By Shawn Brouse
Mechanicsburg – The Pennsylvania Posse 410 sprint car stars will gather together to compete in the make-up Randy Wolfe Tribute Race and World of Outlaws Tune Up, paying $6,000 to win, coming up this Friday night, July 15, at Williams Grove Speedway.
The drivers will come together to honor the career of veteran sprint car ace Randy Wolfe of Mechanicsburg.
Now age 65, Wolfe got his start in racing by tagging along with his childhood neighbors to the races.
Plus, the Texaco station where super modified and modified star Bobby Gearhart’s car was kept wasn’t far from his house so that didn’t hurt either. .
Randy Wolfe first drove a go-kart in 1971 before helping out sprint car star Lee Osborne in 1973.
And then in 1976, with Gearhart’s familiar No 5 now painted on his racer, Wolfe went sprint car racing with the URC circuit where he won his first sprint car race ever, at Weedsport, New York, on July 4.
In 1977, Wolfe moved up to the regular sprint car division at Williams Grove Speedway and earned Rookie of the Year Honors at the track before going on to log a total of 11 wins at the historic oval.
His first Williams Grove win came in his rookie season as did the first help he ever had owning a car in the form of LPS Racers, AKA the Lebanon Pattern Shop owned by the Woelfling family.
Aside from the Woelflings, car owners came in the form of Bob Weikert, Ben Cook, Maynard Boop, Daryl Saucier, Bobby Glen and Roger Powell, Leon Wintermyer, Glen Hyneman, Ted Ganoe, Ken Cooper and Gene Jenkins before Wolfe wound down his career driving for Souderton car-owning couple Jim and Laura Allebach from 1996 through 1999.
But surely his most identifiable ride spanned the majority of the 1980’s when he went driving for brothers Bill and Jesse Keen in the Keen Transport No. 5W machine.
In total, Wolfe wrapped up his driving tenure with a total of 64 career sprint car wins including All Stars victories not the least of which was the East Bay Winternationals in 1990 at the wheel of the Wintermyer No. 1W.
Aside from Williams Grove, wins came at Selinsgrove, Lincoln, Port Royal, Susquehanna (now Baps), Silver Springs, Path Valley and in Expo, Ohio.
At the Grove, Wolfe scored both the Jack Gunn Memorial and the Early Bird Championship for Keens in 1984.
He rode home second in the 1983 Williams Grove National Open and he scored his only track title anywhere at Port Royal Speedway in 1982.
Today, Wolfe is still a machinist by trade, a skill he learned while working alongside Osborne back in the 1970s.
And he can still be found in the Williams Grove pits many nights, taking in all the action while watching his track titlist son Lucas Wolfe tour the speedway in that familiar No. 5W.
Gates for the Randy Wolfe Tribute Race on July 15 open at 5:30 with time trials slated for 7:30 pm.
Adult general admission is set at $20 with youth ages 13-20 admitted for just $10 while kids ages 12 and under are always admitted for FREE at Williams Grove Speedway.
Keep up to date on all the latest speedway news and information by visiting the oval’s official website located at www.williamsgrove.com and by following the track on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.