Toward the end of the 1968 Humboldt Speedway season, Dick Davis’ racer got tangled up in traffic and the rear end was torn out of the 1937 Ford sedan dirt track special.
Getting back on the track would have required barrels of midnight oil and cash that Davis, because of domestic responsibilities, wasn’t comfortable committing.
He took the racer to a back forty east of Humboldt, on land owned today by Loren Korte, and dumped it in a hedgerow. Over the years, the hulk of sheet metal blended in with Osage orange and sank a few inches into the mellow earth. The car had been there so long Davis forgot exactly where it was.
Korte remembered.
More than 40 years later with Davis suffering from acute leukemia and other health problems, including a bout of several years with multiple sclerosis, his old race car, with the familiar slant “1” prominently painted on its side, is sitting outside Iola Auto Body, 324 N. State St., looking exactly as it did when first built.
LAST FRIDAY was Old-timers Night at Humboldt Speedway. The hit of the show was when Curtis Utley, Davis’ son-in-law, drove the old racer, rebuilt and freshly painted, around the track during the national anthem, with his daughter and Davis’ granddaughter Allie trailing an American flag out the window.
Davis wanted to be at the event, but he had been readmitted earlier in the day to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, where he’s been a patient continually for several months. In addition to leukemia, Davis has heart problems, along with the MS, and after doctors decided he wasn’t a candidate for a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy was restarted. The drugs caused an adverse reaction, which required 24 hours-a-day attention in the medical center; he and wife Gloria have been living in nearby Hope Lodge, a refuge for long-term patients at the medical center.
“I wanted Dick to be at the track Friday night,” Utley said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve been working to get the car ready for the Old-timers Night for quite a while,” and the past two months efforts have accelerated to a feverish pace, including many evening, Saturday and Sunday sessions. Utley has customer responsibilities at Iola Auto Body during the day.
He recalled that when the car was retrieved from Korte’s farm, the rear end was gone, having been wrenched from the car on the track, and the motor was a hulk of decay.
“The bottom four inches or so of the body were pretty much all rusted away and a limb had fallen on the car,” Utley said. “We took it out in two pieces.”
When word of the rebuilt as a tribute to Davis spread, Utley got many offers of assistance. Davis has friends at every turn and through the years has been quick to help others, as well as to get involved in community projects.
Paul Setter, Humboldt area farmer, helped Utley pull the dismembered car from the hedgerow. Iolan Bob Wille found and rebuilt a 292 cubic inch Ford engine, a clone of the original. Finding a rear end to fit the 1937 sedan’s configuration wasn’t a waltz in the park, but 54 Rebuilders came through. S&S Automotive installed the power train and engine.
Meanwhile, Utley applied his expertise in body work, although, he noted, “I made sure to leave a few dings and dents, just like it would have had after coming off the track.”
He even left the original floorboard that came from a junked-out Ruan Transportation semi trailer — Davis hauled cement for Ruan before driving oil trucks for Enron — that still had an “R” and “U” stenciled on it.
A week ago last Saturday, Utley cranked the engine for the first time and it purred like a kitten. He also finished stripping and paint work, including logos of sponsors Davis attracted when he started his abbreviated dirt-track career in 1967.
“I was happy with the way everything turned out, but I was sad that Dick wasn’t able to be at the track Friday night to see the car and visit with all the old drivers,” Utley said. “They all wanted to know how he was getting along and sent their wishes for him to get better.”
That was recognition enough for Davis, who marked his 66th birthday Friday.
WIFE GLORIA posts daily reports about Davis’ condition through a CaringBridge patient website.
The most recent ones noted that doctors thought Davis had suffered a mild stroke early this week after “a pretty rough day” on Tuesday, but through further evaluation they decided it was a reaction to chemotherapy drugs. Treatment options are being considered.
