Ed Flemke

Ed "Steady Eddie" Flemke was active as an American racing car driver and car builder from 1948 until his death in 1984. Although he was best known as a driver, he built many race cars for himself and others, was a technical innovator, and was renowned as a mentor to his competitors. His specialty was modified stock car racing, which was immensely popular in the US in the decades following World War II. Flemke has been called "likely New England's most legendary stock car racer". Flemke may have had more overall impact than any other individual on Modified racing in the US, as he was "a pioneer, innovator, teacher, fierce competitor, and living legend all rolled into one".

Early life
From a young age, Flemke was exposed to cars and racing. His father Jake owned and ran a garage in New Britain, CT, and his older brother George drove midget racing cars for many years. In 1948, when Flemke was 17, he was helping a friend at a race. He dared to try driving the race car himself, and at the spur of the moment, he drove out onto the track and began to compete. He fell in love with racing and made it his focus for the rest of his life.

Flemke's mentors were his brother George, Bert Brooks, and Mike Nazaruk, who were all drivers of midgets. Flemke himself preferred driving midgets to other kinds of racing, but the prize money available was greater in Modifieds, and he therefore concentrated his efforts on the latter.

United Racing Club years
When Flemke began to race Modified cars, dozens of tracks on the east coast ran Modified races on a weekly basis. Each track operated either as an independent entity or as a member of a sanctioning organization, of which the biggest were the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and the United Stock Car Racing Club. NASCAR tracks tended to be located in the Southeast, United tracks in the Northeast. The independents were geographically dispersed, although most often found in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Being based in Connecticut, Flemke joined United and regularly raced at Riverside Park (MA), Plainville (CT), New London-Waterford (CT), Savin Rock/West Haven (CT), Candlelite Stadium (Bridgeport, CT), and Springfield Exposition Fairgrounds (MA). These were all paved, asphalt-surface tracks, which Flemke preferred to the dirt-surface tracks that were also common in Modified racing.

In mid-1952 Flemke was drafted into the U.S. Army. At different times he was posted to Fort Jackson, SC, Fort Devens, MA, Fort Dix, NJ, and Fort Knox, KY. While residing at each of those bases he drove in races whenever he was given leave (and occasionally when he did not have leave), but records of how he did in those races are scant. He remained in the Army until late 1954.

In the early 1950s, Flemke usually drove either his own #61 or the #1 cars owned and run by Rich Yurewich. In 1955, he became the regular driver of the #28 and #14 cars owned and run by Richie and Ray Garuti and he continued with the Garutis through the 1958 season. For 1959 Flemke again built his own car, the metallic blue and gold #61.

Flemke stayed with United through the 1959 season. The biggest event on the United calendar was the annual Riverside 500. Based on the documentation available, Flemke competed in the Riverside 500 seven times, of which he finished first three times, second three times, and third once. During his 11 years racing at United, he won track championships at West Haven and Riverside Park and is known to have won at least 25 feature races at Riverside. Very few records are available for 1950s results at Plainville, New London-Waterford, Candlelite, and West Haven.

NASCAR years
Flemke joined NASCAR in 1960. His first NASCAR race was the 250-mile Permatex Modified-Sportsman race at Daytona, in which he substituted for Benny Germano and drove a late-model Studebaker. Despite his unfamiliarity with the car and the track, out of more than 75 entrants, he qualified 13th. In the first lap of that race, he was caught up in one of the biggest crashes in the history of motor racing, involving 37 cars, and he had to retire the car. Over the remainder of the 1960 season, he competed strongly at many Northeastern tracks, including Islip (NY), Plainville, Empire (Menands, NY), Norwood (MA) and Westboro (MA).

In 1961, Flemke began to expand the area in which he regularly raced to include Westhampton (NY) and Old Bridge, Wall, and Vineland (all in NJ). While racing at Islip, he was spotted by the promoter of Southside Speedway in Richmond, VA, who offered him guaranteed money to race at Southside. Flemke accepted the offer, made the trip to Richmond, and won the Southside 400. This was the start of Flemke's trips from his home in New Britain, CT south to VA and MD. Later in 1961, he won the Fredericksburg (VA) 250 and the Bowman Gray (NC) Tobacco Bowl 150. In 1961, he was track champion at both Old Bridge and Empire.

