CHICAGO — Part of the Chicago area’s “rough and tumble” stock car racing scene in the 1950s and 1960s, Johnny Kapovich passed away on May 4 at the age of 91.
A product of Chicago, Kapovich began racing at 87th Street Speedway near his home on the city’s southeast side. A heat race win at the 87th Street paved oval in June of 1954 was one of his earliest victories.
During his racing career, Kapovich, who had the nickname “Shoes,” won feature races at five different Chicago area speedways including at 87th Street, Santa Fe Park Speedway in Willow Springs, Mance Park in Hodgkins, Raceway Park in Blue Island and at Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, Ind.
Kapovich won a total of 18 career main events at Raceway Park, where he finished fourth in the points standings in both 1963 and 1964 driving car owner Bill Koenig’s red and white Chevrolets.
Kapovich was a feature winner in 1956 at 87th Street, Mance Park and Santa Fe. The year before (1955), he surprised a lot of people when he won Santa Fe’s 300 lapper on the half-mile dirt track, driving Mike Gbur’s ’53 Lincoln. Hanging around Gbur’s Victory Towing garage on Stony Island Ave. in Chicago, Kapovich borrowed the Lincoln that Gbur’s regular driver Gene Crowe had been racing in late model events.
Kapovich had the distinction of winning the first late model main event for “short track” cars at Illiana when he wheeled his ’57 Chevy to victory at the half-mile paved oval in October of 1962. He came back to Illiana’s victory lane in 1965, driving Jimmy Wray’s ’65 Ford to a feature win. Kapovich took his last ride in a stock car in 1969 at Raceway Park, closing out a winning career.
