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lakeside #29
05-02-2009, 03:35 PM
My name is Chris Ertler and my wife is Peggy.
I was first introduced to Lakeside Speedway tagging along with Ralph Huntsinger's family in 1960. Ralph drove the black #49 '34 Ford Coupe, I went to the races as often as possible after that. In 1971 having Chuck Kacin and his figure 8 car as a neighbor, and at the urging of co-workers, I decided to make the jump from collecting splinters in the grandstands to getting my hands dirty in the pits. It was either going to be a Trackmater Triumph race bike or a race car. I opted for the racecar.

In September I bought a '32 Ford from Walt Paddock. That became the bronze #48D. Chuck Kacin drover for me early in 1972. Then he decided to re-build one of his figure 8 cars, After he left, Jim Moore finished the year in the now white and blue #48.

I bought a 1931 Chevy from Clarence Krieger that had been Larry Dechant's in the mid "60's. It became the gold #93 that Jim Moore drove in 1973. After flipping the car Jim retired from racing. The car was driven by Roy Jackson and Rick Cook and wrecked. I enlisted the aid of Figure 8 champ Terry Boyle and his crew chief Mike Colitti to redo the car. We made signifigant chnges to the car which included a '31 Chevy 3-window coupe body that came from Clarence Krieger. Ed Mailo was introduced to me by Gene and Doug Plue. I jumped at the chance for having an experienced guy like Ed drive for me. We went on to have a great year in 1974 winning 2 main events and 3 trophy dashs. Ed had raced at Lakeside for 20 years at that time and won his first "A" main in my car. We finished the year 4th in owner points and 5th in driver points. I sold the coupe and bought an old late model from Ivan Chambers. I proptly ran out of money and wound up selling it.

During the time I was racing Sundays at Lakeside I was hanging out with Chuck Kacin, Terry Boyle, and Ed Brunner at Englewwod on Saturdays . It was Terry who introduced me to my wife Peggy. With the proceeds from the late model I paid for her engagement ring.

I bought Clarence Krieger's #83 in 1979 and it became the #29 I currently own. The car was built by me, Mike Colitti, Tom McManus, and Dennis Osbourn. from the blueprints from Ed Brunner's Dennis Frings late model,We had help from John Pickard as well as Don Bedore. Ed Brunner came over and mig welded the chassis. Dennis Osbourn drove the car in it's first couple races in 1982. Following the season Terry Boyle came over and did a lot of welding as we made changes on the car. In 1983 we put Butch Wallce in the car as a Limited Modified. We really did well that year. In 1984 we won the Limited Modified championship owner and driver. Butch had out of town commitments that year and his brother-in-law and Late Model Champion, Roy Jackson filled in 4 nights for him. Butch continued to drive for me until 1987. Mike McIntyre shook the car done for me in 1988 as we had added a wing, but the car didn't race again that year.

Mike McIntyre and I became partners in a Grand American modified in 1993. We bought a car from Darrell Taylor that John Witthar had built. It was a Metallic Lavender #22 painted by Mike VanDyke, Pat's son. For 1994 we ran #49, hoped it would change our luck, it didn't. We never imagined how much money was needed to race that car. We sold it the end of '94.

In 1994 CARC was getting started at Second Creek. We brought #29 out with Frank Denning driving. In 1995 I was President and my wife Peggy was Secretary/Treasurer of the CARC, and Butch Wallace came back to drive for us.

In 1996 Darrell Stingerie took a turn in the car, but was not well and didn't want to chance tearing the car up. Craig Moore also drove the car but was sidelined with mechanical failure. At Craig's insistance we contacted midget champ and USAC star Jim Beckley about driving #29. He graciously accepted. It was an honor and priviledge to have a driver of his caliber drive our car.

In 1996 we also brought out the ex-Stallswoth/McIntyre/McLure/Sandoval #52. Randy Wright fabricated the roll cage and boxed the frame. From there Caig Moore took over building and painting of the car. His brother Dale did the lettering from patterns he made off the original car. At the time Dale lettered the car, we didn't have a colored photo of the way the car looked in 1963. This car's predecessor we knew had white letters with a black border. Later on a number of people told us we got the colors wrong. There should be a blue border and Chris Thompson corrected it for us. Apparently the blue was Jim McIntyre and later. In memory of Jim McIntyre, we are going to leave the color as is. Craig Moore was the driver and Bruce Rhoades filled in for him one night.

