Reino Tulonen Passes

By admin January 28, 2014 Brookline, Hudson, Keene, Manchester, Medford Bowl, NASCAR Cup Series, NEAR, NEMA, Norwood, Nostalgia, Oxford Plains, Seekonk, Stafford, Thompson, Westboro Speedway

NEAR Hall of Famer was 89

FITCHBURG — Reino Kalervo Tulonen, 89, of Fitchburg, died Jan. 26th at HealthAlliance Leominster Hospital, after an illness.

He leaves his wife of 69 years, Anna Mae (Deery) Tulonen; one son, Rodney Arthur Tulonen and his wife, Patricia Magrosky, of Springfield, VT; two daughters, Joanne Tulonen of Seattle, WA. and Elaine T. Pierce and her partner, Joel Slutsky, of Alstead, NH; six grandchildren, Gregory Tulonen, Sarah Pritchett, Melissa O’Dell, Michael O’Dell, Lucie Pierce and Jeremie Pierce and four great-grandchildren, Simone Parker, Connor and Riley Tulonen and Alina O’Dell; and many nieces and nephews, including Nancy, Ronald and David Riikonen, who became part of the family. He also leaves a close family friend, Claude Caswell, who was considered another son. He was predeceased by a daughter, Betty Tulonen, a sister, Elvi Berkio and two brothers, Urho and Toivo Riikonen.

Mr. Tulonen was born in Lunenburg, on August 20, 1924, a son of the late Emil Kaarle and Alina (Bjorbacka) Riikonen Tulonen. He was raised in Lunenburg and attended schools there. When he was young he worked for the Crocker-Burbank Company, and then moved to Custom Auto Body where he worked until starting his own business as a front end alignment specialist until he retired. But his real love was racing cars.

“The Flying Finn”, as he came to be known, began his racing career in 1946, the year his first child was born, and continued for thirty years. He raced many types of cars including; big cars, midgets, stock cars and late models. His most successful car was a cut down that he designed and built himself. Most of his car racing was done in New England, but he also drove in Canada, Darlington, SC, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Over the years, Reino won many races, with trophies reflecting his skill as a race car driver and articles describing his daring exploits on the track. He was awarded the 1964 Champion Class A Driver by the Atlantic Auto Racing Association, and had fans from around the world requesting his autograph and wanting to talk to him about his racing career. In 2005, he was inducted into the New England Antique Racers Hall of Fame in recognition of a life time of racing.

TULONEN — Funeral Services will be held on Friday, Jan. 31, at 10 a.m. in the Smith-Mallahy-Masciarelli and Fitchburg Chapel of the Sawyer-Miller-Masciarelli Funeral Home, 243 Water St., Fitchburg, MA. Rev. Mary Ann Barry will be the Celebrant.

Calling hours at the Funeral Home are on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 4 to 7 p.m.

See www.masciarellifamilyfuneralhomes.net for further information.

Published in Sentinel & Enterprise on Jan. 29, 2014

Reino Tulonen was an accomplished driver over his nearly three decades in racing. He drove cutdowns,  midgets, sprint cars,  and modifieds. He drove a Henry J in four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (then called Grand National) races in 1951; his best finish was fifth in his final start at Thompson. Tulonen participated in the inaugural season of the Northeastern Midget Association. He finished seventh in 1953 points.

In 1964, Tulonen won the Atlantic Auto Racing Association championship and Class A honors at the old Westboro Speedway driving for Rick Falconi.

He won more than the 36 races I have accounted for, but recordkeeping was not a priority for most promoters of the era. He won 16 times at Westboro Speedway between 1952 and 1964. Other tracks that saw Tulonen claim victories were Brookline,  Hudson (1952) and Oxford Plains (1-1951). He won 6 each at Medford Bowl (1951-52), Norwood Arena (1954-59) and Seekonk Speedway (1960-61). Tulonen was the cutdown champion at Seekonk in 1961.

Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com