ROSCOE, Ill. — The Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame hosted its induction ceremonies banquet and stock car festival on Saturday at Wayne Lensing’s Historic Auto Attractions Museum.
An enthusiastic crowd was on hand for the day’s activities which included the Lefthander Legends parade, which was led by Grand Marshall and the evening’s guest speaker — former NASCAR star Joe Ruttman.
During the group’s 11th banquet, four new inductees were honored during the evening including stock car racers Jerry Kemperman, Stanley “Stash” Kullman, Ed Bauman and race car lettering maestro Ken “Stits” Sowinski.
Jerry Kemperman
Kemperman joined other former champions at Chicagoland’s Raceway Park, Bud Koehler, Bob Pronger, Bill Van Allen, Pat Echlin and Ray Young, as a hall of fame member. Kemperman, who started his racing career in 1961 at the real-tight, quarter-mile, paved oval just south of Chicago, winning 107 feature races and the 1968 track championship during his time there.
Two of those 107 victories were the speedway’s annual 300 Lap Classic, an endurance test for both car and driver.
Kemperman won at other Chicago area tracks like Grundy County Speedway, O’Hare Stadium, Waukegan Speedway, Rockford Speedway and Illiana Motor Speedway. He also grabbed victories at several Indiana tracks. In 1977, Kemperman carried the feature race checkered flag 28 times in some 50-plus starts.
Part of his 1977 winning ways was capturing four races in three days at three different speedways — Grundy, Raceway Park and Illiana. Kemperman passed away in 2004.
Stanley Kullman
Kullman was perhaps the most popular driver to ever get behind the wheel at Raceway Park. His always sharp-looking, well-painted, No. 4U stock cars were fan favorites. Kullman started racing at Raceway Park in 1952 and ended his driving career in 1981.
Starting out in a rather rough-looking old Ford, Kullman moved up the ladder, eventually winning his first feature race in 1960. A car owner only for several years, Kullman would go on to capture a total of 30 feature wins at the “World’s Busiest Track” – a nickname for Raceway Park because of its sometimes four-nights-a-week schedule.
Kullman won the track’s 300 Lap Classic two times, guiding his well-maintained Chevelles to the wins. The race was known to test a driver’s stamina and his car’s reliability. The 1962 ‘300’ was not one of Kullman’s best outings as he “flew out of the park” as a broken axle sent him sailing over the retaining wall, the wheel fence and into the parking lot.
Kullman came out of it with a few scratches. For many years, Kullman owned SRC Enterprises, handling race car parts and specializing in stock car chassis and body fabrication. Kullman passed away in 2003.
Ed Bauman
Bauman won over 90 stock car feature races on the dirt in Illinois and Missouri during his speed career. He was tough to beat from 1990 through 1999 as he garnered championships at Tri-City Speedway in 1991 and 1992, the overall St. Louis area title in 1992 and the Macon Speedway championship in 1993.
For two years straight (1997 and 1998), Bauman won the annual Herald & Review 100 lapper at Macon – two of Bauman’s biggest wins during his 20-plus years behind the wheel. Other feature wins came at Illinois tracks in Springfield, Jacksonville, Farmer City, White City, Fairbury, Peoria, Spoon River and at Montgomery City in Missouri. After his driving days were over, Bauman crew chiefed his son Nick’s racing efforts to numerous track championships and feature wins.
Sowinski grew up in the same Chicago neighborhood as the Carl Bledsoe Family that were involved in the promotional end of Soldier Field and the International Amphitheatre. Introduced to the stock car, midget and drag racing, Sowinski began working after school for Chicago area stock car speedster Harry Simonsen, sweeping the floors and doing other odd jobs at Simonsen’s auto parts store. At 14, he was inspired by sign painter Art Dexter as he saw Dexter lettering Simonsen’s stock car.
Sowinski was on his way to lettering, pin-striping and sign painting as he hung around the Good Brothers sign shop.
Ken Sowinski
Sowinski lettered various stock cars over the years for the likes of Simonsen, Ray Young, Bill McEnery, Bob Strait and others and also put his “magic” on various custom cars and drag cars including the Dick Messino’s famous ‘Shake, Rattle & Run’ ’57 Chevy.
In addition to his sign-painting art, Sowinski was also a pit crew member for Young, Strait and Alan Kulwicki.
Joe Ruttman
Ruttman, the youngest brother of 1952 Indianapolis 500 winner Troy Ruttman, told numerous stories during the day’s events. A competitor in NASCAR Cup, Busch (now Xfinity) and Craftsman Truck Series action, Ruttman scored 13 Truck Series wins during his career. A native of California, an underage, 18-year-old Ruttman began his NASCAR racing career, competing on the road course at Riverside, California, in 1963, finishing 10th in a ’62 Mercury, earlier wheeled by his brother Troy.
Ruttman was the 1980 USAC stock car champion after being named the association’s stock car rookie of the year in 1978. Ruttman won eight USAC victories over the years and three career ARCA victories, including a 200-mile win at Daytona in 1982.
Before his NASCAR and USAC careers, Ruttman was one of the top drivers in the Midwest’s late model ranks, scoring victories in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin as well as in California and Florida.
He was a two-time winner of the Glass City 200 at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway in addition to winning the Johnny Appleseed 100 Classic at Mansfield, Ohio, the Dells 200 at Wisconsin Dells, Wis., and the annual Tony Bettenhausen Memorial 100 at Indiana’s Illiana Motor Speedway, plus two career American Speed Association wins.