CHRIS ERTLER - The Two Minute Interview

[Jerry Lee]

Digging through the dusty box of racing past I found this 1994 video interview with our own "Professor Coupe" Chris Ertler from a cable TV documentary I had produced on Lakeside Speedway. Due to time constraints these excerpts didn't make it in the film.

Chris had many great drivers wheel his cars around the Lakeside oval, became a championship owner, and is a lifetime member and past president of the C.A.R.C. And to make this pie even sweeter, he's got Miss Peggy!

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JL: "How did you first get hooked on racing?"

CE: "Well, like most kids who lived in North Denver, going to Lakeside was the thing to do. My folks knew the Hunsingers, and one Saturday they let me come over to the garage and climb all over the stock car, and they fired it up. From the minute they did that to me I was hopelessly hooked."

JL: "What was the first stock car you had?"

CE: "I bought an old '32 Ford from a guy named Walt Paddock. Darryl Awmiller was supposed to drive it for me, but the week before we took it out there, Darryl flipped his motorcycle and he was really tore up. There happened to be a Figure 8 racer from Englewood who lived next door to my folks and we had got to talking and I said "What are you doing tonight?". He said "Let me go get my helmet!". That was Chuck Kacin. So he drove the car for 3 or 4 weeks and then I got to know Jim "Lunchmeat" Moore and we finished the season."

JL: "Was there anyone you really learned a lot from or helped you out any when you were first getting started?"

CE: "I used to work for Gene Plue, who was Doug Plue's brother. Doug was another guy who was a wealth of information if you could get him to talk about it. A lot of the old timers like him, and this is not a slam, they kept their secrets to themself. And you really had to know them well before they'd let you know 'em. But he would hint around at things, make you use your head. He helped me out a lot without really coming out and telling me."

JL: "Who were some of your favorite Lakeside drivers?"

CE: "Ed Mailo, who drove for me. He was a very underrated driver. Very good. We had guys like Dan Day. Day was hard to get around. Blu Plemons, he's kind of a hero of mine. There's probably none finer. This guy had such a sense of where everybody was on the race track."

JL: "Did you ever have any drivers that were pretty hard on the equipment?"

CE: "Over the years we had some different guys that were kinda "cowboys". They would stick cars in holes where they shouldn't have and leave wrecked cars in their wake, but other drivers were like a mother hen with it."

JL: "What did Lakeside mean to you?"

CE: "Lakeside was home. If you talk to ten Lakeside guys, they all pretty much think alike. Guys like me who grew up as kids out there can remember who's car was what color, what kind of car it was, and stuff like that. You lived for the summer just so you could go out there."

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Thanks Chris n' Peg for the opportunities and kind words you've always sent my way.

[Jerry Lee]

http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=110&pictureid=3801

(Photo by Jerry Lee McGuire) Chris Ertler’s #29 Modified has housed a lot of great drivers over the years.
I believe the paint scheme is a tribute to the late Ed Mailo. Miss Peggy’s “lil’ mouse” cartoon can be seen
on the tail end of the race car.

[rapid30]

The Ertler's are 2 of the greatest people that I have ever met, I always wanted to drive this car as I think it is one of the coolest Modifieds that ever lived. I did get the chance to drive the 52 for Miss Peggy one night at Second Creek and it was a blast, even though my but slid all over the place in the seat.
Bruce

[lakeside #29]

Hi Jerry Lee,
I was just thinking of you as I drove home from WalMart on Colfax tonight. Always take the back way by the little apartment you lived in on Vance.

Thank you so much for posting the interview with Chris. Remember how bitter cold it was in the garage that day? And how many cups of coffee you both drank? And I know neither of you really liked coffee. A few of our neighbors saw the intereview on the cable channel and told us how much they enjoyed it. You did a great job with all of the things you produced for tv.

My 'lil' mouse on the deck lid is still there. She changed every time something happened to that corner of the car. The first one was on the hood scoop. There were some great sign painters that put my mouse on that "hunk of cheddar cheese", as I called it when it first came home from getting painted.

In the picture you put up at Second Creek, our pit crew, Dean Wallace is working on the car. He was one of the best crew we had.

Sending my love,
Miss Peggy

[webby]

Great thread! Thank you. :up:

[schafer1]

Digging through the dusty box of racing past I found this 1994 video interview with our own "Professor Coupe" Chris Ertler from a cable TV documentary I had produced on Lakeside Speedway. Due to time constraints these excerpts didn't make it in the film.

Chris had many great drivers wheel his cars around the Lakeside oval, became a championship owner, and is a lifetime member and past president of the C.A.R.C. And to make this pie even sweeter, he's got Miss Peggy!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

JL: "How did you first get hooked on racing?"

