Ray Marler turned 80 years old on Sunday.
But the real party for Marler was the night before at the race track he’s poured his heart and soul into for the past 23 years.
Marler co-owns the track with Ken Schrader
Many of Marler’s friends were on hand on a beautiful Saturday night at the Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, including an old friend from Marler’s days as a track owner in Farmington. Marler is the co-owner of the track.
“I’m here to celebrate Ray’s birthday,” said state Sen. Gary Romine (R-Farmington). “Rayburn and I have gone to church together for 40 years now. We’ve spent time in Canada together. We like to find a remote area to get away to do some fishing. The bears and moose are a nice distraction.”
As were the cars whizzing past Romine, Marler and other race officials on the 1/3-mile circuit.
Racers competed in late model, modifieds, pro modifieds, sportsmans and Pro 4 stock cars.
Romine said he attends a couple of races a year.
“I like racing. I just don’t get out enough,” Romine said. “(Marler) deserves every bit of this attention. He gives to the community. The organization here is phenomenal, the way they roll these cars in and out.”
During intermission, between the qualifying heats and the feature races, Marler was honored on the track with his wife of 53 years, Sue. It wasn’t hard to find Ray as he spent a good deal of the night driving around in a four wheeler with huge “80” balloons tied to it.
Marler said he was humbled by all of the attention. He was especially gracious when he talked about Schrader, a local racing legend.
“Kenny is the best partner you could have,” Marler said. “All this attention, it’s wonderful. I didn’t realize I had so many friends. We started this years ago. I guess I enjoy having so many friends. I know I’m getting too old but right now there’s nothing wrong with me.”
Schrader, who will be racing in Alaska this weekend, said the I-55 track has seen its share of ups and downs financially, but the stands are always filled for the big events, like this Saturday’s World of Outlaws and Summer Nationals late models coming to town.
A wet, cold spring delayed the opening of the season this year for three weeks.
“It doesn’t have to be the rain. The heat, cold and wind will keep people away,” Schrader said. “But our big shows are popular and it’s our goal to build it up.”
“I first raced for (Marler) in 1979 and we had a lot of fun right off the bat and here we are still doing it. This is a sport where if you get hooked on it you have to die out of it. There’s no other way out.”
As close as Marler has been to racing for decades, he knew his destiny in the sport wasn’t behind the wheel. He got hooked on racing when he worked for Ken Buckley, the former sheriff of St. Francois County who died last year.
“I’ve always liked cars. I used to work for (Buckley) in high school and he raced,” Marler said. “He called me ‘Red.’ So he said, ‘Red, go drive this car.’ And that hooked me. I enjoyed working on them but not driving. That’s dangerous. I’m a hard loser. If my car didn’t win, I wanted to know why.”
Jeff Herzog moved into a new house south of Festus four months ago. The former Herculaneum resident has been racing since 2006. He began racing in the sportsman class but now runs in the late modified division. Herzog won his heat on Saturday before finishing third in the feature race. Herzog’s car got tangled up with another car in a high turn during the first lap, but he was able to complete all 25 laps after the yellow caution flag was lifted. Herzog said the track was running slow Saturday because it was dry and racers couldn’t find much traction.
“I like the camaraderie,” he said of the race circuit. “You build an aluminium body from scratch, but the thing I like the most is learning. Every track is different and you have to learn your adjustments. It’s a huge learning curve.”
Herzog has been racing late models since 2012.
He has two daughters with a baby on the way, and said he loves racing at Pevely because it’s close to home.
“I like to come out and entertain the fans,” he said. “My family helps me out a lot. I was the only one in my family to get into racing and it’s in my blood.”
Racing is also a family affair for Trey Harris of Hillsboro. Harris said his father began bringing him to the Pevely racetrack when he was in diapers, and his father-in-law encouraged him to get behind the wheel. Harris raced in the pro modified division and won his heat and then the feature race.
“The track was dried from the bottom to the top,” Harris said. “I like that because it puts the driver in you. You’ve got to learn to use the throttle and we led from the start to the finish.”
When the racers hit the corners, they’d turn hard into them, which is known as drifting. Fans on the infield standing close to the track were pelted with mud from the track.
“You don’t want to (drift) because the more you slide the hotter your tires get,” Harris said. “You don’t want that because your tires get soft. You’ve got to drive the car like there’s an egg under your pedal when the track’s like that.”
Harris races about 40 times per year and about half of those are at Pevely. Last winter he bought a 2009 Skyrocket chassis and he’s won five out of six feature races behind its wheel. Average straightaway speeds in his car are about 90 mph.
“Everybody says, ‘You’re just going around in circles.’ But it’s a lot more than that,” Harris said. “You try to steer against the car from sliding out from under you.”
Like Herzog, Harris said sponsors and his pit crew are behind his success. And he’s got a pretty good excuse handy if his wife, Jessica, tells him he needs a racing timeout.
“My wife’s dad got me into racing so whenever she gets mad about spending all my time at the track and in the garage, I remind her of that,” he said. “I have the best crew in the business. We spend hours and hours in the shop.”
Other local feature race winners Saturday night were Rusty Griffaw of Festus in the modifieds and Gary Haynes of Arnold in the sportsman division.