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Stan Friesen
like many others in the 1950's became interested in trying his hand
at the sport of stock car racing. He along with Terry Edwards and Wingy
Barron had a stock car and would take turns driving it at Merrittville
Speedway, until one night on a dare, Wingy Barron rolled the car on the
front straight away, some say it was on a dare by starter Bob MacPherson.
Some of my first
memories of seeing Stan Friesen race as a kid in the late 1950's was
behind the wheel of one of Bill Willard Sr.'s #78 Coupe. This was in an
era of Willard's having as many as 4 cars, the #77 of Terry Edwards, #78
Stan Friesen, #79 a short career for Allan Willard and 777 Bev MacTavish.
In 1961 -62 when the
late model division started, Stan along with friend Kurt Uhl and Neil
Sharp decided to build a late model. A 1957 Chevrolet was constructed,
painted green and yellow and the #52 painted on its sides, all to match
the colours of Kurt and Neil's Geneva Street B.P. Station. This car was
campaigned with much success at Merrittville Speedway, Humberstone and
Speedway Park.
In 1967 they decided
to purchase an ex Ray Stevens sportsman coupe and move up with the top
runners of their day, fellows like Fred Hurst, Ivan Little, Jeno Begolo,
Mike Zajac, George Treanor and many others. The red and white coupe
sponsored by Kurt's Ace Alignment of St. Catharines, was potent threat
wherever it ran, with Neil Sharp acting as crew chief.
With the Friesen
family in the Dry Cleaning Business with Modem Cleaners on Lake Street, as
well as Kurt Uhl running his successful Alignment business, their focus on
racing was changing. Stan, around 1970-71, still drove the race car, but
it was more part time with the likes of Gil Cramer and Terry Edwards.
It was at this point
that Davey Moore raced the #6 coach for Ray Stevens, however in 1972 the
#52 would re-emerge as a red and white hump back coach with a Canadian
Flag on its trunk, replacing Moore's #6.
It was also late in
1971 that Stan and Kurt would become partners in buying Merrittville
Speedway from my father, Ken Kavanagh and Bill Russell. For some reason
the two had the ideas for change and there were three
major ones.
The traditional 1/4
mile perfect oval was ripped apart and replaced by a larger D-shaped
pattern with its now notorious turn four. Secondly, the old wooden
bleachers were replaced with metal ones from the now defunct Niagara Drag
Strip. However, the third change was probably the most memorable one and
that was bringing the fledgling DIRT of Western New York sanction and its
Schaeffer Beer sponsorship for a qualifying race from Syracuse. That event
is still the biggest modified event on Merrittville Speedway's calendar
some 28 years later. While getting their feet wet as race track operators,
Stan was still pursuing his desire to race modifieds, while occasionally
racing at Merrittville, trying to balance the racing against the
administration of a race track.
It was during this
period that Stan and Kurt and Ray would run at Merrittville as well as
Weedsport, N.Y. with Stan winning the 1972 modified point championship at
Weedsport, N.Y.
In 1973 the ownership
of Merrittville Speedway demanded their time and Stan and Kurt focused
their attention on operating Merrittville Speedway as a business. Like
those of us before them, the wives and kids all played a part on Saturday
nights, selling popcorn, programs and hot dogs, it all went with the
territory. Speaking from personal experience, it was a fun place to grow
up.
Stan and Kurt, along
with their wives Diane and Deanna took a very active roll along with the
kids, Jamie, Joel and Alex Friesen and Janice Uhl, in the running of not
only Merrittville Speedway, but now Ransomville Speedway which they
purchased in 1973.
Alex
Friesen with a feature win at Gasport in 1992
The Friesen and Uhl
families were now operating two dirt tracks, as well as running their
businesses. Stan Friesen had his trucking company and Kurt still operated
Ace Alignment. The families ran both tracks until 1981 when they sold
Merrittville Speedway to a group of 5 St. Catharines investors. While
continuing to operate Ransomville speedway on Friday nights, the Friesen
kids interest in stock car racing grew. In 1987 two events happened. Kurt
Uhl was bought out as partner at Ransomville and young Alex Friesen along
with his father Stan, purchased Lancaster Speedway. The Friesen family now
owned two U.S. race tracks, with Ransomville operating on it traditional
Friday nights and Lancaster operating both a drag strip and a paved oval
on Saturdays.
Stan, Joel, Jamie and
Alex were now deeply involved in the sport and business of auto racing,
but it was Alex who wanted to promote and cultivate N. Y. state stock car
racing into the 1990's.
However, Alex was
tragically killed in a snowmobile accident a couple of years ago. The
Friesen family still carries on today with its ownership of Ransomville
and Lancaster. Son Jamie, carries on the family racing tradition by racing
his #10 sportsman when he can, with the memory of his late brother's #68
on its tail panel.
Jamie
Friesen with a feature win at Gasport in 1992
While Kurt Uhl is no
longer active in stock car racing, he and his family were an integral part
of Merrittville and Ransomville Speedways' history and success. It was
Kurt Uhl's ownership and sponsorship of his friend Stan Friesen's race
cars that led to their life long friendship and partnerships in racing.
On the Uhl side, daughter Janice has been married to Raceline's Eric
Tomas for 10 years. I've always stated that stock car racing is a family
sport at any level, to make it successful as the Friesen's and Uhl's are
proof of that, just as the Kavanagh's and Russell's before them and the
Cullen's and Marino's before them.
Sincerely,
Rick Kavanagh |
