In 1969, Danny Frye Jr. hauled his car south and made his first start at the half-mile fairgrounds track in Sparta, Ill. The maiden voyage did not result in a storybook finish. Frye Jr. ended the day involved in an accident with fellow rookie driver Carl Hungness, who later became a popular publisher of racing books.
Frye Jr. stuck with it, but in the years his dad was promoting at Lake Hill he was on his own and was admittedly a bit lost. He was still digging and trying to improve and when the calendar turned to 1971, he was anxious to join his father to open the season at Memorial Stadium in Daytona.
Searching for a ride, he called Missouri owner Johnny Slack, who had purchased a car from Frye Jr.‘s father.
“I asked him if I could drive his car in Florida and he said I would have hired you in a minute but I already have Dean Roper driving for me,” Frye Jr. recalled. “Well, Dean went off on a weeklong party tour, which didn‘t impress Johnny too much, so he called and said you can take the car to Florida.”
Initially things did not go swimmingly.
“The first night I made the race,” Frye Jr. remembered. “I was running fourth or fifth and Pancho Carter did a 360 and came out on the race track and I ran over him and went end over end.”
After a long night and day of repairs, Frye Jr. was back on the track the next night and it became apparent he had absorbed some of the advice his father had given him about succeeding at the stadium.
“It is important to remember that this was a flat track around a football field and the surface was crushed seashells,” Frye Jr. explained. “Dad said if you ever get the lead tuck the back end in and keep it straight. Don‘t let anyone get underneath you. If they start tapping your bumper just slow down a little bit. I won the race and he finished second. Every time he bumped me, I would slow down a little bit.
“After the races he said, ‘Damn Dan, I told you to slow up, I didn‘t tell you to stop.‘ Gene Force and someone else was working on the outside and dad pushed them out into the boondocks. He helped me win the race.”
In 1972, Frye Jr. was racing for Illinois owner Barney Flynn, who utilized multiple engine configurations in his car. Frye Jr. started the new season by winning indoors in Toledo, Ohio, then snared another victory at Memorial Stadium. Keeping the family legacy alive at the old stadium, Frye Jr. won there again in 1979 while driving for Jerry Hatton.
Closer to home Frye Jr. steadily moved up the ladder SLARA competition and was pleased with a fourth-place run in the standings in 1971. Things got better in 1972. Near the end of the season, owner Joe Finley purchased one of Jack Stroud‘s former “Honker” cars and Frye Jr. wound up third in the standings.
One year later, he started the year with Finley but later won five times for Arnie Knepper. The record shows he finished second in the 1973 standings. He could have won the title, but for reasons he is reluctant to share decades later, he sat out the final race of the year.
In 1974, Frye had the chance to race for George Middleton, who would make his mark in racing as a sponsor and car owner. Middleton and his associate, Charlie Wilson, got into the game after purchasing a midget in Ohio. Their first driver was Danny Frye Sr.
The elder Frye and Middleton had plenty in common. George, who served a hitch in the Navy during World War II, secured a position at McDonnell-Douglas as an electrical engineer.
In his work with the firm, he was involved in the creation of the so-called White Room for NASA‘s Gemini project. The White Room was a dustless area where the astronauts entered the space capsule. After coming into some money, he invested with a relatively new restaurant franchise called Pizza Hut. In the end, he developed 67 locations in the St. Louis area. For years race fans enjoyed watching cars sponsored by Pizza Hut of St. Louis.