In 1962, Flemke began a regular weekly circuit, racing at Islip on Wednesday, Fort Dix (NJ) on Thursday, Southside on Friday, Old Dominion (Manassas, VA) on Saturday, Marlboro (MD) on Sunday afternoon, Old Bridge on Sunday evening, and then heading back home to CT to work on his car and get some rest. Accompanying him on the circuit were his protégé, fellow driver Dennis Zimmerman, who later went on to become Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and chief mechanic (and co-owner of one of the cars that Flemke drove, called the "$") John Stygar. Because of their domination of the southern tracks, locals dubbed Flemke and Zimmerman "The Eastern Bandits". Two other New England drivers, Rene Charland and Red Foote, heard about Flemke's and Zimmerman's southern success and themselves began to travel south to race. The nickname "Eastern Bandits" was then applied to all four drivers, although Flemke and Zimmerman were the originals.

There is no comprehensive record of how many races Flemke won in 1962, but, competing against the best drivers in the South, it is known that at Old Dominion he won at least nine races in succession. He also won races at Southside, South Boston (VA), Marlboro, and Fort Dix, and scored numerous high finishes at those tracks and others, including Fredericksburg, Old Bridge, Wall, Bowman Gray, and Tar Heel (Randleman, NC).

Flemke chose which races to compete in based on the prize money offered, rather than on how many NASCAR championship points were available from the race. Despite being uninterested in championship points available, in both 1961 and 1962 Flemke finished second in the NASCAR Modified points championship.

Although in 1962 Flemke won numerous races and substantial (relative to the era) prize money, after the season he concluded that, because of all the expenses entailed in fuel, motels, restaurant meals, wear-and-tear on car transport vehicles, and other costs, plus the effort required to do so much driving to and from races and inconvenience in maintaining racing cars while traveling on the road, he could not justify continuing the "Eastern Bandits" circuit every week. Thus in 1963 he and Zimmerman focused more on racing at northeastern tracks and ventured south of New Jersey only for the longer, big-money races. In 1963–66, driving mostly cars he had built himself, such as the ¢, %, 21x, and 2, he won many races along the east coast, including at Bowman Gray, Fort Dix, Old Bridge, Utica-Rome (NY), Norwood, Islip, Plainville, Southside, Albany-Saratoga (NY), Catamount (Milton, VT), Airborne (Plattsburg, NY), and Thompson (CT). During those years, he won track championships at Fort Dix, Utica-Rome, and Albany-Saratoga.

In a 1966 race at Albany-Saratoga, Rene Charland's car was involved in a crash and immediately burst into a fireball, with Charland trapped inside the car. Although Flemke was wearing normal street clothes (rather than a protective driving suit), he leaped out of his own car, ran straight into the flames, and pulled Charland from the burning wreckage. Racing photographer John Grady, who had watched thousands of races, said years later that it was "the bravest thing I have seen in my whole life".

In 1967, Flemke teamed up with Bob Judkins, the builder, owner, and chief mechanic of the 2x racing car. In that and the following season, usually driving the 2x, on multiple occasions Flemke won or placed highly in races throughout the northeast at tracks such as Stafford (CT), Albany-Saratoga, Utica-Rome, Norwood, Airborne, Islip, Catamount, Thompson, Wall, and Lee (NH). He also set a new track record at Martinsville (VA) and finished second in long-distance races at South Boston and Beltsville (MD). In reply to a newspaper reporter's question in 1968, Flemke guessed that, by that point in his career, he had won "about 250" races.

In 1969, Flemke began to drive the 2x less often; more often, he drove the #79, owned and run by Greg Mills and Dave Welch. Although that car appeared to be inherently not as fast as some of its competitors, in it Flemke regularly won or placed highly at Stafford, Norwood, and Thompson. He was comfortably leading the Thompson 500 (the longest-distance race ever held for Modifieds) until near the end of the race, when a valve broke in the #79's engine.

In 1970, Flemke divided his time between driving the #61 owned by Richie Evans in NY races and driving the #14 owned by Richie, Ray Garuti and Jack Arute in New England races. In the #14 in New England, he was very successful at Stafford and Thompson (Norwood no longer held Modified races). In the #61, he also did well: a legendary performance was in the Utica-Rome "New Yorker 400", the biggest race in NY. Because #61 car owner Evans was in a dispute with NASCAR, the sanctioning body would not allow his car to use the pits even though Flemke, not Evans, was the driver. Flemke and the crew were forced to use the public parking lot instead of the pit area, but, despite that handicap, Flemke won the race.

