“I am in my cutoff T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops with my bag over my shoulder walking toward my beautiful Ford Falcon,” Wolfgang related. “Then, I heard someone yell at me, and I thought, ‘Oh no, what is going to happen now?’ I can’t remember if it was Delrose or Foyt, but somebody asked me if I was the driver of that 75 car. I thought, ‘Oh man, I have ruffled the feathers of the greatest driver in the world.’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and he said, ‘Son, you just made one mistake. You only made that a 40-gallon fuel tank, I would have made it about 30. It turns out they had heard that little tune-up message Bettenhausen gave me. I considered Gary to be one of the best drivers I had ever seen, but at that moment he was a little crass.”
Wolfgang’s primary responsibilities took him elsewhere and his Silver Crown starts were rare. Still, he appreciated his time in the series and feels the cars suited him perfectly. At the time, Wolfgang had a blueprint for his future.
“I went from South Dakota to race at Knoxville, Iowa, and win,” he said. “And from there, I wanted to go to Indiana, race sprint cars and get an Indy car ride. I wanted to be like Joe Saldana, who had come from Lincoln, Neb., won the Knoxville Nationals, moved to Brownsburg, Ind., and made it to Indy. More than anything I wanted to be a professional racer.”
He had little time to waste.
“I was married with two kids and I needed money like everyone else,” he said. “My wife and I were on our own. It became clear to me quickly that I wasn’t going to get an Indy car ride even in a second-rate car. At that point, it was a matter of going to the biggest sprint car race on any weekend that paid the most money. Coming from South Dakota, I needed money to stay on the road. That’s also why I ran those champ car races.”
In the end, Wolfgang reached his goal. He made it as a professional race car driver and his talent carried him all the way to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
This story appeared in the July 19, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
