his Lotus didn’t make it from Indianapolis to Milwaukee for the 1965 Championship 200-miler, Foyt unloaded his Champ dirt car and hosed off the Springfield dirt from his win the day before. Before an ecstatic crowd, he put it on the pole against a host of rear-engine cars, including those of Mario Andretti and Dan Gurney. Only a late stop for fuel prevented him from taking the win. He finished second.
Meskowski’s sprint cars were as legendary as his Championship Cars, and his pursuit of perfection was equally demanding with both.
As a sprint car owner, if a driver didn’t perform, he was out. The best survived, won many races, and advanced to even higher echelons of racing. Nine drivers who passed through Meskowski’s short-track “finishing school” went on to become Indianapolis 500 winners.
Mario Andretti was one. Mario remembers him as tough but fair. Meskowski wanted to win, and so did Mario. In 1966, between running Indy cars, LeMans, and Daytona, Mario squeezed in 18 USAC sprint car races in Meskowski’s car. He won five of them and nearly took the National Championship.
“When I was driving for Wally,” recalled Mario, “Bobby Unser was driving for Don Shepherd. Bobby and I were always having problems on the track, and Wally and Don would then take it up in the pits. Wally always stuck up for me. Both were hot-headed, but they never came to blows. Once at Eldora, Don charged into our pit to bawl out Wally about me. Wally stood there, listening calmly, but behind his back, just in case, he was holding a wheel hammer!”
Those were rough and tough days in racing. Mario and 1965 sprint car champion Johnny Rutherford were teammates on Meskowski’s 1966 sprint car team. In an early ’66 race at Eldora, Andretti’s car flung a rock that pounded Rutherford in the forehead. Rutherford blacked out, and his out-of-control car bounded over the fence, shattering both his arms.
Mario took over Rutherford’s repaired car, while both Bobby Unser and Gordon Johncock often subbed in the other. Up-and-coming Dick Atkins also took turns in the car and was in the seat when he and Don Branson died in a gruesome double fatality at Ascot.
Meskowski never ran a full sprint car season after that.
That didn’t slow his racing activities, however. Meskowski’s work as an Indianapolis 500 crew chief stretched back to 1953, when he arrived at the speedway with Ernie Ruiz’s Travelon Trailer Special.
In 1957, Meskowski switched to Eph Hoover’s team. At Springfield, he decided to give a 22-year-old rookie a chance, and A.J. Foyt responded with a ninth-place finish. That was the beginning of a love/hate relationship between the two. Their confrontations were fiery, but their respect for each other was bound by a burning passion to win.
One afternoon at Terre Haute, an unhappy Foyt jumped from Meskowski’s car and into another. That put Meskowski out for the day.
“That thing wasn’t running worth a sh..,” Foyt blared afterward.
“I could’ve qualified as fast as you,” shouted a furious Meskowski.
“You drive it then,” challenged Foyt.
To make his point, Meskowski climbed into his car, intending to hot lap it. Someone even handed him a helmet and a pair of goggles. Ready to push off, Foyt yelled for him to stop. Foyt had caught a glimpse of Meskowski’s 11-year-old daughter, Joy, sobbing, begging her dad to stop. That got to Foyt.
Despite that, Foyt continued to drive Meskowski’s sprint car. And in 1970, Foyt, needing someone to help get NASCAR’s Donnie Allison into the 500, hired Meskowski. Allison finished fourth, taking Rookie of the Year honors.
For 1979, Meskowski joined Sherman Armstrong’s Indy car team. Driving home from Texas World Speedway, a semi T-boned his pickup truck.
Paralyzed from the neck down, he survived until January 3, 1980.