In 1971, Flemke usually drove the Art Barry #09. By Flemke's standards, the 1971 season was a relatively less successful one, although he had a major win in the Fulton (NY) 200 and won three races at Albany-Saratoga.

In 1972, the first full year in which NASCAR allowed Modifieds to run with current road car bodywork, Flemke started the season driving Frank Vigliarolo's #34 Pinto. That car had been built by Bob Judkins (who had run the 2x in which Flemke had had so much success in 1967–68) and was the first car with current bodywork to be given NASCAR sanction for the Modifieds. Driving the #34, Flemke started the season by winning a 50-lap open-competition race at New London-Waterford. A week later, at the inaugural Stafford "Spring Sizzler", he comfortably led the race until 8 laps to go when his car's water pump failed. The driver who inherited the Sizzler lead and the win, former NASCAR National Modified Champion Fred DeSarro, said afterwards, "He would have had to slip for me to get by him, and Ed Flemke doesn't slip". Flemke in the #34 ran very strongly in almost every race in which he competed, although persistent problems with (what turned out to be) defective crankshafts caused many retirements. Nonetheless, he won other races at Stafford, Albany-Saratoga, and Autodrome de Quebec Val-Belair (Quebec) and had high placings at Seekonk (MA), Lancaster (NY) and Islip.

In June 1972, Flemke switched to driving a new Pinto Modified, the 2x, owned and built by Bob Judkins. He continued with the 2x Pinto as his regular drive until mid-1974. In the 2x Pinto, he won or had high placings in races at Monadnock (NH), Stafford, Islip, Thompson, Trenton (NJ), Albany-Saratoga, Seekonk, Lancaster, Oswego (NY), Martinsville, Thompson, Pocono (PA), and Riverside. In 1973, he finished 4th in NASCAR National Modified points despite, as usual choosing races based on prize money rather than on points available (typically, those drivers finishing high in the point standings gave priority to points over prize money).

Starting in mid-1974, Flemke began to drive mainly for BOTAG Enterprises, which was then acquired by the Manchester Sand & Gravel Company owned by Bill Thornton. BOTAG ran the #7 Pinto and, more often, a series of #10 Pintos. From mid-'74 until 1978, Flemke drove the great majority of his races in Manchester Sand & Gravel cars. Flemke had considerable success in those cars, including wins and high placings at Seekonk, Plainville, Stafford, Thompson, Riverside, New London-Waterford, Albany-Saratoga, New Smyrna (FL), Westboro, and Chemung (NY). In 1977, at the age of 47, he won the two biggest Modified races in New England, the Stafford 200 and the Thompson 300.

In 1974, Flemke suffered his most serious injury from racing. Driving the Bob Garbarino #4 Pinto in the Stafford 200, after contact with another car, Flemke's car flew into the air while airborne, rotated an estimated 8 times, and landed on its top, crushing the roof. Although Flemke thought he was uninjured and climbed into another car to resume racing, he quickly realized that something was wrong and climbed out again. Later that day, he went to the hospital to be checked. The orthopaedic specialist who examined Flemke told him that, given the nature of his broken vertebrae, he had expected him to be paralyzed, potentially for life. Flemke was able to recover, although he could not return to racing until spring 1975.

Almost exactly a year after he broke his back, Flemke was in another serious crash, this time at Star Speedway (Epping, NH), in which he reinjured his vertebrae. He was forced to take 7 weeks off from racing. At the time of the crash, he had been leading the championship points at Thompson and, had he not been injured, was expected to win the track championship.

In 1979, Bill Thornton elected to discontinue his involvement in racing and transferred his racing cars and equipment to Flemke. Running that season as an unsponsored, 49-year-old independent, Flemke had less success than usual, although he won or had high placings in races at Riverside, Stafford, Catamount, and Monadnock.

Flemke raced sparingly in 1980 and 1981, and in 1982 he drove his final race at Wall in Harry Reed's #7A. During the early 1980s, Flemke focused on working with his son (also named Ed, but not "Jr") on developing their Race Works business of designing and building racing cars. In that operation, they were known for their technical innovations, consideration of driver safety, and high level of craftsmanship.

In 1983, the last full year of his life, Flemke was Chief Steward at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. It was observed that, under his stewardship, there were many fewer incidents and race stoppages than previously, and this was attributed to Flemke's early perception of potential problems and ability to direct drivers away from trouble. After Flemke's death, the position of Chief Steward was not filled again, as it was thought he could not be replaced.

