My records show that I attended a WoO race at Paragon on Sept. 2, 1978. I had forgotten that it was a WoO race. I remember that it was a 150 lapper and that was my first trip to Paragon. I seem to recall a rather large fire in the pits during a refueling stop. I believe the driver involved was Mike Waltz and just a short time later he was fatally injured at Bloomington.

Its not a WOO race but i was going through some old videos of my grandpa's this week and found a video of a 100 lap mike johnson memorial race that he won in 1990. Grandpa lapped the whole field several times.

This was an unfortunate situation. When the car caught fire during a pit stop it burned/deteriorated the stitching in the seat belts which gave way when he flipped the car a short time later.

The waltz car was beautiful, sorta looked like Pancho's car. The fire was right n front of me. They pulled out the quick fill can too quick, and whooom, in a ball of flame. He got killed very shortly after the 150 lapper.

I remember Butch Wilkerson leading one of the 150's one year in a Seibert car, then the bird cage broke. If it hadn't, nobody would have beat Butch.

I do not recall the 150 laper at Paragon being a WoO event?
I was there, and it may have been a WoO show, but that does not stand out in my memory.

Mike Waltz

I will not speculate about the death of Mike Waltz. I will only say, I was there, and it was a tragedy beyond description, and that it nearly caused a good friend of Mike's to hang his helmet up that night, right then and right there. I was a gopher for a well known local driver and very close friend of Mike's, we were sitting in the qualifying line waiting to go out, when the accident happened, the car nearly landing right in front of us.

At that time the pits were just off of turn one, Mike's accident happened as he went into turn one, when the right rear tire blew digging the rim into the dirt and vaulting him off of turn one.

It was a devastating loss to the local racing community. Mike was very well liked and he was one hell of a chauffeur too.
He is still missed greatly by his family and his friends to this day. A tragedy that I will sadly never forget.

I can't say that I remember that particular race, but the mention of the loss of Mike Waltz did put a chill in me. Having grown up spending many of my Saturday nights at Paragon, I remember when Mike came along. It was like 1970 or 1971 (that would have made me either 6 or 7). He was a really good driver, right out of the box. A serious competitor, almost from the get go. And I remember my uncle saying that Mike was enough of a pro, even at a young age, that he had earned the respect of most of the older drivers. And in those days, that was really saying something. I think he drove a real nice looking dark blue or black #2 (I'm not 100% certain on the color), was a always a fast qualifier, who liked a lower line at Paragon. One thing I do remember clearly though, is he was always a nice guy, when you met him in the pits. I wasn't at Bloomington the night he was lost and really I'm glad I wasn't, either. Because it was tough enough just hearing that this had happened. Hopefully, he'll never be forgotten. And who knows how great he might have turned out to be, had he not been taken early.

Jerry

I know this is a stretch... but can you tell who the top 5 were from the film ? Dad claims they ran third with Bob Thoman holding the steering box in with his knee . The left side steering box mount broke off and Bob ran about 75 laps with his knee against the tube. That`s old school racing there .

The National Open At Williams Grove was 75 laps for years until the WoO took it over.

I thought leaving Chico's race of Champions, Gold Cups at 2am Thursday nights would be it.
Joe

I havent got the VCR hooked up yet to watch it, Alex Shanks took it home last week and watched it... i'll ask him and see. I think he said Gary Hayhurst ran second.