When Spike called me, he said he was interested in my opinion about something and my ears immediately perked up and my brain spun around at the speed of a tachometer cable in Donnie Kleven‘s super-secret, trick Ford midget engine. I couldn‘t recall ever in my life when someone was actually interested in my opinion on anything.
I cautiously asked him what he was interested in knowing, thinking that at any second he would break out laughing, catching me believing he was being serious. But he surprised me when he asked me if I thought Rich Vogler would have been able to make it back in the days of Foyt, Parnelli, Mario, Johnny Rutherford, Jud Larson and all those brave, tough, almost superhuman drivers.
Although I have talked about this era so many times, I have to repeat once again that those years of the cageless, roll bars or no roll bars, roadsters, big cars, sprint cars, midgets, etc. took the strongest, bravest, absolutely fearless, toughest, brokest, most dedicated drivers to ever sit in a race car. Those are the likes of which we can never see again due to that horrible word, technology.
So, when I started to tell Spike my opinion on Rich Vogler and guys like him, I once again thought about Rick Ferkel‘s statement about no superstars, only super cars, and for the first time think he might have been just a little bit wrong on this.
These guys from this era really were superstars, driving with the fear of death hanging around each corner of every lap of every race. And they still ran just as hard as if they had all the luxuries of roll cages, safe helmets and space-age seats. They cast the real fear of death aside every lap and many times suffered the consequences.
Although it is true that it‘s definitely easier to reach that superstar status with the cars of today, there still are many who I believe have the desire and guts it took back then to run one of those beautiful old cars.
Like I went on to tell Spike, Rich Vogler was definitely one of them.
I have been around a lot of drivers over the last 51 years of open-wheel racing, and have seen a lot of guys that had that special, magical talent to take a car to the front almost every time they sat in it. You would just shake your head and say, “How in the hell did he do that?”
Vogler probably ran as hard as any driver I ever saw, and he did it every lap, every time he was on the race track. He wanted to win hot laps, qualifying, trophy dashes, heat races and feature events every time I saw him. And I ran with him a lot, as he started the year before I did and we ran most of the same places for years.
If an owner wanted to know what his car would be capable of, he just had to give it to Rich and I guarantee that car was going to be run at 100 percent of what it could do.
Now, I am not saying he would always bring it back in the same condition it started the race in or that it would have all the wheels or roll cage left on it, but with Rich in it you would see just how fast that car could really run.
He didn‘t make a lot of friends on the race track, as he was involved in so many controversial incidents where two cars met on the same piece of track. And he was not the smoothest or the smartest driver many times. But he had that one magical talent that only a few had: he knew how to put your car in the winner‘s circle time after time.
I got to know Richie through the years, and he wasn‘t really a guy you talked with about football or went to the local naked bar with, but he was a good friend to me even though we tangled many times on the race track. I always had great respect for him and his talent.
So, Spike, I think it would be safe to say that yes, Rich Vogler would have made a real name for himself against the real superstars of all time in those tough years of the ‘60s. I don‘t think running with just a roll bar or just having a Sam Brown belt to hold you up, or facing the terrible odds of living to be an old man back in those days would have bothered Rich much at all, as he was as brave as they came.
I think guys like Kyle Larson and a few of today‘s superstars would probably have the mindset and desire to have been a player back then, but it really is a moot point and you can never compare eras and successes as everything is so different today.
We will never know how we racers would have reacted to those odds back then or if we would have cashed it all in after a few races and took up marble racing for a living instead. Richie loved the dangerous banks of Winchester and Salem, and ultimately it cost him his life that night back some 30 years ago at Salem.
But if he had to do it all over again, I bet he would have run just as hard.
Superheroes, super cars and super men. Show me another sport that takes this type of desire and dedication by its members against all these hurdles and life-threatening dangers and I will bet you won‘t find a stick or ball for miles. Just guys with a big “S” on their shirts.
Thanks for the call, Spike! You made my day. – KO