CE: "Well, like most kids who lived in North Denver, going to Lakeside was the thing to do. My folks knew the Hunsingers, and one Saturday they let me come over to the garage and climb all over the stock car, and they fired it up. From the minute they did that to me I was hopelessly hooked."

JL: "What was the first stock car you had?"

CE: "I bought an old '32 Ford from a guy named Walt Paddock. Darryl Awmiller was supposed to drive it for me, but the week before we took it out there, Darryl flipped his motorcycle and he was really tore up. There happened to be a Figure 8 racer from Englewood who lived next door to my folks and we had got to talking and I said "What are you doing tonight?". He said "Let me go get my helmet!". That was Chuck Kacin. So he drove the car for 3 or 4 weeks and then I got to know Jim "Lunchmeat" Moore and we finished the season."

JL: "Was there anyone you really learned a lot from or helped you out any when you were first getting started?"

CE: "I used to work for Gene Plue, who was Doug Plue's brother. Doug was another guy who was a wealth of information if you could get him to talk about it. A lot of the old timers like him, and this is not a slam, they kept their secrets to themself. And you really had to know them well before they'd let you know 'em. But he would hint around at things, make you use your head. He helped me out a lot without really coming out and telling me."

JL: "Who were some of your favorite Lakeside drivers?"

CE: "Ed Mailo, who drove for me. He was a very underrated driver. Very good. We had guys like Dan Day. Day was hard to get around. Blu Plemons, he's kind of a hero of mine. There's probably none finer. This guy had such a sense of where everybody was on the race track."

JL: "Did you ever have any drivers that were pretty hard on the equipment?"

CE: "Over the years we had some different guys that were kinda "cowboys". They would stick cars in holes where they shouldn't have and leave wrecked cars in their wake, but other drivers were like a mother hen with it."

JL: "What did Lakeside mean to you?"

CE: "Lakeside was home. If you talk to ten Lakeside guys, they all pretty much think alike. Guys like me who grew up as kids out there can remember who's car was what color, what kind of car it was, and stuff like that. You lived for the summer just so you could go out there."

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Thanks Chris n' Peg for the opportunities and kind words you've always sent my way.

How did I not know you Chris,I lived in north denver all my young life,and almost every Sunday night and many Saturday nights at Lakeside speedway, I knew many of the people you know, especially Jimmy Moore toots and their familys jims dad and mom, I bought my first car from jim the famous 93 yellow and red coupe tired Iron, by the way he also rode the north wall top from turn 3 to turn 4 on just like he did your car, I can tell you some very funny things about the fatman that he and I and my brother gary had some wild experiences together quite the guy, I used to ride my old bicycle all over the north Denver alleys looking for open garages with stockers in them, found a lot of them, I also used to bug John Pachello and Mary every chance i got then and after i started racing myself. boy do i miss Lakeside even though I have lived here in Arizona 35 years aleady, I still am a life member of carc and follow their racing on their web site. thanks for the good thread and information. Schafer1

[Jerry Lee]

Thank you so much for posting the interview with Chris. Remember how bitter cold it was in the garage that day? And how many cups of coffee you both drank? And I know neither of you really liked coffee. A few of our neighbors saw the intereview on the cable channel and told us how much they enjoyed it. You did a great job with all of the things you produced for tv.
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Man! It was a bitter cold February day when we did that interview! Maybe I should explain that the reason we did that interview in an ice cold garage was because I wanted the #29 in the background of the shot. I really did learn to like coffee that day!:chuckle:--

[lakeside #29]

Harold, I'm surprised we never met. I went to Junior high at Skinner in the 7th and 9th grades ('60 to '63). When we weren't living in noth Denver we were in Aurora. I went to Aurora Central High School. After high school we wound up in southwest Denver. I spent an awful lot of time at Jim's when we were working on the cars. Did you ever come over to Jim's and see either the blue and white #48 or the gold #93? There were always a lot of guys stopping by. Bob Brown lived around the corner, Dale Thompson would come around, Don Hewit, George Green, Gus Thomas, if I remember right even Ed Smith stopped by. I bought the rear end for the gold car from Roy Jackson, Jack had thrown in extra gears and your brother Gary set-up the rear end gears for us. Gary also did some fine tuning on the engine. He also gave Jim a main spring leaf for the #48. He was a heck of a mechanic.

When Jim quit driving he told me that his Mom had been hurt pretty bad in a traffic accident on Federal and he promised her at the hospital that he would give up race cars. I always thought it was ironic that a former race driver like him would lose his life in an accident on the street.

We may have been introduced at Jim's, if not I'm sorry we didn't. Who knows maybe one of these days we'll meet up someplace.
Please keep sending in your stories, they're great.

[lakeside #29]

Harold, I just remembered Jim Moore really talking about the flathead Ford engine that you had. He had told how strong it was. I've seen pictures of your car with that motor, all dressed out. Very cool.