FANTASY NASCAR Racin

John Soares (pronounced "Saw-ress") a legend in midget, stock car and hard tops racing in the mid 1940s. During his career, Soares was a constant contender in midget cars in the Bay Cities Racing Association at the Bayshore Stadium in San Francisco. He earned 28 feature titles upon entering the sport immediately after World War I. He was also a stellar stock car driver, winning at the Oakland Stadium before finishing his career in the hardtops. Soares' NASCAR Cup debut came during the 1951 season when he competed at Oakland. It was an impressive start for the driver, coming out of the field of thirty-five with a 9th place run. His only other start of 1951 was at Marchbanks Speedway in Hanford CA. He finished 21st in a 200 lap race won by Danny Wienberg. Soares' next nine starts all came during the 1954 season, when he finished 16th in points. Soares got off to a running start, finishing 3rd in his return to Oakland. The race was won by Dick Rathmann. His next

start came at Carrell Speedway in Gardena CA. Here no less than 32 drivers, many of them local, are present for this second race in the history of the track. This race was combined with the Grand National, the current NASCAR Cup Series. However, few of the stars of NASCAR’s main division made the trip to California for the 16th race of their season. The reason? On the same day, NASCAR organizes another race in Charlotte, North Carolina, the 15th of the season at Charlotte Speedway. This is also the last time that we raced on the Carrell Speedway, because it would be destroyed two days later on June 1st to allow the passage of a highway. To celebrate the last race, the

distance is increased from 100 to 250 miles, or 500 laps of this half-mile dirt track. The pole went to Danny Letner in his Hudson Hornet, his first in his career, to the delight of owner Joe Bearsheck, who entered a car in NASCAR for the very first time. The Canadian Allen Heath, nicknamed the “Seattle Screwball” is 18th on the starting grid with his rare Kaiser Manhattan. He will forever remain the first non-American driver to compete in a West Series race. The start is given under beautiful sunshine and in front of 12,000 people. To compete with the Indy 500 which takes place on the same day, the cars start three abreast. When you see the width of the track it’s a miracle that there was no accident at the first turn! Danny Letner will easily lead the first quarter of the race, he will be relayed by Lloyd Dane, also on Hudson, from the 106th to the 285th lap. During this first half of the race, the dust raised by the cars caused

numerous mechanical damage and abandonments accumulated. Starting from 17th position, John Soares led his Dodge with ease, avoiding all the pitfalls that befell many of the others. While the drivers had to take their foot off the gas; Soares was cruising. Soares was working his way through the field, and passed Dane on lap 286, and held on to it until the checkers flew. He was one lap ahead when he was presented with the checkered flag, much to the surprise of his car owner Charles Vance. But hey, we’re not going to quibble, especially since for Vance, like Soares, this is the first career victory. Dane was second, one lap behind and Letner was third, six laps back. Note that despite the length of the race (4h 38m 27s) there was only one big accident requiring an interruption on the 293rd lap when Bob Rose flipped his tiny Henry J. into a rut! The roof of the small car was crushed, the driver fortunately

escapes unscathed. After that, though, Soares' results became mixed. He would only crack the top-ten twice more during the year. He had four DNFs: but finished in 8th at Corbin Speedway (KY), and posted a sixth place finish in the prestigious Southern 500 at Darlington, after starting in seventh place. His final Cup start came in 1955 at Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix. Soares started 18th, and completed 86 of the 100 laps to finish 20th. Soares retired from racing and put on his promotors hat full time. He was the promotor of Antioch Speedway and Petaluma Speedway. John Sr. first started promoting races in Antioch back in 1952 and 1953 with another member of the Bob Barkhimer & Associates crew, Jerry Piper. People unfamiliar with their California Stock Car history may not realize that Barkhimer built up the racing circuit back in the 1950's and 1960's with people like Soares, Piper and Bert Moreland as part of his team. At its height, the Barkhimer stable of race tracks reached into the twenties, and you could race at one of those tracks every night of the week. It was during the 1950's, when Barkhimer had his famous meeting with NASCAR Legend Bill France Sr., and suddenly the Barkhimer stable of tracks became NASCAR sanctioned. The elder Soares won the first two BCRA Hardtop championships on the circuit that included race tracks in Pacheco, Vallejo and Sacramento. Soares even had a hand in building the legendary West Capital Speedway in Sacramento, and is a member of the Hall of Fame there. As a race car driver, he won the very first Gold Cup Race of Champions, a race that continues to this day in Chico, California. He also inspired loyalty in his racers. To highlight that, when he retired from NASCAR at the end of the 1980 season at Antioch, about half of the Sportsman division followed him to his one remaining race track in Petaluma. There, he promoted one of the best Stock Car programs in the state. In 1987, he made one of his biggest contributions to the current state of California racing when he was the first promoter to start a Dirt Modified division. It wasn't until three years later that any of the other promoters in Northern California decided to follow his lead. John was a trendsetter. When the popular Baylands race track in Fremont closed at the end of the 1988 season, Soares invited all of the drivers from that track to compete at Petaluma Speedway. At that time, over 150 race cars flocked to Petaluma on a regular basis, making it the biggest weekly racing program happening anywhere in the state of California. In the mid 1990's, he began promoting the Top Dog Nationals. This was a Dirt Modified race that attracted over 60 competitors to his race track. A Soares promoted race track was generally one of the best prepared race tracks anywhere, and his sons Jim and John Jr. also got the reputation of being track prep gurus. At the end of the 2002 season, he retired as the promoter of the Petaluma Speedway. He had promoted that track for nearly 40 years. Throughout his illustrious career, he's been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the Bay Cities Racing Association, the Motoring Press Association, and the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame. He is also a recipient of the DCRR Racing News Lifetime Achievement Award. He then moved to Ohio after a lifetime of racing and promoting in the Bay Area Two of his sons followed in his footsteps. John Soares, Jr. is the current promoter of the Antioch Speedway, while Jimmy Soares runs the Petaluma track. After several years of failing health, Soares passed away on March 10 in Greenville, Ohio. He was 87.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

JOHN P SOARES - 11/07/1918 - 3/10/2007