Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – The Orange County Fair Speedway racing family is saddened to learn that long time competitor Henry Sharp has passed away.
‘Sharp Henry’ was one of these memorable and colorful drivers of his era. Henry raced at OCFS from the mid 60’s until the early 2000’s.
Henry raced in the Limited Sportsman and Modified divisions. After several seasons, by the mid 70’s, Henry was one of the top drivers in the OCFS Limited Sportsman division. With huge car counts in those days, qualifying was not often easy. With the talent that he was racing against in those days, such drivers as Russ Meyer, Jerry Morgan, Brett Hearn, Bill Mingey, Bob Schmidt, Ralph Heotzler and so many others, Henry held his own, gathering many top 5’s and 10’s.
Henry’s career highlight was on June 4, 1977 when after 11 years of racing at OCFS, he captured his lone OCFS feature win in the Limited Sportsman division. Sharp took the lead from Butch Riddle at halfway and held off Schmidt, Meyer, Riddle and Don Shepard for the popular win.
Although the following two races to be mentioned were not wins, they surely were very memorable and still talked about by the fans from that era. And they show just what Henry was about, a lot of grit and determination.
On July 14, 1979, Sharp was involved in an early feature race crash which saw the 11a doing a roll over. Henry’s car suffered some damage, but after a quick pitstop, he rejoined the field.
According to the track program, The Hard Clay Vol. 5, No. 11, Sharp raced the balance of the laps with the left front shock absorber missing and the front wheel bouncing wildly. But Henry persevered and finished the feature in 8th place, pretty remarkable under the circumstances.
On July 26, 1980, Henry was involved in an early feature crash which unfortunately saw him become a member of the Wisner Ave. Club, as he flipped out onto the street next to the speedway. According to the Hard Clay Vol. 6, No. 17, fairgoers were astonished to see Sharp’s car towed up Wisner Ave. (he did not drive it back to the pits as legend has it), and after some quick repairs, Henry rejoined the race.
This time though, the car was too badly damaged to complete the race and Henry finished 21st. Still, it was another amazing display of determination by Sharp.
In later years, Henry also raced the #28 Modified of Herbie Robinson.
In recent years, Henry had been a popular guest at the always fabulous OCFS Nostalgia Night. Last year saw a return of the 11A to OCFS as his son, Russell Sharp, fielded a car driven by several drivers.
And one final time, we saw Henry in Victory Lane, celebrating an Anthony Perrego win with Russell.
As long as there are OCFS fans still around from that era, Henry Sharp will be one of those that they will talk about, he was just that memorable. R.I.P. 11a.