Senior Moment Provided by Russ Dodge:

Rags? Or Rex?

The year is 1955! The driver, Rags Carter! The place is Vineland Speedway. The discovery of the information this photo provided was a surprise since my memory placed Rags Carter as one of the “Florida Invaders” of the early 60’s. My memory placed Bob Malzahn, Bob Weisemeyer and Will Cagle, as the early “arrivals” in the late 1950’s followed by Allison, Hearne, Griffin, Tillman, Brack and others in the early 60’s. Rags would probably be best included with this group if it weren’t for this photo of an earlier appearance.

The car pictured and driven by Rags was the #119, owned by Vineland businessman and Sinclair Petroleum distributor Pete Marcacci. When the track went asphalt, Pete became a race official/race director for promoter Bill Nocco. While local drivers Herby Schock, Chris Dawson, Sal Moschella and others had driven for Pete, he gave a Florida driver a shot.

A newspaper clipping reviewing the races at Vineland Speedway from July 8th, 1955 shows the winner of the 2nd heat as Rex Cooper from Miami, Florida! This name change would have been totally overlooked if it weren’t for Pete Marcacci’s daughter Kriss, who wrote the name “Rags” next to the name on the scrapbook clipping! By the way, Steve Elias won the feature that day. Newspaper clippings also show that Rags (Rex) went on to win two more heats that month.

Fast forward about 45 years to Bob Miller’s Reading Reunion at the Reading Mall. Rags Carter was looking at one of the vintage race cars when I took advantage of the opportunity to approach him for and autograph. Holding out a Sharpie pen and my favorite color photo of Rags with Harold Cope’s 1, I asked if he would autograph it for me. He responded, “You want my autograph? I didn’t think anybody would know who I was.” I smiled and said, “You’ve got to be kidding! Everyone here knows the name Rags Carter!” While he was signing his name I asked, “Do you remember racing at Vineland Speedway?”
He finished signing his name and asked “How is Pete Marcacci? You know he wanted me to move to Vineland and run a gas station for him”. He went on and said how highly he thought of Pete and his family, even describing Pete’s Sinclair station.

I was so surprised by his sharp memory of his Vineland visit so many years before we really never discussed his racing experience there.

Today I can only speculate based on my knowledge of the era in Vineland Speedway history, the use of the assumed name. At that time there was a strong rivalry among all of the local car owners with the exception of the Gelsi/Armellini 44 with Al Tasnady. Collectively the other owners wanted to see Tas get beat because of his domination at the local track! It makes me believe that the assumed name Rex Cooper, was to hide Rag’s identity, since he was on his way to becoming well established, as a driver in Florida at the time.

What a wonderful bunch of memories, including the experience at the Reading Reunion, provided by another scrapbook photo.


Senior Moment by Russ Dodge
Photographer: William Curley
Photo Provided By: Russ Dodge
3widespicturevault.com

Comment: