I was preparing to climb atop my soapbox, ready to preach my "let's-honor-'em-while-they're-still-around-to-enjoy-it" sermon. I write mostly stories about races that took place 30 years ago, and many of the men who took part in those speed contests are no longer with us. Those who are still around deserve some recognition, for they gave us countless hours of motorized entertainment and made very little money doing so.

Bill with Tony Jankowiak in 1989
Click on Photo for Full Size Version

I was preparing to begin the first installment on the history of Lancaster (N.Y.) Speedway and a look at its colorful promoter, Ed Serwacki, when the bad news came.

Obituaries never tell the whole story, do they? I found Bill's obit on the Buffalo News' website. It mentioned surviving family members and something vague about sponsoring a lap at Lancaster Speedway's U.S. Open. The writer left out quite a bit.

Bill Colton owned Colton Auto Trim in North Tonawanda, N.Y., which later became Vans by Colton. He loved stock car racing and was a big supporter of asphalt Modified drivers. He sponsored Bill Bitterman in '72 and '73 track champion Ronnie Martin in the mid-'70s, to name just two.

His son Billy made a name for himself in the Upstate N.Y. Super Stock and Modified ranks and later joined Troyer Engineering in Rochester. By the mid-'90s, Billy was running the business for semi-retired Maynard Troyer. Today, Billy owns and operates Troyer Inc., the joint that revolutionized both dirt and asphalt Modified racing.

Dick Kluth was a popular, but struggling Modified driver from the old school. He had been racing since 1965 but never won a feature. Dick got his car to the race track each week by taking on extra work with his family. They'd put up drywall and ceilings in houses during the winter in hopes of making enough money to race during the summer. He'd never driven a car that was brand-new. In 1989, Colton began sponsoring the low-budget racer by purchasing a new tire for him each week. In 1990, he rendered Kluth speechless by offering to buy a brand-new car for the Hilton, N.Y. hero. Colton was that kind of guy. He was only to happy to pull the money out of his wallet but never demanded publicity for his generous deeds.

When the Friesen family purchased Lancaster Speedway in 1989, Colton stepped up to the plate for the Modified drivers once again, instituting a free weekly tire raffle. Later, he sold laps for Lancaster's season-ending U.S. Open. Wanting to spread the money around, Bill came up with the idea of having a drawing for the money on each lap. The money did not always go to the leader of each lap. If you were running fifth on lap 10, for instance, and he drew the number five for that particular lap, the money was yours.

But Colton's biggest contribution to racing was what we call "soft walls." Lancaster Speedway had lost three of its biggest names in less than one year. Track champion Tommy Druar died early in the '89 season in a crash in Turn 3 at Lancaster. Don Pratt, a Lancaster-Spencer frontrunner, perished at Pocono in September. And in the spring of '90, Tony Jankowiak – a Richie Evans protégé and brother-in-law to Druar – was killed at Stafford Springs, Ct. All three succumbed to hits with concrete walls – the same type of accidents that claimed the lives of Richie Evans and Charlie Jarzombek in '85 and '86, respectively. It was getting so bad that even inconsequential wallbangers had fans and officials holding their breath and crossing their fingers. "Something's gotta be done," Bill thought.

Colton's van conversion business used large blocks of expanded thermal foam (better known as Styrofoam). These refrigerator-sized blocks were cut up and utilized as insulation. I recall Bill telling me, "You punch a concrete wall with your fist, it hurts. Hit one of these blocks with your hand and it doesn't hurt." There's a scientific explanation in there somewhere, but you get the picture.

Bill presented his idea to Lancaster promoter Alex Friesen: line the walls in Turns 1 and 3 with these foam blocks to soften the blow. At $35 a pop, Alex was reluctant to invest the money in this experiment, so Colton footed the entire bill, ordered the blocks and brought them to the track. It looked a little weird, but it worked. Super Stocks, Modifieds and an occasional Supermodified pounded the blocks (instead of the concrete) and either drove away or suffered considerably less damage. More importantly, drivers were surviving these frightening crashes. Tracks like Oswego and I-70 soon began using the blocks. The idea caught on, but Colton didn't get much credit or recognition. He didn't seem to mind; each time a blizzard of Styrofoam chips erupted in Lancaster's turns, he knew his idea had done the job.

William H. "Bill" Colton Sr. passed away Feb. 27, 2003, but his contributions to racing will live on for a long, long time.