Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
Once Foster Campbell learned to find the short way around the track, his career as a midget auto-racing driver moved into the fast lane.
Campbell was a young novice-driver hopeful hanging around Lakeside Speedway. Midget auto racing’s popularity was off the charts in the years just after World War II. Veteran driver Vic Felt gave Campbell a chance to drive the fifth-mile oval, and youthful exuberance didn’t fit the challenge.
The message from Felt went something like this: “That’s not going to cut it. You lost 10 seconds sliding around out there. You have to circle this thing (track) and learn the short way around.”
From there, Campbell went on to find the short way around with the best of them. He drove at Lakeside as well as the Englewood Speedway, the two top tracks of his day in Denver. He won the season’s midget championship in 1957.
“I’ve got 32 main event victories documented with the Rocky Mountain Midget Auto Racing Association,” the 85-year-old Campbell said recently. “I think there probably were at least 30 more that were outside of the association’s jurisdiction. I’m one of only a few drivers who won championships on both the dirt and the asphalt.”
Campbell’s career as a driver as well as a noted mechanical genius on racing cars will be featured Aug. 26-27 in Sun Prairie, Wis., when he is inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame. His name goes on the Hall of Fame rolls with previously inducted Lloyd Axel, Johnny Tolan and Dave Strickland Sr., with ties to racing in Denver.
“‘Foss’ has made a good go of it,” said Buddy Shay, a prominent driver from racing’s heyday in Denver. “He worked hard at it.”
Blu Plemons, who made his driving mark in the stock car field, saw the results of Campbell’s reputation as a mechanic. His cars once won 14 main events in a row.
“He wrenched on cars belonging to some of the best drivers in the world,” Plemons said. “I first knew him when he started pitting and saw him work his way up to several driving championships.”
Campbell remembers back to when the auto racing at Lakeside and Englewood were among the top sports events in Denver. The only other sports attractions were the minor-league Denver Bears and the National AAU Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The racing programs mostly were Sunday night, Wednesday night and Friday night, and anyone within earshot of West 44th and Sheridan or West Oxford Avenue and Clay Street would hear the roar of the Offenhauser and flathead Ford engines that dominated the otherwise quiet summer nights.
“I remember cars with fans lined up on the streets waiting to get into Lakeside,” Campbell said. “I drove the midget cars mainly at Lakeside and the roadsters some at Englewood. I drove the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, too.”
“The grandstand would be full before we even got into the pits,” Shay said.
Ben Krasner, remembered as a driver’s friend, ran Lakeside.
“It was a different time,” Campbell said. “Everyone would help each other if you needed something to keep running. The payoffs were pretty good, $1,500 for a feature race. Lloyd Axel, Johnny Tolan and Buddy Shay were the big three. Roy Bowe was right up there, too.”
The racing was competitive on the track. Campbell tells the story of a rift between Axel and Felt. The two adversaries collided in a race and were taken to a hospital, Felt with a broken shoulder.
“Vic wouldn’t ride in the same ambulance with Lloyd,” Campbell said. “They took him to the hospital in a pickup truck.”
Racing in those days could be described as the mom-and-pop era.
“It’s a lot more complicated today with all the technology,” Campbell said. “When I was running, you had to have a feel for the car. You had to have what we called a feather foot on the pedal. Today the guys just run flat out.”
Campbell believes the corporate money that drove up the costs of racing changed the sport nationally and the arrival of greyhound racing in Denver caused it to go downhill locally.
“A midget engine today costs $40,000,” Campbell said. “You could have bought every car at Lakeside and the whole park, too, for $40,000 back in those days.”
Campbell grew up in the tough Swansea area of Denver. He was a two-time Golden Gloves boxing champion, and he once held the state’s professional welterweight title. He fought on the last boxing card at the old Stockyards Stadium.
But his love is auto racing. He’s still involved today, helping to restore old racing cars. And every Thursday, the remaining members of auto racing’s glory days in Denver gather for breakfast.
The grandstand still stands at Lakeside, but trees are growing up through its roof and the track is overgrown with underbrush.
But the names are remembered. There were Axel, Tolan, Shay, Plemons, Bowe, Earl Kouba, Eddie Jackson, Pappy Headrick, Roy Leslie, Sonny Coleman, Buddy Martinson and Foster Campbell.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
