Email Lew at lewboyd@coastal181.com
 

This is Rick Martel at the wheel of the #181 big block Mustang at Weedsport NY Speedway. We ran the car for four years all over New York and New England. Originally it had a neat little ’37 Buick three window coupe body, but that was dispatched one night in a very major wreck at Fonda, NY. Rick bought the car in 1977 and raced widely in it, too, including at places like Reading, PA. Rick is still in racing, promoting major kart events in upstate New York.

Here’s Corey Dripps getting ready for warm-ups at Tri Oval Speedway in Fountain City, Wisconsin, also know as “the Circle of Death.” Corey is a real gasser on the USMTS modified circuit, a real big supporter of Coastal 181, and a record setter with his “Big Cock” chassis. He tells this story about a night a few years back at Benton County Speedway in Vinton, Iowa. “I was coming off the turn at Vinton and I just plain got turned right and hit the fence big time. I bit my lip, lost my breath, and jacked myself all up with the submarine part of the seat belts. I was waving my hands when the medics got there, trying to tell them just to leave me alone, but I couldn’t even talk for a while. The car was totally massacred. Later that night I was hobbling around the pits with my private parts still hurting, and an old guy came up to me and asked if I was the driver. When I told him I was, he said, “I’ve been coming to the races here since 1962 and I have never seen anyone go through that fence. But I’ve also never seen anyone try as hard as you did.”

Bobby Magner, #22, is part of the Double Deuce Racing Team (with Pat Lavery in the #2).  They are based in the Oswego area and race Supers at Oswego and on the road in the ISMA circuit.  Bobby took the Oswego checker on July 5th, sporting the Coastal 181 logo on his car.  The Team is also involved in an effort to promote reading among young race fans, selling Coastal 181 favorites like Martin and TJ’s Race Car Repair, Racer Buddies, and Speed Racer books pitside at their hauler.  Books are also available at the ISMA races in the ISMA Novelty Trailer.

Eric Nordhoff is the driver of the Coastal 181 Troyer in the Whelen Mod series at  www.robertsraceplace.com, a SIM racing community. At RRP they race 7 nights a week, with different points series available for drivers of all experience levels. This league is 100% free to participate in and uses the Papyrus NASCAR 2003 platform. Please drop by and join the fun -- and root for the Coastal 181 car!

We took a ride with Bobby Santos in his modified at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on June 28.  Good Lord, he sure is fast.  He hustled the brand new car from down back to a solid sixth-place finish.  But you should have seen him the night before on the high banks of Lee USA (NH) Speedway.  Bobby was in the Santos family midget and he really took the NEMA field to soccer camp on his way to a commanding win.  (Photo Dick Berggren)

Here’s that Blake “Sideways” Shepard again, on his way to a heat race win this spring.  We know he is going to win a feature soon.  That’s pretty cool since he had never been in a race car before climbing into the #181 modified.  He’s gutsy, and we forgive him for masquerading during the week as a Vice President of Fidelity Investments!”

Rick Standridge goes for a spectacular win, way upstairs, last lap at Belle-Claire Speedway in Illinois on April 20. Rick is an extraordinarily talented driver with an open-wheel trailer but a hauler full of victories in both late models and sprinters.  His wife Joyce is an Editor-at-Large and columnist with Speedway Illustrated.  She is also a favorite author with Coastal 181.  She is currently working on Coastal 181's WIN IT OR WEAR IT, a major book on the color and characters of sprint car racing - MORE INFO HERE.  It will be available late this fall.  (Todd Nieman photo)

It would be inappropriate to call this a Coastal car.  However, it was the inspiration for the tradition of blue and yellow #181s that has now continued for 50 years.

Walter “Pepper” Eastman was a dirt driver from Madison, New York.  Though not a huge winner, he was unusually popular with his series of 181 Sportsman coupes. Typically huge blue flames would fire from his exhaust collector as he lifted for turns on the dusty Empire State half-miles. The high point in his career was in 1957 when he took the Monroe County championship.  The victory had its macabre side, however.  Actually, burly Don Hendenberg had emerged first in points, but, when he died in a highway accident, the title was awarded to Pepper, the runner-up.

In the sixties Pepper did some ride-hopping and drove Bob Zimmerman’s #72. On August 14, 1965, Pepper was running the consi at Fonda and he brushed the graveyard turn wall.  The flip that followed was fatal.

(John Grady photo)

This is an IMCA modified that was driven by long-time New York racer Danny Wood. The car has had its ups and downs. Danny was fast in it, until one tumultuous night in 2006 at Fonda. Fonda has its way of finishing off race cars, but this one had something in reserve. Danny sold it at the Lebanon Valley flea market to Adam Pierson, the youngest of a great Vermont racing family. Adam wheeled it to the 2007 IMCA Championship at Bear Ridge Speedway.

This is our Coastal 181 open competition modified. She is a good old girl – a lightened up, winged, 1991 Champ Car. We call her Jean.

We brought her out for Charlie Elliott’s “Last Hurrah” race at Canaan (NH) Speedway last August. Danny Douville drove it for us and he started in the back row next to “Roarin’” Randy Howe in the #82. The two of them blasted through the field to the front and had quite the spirited battle.

In this photo, Danny was just taking the lead, and things were looking pretty good for the Coastal team. On the next lap, however, the fence jumped out right out in front of us.

Oh well.

Karl Fredrickson, Editor of Speedway Illustrated magazine, has a great family, a great writing style, and a great sense of humor. He is also a winning short track driver. Most of his driving has been on asphalt and he has won in all manner of pavement pounders, including this modified. Just to keep him honest, a few seasons ago we at Coastal 181 loaned him a car to run on dirt for a year. He learned well. When he went to Boone to cover the Nationals for the magazine in 2005. He got himself a ride and won the Sport Mod feature.

This #181 is a TEO modified racing at the infamous Bear Ridge Speedway in Vermont. The driver is Blake Shepard, who by day is a Vice President of Fidelity Investments in Boston. On the weekends another side of Blake’s personality comes alive. We call him “Sideways” Shepard. You can see why.

That’s Jim Rigney in September of 1950, standing next to his family’s Pontiac at the old Naples Speedway in upstate New York. Jim became a major open wheel enthusiast and had a stellar career in publishing in Boston. He has been a major player in Coastal 181 since its start. He co-authored the FONDA book and has done the design portion of most all of Coastal 181’s titles.

Rick Standridge, an outstanding veteran dirt late model racer, cops one this summer at Belle-Claire Speedway, an intense, high-banked fifth-mile dirt oval in Belleville, Illinois. Rick’s wife Joyce is a nationally known racing journalist who wrote both GOTTA RACE! with Ken Schrader and INSIDE HERMAN’S WORLD with Kenny Wallace for Coastal 181. Further titles will be forthcoming. Photo credit to Billy Haffer.

Danny Douville is a winning modified shoe from Tilton, NH. He has well over 100 feature wins, dirt and asphalt. In special recognition of a great season a year or two back, his buddies teamed up with Coastal 181 to send Danny to the Chili Bowl in Tulsa. Danny looked really good and, amazingly, almost made it into the show. One thing is for sure – the folks in New England are still talking about it. Photo credit to Otto Graham.

Here’s one of Coastal 181’s house cars at the Vintage Day at New Hampshire International Speedway. The car was built in 1980, one of the very first off Dave Lape’s “Champ Car” assembly line. It ran dirt tracks all over the Northeast, piloted by Tim Clemons, John Bellinger, Karl Fredrickson, and Finch Fenton. Photo credit to R. Roberts.