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LEARY: Thanks for Everything, Grandma
I visited my 98 year old grandmother, Lena Reigelman, she’s an amazing woman and the reason that I have had a lifetime love of motorsports...
Gregg Leary  |  Posted January 05, 2009   Charlotte, North Carolina
Gregg Leary is a researcher/writer for Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)

I visited my 98 year old grandmother, Lena Reigelman, over the weekend at the Jefferson Health Care Center. Her body is showing signs of nearly a century worth of wear and tear but her mind is sharp most days. She’s an amazing woman and the reason that I have had a lifetime love of motorsports. She’s probably why I’m a researcher for “Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain” and a writer for SPEEDtv.com.

When I was in elementary school, Gram used to take my brothers and me to local dirt track races several times a year during our summer vacations. Usually it was Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio. Occasionally we would venture to Mercer Raceway Park and sometimes we’d journey to Tri-City Speedway in Franklin, Pennsylvania. Curiously, the Tri-City track is not far from Drake’s Well in Titusville... the site of the first major oil well in the United States that would spawn a new industry and eventually make the internal combustion engine-and motorsports-possible.

Sharon Speedway was my favorite. We’d watch stocks, modifieds and my favorite…sprint cars. We’d arrive early so we wouldn’t miss time trials. It was magic to me that sprint car pilots would actually turn right to go left... steering with the throttle. In those days I think I actually went mostly to see the accidents. But the more I went the more I came to appreciate driving talent more than the wrecks. My favorite sprint car was fielded by the ironically named “Crash Brothers” who owned an automotive salvage yard in nearby Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Sharon has been in operation since 1927 and was the sight of a NASCAR Cup race won by Lee Petty in 1954, the year after I was born. Nearby Canfield, Ohio fielded the “Poor Man’s 500” NASCAR race from 1950-52. Hearing stories of these races planted the NASCAR seed in my young mind. While my brothers went on to excel in the “stick and ball” sports and lost interest in racing…my love of motorsports grew and my interest in traditional sports diminished.


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Gregg Leary

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