Bud Koehler By: Stan Kalwasinski Palos Heights, Ill.-The winningest driver in Chicago area racing history, Robert A. "Bud" Koehler, 82, passed away April 21 at Palos Community Hospital. Winner of over 500 main events in both midget and stock car racing competition, Koehler was an 11-time stock car champion at the now-defunct Raceway Park, minutes away from his Blue Island home, winning a total of 490 stock car feature races there in addition to 10 midget features. Koehler was born in Groton, S.D. on February 15, 1921 with his family moving to Blue Island when Koehler was only a youngster. Playing in a railroad yard near his home as a youth, Koehler lost part of his right hand and fingers in an accident. Motorcycles and motorcycle racing played a part in Koehler's life during his teenage and early adult years before entering midget racing competition after World War II. In the Post War era, Koehler established himself as one of the top midget drivers in the Midwest. He won his first midget driving championship at Raceway Park in 1949, the same year he won he first stock car title at the Chicago area speedway. He was crowned the Midwest Car Owners and Drivers Association midget champion in 1949 and again in 1951. He repeated his Raceway midget driving titles in 1951 and 1952. Carrying his trademark number "77", a 1940 Ford carried Koehler to his first stock car championship at Raceway Park in 1949 with Koehler winning eight feature races during his initial season in stock car action. An interior decorator/house painter by trade, Koehler took off only one year (1949) to go full-time racing, winning over $12,000 during a hectic, sometimes seven nights a week racing schedule of the old Chicago-based Championship Stock Car Club. Koehler would go on to win the stock car championship at the Blue Island oval another 10 times, capturing season honors in 1952, 1954, 1957, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976. Koehler captured Raceway's annual 300 Lap Classic an incredible seven times. He was also the stock car champion at the old Mance Park Speedway (Hodgkins, Ill.) in 1959. Highlights of Koehler's racing career could fill a book with the championships, winning cars and stories behind the victories and near-victories almost unbelievable. Big, old Nash Ambassadors, 1950-51 versions, carried Koehler to countless victories at Raceway in the early 1950's. Koehler used the Nashes until 1957 when Raceway invoked a "late model cars" only ruling once the season got underway. A 1956 Studebaker Hawk was Koehler's "ride" during those first years of late model competition with the results being pretty much the same-"winning." A '56 Mercury, a '60 Ford and then a 1964 Mercury Marauder were used with the same results. Koehler drove Walt Mortenson's '64 Mercury to 28 feature wins in 1964, grabbing his fifth Raceway track title. Koehler joined forces with car owner Bill Koenig in 1966 and won 28 feature races again in a single season. Koenig's rapid-running 1965 Chevelle propelled Koehler to another Raceway crown. Again driving for Koenig, Koehler would score his career best 30 wins in a single season in 1967. The Koehler/Koenig combination would go on to win a total of six driving titles at Raceway, including a string of three in a row, 1974 through 1976. With Raceway Park running a summer schedule of sometimes four nights a week, Koehler registered his 100th victory in 1958, his 200th in 1963, his 300th in 1967 and his 400th in 1973. With career records like this, Koehler had to be considered "King of Raceway's Quarter Mile." Without much fanfare, Koehler bowed out of racing after the 1978 campaign. Well passed his 80th birthday, Koehler continued to work daily at his painting and decorating profession. Koehler always credited his success to his car owners and mechanics that helped him throughout his career. Koehler would praise the likes of Johnny Miller and Bob Pohlman, in addition to Mortenson and Koenig. "He was a true friend and the greatest short track driver of all time," said friend and longtime Raceway Park announcer, Wayne Adams. "Raceway during all of those years lined up the cars 100% inverted. The races he won back then had 25 or 30 cars in a feature. He had to batter his way through a lot of competition. If a person never saw Koehler, (Bob) Pronger and (Bill) Van Allen in the same race, they never seen a race." Adams, a longtime journalist for the old Illustrated Speedway News racing newspaper, once wrote, "If and when, a history of short track stock car racing is ever compiled, the name of Bud Koehler could almost be included on every page." Koehler's career records at a single track will probably never be broken, considering the number of years Koehler raced and the number of events Raceway would run during a single season. Koehler was definitely the "King of Raceway Park." Koehler is survived by his wife, Grayce, his son, Roger and daughter, Lynn (Rick) Heim. |
