Dick Lang Racing History: Meadowdale

Showing posts with label Meadowdale. Show all posts

12/5/07

1960 Meadowdale SCCA Regional

Meadowdale SCCA Regional October 2, 1960

Dick Lang #85, lst in BP

12/1/07

1961 Meadowdale

1961 Governor's Cup, Wisconsin Grand Prix, Meadowdale Raceway, July 23, 1961.

A&B Production Results

Div.	Finish	Driver	Car Model	Car #	Comments
AP	1st	Denise McCluggage	Ferrari 250 GT	5	First in A Production
BP	2d	Bob Spooner	Corvette	36	First in B Production
BP	3rd	Dick Lang	Corvette	85
BP	4th	Nate Karras	Corvette	49
BP	5th	Roy Kumnick	Corvette	40
BP	6th	Harold Keck	Corvette	46
BP	7th	Tom Terrell	Corvette	53
BP	8th	George Reed	Ferrari 250 GT California	195
BP	9th	I.G. Davis	Corvette	22
EP	10th	Mark Donohue	Elva Courier	000	1st in experimental

Dick Lang in his corvette before the meadowdale race. He remembers that the track was very challenging.

11/4/07

1961 Meadowdale, IL

Meadowdale, October 1, 1961

Prod B,D & E
1. Dick Lang (Corvette) (Also lst in BP Class)
2. Nate Karras (Corvette)
3. Ralph Salyer (Corvette)

Racing against Spooner's "Purple People Eater" #33. Notice the same track position here as in the photo above against a different driver.

Returning to the track...

10/4/07

SCCA National [AP+BP+CP]
Meadowdale SCCA National Championships, Meadowdale International Raceway
August 5, 1962; Attendance: 18000

Pos. No. Driver / Nationality Car
1. - Dick Thompson -Corvette #11
2. - Dick Lang -Corvette #85
3. - Roy Kumnick -Corvette #44
4. - Bob Grossman -Ferrari Berlinetta #9
5. - Ralph Salyer -Corvette #25
6th 4 Bob Johnson Chevrolet Corvette 5th AP
7th 33 Bob Spooner Chevrolet Corvette 2nd BP
8th 1 Don Yenko Chevrolet Corvette 3rd BP
9th 16 Frank Riemann Chevrolet Corvette 6th AP
10th 7 Dave Clark Lotus Super 7 1st CP
11th 82 Bud Gates Chevrolet Corvette 4th BP
12th 28 Pete Ledwith Lotus Super 7 2nd CP
13th 2 Grady Davis Chevrolet Corvette 5th BP
14th 51 Les Detterbeck Lotus Super 7 3rd CP
15th 69 Mike Hall Porsche 356 Carrera 6th BP
16th 18 Horace Pettit Lotus Super 7 4th CP
17th 79 Ralph Henry Lotus Super 7 5th CP
18th 17 Walter Smejkal Chevrolet Corvette 7th BP
19th 71 Jack Cooper Porsche 356 Super 90 6th CP
20th 22 Marvin Dee Fiat-Abarth 1000 7th CP

A short silent film of the leaders from the race. Thanks to Roger!

9/4/07

1963 Meadowdale

June 29-30, Meadowdale International Raceway (Chicago).

AP lst place: Dick Lang (Stingray)

1963 Meadowdale (August)

August 3-4; Meadowdale International Raceway

Div.	Finish	Driver	Car Model
AP	1st	Bob Brown	Shelby Cobra
AP	2d	Roy Kumnick	Corvette Sting Ray
AP	3rd	Ralpha Salyer	Corvette Sting Ray
BP	1st	Don Yenko	Corvette

7/4/07

1968 Meadowdale

Regional Meadowdale [ASR+BSR+AP+BP+A Sedans]
Regional Races, Meadowdale Date: 19.5.1968

Fastest lap: Dick Lang No. 85 Chevrolet Camaro 0:49 118,239 km/h
Fastest lap: John Weinberger No. 1 Porsche 0:49 118,239 km/h

Pos. No. Driver / Nationality Car
1. 1 John Weinberger (USA) Porsche
2. 85 Dick Lang (USA) Chevrolet Camaro

*Pretty good considering the car wasn't set up right and one wheel lifted off the ground in turns.

Racing With My Father-in-Law

By Jack Kitchen.

Racing with my Father In-Law:

A few years ago (2003) Dick’s son (Todd) and I coerced him into three days of motor sports in the desert. Todd and I have heard the stories of Dick’s days behind the wheel of corvettes hundred maybe thousands of times. I don’t care how many times I’ve heard them, I always ask to hear them again. The stories of running door-to-door with Yenko, Donahue, and Parnelli Jones were magical to me. Dick had unknowingly passed the dream of becoming a racecar driver onto Todd and I. I ended up volunteering for NASCAR teams in North Carolina and working at a dealership in a parts department for a year just to get closer to that dream. I built road-racing cars on a shoestring budget and was taking driving lessons when I could afford them. Todd has since put a racecar together and is seeing the dream of trading paint come true. [ed. Note: Low, low budget dirt track racing]

Todd and I wanted more than anything to spend a day on the track with Dick. Hesitantly he agreed to go to the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. It must have been odd for Dick to go to a class that he could have easily taught. He never let on that he had raced Bob Bondurant long before the school was ever started.

We strapped in the cars for three days of instruction. I must have been smiling every second. I mowed over cones while learning trail braking and heal & toe shifting. Dick was given the name “Turbo” after schooling the youngsters on the skid pad. The Grand Finale of the school was a race. The students tested their new skills against each other. Todd dominated the first part of the race and made passes where I would never have attempted. Todd showed a couple of our classmates how to avoid crashing by driving through the desert. Dick steadily moved through the pack. I brought up the rear with a perma-grin! When the yellow flag was thrown, Todd made a devastating rookie mistake by passing the pace car. Victory slipped away from Todd and “Turbo” took the checkered flag and won once again that afternoon.

Dick claims that he is truly retired from racing and he would rather go hiking than race cars again. I got the chance to race with a true racing legend and it was an experience that I’ll never forget. Having a racing story to share with Dick is a priceless gift that I will be able to keep with me forever.

Todd Comments:

I agree completely with Jack. That racing school was the most fun I've probably ever had. Dad was a great sport to go along with it. He didn't enjoy it at all until he won that final race. Then he finally relaxed and smiled. Also, to be fair, I did blow it by passing the pace car, and I was gaining on dad with a few laps to go. But once he got through slower traffic he left me in the dust. I started pushing too hard to catch him and fell further back. Yet another lesson from Dad.

Langs Chevrolet History

Lang's Chevrolet was in business from 1926 until it was sold in 2016. Dick Lang began working for his father, Fred W. Lang, in the 1950s. Dick began running the business in the 1960s.

Here are some old pictures of the business.

Xenia 1926 Grand Opening of the Dealership

Fred Lang delivering a new car to a customer.

Used Car Lot in the 1940s(?)

"New" Fairborn Dealership circa 1953.

"Modern" Service and Parts Department in the 50s.

Dick Lang "promoting" the business at a young age.