Motorsports
JOHN BOMBATCH
When he was looking for potential inductees into Kil-Kare Dragway’s 2010 Drag Racing Hall of Fame, Ed Crowder just knew a group of Middletown hot rodders should be a part of the class.
“I had to include the Middletown Pacemakers Hot Rod Club. They’d been around a long time,” said Crowder, a former manager at Kil-Kare and longtime racing promoter. “When I was looking for inductees for this year’s Hall of Fame class, I knew that Daryl Hobbs and his group did a lot for drag racing in the early days of the sport. They were well deserving on this honor.”
Trenton driver Hobbs, car owner Ray Palmer; his sons, Michael and Steve; and other members of the Pacemakers Hot Rod Club will be among Kil-Kare’s second class of Hall of Fame inductees on Sunday, Aug. 1. The induction is part of the annual “Gathering of the Geezers” nostalgia drag racing event on the Kil-Kare Dragway quarter-mile track in Xenia.
“It’s really kind of nice, especially for us old fellas,” said Ray Palmer, 77. “Most of us were around when the sport first got started. It’s really nice to be recognized like this.”
A book was written about the group eight years ago. “Middletown Pacemakers: The story of an Ohio Hot Rod Club” was written by Ron Roberson, the son of an early member of the Pacemakers group. You can still find paperback copies of the book on the internet.
If you’ve already got a copy, you might want to bring it along to the Geezers event. Several members of the Pacemakers Club will be on hand, as will longtime veteran drag racer and engine builder “Ohio” George Montgomery, who will serve as grand marshal of the event.
For nostalgia car buffs, the Kil-Kare event should be exciting. All race cars are from the year 1979 or older.
The Pacemakers formed in 1950 and competed in drag races throughout the Midwest. From 1963 to 1965, the team won the A Competition national title, with Hobbs behind the wheel, at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
The Pacemakers dissolved from active competition in 1966, but you can still find many of the members every Thursday around lunchtime at the Frisch’s on Germantown Road hanging out and swapping drag-racing stories.
Palmer said he and his sons have been looking for one of the last race cars the team ran — a 1923 Ford T A Comp Roadster — in hopes of rebuilding the machine and possibly running it in future events.
His sons found a similar machine at a drag-racing car show in Bowling Green, Ky. recently. There’s talk about refurbishing that car into the Pacemaker entry, but Palmer and his group would love to find the original car.
“We’ve been trying to find it for a few years now,” Palmer said. “If we ever do find it, maybe we could run it at a future Gathering of the Geezers event some day.”
Gates open at 8 a.m., but racing doesn’t actually start until around 1 p.m. or so.
More than 400 cars were on hand for last year’s inaugural Geezers gathering.
Palmer said the induction ceremony for 25 inductees, including the Middletown Pacemakers Hot Rod Club, is scheduled to take place “between 2 to 3:30 p.m.”
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