Little did he know it at the time, but Alderson would spend plenty of time going sideways from that point forward.
“Road racing was my first love,” he said. “But I learned you could only go as far as your money could carry you. I also learned if you went midget racing, you might be able to make a little money.”
Alderson doesn’t mince words when he describes his early experience.
“My first midget was awful,” he said. “I ran eight to 10 races in what was obviously a piece of junk. Then, I bought a midget that had won at Angell Park. It had a Chevy II engine. I had some people at Chevrolet Research and Development help with it, so I had a very good engine.”
He had found his niche and was willing to go anywhere to compete. Alderson ventured east to race with ARDC and to New Hampshire’s Star Speedway. Closer to home there were plenty of options throughout the upper Midwest. In 1973, he focused his attention on the National Alliance of Midget Auto Racing.
It was a pivotal year in Alderson’s life for reasons that went beyond the race track.
Eventual USAC legend Rich Vogler, driving Harry Turner’s midget, became Alderson’s chief competition for the NAMAR title.
Alderson drove a car owned by Keith Hettinger. The truth is a bit nuanced. Keith Hettinger was on the road with his son, Jim, who enjoyed a great career. It was agreed that Alderson and Hettinger would race as team cars, although Alderson owned the bulk of the equipment.
On May 18, Alderson won a 100-lap grind at Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy Stadium. However, despite the setback, Vogler kept pecking away. The season closed with a 100-lap race at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway in November. Vogler nipped Alderson by 20 points to win the championship, while Keith Hettinger was the top entrant on the tour.
In another noteworthy development, Fisher Body laid Alderson off in the spring, which allowed him to concentrate on racing. He was eventually called back to work, but said, “The next spring I laid them off.”
Alderson relocated to Indiana and moved into a house near Indianapolis Motor Speedway that he shared with Chuck Gurney and Larry Rice. Calling his abode “party central,” Alderson was making a go of it as a professional racer. An early midget ride proved unsatisfactory, and he would eventually climb back in his own car. By this time the Chevy II engine had been surpassed by the Volkswagen, but Alderson was doing his best to tread water.
When he wasn’t racing a midget, Alderson was back on familiar turf. He accepted a ride in a Formula 5000 car owned by Ed Rassey. Alderson’s previous road racing experience made him eligible for an FIA license and soon he was mixing it up with the likes of Mario Andretti, David Hobbs, Al Unser and Elliott Forbes-Robinson. He knew going in, he couldn’t set the world on fire, but it was a chance to compete at places such as Road America and Watkins Glen.
On the midget side of the ledger, he was most active in 1975 when he finished eighth in the USAC standings. By now he had added sprint cars to his schedule and he was soon to get the opportunity he truly longed for — racing champ cars.
Most open-wheel racers of his era dreamed of competing in the Indianapolis 500.
“I got to walk in with my helmet bag and that’s about all, but I wouldn’t say the speedway was a direct ambition,” Alderson said. “Yes, that would have been nice. But I came from a ranch in Timber Lake, S.D., and didn’t sit in a real race car until I was 27 years old. However, in a dorm room I had a big picture of someone running a champ dirt car and I remember thinking I could do that.”
He got his chance in 1976 with owner Walt Flynn but missed the show in his first appearance at Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds. Rebounding nicely less than two weeks later, he cracked the starting field in the prestigious Hoosier Hundred. His car was a 1964 model and was powered by an Offenhauser engine. He qualified and finished midpack.
Alderson also made the show at Syracuse and it is believed to be the last time an Offy-powered car started a Silver Crown Series race.
He ran for several different teams in Silver Crown competition, but matters improved greatly when he joined forces with West Virginia-based car owner Steve Enslow. When Alderson recalls his time with Enslow he immediately starts laughing.