Remembering A Grand Champion
Four-Time West Champ Schmitt Left Indelible Legacy On NASCAR
Whether it was as a businessman in his hometown of Redding, California or racing stock cars – Bill Schmitt worked hard to be the best at whatever he did and gained a lot of respect along the way.
Schmitt passed away in November at the age of 78. A public celebration of his life will be held from 1-3 p.m. on Saturday at the Shasta Baptist Church in Redding.
His hard work was evident in both of his endeavors. He was a successful entrepreneur – running multiple businesses during his lifetime and being well-respected. He was particularly well-known in the logging industry in Northern California.
In racing, Schmitt was a four-time champion and one of the most popular drivers of his era in what was then known as the NASCAR Winston West Series (now the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West). He raced in the series for 20 seasons, from 1974 to 1993. During that span he competed in 237 races, scoring 19 wins and garnering 24 poles. Several of his career marks remain as records in the modern era of the series (1971 to present): 122 top-five finishes, 163 top-10 finishes and 4,274 laps led.
Schmitt and his wife, Sylvia, were fixtures on the circuit during the two decades he raced.
“You could always depend on him,” recalled Ken Clapp, who served as NASCAR’s Vice President for Western Operations at the time. “Personally, he worked very well with me. He made personal appearances and did interviews as we needed. And he was well respected by the other guys. Even though he had a lot of money, you didn’t get that feeling. He didn’t flaunt that around.
“He was very understated,” Clapp said. “He was a gentle giant. He was as tough as there was. There wasn’t anybody any tougher than Bill Schmitt on a race track. He would race you clean, fair and square – unless you messed with him. He was nobody to mess around with, on or off the track.”
Despite their early success, Clapp says Schmitt and his family-operated team continued to improve.
“They got better and better as time went on,” Clapp said. “The boys became better mechanics. Bill was a good short track racer when he arrived. It took him a couple of years to get it all figured out, but he became fast everywhere he went. I don’t recall him being better at one particular track over another – whether it was a dirt track, a road course or a paved oval.”
In addition to winning series titles in 1977, 1979, 1989 and 1990; Schmitt finished as the runner-up in the championship standings six times. As a competitor in the Winston West Series, he raced in numerous combination races with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – where his best overall finish was fourth in 1979 at Riverside (California) International Raceway.
Among the drivers Schmitt challenged in the Winston West Series was the legendary Hershel McGriff.
“He was just a very good friend,” McGriff recalled. “Those were racing days back when I thought it was real good racing. He was a clean racer. I never did have any problems with him. We had good clean racing all the time. We were kind of a big family. Those were good times.”
The friendship between the two competitors also extended beyond the race track.
“We were good friends away from the track, too,” McGriff said. “He hauled logs and he did gravel. He did a lot of stuff that I do. We always had a lot in common.”
“I use to go to the lake there. One time I parked my boat in front of his house. He had other equipment out there. I had asked him a week or two earlier if I could do that. So, I left it there for two weeks and I came back and said, ‘Bill, I took my boat.’ He said, ‘I didn’t even know it was here’.”
The role Schmitt played in the series, left a strong impression, meanwhile, with many new drivers coming into the Winston West Series. An up-and-coming rookie who raced door-to-door with him in 1986 was Chad Little.
“He was one of the ones to beat everywhere he went,” Little said. “He was a veteran and I was new to the series at the time.
“He was a very good competitor,” said Little, who won the rookie title in 1986 and the series championship in 1987. “He raced you clean. He raced you the way that, from my standpoint, the way I wanted to be raced and the way I tried to race other people. You could trust him, whether you were at a high-speed oval or a real tight road course. So there are a lot of good memories from that standpoint.”
Little went on to compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series and now works for NASCAR as the Director of the Camping World Truck Series.
Little was not the only new driver to face Schmitt when he came into the series. Bill Sedgwick developed an early bond with the veteran driver, who had already won two series championships.
“He was a good guy and an intense racer,” Sedgwick said. “We had a lot of fun times. We respected one another.”
The two drivers battled each other in some of the toughest championship contests in the history of the series. Schmitt won the title over Sedgwick in 1989 and 1990, while Sedgwick took the crown over Schmitt in 1991 and 1992.
Sedgwick remembers the stress of those championship battles, especially in 1990 when the title was decided by just one point.
“It was a little nerve-racking,” Sedgwick said. “He and I were running together at Phoenix. I don’t remember what position we were in, probably 15th or so. For a few laps I’d be in front of him and for a few laps he would be in front of me. It all came down to who would pit and who didn’t pit. I ended up pitting. I thought that was the thing to do. No caution came out. I got back up to him, but couldn’t get by him and lost the championship by one point.”
Although the two were highly competitive, Sedgwick credits Schmitt with providing an early boost to his career.
“When I first started, he said ‘you’re good’. I remember that about him. It gave me a lot of confidence,” said Sedgwick, who in addition to his two driving titles, has five champion crew chief awards. “That’s why I try to do the same when I see an up-and-coming young driver. I try to build them up and share my thoughts with them. It did a lot for me. It meant a lot.”
There was something else about Schmitt, meanwhile, that captivated Sedgwick as a series rookie.
“I just admired the operation that he put together,” Sedgwick said. “He was always real competitive and went out and got the resources and sponsors and everything he needed to be successful.
“Before I started driving, he picked up a sponsor, California Cooler,” Sedgwick said. “I just marveled at how somebody could put together an operation like that on the West Coast. I also knew he had ties with Junior Johnson. He would get motor parts and stuff from Junior. He knew how to go out and get what he needed to succeed. I have a lot of respect for that. Instead of sitting at home and crying about what you don’t have, he went out and made it happen.”
Schmitt’s accomplishments in racing also left a strong impression with a young driver/owner, who was coming into the series as the veteran was wrapping up his career. Bill McAnally took note of the four-time champion, with hopes of being able to emulate him someday.
“I always admired Bill Schmitt,” said McAnally, who has gone on to win five series championships as a car owner. “He set a great example of how to build a successful racing program. As a newcomer to the series, I looked up to him and wanted to develop a race team like his. He was a great leader. He contributed a lot to this series.”
After retiring from racing in 1993, Schmitt focused his attention on running his businesses.
He was in the inaugural class of inductees into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2002.
Sources: Kevin Green, Special To NASCARHomeTracks.com