It was during these years that he formed relationships with Zora, Bill Mitchell, DeLorean, Bunkie Knudson and many others that would allow Doane Chevrolet to become the largest Corvette dealership in the world, all from that little two car showroom at 10 East Main in Dundee! (Chevrolet allotted their dealers a limited amount of Corvettes each month. Doane Chevrolet never had this limit. I still have an old Road & Track with Doane Chevrolet advertising this on the back page)
These contacts would also bring Meadowdale Raceway into the covert world of auto racing support that Chevrolet did at a time when the auto manufacturers where abandoning "official race teams". Chevrolet poured plenty of money into Jim Hall's Chaparral, Yenko Chevrolet and Penske back east, and Doane Chevrolet by "loaning" them parts, engines and advice.
Jim Hall had his Rattlesnake Raceway in Midland, TX to test with and Dick Doane had Meadowdale Raceway in Carpentersville, IL to test with. Dad was a racing engineer with the Official Corvette Racing team, 1956-58. It was during this time that he became teammates with Dr. Dick Thompson and Jim Rathmann. When Chevrolet pulled out of racing (nudge nudge, wink wink) hmmm...Doane Chevrolet suddenly sprouted a brand new race shop complete with dyno along the Fox River, Meadowdale Raceway became a reality....and the projects began.
The first car built in the shop was called, "The Witch Doctor", 1958 I think. If anybody has any pics of this car, I would love to have one as I have none. It was basically modeled after a birdcage Maserati with a Chevy small block. I was only 4 at this time, but I still remember this beast and the painting of a witch doctor, complete with bone through his nose, on the side of the car. It was named after that goofy song from the 50's "...ting, tang...walla, walla, bing, bang, etc.".
Dad would fire this thing up and the entire dealership would shake. He plopped me into the "passenger" seat and drove it right through Dundee up to the track, the exhaust rattling all the windows of every store on Main St. Driving a race car straight from the dealership up to the racetrack was a common sight back then and the local police never batted an eye.
I was usually watched by Anthony Basura, Dad's long time chief mechanic, while at the track. I would sit in one of the stalls of the old two level paddock as Dad dropped me off. I was called "Little Dougie" back then and my dad usually brought me everywhere with him. I can still remember him blasting around the Monza wall and then down that long straight. I would watch him disappear over the hill as he headed into the little Monza, and then listen for him as he wound through the rest of the track, finally reappearing from behind the Monza as he headed into Doane's Corner.
According to Dad, "The Witch Doctor" was very fast in a straight line, but a "pig" in the corners. My fondest memories of this time was Dad doing all this testing while wearing NO helmet, NO seat belts and usually a lit Pall Mall in his mouth as he powered around the track, the cigarette pack rolled up in the arm of his T shirt. I have no clue of whatever became of this car; whether it was sold, wrecked or destroyed.
Another project to get a Meadowdale workout was "The Bosley". This was an all fiberglass coupe sports car with a massive Cadillac engine. Three of these were built, but I don't believe they were race cars, just an engineering experiment. Although they called it a sports car, it was huge, almost bigger than a Cadillac Coupe DeVille.
1963 saw delivery to Doane Chevrolet of a new secret race weapon, personally conceived by Zora, to go to war against Carroll Shelby's Cobra's; the Corvette Grand Sport. Dad received one of the first ones built and it was tested quite extensively at MIR. I don't know if the public was aware of this or not as development on the GS was so covert, but I do have a ton of pics of the GS at Meadowdale.
Because of that long straight, quite a bit of the aerodynamics were tested there. I have one pic of Dad in the GS just hauling ass down the front straight. The lift is so severe in the front end it looks like it's about to take off for flight. Dick Thompson drove that car in the real races, but MIR played quite a big roll in developing the Grand Sport. I find it interesting that I didn't see any reference to this on this site. Maybe it was too covert.
1964...front engines are out. The next project became the "Chevette". (long before GM bastardized the name with that crap economy car of the 70's). Bob McKee in Palatine was contracted to build the frame and body. Dad designed the transaxle on a drafting table in our den. It was a four speed "quick change gear ratio" with no reverse gear. Dad told me, "a good driver doesn't use reverse".
The engines were shipped to the shop from Detroit. Oh, such a beautiful car. You (MIR website) have a pic of it from the 1964 season pics at the USRRC section. It's the blue No. 29 on the second row (that color is Nassau Blue, originally used on the Grand Sports). I accompanied my dad many times to McKee's in Palatine as this car was being conceived. They shaped the body out of aluminum, pounding it into shape with hammers and sandbags. Now there's a lost art in today's world of carbon fiber composites.
I remember that race very well. Dick Thompson drove it to third (I think...not sure though). Nobody could touch the Chaparrals that day. My Dad gave me the thrill of my life in this car. He plopped me into the passenger seat and drove it up to the track one day. This time, he didn't drop me off, but let me ride along for a few laps. I can remember this as if it was yesterday, the feeling of the dust and sand stinging my face as we flew down that straight. Dad later told me he wasn't pushing it and we were only doing "about 140" mph. This 10 year old was in heaven.
I remember Dad racing the Chevette at Lynndale Farms, and leading briefly at Riverside before a fuel line broke. He didn't take me with him later that summer when he brought it to Mid Ohio. Good thing I guess. Dad spun it and got T boned. It was his only bad accident. The Chevette was sent back to McKee Engineering for repairs and Dad never raced again. I believe it raced once in 1965 at the USRRC race in Pensacola with Dick Thompson behind the wheel, but it was soon sold after that. Boy, would I love to know what became of that car.
