Married at age 17, Enslow proclaimed he began racing to stay out of trouble. The team purchased a Grant King-built car from Sherman Armstrong prior to the 1981 season. There was steady progress and they finished the year with a fourth-place run at the Hoosier Hundred and a fifth in the first edition of the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway.
Amid the USAC/CART split, Alderson was among those who took a classic dirt car into battle against rear-engine cars at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway, posting a respectable 11th-place finish.
The following season, Alderson battled Ron Shuman and Ken Schrader for Silver Crown supremacy in a chase that concluded with a difficult and controversial Dec. 4 finale in Nazareth, Pa.
Consistent all season long, Alderson finished second behind Schrader but netted the entrant’s title for Enslow.
The 1983 campaign started on a promising note with a podium finish during the Hulman Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and a fourth-place run at Nazareth, but Enslow was running short of cash. Alderson completed the year for Ralph DePalma and Douglas Lang and notched three additional top-10 finishes.
In 1989, Alderson signed with owner Willie Boles, who played a major role in Tony Stewart’s 1995 Triple Crown season. With better equipment at his disposal, Alderson landed in the top five twice and was competent on both dirt and pavement. Because of his versatility he landed in the top 10 in the final standings for the fourth time.
After marrying and starting a family, Alderson spent more time with his old foe Rich Vogler. The Voglers and Aldersons socialized, and both men loved to fly.
“Sometimes we would just fly to Muncie and get a hamburger, or we would go over to Findley, Ohio, and get some fudge,” Alderson remembered.
On Alderson’s 40th birthday, the duo made a business trip to Hoosier Tire. It proved to be a bit rocky.
“We were in the pattern to land and the nose gear doesn’t come down, but Rich has to land the plane,” Alderson explained. “One of my instrument instructors told me if I ever lost a nose go back into the baggage department because it would bring the center of gravity back and you could hold the nose up as long as you could.”
It proved to be dubious advice. On impact Alderson was hurled forward in the cabin as the plane ground to a halt. After exiting the craft, Vogler walked calmly toward a crowd that had gathered. He wasn’t a bit concerned about what had transpired, and neither was Alderson.
Alderson understood Vogler, and both men had analytical minds.
“I was as close to him as anybody could be,” Alderson said. “He was a tough son of a bitch. I admired what he did. If you look at great race car drivers down through history, they were all about half a bubble off. They thought and did things their own way. They were always at the limit of some area.”
Then, Alderson added an important postscript.
“He was one of my very best friends,” Alderson noted. “But I wouldn’t want to be next to him on the race track. He would cut me no quarter at all.”
Alderson continued racing with USAC and during the 1990s he also took on the SCCA Sport Trucks for kicks. Nonetheless, his time as a professional racer was beginning to wind down. A flip in practice for the Hoosier Hundred got his attention.
“I got out and walked away from the wreck with my wife,” he remembered, “and I said, ‘This is a stupid way to make a living.’”
While nothing could replicate the adrenaline rush that racing provided, Alderson could draw on myriad talents to make ends meet.
“I have a mind that works in the dimensional world,” he said.
He designed a Silver Crown car that stood out in every way.
“It was one of the most unusual cars up until this time,” he said. “I based it on aerodynamics. When you looked at it when it was running you didn’t see anything sticking out.”
It was his creation from start to finish and most agreed it was a thing of beauty. He also tried to launch an entry level Indy car like series to race on short tracks. While it was a promising endeavor, without the necessary capital the project never gained the necessary traction. However, the cars he designed became the basis of the Mario Andretti Driving Experience.
Alderson understood the mechanics of racing more than most of his peers and for that reason he was hired by the top owners of his time and many of these same people and their mechanics turned to him for advice.
He started his own company, Aviation Support Design, before he hung up his helmet. In this role, Alderson designed and built ground support equipment like blade racks and engine stands for the Indianapolis Heliport, Muncie Aviation and other businesses.
From there he studied a three-dimensional process known as Solidworks and founded ASDpatentART, helping inventors with patent illustrations that could be used to enhance their designs.
Alderson started 323 USAC national races and never took the checkered flag. He acknowledges he likely would have won with some frequency if he had chosen to compete elsewhere.
“I am sure that is true,” he said. “But I was competitive with USAC. They were the best and I wanted to do well against the best.”
That he did and looking back he says he would do it all over again.
This story appeared in the August 30, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
