The next stop was a visit to Lee Osborne, who promised that he would keep his eyes open.
He got a break.
“Russ Smith owned a Ford Dealership in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and I met him in Florida when I raced there.” Junior said. “I ran into him in the pits one night and he asked what I was doing. I told him I had come up here to race. He gave me his card and told me to come see him tomorrow. He had two cars and he said, ‘I want to race this car on Friday night, and this one on Saturday.‘ Gary Gollub had been running the car at Reading and we really got going. Then I started running the car all the time.”
Parkinson would race on the local scene and in Ohio and, when time would allow, he would head back to the Midwest to race, as well. In fact, in June 1971 Junior topped the field in BCRA action at Smith Center, Kansas, marking the only time a father and son duo had scored feature wins with the organization. He also added another IMCA victory to his resume at Oklahoma City in October.
As Junior ran more consistently up front, Russ Smith decided that he was willing to jump on board Bud Miller‘s new group called the All Star Circuit of Champions. In 1970, Miller crafted a 12-race schedule that included dates in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In 1973, the All Stars added stops in Topeka and Knoxville, and the Western World at Manzanita Raceway to the schedule. While Parkinson did not win a race, he had been up front all summer long and was in a good position to finish in the runner-up spot to Jan Opperman.
The problem was, he really didn‘t have a ride for the finale in Phoenix. Because his team had some big races left in the east, they were reluctant to haul their car to Arizona.
Deciding to try and put his father‘s car in the show, Parkinson made the long tow and was on hand for a media event on the Wednesday before the start of the Western World. Future National Sprint Car Hall of Fame announcer Windy McDonald spied Parkinson and noted that he didn‘t have an official entry. After hearing Parkinson‘s story, Windy told him to hold tight.
McDonald had arranged a meeting with owner Ed McNeely. McNeely was known for his famed Mickey Mouse cars, so named because a stuffed version of the famed Disney character would often be affixed to the cages of his sprinters.
At the time, McNeely‘s drivers were Jerry McClung and Darrell Dockery. Parkinson asked McNeely if he had anything he could put together and it was here that he learned that Dockery was hurt. Told to be in the shop at 8 a.m. the following day, Parkinson arrived on time and started taking measurements on his new mount.
When the crew arrived, he was told to do whatever he wanted to the car. Luckily, he was set to race the following evening, which gave him a chance to take in the first night of the event and see what he could learn.
After observing the action, which saw 73 cars take to the track, he was surprised to say the least.
“I came back and said, ‘Why doesn‘t anybody run on the bottom?” Junior said. “And they said you can‘t run the bottom here. I said, ‘So everybody runs the top and follows everybody? That doesn‘t look real good.‘”
Still unconvinced, he decided to look up Rick Ferkel the next day. Few had ventured as far and wide as the Ohio Traveler, so he was clearly the man to ask.
“No, it can‘t be done,” Ferkel said. But seeing the look in Junior‘s eye, he added, “You‘re going to give it a shot, aren‘t you?”
He was.
After his first hot lap session, he came in and asked his team a simple question: “Do we have a narrow left rear?”
They had a tire that he surmised was about seven or eight inches wide. Junior told them to groove it, reduce the air pressure and slap it on. The Western World included 15-lap heat races and Junior ran the bottom and finished in a transfer position.
Ed McNeely looked at him and said, “I don‘t know what you are doing, but keep doing it.”
Not only was his owner impressed, but teammate Jerry McClung asked for help setting his car up for the final night. Junior would start in the 21st spot for the fifth running of the lucrative event, and when the 50 laps were in the books Iowa‘s Earl Wagner had topped the field. Not lost on his owner, Parkinson had raced to the seventh spot while Jerry McClung, who had also been mired in the back, finished sixth.
It was enough for Junior to nail down the second spot in the 1973 All Star standings.
Junior‘s performance was enough to convince his team to offer him a chance to race in a season-ending event at Manzanita. New Mexico‘s Buddy Taylor had paid close attention to all that had unfolded in the Western and he was now convinced there was a new way to approach the big half-mile clay oval.
In a stunning wheel-banging affair, Taylor nipped Parkinson by inches and Junior had made a host of new fans.
Recognizing this trend, Karl Korbacher, later famous for Arizona Sports Shirts, launched a new design for Junior which proclaimed him the Mickey Mouse of the east. As an added touch, Karl also threw in a stuffed mouse to attach to his car, and in time that would become a Parkinson trademark.
Click below to keep reading.