It seemed like I was ALWAYS at MIR. I played with toys there. I ran in the empty paddock stalls there. I rode my bicycle there. I learned to bring something to do or play with as I knew the "grownups" would be hunkered over an open racing hood. I was there in 1968 when a new management company took it over.
I can remember sitting on the floor of at the top of the Pagoda (basically the only structure left after they tore down the double level paddock stalls), thumbing through a pile of old Autoweeks (published on newsprint back then), while Dad discussed what had to be done to bring the track up to specs for the Trans Am. I believe he was the intermediate between the new management and the SCCA.
The Monza wall had to go and a ton of new Armco had to be installed around the track. I hated to see the Monza go. They leveled it and built a huge asphalt square on that South end. Using hay bales, pylons and some yellow striping paint, they fashioned a corner out of that square. They barely got that track ready in time. Ha...I remember them still welding the main straight pedestrian overpass during practice and time trials on Saturday, one day before the race!
That Trans Am was so memorable, for many reasons. The service area of Doane Chevrolet was cleared of all customer cars that weekend so the back could be used by all the teams as a "speed shop away from home". What a blast for a young teenager to walk through the back of the family dealership and it was filled with great racers.
The kicker was Dad had the original Mako Shark brought down from Detroit for that week. I was the coolest kid on earth as my Dad drove me around Dundee and Elgin in what I thought was the coolest car on earth. I was there when that idiot drove the grader onto the track. I was there for drag races, kart races...you name it.
There was actually a publicized grudge match at the drag strip between my dad and "TV Tommy" Ivo and his Pontiac. My Dad hated drag racing. He was quoted in some publication as saying, "Any idiot can drive in a straight line. It takes skill for a road course". Ivo took offense to this and challenged Dad to a drag match. Dad won...but of course he cheated. He filled the windshield wiper reservoir on his Corvette with some sort of oxidant (hydrogen peroxide I think) and then ran a vacuum manifold intake hose to it. It worked sort of like a nitrous oxide system of today. He told me it was an old stock car trick from the early days of NASCAR.
When Meadowdale closed after that 68 season, it was like a part of my family died with it. New tracks like Donnybrooke (Brainerd) in MN and Michigan International Speedway were popping up in the midwest. I remember Dad telling me Besinger would never open the track up again as the land was much more valuable for developing something else. I never imagined it would become a forest preserve. I thought for sure it eventually would become housing.
I spent most of my teen summers going to race tracks week after week with my father, all across the country. Dad became a race steward for the SCCA after he quit driving. He actually disqualified Dickie Smothers (of the Smothers Brothers) at Donnybrooke for driving down the pit lane the wrong way (it was his second warning) during the Formula 5000 series. Not to many teenagers could tell their classmates that their Dad had tossed the highest rated television star out of a race because he flaunted his fame in the face of regulations.
So how did Doane's Corner become Doane's Corner? I've been asked this many times, but I honestly don't know. I heard one story that our family at one time owned a few acres where the corner was carved out. I personally think it was just from the friendship between my family and the Besingers. I think my Dad went to school with one of the Besingers...I'm not sure on this either...but I do know that they were close friends long before MIR was created.
My stepmom was a secretary for the Besingers around 1955 and it was through them that my Dad met her. (The story is that when my Dad walked into Besingers office, he was so smitten with my stepmom, that he returned the next day, placed a brand new mink stole around her and asked her out).
As the 60's churned into 1970, the memories of Meadowdale began to fade, being replaced by Road America, the Can Am, Trans Am, Formula 5000 and regional SCCA races. 1971.
Blackhawk Farms would be the very last race track for Dick Doane. He suffered a fatal heart attack the day after we went to an SCCA Regional there. He was 48. I was so devastated, that I turned my back completely on all facets of auto racing. I had been prepared for my father's death during my youth as I watched so many drivers die, but not by a blood clot.
I was so relieved when my father quit racing because the fear of an early death had been removed. I had grown up having breakfast or dinner with a Penske, Gurney, Granatelli, Jim Hall, Indy 500 winners, NASCAR winners, F1 winners...even one of the original Astronauts, Gordon Cooper (who became involved with racing through Jim Rathmann)...and suddenly it was all gone. I just walked away from it all, buried the memories, and searched for my own life away from the shadow of my father's.
It's now 3 decades later. I had moved from the midwest to New York City and then to Florida. I became a very successful standup comic and magician, performing on cable TV, cruise ships, resorts around the world and touring with Jay Leno for a bit. I was about as far removed from the world of auto racing as one could probably get, but now I too have a son, who has questions about the grandfather he never met.
As we went through all the photos and scrapbooks of his life, I discovered this site too. Thank you so much for preserving the history of Meadowdale. I had removed the memories of the track from my life; too painful for a teenager that lost a father too early. My father's life had been buried in dust covered boxes for far too long. Now, it's pride that brings a smile to my face, as my son thinks his Grandpa must have been "one cool dude" to have a corner named after him at an International Racetrack.
One of these days, I'm going to have to bring him back to Illinois and the track. I could walk it blindfolded to this day. I think it will be the stories I can tell as we walk that track together that will bring the most enjoyment...stories about an age of racing where there was no such thing as safety, where drivers didn't deal with sponsors, cheating the rules and death were expected, and the men had a difficult time separating the passion for their fast women with their fast cars.
Lastly, there was the laughter. There was always a smile, a wink or a huge laugh from this age and breed of drivers as they told stories of their many conquests. Ya had to be there...even if you were just a child sitting at the feet of one of these men. I have so many photos of Meadowdale; pre-construction, construction, pace cars sponsored by Doane Chevrolet, the Corvette SS 1 and the tests with the Grand Sport. I'll get them scanned one of these days and you may post them on this site if you like.
Magically Yours,
May, 2005
