MORRIS, Ill. — The 20th anniversary Mazon Speed Bowl/Grundy County Speedway Hall of Fame induction ceremony and racers’ reunion was held Saturday afternoon at the Grundy County Fairgrounds.
Nine new inductees were honored during the ceremony including stock car racers Billy Knippenberg, Dave Dotter and Ted Musgrave, along with midget competitors Loran Critchett Jr., Mike Adams and Jimmy Knight.
Longtime official track photographer and public relations man Andy Grod and former track announcer and PR handler Terry White were also new inductees, while Art Frigo, founder of the ARTGO Racing late model series, received a similar honor.
Racing since 1990, Billy Knippenberg was a two-time Grundy late model champion with two Mid American sportsman speedway also part of his resume. A 15-year-old Knippenberg started racing on dirt, following his dad Bill, a frontrunner and champion at Chicagoland’s Santa Fe Speedway, behind the wheel. Brother Tom also raced stock cars for some time. Knippenberg currently promotes the Kankakee County Speedway.
Dave Dotter has raced everything from late models to enduro cars but his “passion” is building and working on cars with his Dotter Race Cars shop a busy place during the racing season and the off-season months. Dotter is the first to tell you how he is not sure how many feature wins and championships he has been behind. His Dad, Bob, raced both locally and on national circuits, with his brother, Bobby, doing the same with him currently owning a NASCAR Xfinity team. Father and sons are now Hall of Fame members.
Ted Musgrave began his racing career at the old Waukegan Speedway in 1974, following the footsteps of his dad, Elmer, and older brother, Tom, a two-time Grundy late model champion. Competing locally and, later, in Wisconsin, Ted Musgrave moved up into NASCAR ‘Cup competition, driving for noted cars owners Jack Roush and Bud Moore. Later, Musgrave competed in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series action, winning 17 career NASCAR truck races and the series title in 2005.
Racing go-karts for some 10 years, Loran Critchett Jr. began racing midgets in 1990, competing primarily with the United Midget Auto Racing Association (UMARA). Critchett teamed up with good friend, Dave Gass, and won their first midget feature race at Iowa’s Hawkeye Downs in 2000. The Critchett/Gass combination won the UMARA sportsman midget championship in 2001. Critchett raced midgets until 2012.
Mike Adams, watched his heroes like Tony Bettenhausen and Bob Tattersall race and began racing go-karts, dreaming of the day he would race a midget. Adams got behind the wheel of a midget for the first time in 1968, racing with the United Auto Racing Association (UARA) organization. Adams won his first UARA feature race at Grundy County Speedway in 1971, driving the Joe Mogis Chevy II-powered entry. Later, Adams began driving for car owner Don Barnett with the duo winning several main events. Adams, whose son Mike Jr. also race, passed away in 2006.
Jimmy Knight, whose real name was James Randerson, was one of the top midget drivers in both AAA and USAC in the 1950s and 60s. A railroad worker full-time, Knight would win nine AAA midget feature races and 11 USAC main events. In 1953, he won his first career AAA feature at the 16th Street Speedway in Indianapolis. For a time, Knight held the USAC midget qualifying record at the Mazon Speed Bowl. Racing in California in early 1967, Knight suffered serious burns in a crash in March, passing away later in May from complications at the age of 46.
Andy Grod was the official track photographer at the Grundy County Speedway for 30 years. In addition, Grod wrote race result stories, kept the points standings and put together the track’s annual souvenir program book. Getting the “racing bug” at an early age at his uncle’s service station in Chicago where several stock cars were built and maintained, Grod with his dad watched from the grandstands at Chicagoland’s Raceway Park. His girlfriend at the time and now wife of 50-lus years, Sharon, later joined Andy in the grandstands. After serving in the military, Grod even tried his hand at wrenching on a stock car or two.
Terry White’s father, Marvin was into the “sport of speed” as a driver, car owner and mechanic – mostly at the high-banked Mazon oval. Naturally, young Terry would get bitten by the “racing bug” – going to the races as a youngster. Terry will tell you that his mother said he attended his first race at Fairbury, Ill., when he was eight months old. A true race fan, White has seen races at some 250-plus tracks over the years. Working for local radio station, White was the track announcer at Grundy from 1977 to about 1983. He also did PR work for the speedway, writing race stories for local newspapers and several weekly racing publications.
Art Frigo came from New York to oversee several businesses in the Chicagoland area, including one where top Chicago stock car racer Bob Roper was employed. Frigo and his family would attend the races at Waukegan Speedway to watch Roper race and win against the likes of Tom Jones, Ed Hoffman, Dave Evans and others. Roper talked Frigo into leasing a track (Grundy County Speedway) and putting a late model special on. Frigo met Waukegan and Grundy announcer and PR man John McKarns and with the help of McKarns formed ARTGO Racing. ARTGO – a combination of Frigo’s first name and part of his last name. Signing up Wisconsin stars like Dick Trickle, Tom Reffner, Joe Shear and others, ARTGO would hold its first race – the Wayne Carter Classic on September 7, 1975 with Reffner coming home the winner.
The Frank Welch Family was also honored with a special award for the family’s dedication to racing at the Mazon track the Grundy County Speedway. Frank Welch was a former stock car driver and champion at Mazon, and later, an official at Mazon and president of the Grundy County Fairboard. He was an important part of developing the Grundy County Speedway, helping Wayne Carter and others at the new fairgrounds in Morris. For years at Grundy, Welch along with his wife Margie and son Jim were part of the team at the speedway every Friday night.
Dee Tattersall, wife of the late midget racing great Bob Tattersall, was presented several Mazon/Grundy Hall of Fame plagues that were destroyed in a house fire several years ago.
Thousands of racing photos from Mazon and Grundy and other speedways were on display in addition to a number of vintage race cars, helping to bring back countless memories of racing for fans and competitors alike.