Midget Racing Lost A Friend Roy Wilson

Red70Racer

Red70Racer

Jeff Palazzolo
Roy Wilson Long time midget owner passed away Monday the 8th of May.
Anyone who knew Roy knows he is a great guy.
RIP Roy

Visitation Thursday at Schraders Funeral Home in Ballwin.
Jeff Palazzolo
 
RIP Roy..

Had Roy been sick? I haven't seen him since '02. He was a VERY smart man..I remember him building that first V-4 around 25 years back..Over at Ole "Kwik-Way"..Roy and Geo are together once again..
 
Roy had been ill, I am not certain what was wrong. His nephew owns a welding shop in Washington, Mo. and new Roy and I were racing friends. He didn't give me details.
 
roy had a heart attack and was on oxygen for a couple of days and never came out of his coma. i have raced with roy the last couple of years driving that V4 beast for him. even though the car and engine were outdated roy and i and his buddy pete always had a great time racing. his love for midget racing was incredible. to see that smile on his face after a race and knowing WE were giving all the old car had was truely a feeling i will miss. Roy will always be with me whenever or whatever i race. a true friend indeed.

Kevin Crowder
 
i drove roys' car in '97 and '98. of all the years of driving those two years are the one's i look back on more often than any other. just him and i would travel to ohio, michigan, indiana, illinois, missouri and kansas to the races and every trip was an enjoyable one no matter how i finished. he took me asphalt racing one week-end. it was a double race week-end at angola indiana on saturday and then the high banks of salem indiana on sunday. at angola i didn't due so well in the heat race and when i came in he had this mad look on his face and said "jim, we got no buiseness being here." i asked him if he could tighten the car up a little for me and told him that i'll try my best to make the feature thru the b-main. roy always called it the "hooligan's race". lol . anyways, i started 12th and worked my way up to 6th and they transfered 8 cars. now roy had a smile. he said "now your looking better but don't do anything stupid, just finish and we'll leave here with $200.00." i gave him thumbs up before i got pushed off and started 22 in 24 car field. this was my first time on asphalt mind you in a car that was still set up to run on dirt ! i played it cool and not to daring for a while then i started feeling a little brave and made some passes as well as avoiding some mishaps. after 30 laps i finished 12th and 16 cars left on the track. made $475.00 .when i got out of the car roy hit me on my helmet and slapped my back out of excitement. i never saw roy so happy ! he said "jim i guess you deserve to go to salem !"
it was salem speedway's 50th aniversary and all the usac and namars big name drivers were there. i saw the track for the first time in person that day and my heart was in my throat looking at those high banked asphault turns. same degree as daytona but this is a half mile. lots of history here, lots of guys got killed here. i made the a-main thru the b-main again this time getting a 4th. roy looked aufful worried. i starting to feel a little comfortable on the track. he told me to slow down and take it easy out there. he said i was scaring him ! i just smiled and told him i won't be making stupid moves. we were turning high 16's second laps on that track that day. i started 24th and finished 16th and made another $475.00 . roy sure liked the week-ends payoffs. and he promised me 40% if i made the a-mains. when i came in the pits after the race roy was really mad. i got out and asked what was wrong and he yelled "i told you to slow down out there you scared me half to death !" i had to turn my back and laugh under my breath because he was so serious. he was more worried about my safety than his car.
we never went asphault racing after that, just dirt. but if you happen to be around roy when he was telling one of his stories in the pits, it was about how we went racing at salem and how proud he was of his car that week-end. i will never forget roy and i will never forget the times we had racing that beast with the v-4 chevy engine that he was so proud of.

god bless you roy,
you will always be remembered

Jim Tickle

this pic is from that week-end at angola.
 

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Roy Wilson

I met Roy a few years ago at SEMO and got to talk with him about the car & his V-4's. I went home knowing I had talked with a true genius and a heck of a good man. Guys like him are one of the best reasons for being involved in racing, although there seems to be fewer of them as time goes on. Wish I had known him better. Brad Almond Sr.
 
My father...Roy Wilson

Thank you all for the kind words about my dad. His heart attack was sudden to us. He had not been complaining about anything prior to that Monday. In fact on Sunday, he had pushed the race car into the garage and took out the motor. I talked to him on Sunday night and he said there was water in the bottom and that he had to fix that. he and my mom were over for Easter dinner and he didn't say he felt bad.

Dad was without oxygen for 10-15 minutes by the time the ambulance got there and they had to padle him 3 times to get the heart going. He always told mom and I that he did not want to be kept alive by machines. He passed away when mom and I were not at the hospital. I think he did that on purpose.

There are so many awesome memories of racing with my dad over the years. The last race I went to with dad was at the I-55 Pevely track . The sprint cars were there that night. We walked by someone with a midget that had a blown motor and dad said, "See that? That's a $20,000 motor right there. Mine, would cost $2,000 to fix."

Dad might not have had the most recent and the most expensive but he love racing and just loved to be there. I loved going in the pits with him. Over the years he had talked about selling the car, but I am glad he kept it because it gave him something to tinker with. Dad kept busy up until the day he had the heart attack. He got up that morning just as he always did.

I wish I had the tenth of the knowledge that dad had about cars. Even in the hospital he still had the grime and dirt under his nails. My mom and I had to chuckle.

Again, thank you for the kind words about my father. Yes, he is up there with George Egan and the other guys I am sure building something!!

Visitation is on 5.11.06 from 4 - pm at Schrader Funeral Home in Ballwin, MO if you hadn't seen the posting in the St.Louis Post Dispatch.

Start your engines........Missing you.......
Love,
Cheryl
 
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