Column By: TOBY LAGRANGE / RPW – GLOVERSVILLE, NY – As Friday dawns and another week has been etched into our memories, I cannot help but take a look back and revisit some of the emotions that have been brought to the surface over the past few days.
This one-week time period from Friday June 21st through today (Friday June 28th) has been full of sadness, grief and remembrance for everyone in our slice of the racing community.
The start of this week brought sadness when we lost a true champion of our sport – Dale Planck. The man we all called The Natural suffered a heart attack and passed away at the age of 53.
In a time when many nicknames are given and not earned, The Natural is a nickname that he certainly earned. The Cortland, New York area driver built a racing resume surpassed by only a few of the best of the best.
As a kid growing up in the Capital District of New York, I certainly knew who Dale Planck was but for a large chunk of his career I was never able to see him race. During those years he dominated the old Fulton Speedway, Brewerton Speedway and Utica-Rome Speedway Outlaw Circuit. That domination led him to three NASCAR Winston Racing Series Championships and scores of feature wins.
It wasn’t until the Outlaw Circuit dissolved and those tracks joined what we know today as DIRTcar that those of us in the Eastern part of the Empire State got to see what those Central New York fans already had known about.
A conversation with a friend of mine – the voice of the DIRTcar 358 Modified Series Tim Baltz, revealed the statistics that proved Planck’s nickname to be true.
Planck had more than 200 career feature wins, with eight of those coming in the DIRTcar 358 Modified Series. He was also a two-time DIRTcar 358 Modified Series Champion…with those titles coming in 2009 and 2012.
Dale also scored eight career feature wins in the Super DIRTcar Series for Big Block Modifieds…with the final one coming at Autodrome Drummond on July 22nd, 2013, driving for Mike Payne Racing. His last career win was a 50 lap Ogilvie’s Triple Crown Series race at Brockville driving for the late Mike LaSalle.
Planck earned four track championships on the high banks of the Fulton Speedway…those came in 1993, 1994, 1995 and 1997. He also won the Utica-Rome title four times…with those coming in 1994, 1995, 1997 and 2003. In addition, he was the track champion at the Cornwall Motor Speedway in Ontario in 2004, 2005 and 2012. The 2012 season would also see him win the Canadian Nationals Series crown.
On Sunday June 23rd we remembered one of the most storied and influential names not only in the Northeast racing scene but from coast to coast – the late, great Dick “Toby” Tobias.
Tobias lost his life on this date in 1978 during an event at the now gone Flemington Speedway in New Jersey. Tobias was competing in a USAC Sprint Car event at the historic track. His tragic wreck came in front of many race fans who have never and will never forget that faithful day in the Garden State.
The patriarch of the family, Tobias was a proven winner and champion in both our beloved Dirt Modifieds and Sprint Cars. In addition to being a championship winning driver, Tobias was a successful promoter (Penn National Speedway), business owner (Tobias Speed Equipment) and chassis creator and fabricator.
His Eastern Motorsports Press Association (EMPA) Hall of Fame Biography describes the late Lebanon, Pennsylvania superstar perfectly.
“An outstanding dirt-track Modified stock-car and Sprint Car driver and innovative speed shop owner, Dick “Toby” Tobias (February 12, 1932-June 23, 1978) of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, designed, built and developed the first purpose-built “2 x 4” steel-tube chassis that revolutionized dirt-track Modified stock-car racing.”
The biography continues.
“Tobias won the first race that he ever entered in 1950 when he took the checkered flag at the old Hilltop Speedway in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. And from that point on the U.S. Navy veteran (1951-1954) was usually found at the head of the pack.”
The Tobias legacy lives on as Dick, along with his son Rich, Jr., are the only father-son duo to win the prestigious Super DIRT Week championship (1975 and 1992 respectfully).
In case you were wondering, my father was a Tobias fan (and ran a Tobias chassis), which is why my name is Toby (I was born just about a year to the day of his death).
On Tuesday night, June 25th at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, we honored another legend of our sport – this time from the media side of things.
The late Area Auto Racing News journalist Don Davies passed away on August 6th, 2023, after a long and very courageous battle with cancer.
Don, along with his wife Jo Ann, were staples in pit areas at racetracks all over the Northeast as they covered our beloved Dirt Modifieds for the New Jersey based trade paper.
Tuesday night the pit area and grandstands of The Great Race Place were filled with members of our racing family, all on hand to honor someone that everyone knew…even if they never talked to him.
The Don Davies NY Modified 76 was a smashing success and I am certainly glad that I made the trip. The stars and cars of the Super DIRTcar Series for DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds put on a great show with Mat Williamson coming out on top. A big congratulations to the other winners during that special night – Tim Hartman, Jr. and Chris Crane, Jr. (DIRTcar Sportsman) and Beau Ballard (DIRTcar Pro Stock). Complete results, photos and more from the nights action can be found elsewhere here on Race Pro Weekly.
The Davies were inducted into the New York State Stock Car Hall of Fame (NYSSCA) in 2016 and were awarded the 2018 Dirt Modified Hall of Fame Andrew S. Fusco Award for Media Excellence.
I had the privilege of working with Don and Jo Ann at the Area Auto Racing News for five years before turning to announcing. During that time Don was always there if I had a question or to give me a story to run with.
Don was certainly someone who loved our sport and did everything possible to cover it in a professional and positive manor.
As we turn the calendar to next week let’s not forget the emotions that have dominated this week. Those emotions, like the memory of those we have lost, will live on for eternity.
God speed The Natural, Toby and Don.