Utica-Rome An Historic NASCAR Icon
Era of Jerry Cook, Richie Evans Remembered
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Utica-Rome Speedway in Vernon, N.Y., is among the most celebrated in NASCAR short track racing history.
NASCAR pavement Modified fans know it as home track for national champions Richie Evans and Jerry Cook in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent decades, dirt Modified fans revel in competitive standards set by Paul Jensen then Dale Planck in the 1990s to current standard bearer Stewart Friesen.
The track and NASCAR announced Saturday night that Utica-Rome would be part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series in 2014.
The track’s original asphalt era 1961-1978 established it as an enduring icon.
Utica-Rome Speedway was nearest to Rome, N.Y., where rivals Evans and Cook each had race shops. When Evans won his first of nine NASCAR Modified division national championships in 1973, he also won his second of four Utica-Rome championships. Cook won six national championships and Utica Rome’s 1969 track champion. He posted his first of 19 wins there in 1963.
The duo became two of NASCAR Modified racing’s all-time greats. Cook retired from driving at the end of the 1982 season. Evans perished in an accident during practice at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway at the end of the 1985 season. Evans was enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., in 2012. Cook is a NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee, and enshrined in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and about a half-dozen other halls. Both are among NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers, selected in NASCAR’s 50th anniversary year of 1998.
“We’ve had some good guys come out of this little race track,” said Gene Cole, owner and promoter of the speedway since 2002.
“I like history and I want to preserve it,” Cole said, noting that Evans’ No. 16 and Cook’s No. 38 are both retired from competition there. “Jerry is very much a gentleman.”
If the subject of Utica-Rome Speedway comes up in conversation with Cook, he has a two-word response: “That’s home.” He’s especially proud of his 1969 track championship.
“Winning a track championship anywhere was hard to come by because we were always chasing national point races. Winning a championship at my home track will always be special.”
Cook, Evans and many others pursued national point races wherever and whenever they were available up to five nights a week. Cook still won his share track championships. In addition to Utica-Rome, he also won NASCAR titles at Catamount Speedway in Milton, Vt., and Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y., and two dirt tracks, Fonda (N.Y.) Speedway and Canandaigua (N.Y.) Speedway. Canandaigua was the site of Cook’s first track championship 50 years ago in 1963. He also won a Canadian track championship at Capital City Speedway near Ottawa. Cook’s NASCAR Modified career record is 342 wins, 954 top-fives and 1,253 top-10s in 1,474 starts. He also won 26 pole awards.
Evans won Utica-Rome track titles 1972-74 and 1978. His NASCAR Modified division national championship years include 1973 and 1978-1985. He won championships at 11 different tracks and won an estimated 475 races in about 1,300 starts.
Cook and Evans were fierce competitors and their kinship had an ebb and flow.
“We were all friends as friends could be until we got on the track,” Cook said. “Richie and I had a changeable relationship. For the most part we were friends. Then there were weeks when we weren’t so friendly.”
Cook’s career encompassed the evolution of pavement Modified race cars. His early cars were 1937 and 1938 Chevy Coupes. The car of choice progressed to Ford Falcons, and then the Ford Pinto. Cook built his own race cars until the late 1970s when he moved to a Pontiac J-2000-bodied Troyer chassis.
When he retired from driving in 1982, Cook became a NASCAR official. He is now a longtime NASCAR competition administrator. He helped develop the modern era NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and was its founding director in 1985. He also helped develop and in 1987 was the founding director of what is now known as the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East. He remains heavily involved on the competition side for all NASCAR touring series and the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. Cook is based in the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, N.C., and resides in Mooresville, N.C., with his wife Sue.
Dirt Modified driver Dale Planck leads the track’s combined all-time 21-year NASCAR sanctioned asphalt and dirt win list (1961-1975, 1978, 1994-98). A total of 319 NASCAR point races were held with 235 on asphalt and 84 on dirt. They account for nearly 40 percent of the 805 total Modified features run at Utica-Rome since 1961. Planck has 33 NASCAR-sanctioned wins followed by Lazzaro with 30 and Evans with 28. Ed Flemke is fourth on the combined win list followed by Rene Charland and Cook who are tied with 19. Jensen has 10 NASCAR point race wins including the first NASCAR-sanctioned dirt Modified race on April 24, 1994 and the last on June 21, 1998.
Meticulous track record keeping over the decades show 50 Modified drivers posted 246 feature wins over 17 seasons on asphalt 1961-1978. On its dirt surface starting in 1979 and running through the completion of 2013 season, 83 Modified drivers have shared 559 feature wins over 32 seasons. Only three drivers won on both surfaces including Lou Lazzaro (30 asphalt; two dirt), Dave Lape (two asphalt, six dirt), and Maynard Forrette (one asphalt, three dirt). Evans won the track’s final pavement Modified feature event, the New Yorker 200, on Sept. 3, 1978. Lazzaro won the first dirt Modified feature on June 30, 1979. Evans is the all-time leading asphalt race winner with 33. Friesen is the all-time leading dirt track race winner with 44.
More information on the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series is available at http://hometracks.nascar.com.
Sources: Paul Schaefer/NASCAR PR