McCallum Memorial/Life Celebration at Thompson Saturday
The Thompson Speedway Club House will host the Jimmy McCallum Memorial/Life Celebration on Saturday, April 19 at 6:30pm. The event recalls McCallum of Fall River, MA, who passed away on September 20. Sign ins begin at 6:30 pm. Texas Hold ‘Em is at 7:30. The event will feature hot and cold appetizers and music.
One of McCallum’s daughters, Lisa Fuller, took the opportunity to recall a local racing legend and support the future. The fundraiser will benefit the Little T Quarter Midget Club. Fuller believes an event that combines her father’s two passions has him “smiling down upon us,” Fuller said. I think he highly would approve.”
“In just going through the process and talking to all these people, that we’re connected to him has been great for me,” Fuller said.”It’s been great for my sisters. It’s helped with a lot of closure.”
“(People) expressed a desire to remember my father,” Fuller said.”And the kids at the track desperately need a scoreboard and I just mulled it around, and I connected the two. My dad loved Thompson. My dad loved racing. He loved playing cards. He loved everything about racing and cards. Since I was a baby that’s been his greatest love. So I decided that I should combine the two and use his connections to the community to help raise money for a scoreboard, which I then could in turn donate in his honor.”
Fuller plans to have tents setup to host the Texas hold ‘em tables. The tables will have denominations ranging from $25 to $100 with 10 people per table. Each winner will take home half of what the table makes, with the remainder going to the scoreboard fund.
Fuller has spent six weeks publicizing the event through her contacts with the club, and getting event essentials like posters and tickets. She has been active through the Facebook pages for tracks like Lee USA, Riverside Park, Thompson and Westboro. NEAR Hall of Famer Mario Fiore has assisted Fuller with the search for photos. Fiore recommended people familiar to the racing community. Historian R.A. Silvia of Warwick and photographers Howie Hodge, Scott Nickel and Alan Ward have all been a part of the effort.
“Racers are an interesting group of people,” Fuller said.”They are a great community and I’ve so enjoyed their generosity. Julie and Mike Stefanik have stepped up and they’re donating a TV and helping us sell tickets. These people are just coming out of the woodwork.”
All funds will be donated to the Little T Speedway. Her husband Rick Fuller is president of the Little T Quarter Midget Club and a former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion. The 1/20-mile USAC sanctioned oval hosts races for drivers as young as six years old. Alumni include NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winner Joey Logano and defending NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Ryan Preece.
Some teams focus on racing exclusively at the Little T, while others will venture to compete at other USAC or QMA sanctioned events. Members as far away as New York will travel to Thompson as well.
“There’s an awful lot of time put into helping your child compete,” Fuller said.”We have our children in it for several reasons. One it will help them be better drivers when they hit the road. Our sixteen year old that’s now driving has more time behind the wheel. He’s learned reaction times. He’s learned how to avoid collisions. He understands how that car is going to handle much better than most sixteen-year-old s so that’s really important as a parent.
“One of the other things that Rick really emphasizes is communicating with your child,” Fuller said.”… A child trying to explain to the parent what the car is doing, how is it handling, how it feels. So it’s a great opportunity for a parent and a child to learn to communicate deeper than just how was school today. It’s amazing to see how that relationship grows and that’s what Rick really loves about racing.”
Fuller points to her father and husband as example of people who were born to race, but drivers can develop their skills in Quarter Midgets.”They give kids the exposure, the opportunity that helps set them apart because a lot of it today is going to be technical (in) bigger divisions.”
“We have a great bunch of kids.” Fuller said. “… I love the kids more than anything from the little kids to the older kids. We’ve had some really great kids get the Hoenig Sportsman Award, prior to that it was the Lou Sherman Sportsman Award. And so many of these kids are considerate drivers.”
Fuller grew up in a racing family traveling with her mother and three sisters throughout New England.”When we were younger, we went to the races all the time,” Fuller said.”We’d spend every weekend between Riverside, Westboro, Thompson. I grew up at all of them. I personally stopped going when I was around 13, 14 when I could stay at home. I think I had enough. Growing up as a racer’s daughter is a little bit different than maybe growing up as a racer’s son.
“I would have rather had new clothes than a new transmission for the car and my father he put racing first often and I think that was the way with a lot of racers back then.”
McCallum represented another era in racing. A time where teams used more ingenuity and the Pro Stock division had a foothold. “They spent a lot of time in the garage,” Fuller said.”It was speed. It was making sure that car was back on the track the next day. I remember many nights dad staying up all night long at the garage if the car got wrecked.”
“They worked on their cars themselves,” Fuller said.”I remember my father was right in there. He had a crew, but if I had to guess, I would say he was the mastermind behind that car. Not that he didn’t have great people around him helping him, but my father was a mechanic and good bad or indifferent and we joke about this all the time my father’s way of looking at the rules and I do believe my father was brilliant as far as mechanical applications. And Rick will say it often ‘Your father knew how to work those rules in his favor.’
He was good living in the gray that’s for sure. Some people didn’t appreciate it as much as my father that’s for sure. He was way above his time in a lot of that stuff.”
“I think my dad and a lot of the older racers, which I hope to be able to remember during this event, were a different breed,” Fuller said.”Yea there was a lot of competition but I remember stories of people needing motors and guys taking them out of the trailers and giving them to their competitors. Or a tranny or stopping and helping them put their car back together. They wanted that competition out on the track.”
Fuller envisions a party of remembrance not just for her father but for “racing as we remember it….like Thompson used to have”
“As a kid, with my dad Thompson (had) some of the best memories. After the races, this is what everyone looked forward to. It’s been a long time since the clubhouse had this type of event. I want to invite everyone. Whether you just hang out at the bar, come to play cards with the fans and drivers or come into the banquet room. We want to rock the house.”
McCallum’s four-decade career began in the mid-1960s. He was the 1969 Sportsman champion at Stafford. He added back-to-back titles at Westboro in the Grand American division in 1971-72.
McCallum will perhaps best be remembered for his contributions to Pro Stock racing. With New England tracks adding the division in the early 1980s, McCallum excelled as a car builder and driver. McCallum won Pro Stock championships in 1985 at the old Riverside Park Speedway and at Thompson. He also captured Stafford’s Pro Stock honors in 1991.
With over 80 career victories to his credit, McCallum won at Lee USA, Norwood, Monadnock, Riverside Park, Seekonk, Spud, Stafford, Thompson, Westboro and Wiscasset. He competed on a variety of regional tours as well: ACT Pro Stock Tour, International Pro Stock Challenge, NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, NASCAR North, NEPSA, and PASS North.
Former Seekonk and Thompson Pro Stock champion Dick Houlihan of Bridgewater, MA reflected on McCallum’s accomplishments.”Jim McCallum was probably one of the best Pro Stock drivers there ever were,” said Houlihan.”I learned a lot from him. I was fortunate enough to drive a car that he had built twice. Actually, my first Pro Stock car was one of Jim McCallum’s cars, and the guy was a master behind the wheel and a master car builder. I have nothing but good things to say about Jim McCallum.
“He just had that talent. He had that natural ability. At any race track he’d show up at he was a threat. He probably won at almost every track he ever raced at, at least once, which is an accomplishment in itself, and he’s just a super driver.”
Tickets are $35 and available at Thompson Speedway or online at https://www.ticketriver.com/event/10583-jim-mccallum. Tickets will also be available at the door. Please RSVP in advance. Email Lisa Fuller at Lfuller1111@aol.com for more information.
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com