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Raceway Park great Koehler dies Tuesday, April 22, 2003 By Tony Baranek One of local stock-car great Bud Koehler's most memorable comments came one night late in his career when, frustrated by a track official's decision at Raceway Park, he summed it up thusly before a packed grandstand: "You can't beat City Hall," he told veteran track announcer Wayne Adams. Funny thing was, he'd actually won the race that night. Truth be told, on many, many race nights at Raceway Park from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s, you couldn't beat Bud Koehler. Koehler, a Blue Island resident who amassed more than three times the feature victories than any other driver in Raceway Park history, died Monday at the age of 82 after a battle with cancer. During his stock-car career at Raceway Park, Koehler, who had lived in Blue Island since the age of 3, won 490 features, 347 heat races, 240 trophy dashes and 11 track titles. Bob Pronger was second in all-time feature victories at the Blue Island oval with 148. Combining midget and stock-car victories, Koehler, an interior decorator by trade, carried the checkered flag at Raceway Park a total of 1,146 times, earning his first in 1947 and his last during the 1978 season. He did it all despite suffering a serious injury as a youth that prevented him from being able to grip the steering wheel with his right hand. "To my knowledge, Bud Koehler was the greatest handicapped stock-car driver who ever lived," Adams said. "At Raceway Park we always inverted the fast cars and Bud won almost every one of the those races from the back of the pack. "He was the type of competitor who just wouldn't quit. I've always said that if a person never saw Koehler, Pronger and Bill Van Allen on the track at the same time, they never saw a race. Koehler would have to be the best of them." He began his career before stock cars were even in vogue, battling with legendary midget-car drivers such as Danny Kladis. "Bud and I were really close," said Kladis, who is still an active driver today at the age of 86. "It seemed as if they (the fans) never liked Bud and never liked me. We talked about it and we finally figured out that the only reason could be that we won too many darned races. "Geez, to hear that he's gone ... you can't help but drop a tear for a guy you raced with for 50 years. He was a wonderful guy." Koehler drove a variety of cars for a variety of owners, but he gained his greatest fame driving the red No. 77 for Bill Koenig. Almost to the end of his career, Koehler was considered the race favorite every time he rolled his car onto the track. "He was really something," former competitor and current race car owner Richie Halligan said. "He always had good equipment, but what made him good was that he raced like a demon. He was patient, but then again he wasn't. He'd pass me three or four times in a feature. As nasty as I could be when I was young, when he was coming I'd get out of the way." Track titles didn't come easily at Raceway during the 1960s and '70s, with a long list of veteran drivers that included Koehler, Van Allen, Pronger Ray Young, Ted Janecyk and Stash Kullman. Jerry Kemperman was one of the few young drivers to find relatively quick success when he won a track title in 1968. "Bud was kind of intimidating," Kemperman said. "I think everybody had almost a reverential fear of the guy. He had the experience before anybody else, he had the best equipment available, and I'm never going to take anything away from his ability. "There were many nights when we fought to the finish. Once I beat him by a foot. He thought he'd won it, but I knew I did. For a driver, beating Bud was a milestone. To be able to run with the guys who ran back then was a fantasy." |
Famed Local Driver Koehler Dies At 82 By RICK DAL COROBBO Some came to see him win; others in hopes of watching him get beat. But whether you loved him or hated him, local race fans knew they were in for a good battle when Robert "Bud" Koehler was in the race. Koehler, of Blue Island, Ill., the undisputed "King of Raceway Park," who had just recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, died Monday at Palos Community Hospital in Palos Heights, Ill. He was 82. For nearly four decades, the tall and lanky competitor and his trademark No. 77 were virtually unbeatable at the now-defunct Raceway Park in Blue Island, winning a staggering 11 Late Model championships and three Midget titles. "Mr. Raceway Park," as he will forever be known, captured 490 Late Model feature victories during his driving career at Raceway, along with 347 heat races and 240 trophy dashes. He also earned 10 feature wins in Midget action at the track he called home from 1946 until he hung up his helmet at the conclusion of the 1978 racing season at the age of 57. Roger Rubino of Crown Point, who grew up down the street from Raceway, said that even as a child he was impressed by Koehler's driving ability at the tight and often tricky quarter-mile oval. "I used to ride my bicycle to the track just to watch him (Koehler) run," Rubino said. "When he was driving for Bill Koenig, I used to love watching them drive his race car across the street from Koenig's shop to the track. Years later, when I started driving and I was working for Billy, I got a kick out of driving my car across the street the same way." Rubino, one of the standouts in the Hobby Stock class at Raceway for several years before trying his luck at the Illiana Motor Speedway in Schererville, where he captured the 1992 Sportsman championship, currently competes in the Turbo Stox division at Illiana. He describes his vintage 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle race car as a tribute to Koehler and the similar red race cars he drove through the years. "One of the nicest things that ever happened to me was hearing from a friend of mine that he had been standing with Koehler at the fence watching me race in 1981 and that Bud had some nice things to say about my driving ability," Rubino remembered. "If someone of his stature had something good to say about you, it really meant something." Koehler's stories were also legendary. "Bud always had some great stories to tell you about the old days," he said. "It's just really sad that he won't be around to tell them any more." Those sentiments were echoed by Pat Echlin of Dyer, who also got his racing start at Raceway. "I used to enjoy listening to him talk about the old days," he said. "It's an end of an era, that's for sure." Echlin remembers earning his first checkered flag in a race against Koehler. "I couldn't believe my first win came in a race he (Koehler) was in," he said. "I enjoyed knowing him and racing with him." Koehler's death comes just two weeks following the passing of Stanley "Stash" Kullman, another Chicagoland racing legend. "The last two weeks have been rough," Echlin said. "First we lose Stash, and now Bud. It's sure the end of an era for two generations of race fans." Born in Groton, S.D., Koehler moved to Blue Island at the age of 3 years. As a youth, he lost part of his right hand and fingers in an accident while playing in a railroad yard near his home. The injury never proved to be a handicap to his racing ability, however, as he competed in motorcycle races as a teenager and young adult prior to starting his midget and stock car racing career. Through the years, Koehler competed at nearly every dirt and asphalt race track in the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana area. He was the stock car champion at the former Mance Park Speedway in Hodgkins, Ill., in 1958 and was crowned the Midwest Car Owners and Drivers Association midget champion in 1949 and again in 1951. But it was at Raceway Park, located just a few minutes from his home, where Koehler would achieve his greatest success. An interior decorator and house painter, Koehler continued to work daily right up until the time he became ill. |
1963 |
1961 |
1960 |
1959 |
1958 w/ Bill Van Allen |
1950 |
1949 |
1964 |
1964 w/ Perry Luster |
1966 @ Santa Fe Speedway |
1968 @ Soldier Field |
1969 @ Waukegan Speedway |
1971 |
STN Photo |
Mike Rogers Photo Collection |
w/ Ted Janecyk |
w/ Bob Pronger |
w/ Jerry Kemperman |
w/ Larry Middleton |
Steve Bechtel Photo Collection |
w/ Dick Trickle |
Early 70's @ Grundy |
Mike Rogers Photo Collection |
Mike Rogers Photo Collection |
Mike Rogers Photo Collection |
Steve Bechtel Photo Collection |
Mike Rogers Photo Collection |