1997 we didn't race #29. Greg McLaughlin and I took #52 apart and corrected some things I overlooked. Greg drove the car at Second Creek. Greg's Uncle Leon "Fuzzy" McLaughlin and Greg's father Larry both drove the Stallsworth car in the '60's at Lakeside, along with the late John Thomas.

Hello, My name, Peggy was first lettered as owner by Dale Moore and later by Chris Thompson on the #52. Dee Clark gave her the nick name of "Miss Peggy". We were proud to have her at the 2006 Colorado Motor Sports Hall of Fame ceremony as Wayne Stallsworth was inducted. Later that year Randy Stallsworth was able to drive her around Colorado National during the ceremony held there.

Hope this lets you know a little about who we are and didn't bore you too much.
Chris Ertler #29 CARC Life Time Member, former President and former Historian
Peggy Ertler #52 CARC Life Time Member and former Secretary/Treasurer

webby
05-02-2009, 05:46 PM
Chris, thanks for that post!

It will be great hearing you share your memories.

rapid30
05-03-2009, 11:21 AM
Welcome Chris & Peggy,
You are 2 of my favorite people, I have always had the ultimate respect for the Ertlers.
Chris always had one of the nicest cars on the racetrack. It was a joy to drive such a legendary car as the #52. I always wanted to drive the beautiful #29, as I thought that it was one of the coolest modifieds that I had ever seen. I hope that as one of the historians of the the CARC that you will share some of you knowledge and great history .

Bruce

VintageBuzz
05-13-2009, 07:37 PM
My name is Chris Ertler and my wife is Peggy.
I was first introduced to Lakeside Speedway tagging along with Ralph Huntsinger's family in 1960. Ralph drove the black #49 '34 Ford Coupe, I went to the races as often as possible after that. In 1971 having Chuck Kacin and his figure 8 car as a neighbor, and at the urging of co-workers, I decided to make the jump from collecting splinters in the grandstands to getting my hands dirty in the pits. It was either going to be a Trackmaster Triumph race bike or a race car. I opted for the racecar.
Chris Ertler #29 CARC Life Time Member, former President and former Historian
Peggy Ertler #52 CARC Life Time Member and former Secretary/Treasurer

Hey Chris! In your introduction above, did you mean a Trackmaster Triumph similar to this photo?
Click on this profile link to read what I wrote and you'll better understand my question and similar interests. ~VB
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54

lakeside #29
05-14-2009, 12:52 PM
Hi Buzz, Yes that was exactly what we had in mind. In those days I worked for Recreation Equipment Co., in the parts department. As a matter of fact I worked with Greg Cederburg for awhile. But I'm sure he wouldn't remember me. We had a lot of guys in the shop that raced up at Erie. I'll throw some names out and see if any sound familiar. Ed and Johnny "JC" Crist, Eddie Roberts, Chubby Armour, Dave and Dalton Strickland, and Don Cockley. Some of their buddies that came around once in awhile were Bill "The Professor" Pierce, Bob Conway, Mike Vest, and Chubby's brother Dave. I later went work for Gene Plue and worked with Rick Cook. He and Bob Conway used to travel together to races. Rick was friends with Danny "Berzerko" Perko. Theses guys were a pretty lively bunch, and it was neat just to be around them. When I was working at Plue's and I had my modified, Rick Cook built a Trackmaster Triumph like I had wanted. It was a beautifull piece. He built a big bore Triumph with long rods and Norris cams. Rick ordered a one piece tank, seat, rear fender, and number plate setup from a fiberglass guy in California. The guy was backed up on production and he couldn't deliver Rick's. Rick bugged the guy enough that the guy sent out a tank combo that was supposed to go either Dave Aldana or Gene Romero and I don't remember which it was.
Buzz, thank you for letting me remember these guys, it was a great experience. Thanks again

Chris Ertler

VintageBuzz
05-16-2009, 08:45 AM
Hi Buzz, Yes that was exactly what we had in mind. In those days I worked for Recreation Equipment Co., in the parts department. As a matter of fact I worked with Greg Cederburg for awhile. But I'm sure he wouldn't remember me. We had a lot of guys in the shop that raced up at Erie. I'll throw some names out and see if any sound familiar. Ed and Johnny "JC" Crist, Eddie Roberts, Chubby Armour, Dave and Dalton Strickland, and Don Cockley. Some of their buddies that came around once in awhile were Bill "The Professor" Pierce, Bob Conway, Mike Vest, and Chubby's brother Dave. I later went work for Gene Plue and worked with Rick Cook. He and Bob Conway used to travel together to races. Rick was friends with Danny "Berzerko" Perko. Theses guys were a pretty lively bunch, and it was neat just to be around them. When I was working at Plue's and I had my modified, Rick Cook built a Trackmaster Triumph like I had wanted. It was a beautifull piece. He built a big bore Triumph with long rods and Norris cams. Rick ordered a one piece tank, seat, rear fender, and number plate setup from a fiberglass guy in California. The guy was backed up on production and he couldn't deliver Rick's. Rick bugged the guy enough that the guy sent out a tank combo that was supposed to go either Dave Aldana or Gene Romero and I don't remember which it was.
Buzz, thank you for letting me remember these guys, it was a great experience. Thanks again

Chris Ertler

Hey Chris! Wow! You listed some names that I haven't heard in a few decades. Yeah...Rick Cook, Bob Conway, Del "Chubby" Armour, Dave Armour, & Danny "Berzerko" Perko all bring back some very vivid memories for me. Back in the late '60s at the old dirt-track Erie, Chubby Armour was so young and small that his brother had to hold Chubby & his Harley up at the starting-line until they threw the green-flag. Rick Cook & Bob Conway were legends in they own right. And then there was Danny "Berzerko" Perko. We all know that racecar guys can party with the best of them. But Danny "Berzerko" Perko was as wild & crazy off the track as he was on the track. Danny had the coolest BSA Goldstar that he often raced at the the TT Scrambles track in north Cheyenne. As a young and impressionable teenager working at Lee's Motorcycles in Cheyenne, I was able to hone my partying skills at very young age by being in the presence of Danny "Berzerko" Perko in the shop after-hours and late into the nights. Here are some other riders from Lee's Motorcycle shop that raced at Eire: Rudy Foster, Billy Noud, and Joey "The Kid" Valentine (R.I.P.). Thank you too Chris for these great memories! ~VB

TheAssassin
09-29-2009, 03:32 PM
HEY Chris and Miss Peggy!! Glad to see you are on here. As one of the Drivers lucky enough to be asked to drive for the Ertlers, I must say that the 52 and the 29 are gorgeous cars. I was asked to drive the 52 car after an extensive retrofit of the old girl in 1996. Having driven the 29 and the 52, I must say, these two machines would give anything in the CARC today a serious run for their money. Thanks for the chance to "shoe" these two historic rides. You guys are GREAT!!

lakeside #29
09-30-2009, 05:11 PM
Craig, Thanks for the compliments. It was our pleasure to have had you drive our cars. Most importantly, if you hadn't talen on the job of building #52 it would probably still be just a pile of parts. I took a rollling chassis, a beat up body, and a truckload of parts and you built it into a beautiful car. You put my thoughts into action.

If I were still able to race, my "Dream Team", would be you in #29, Greg McLaughlin in #52 and maybe Gene Batt and Greg on set-up. I believe we would give 'em fits.

I just came in from the garage after running #52 for a while. She sounds as strong as ever. Just looking at those two cars makes feel really good.

The other guy that deserves a thank you is Jerry Lee McGuire for turning me onto Craig in the first place. Thank you.

Chris Ertler-"professor coupe"

TheAssassin
10-01-2009, 05:00 PM
Yeah...Thanks to "Scabby Ellis" for hooking us up. We built him some pretty cool Enduro cars too. You're right "Prof", that would be one hell of a team!!