Influence on the sport
In addition to his driving and car-building accomplishments, Flemke was unique in his willingness to help his competitors. During his Eastern Bandits days he shared his knowledge with the southern drivers, which made them more competitive against him and also endeared him to them. Many years after Flemke's death, motor sport author Mark "Bones" Bourcier recalled discussing him with the deeply-experienced Junie Donlavey of Virginia who, having been involved in auto racing for more than 50 years, had seen it all: "There were tears in Junie's eyes (after decades) as he said of Eddie, 'When I get talking about him like this, it's like he just walked into this office yesterday and sat down right in this chair. And it's like that for a lot of us around here when it comes to Eddie. We never got over him.'" Bourcier said that hearing and seeing Junie's reaction "was one of the most poignant moments of my writing life."

Three-time NASCAR Modified Champion Bugs Stevens said that "Flemke was a smart, smart guy, a thinker...he was also an excellent teacher...he was one of my professors...[and] a terrific driver, a guy you could trust". As 1981 Talladega 500 winner Ron Bouchard put it, "He was a great gentleman and a great person...Even if Eddie thought you could beat him, he'd still come over to offer you help...He was a master of teaching...He got real enjoyment out of helping people...Eddie would help everybody."

Another Flemke protégé, Daytona 500 and Talladega 500 winner Pete Hamilton (Wiki), said that "Eddie Flemke was my teacher and my hero. He changed everything for me". Four-time NASCAR Sportsman Champion Rene Charland said that Flemke "taught me a lot", while driver and New London-Waterford race promoter Dick Williams remembered that Flemke was "always going around helping somebody to get better – that's what I loved about Eddie Flemke".

Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Denny Zimmerman said that the early 1960s "was a great time for me, just a kid back then, learning all I could about driving race cars and being mentored by the great Eddie Flemke...he taught me so much". Wilbur Jones, close friend of 9-times NASCAR Modified champion Richie Evans, remembered that "Richie looked up to a lot of guys, and Eddie Flemke was number one. Why? Because Eddie was the master".

Journalist Pete Zanardi said that "Eddie was the guy so many other racers talked of as their guru" whom they "put on a pedestal", and described Flemke as "a Babe Ruth-like figure" in racing. In the words of long-time Modified driver Elton Hill, "If we're talking about short-track racing, I always felt Eddie was the king". Auto racing journalist and historian Bruce Cohen summarized Flemke's impact on racing as: "He transcended his sport and the arena in which he competed. Lots of guys win races, but there was only one Eddie Flemke".

Personal
Flemke was married twice. His first marriage was to Christine Errede from 1953 to 1960, with whom he had two children, Paula and Ed. In 1966, Flemke married Carolyn Goldsnider, remaining married to her until his death. They had a daughter named Kristy. Paula married Ron Bouchard, a driver in Modifieds and later in the NASCAR Winston Cup, in 1983. Ed raced Modifieds from 1973 to 2023 and continued the Race Works race car building business that he started with his father.

Death
Throughout his adult life Flemke was a heavy smoker. He was known to light a cigarette in the middle of a race while driving with one hand.

In the early hours of March 30, 1984 Flemke drove the snowplow that he had been operating back to his home and parked in front of his house. When he did not however emerge from the truck, his wife Carolyn came out to check on him. At the age of 53, Flemke had suffered a fatal heart attack. After his death, a section of the Stafford Motor Speedway grandstand was named after him.

Major race wins
Some race wins:
 * Riverside 500 (3 times)
 * Bowman Gray Tobacco Bowl 150 (2 times)
 * Utica-Rome New Yorker 400 (2 times)
 * Thompson 300
 * Stafford 200
 * Stafford Spring Sizzler
 * Eastern States 200
 * Fredericksburg 250
 * Empire Spring 250
 * South Boston 200
 * Old Dominion 300
 * Fort Dix 200
 * Autodrome de Quebec Val-Belair 150
 * Southside 400
 * Catamount Vermont 200
 * Fulton 200
 * Malta 200

Recognition

 * Race of Champions Hall of Fame
 * New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame
 * Eastern Motorsport Press Association Hall of Fame
 * New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame
 * Riverside Park Speedway Hall of Fame
 * New Britain Sports Hall of Fame
 * National Auto Racing Hall of Fame

There is a plaque of Flemke in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Member of State of Connecticut Advisory Committee on Stock Car Racing