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BEHINDthe]WHEELWITH |AL DeANGELOby NAT KlHNFIELflFast on his feet as a track star in high Bcliool and as a race* driver in more recent years, a saxophone player who met his wife when she attended a jchurdf dance for which his band provided the music is one of a very small select grdup to have won championships in two entirely different branches of auto racings tAI DeAngelo ia aj, dark-haired, left-handed bundle of energy standing 6-10 and weighing 175 pounds who can talk about auto racing all day and all night without running, dbwn. j „Tho hazel-eyed, fast-talking fellow with kthe black moustache[ was all for the speedway sport from childhood on. Born in 1927drive, he adds,•‘Believe me, thei'G was rntiny a race night when 1 would stand nrouncN with nothing to do but carry my helmet. There was no car to 'drive/'From there he went to the United Stock Car Club and racing at Freeport, being on hand when the AH’-SUite Stock Car Club was formed; lie became a member of .the board after being one of the original organizers.Over the ensuing 13-years much happened in A 1*5 career, most-of thi in stocks, but little more than a year ago lie said: ** After a11 this tim'e I'm finally getting a change in mklgdets that is) .and‘maybe soonr lt;*c' Oj I-Vs$:^ 11. VU 1racing championship trophy.Larry MtendelsohnModified Stock Carin Queens, N.Y., hej.wa£ but a tot when his dad took him and blder brotner, henry, to America's ca»y-dayj midget car races. That was in the thirties at Freeport Municipal Stadium, now a .beautifully paved raceway, but then sporting .a cinder track used lot-high school track j meets and motorcycle races before the deput of the midget cars.I well recall that era, announcing tno molorcycie races for Bill Heiserman that were part of the sfeven-night-per-weck circuit abound the eas^.DsAnge.o planned to become a race driver as soon as ne became old enough for ‘eligibility but before| that could lake place, vVorid War If erupted to make a radical change of e-.--yon^s pj-ma; ob^n-aing his parents' written consent for he was cuuy 17 Jien, Al enlisted Jin the U. S. Navy and traveled around the world in that service and the Mci.c.i:uu j Marines for the nest three and a half ylt;jars.A landlubber once again. Al found that midget racing was uc the jieak of publicyearned to onrod as a Pop De^evceily’s pcoool it... *1 couldn't alford the fee at that lime so I waited and when not ‘too long after, stock car racing began, 1 joined the ranks.'Then 21 a;:.* bridegroom of several months, with the 1948 racing season almost over, he joined tliej Eastern ofcock Car Club v.nd began racing at the Islip Speedway onIsllp, L, I.t speedway promoter, presents A3 DeAngelo wiDi'popularity acd he student driver in lut — as ha putsLong Island.whlen he could get a car tothe real thing, Elaborating on this remark, he stated: “Before 1 retire, which will lie in the reasonably near future, 1 wujlt;3 likeat least one ride in an Ohy/'And since there seem» utile liklihood of (1) squeezing an Ouy engine into a TQ midget, or (iij instaUmg an Ouy in a stock car, this means he is marring to a full-size 01 ly midget.” ■ ■Many • honors, awards, champion snipsand spw-d1 records spiced Al's speed why career and among them was his biggest racing thrfil of warning the Glen bord Memorial race in 1961. “he was one of my closest buddies, says Al, telling of Ford; whoso,, memory fo perpetuates oy Larry Mendelsohn by this annual race at lslip Spec*..., , where Glen was a star driver ior years.Anouier gr... -.w..g experience was ;ic-compJialiirtg what few in the sport have Iwen ab.e to do, winning both closed car and open :clt;:ckpll champion ships in a Single year. Wheeling Bob Poulesoti's 707 Friday mgut . , gw car mess al Pmet Brook lt;N.J.) Stadium in 1963, DeAngelo caiKurcu toe season tju*e with a smashing performance closing night, and waging* a brilliant campaign all season long in Ed Ackerman's Ace of Spades he annexed the modified stock ear at IaUp.Long races are included in the DeAngelo record, two 100-milers on the Trenton mile, and three 500-lappers (100-milers) on the Islip fifth-mile; he was out front at 97-miles(PLCASG TURN TO PAGE I3l *TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1964IllOSTRAltO SKEDNM NEVrS—9
Newspaper Details
Illustrated Speedway News
Brooklyn, New York, US
Tue, Jan 28, 1964
Page 15
Full Page
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NY, USA 16 Sep 2020
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Illustrated Speedway News
