G2 Radios presents The Waterford Speedbowl Message Board

Well I said I'll get some info about my grand father and here it is.

Robert H. Roselund the 1st. He was born March 30th 1937.
He was their at the Speedbowl for the opening day. 13 years old he said. He named off a few drivers that he could remember. Sorry if my spelling is wrong, Dick Buragod, Don Collins, Spinser Smith, Choly Webster, Bob Poter, Don Pernell, Moose Hue, Moe Gerse, Dave Roselund, Ed Flemke.

Some things he remember was someone named Cheeco shooting fire works off of his car as he would drive.

Also before the track was apart of NASCAR someone named Noman would driver at the Bowl under a different name. He raced at Stafford and Thompson with his real name.

He also told me that Don Pernell won 6 strate wins in the Bombers? He was no sure about what division he drove in.

In 1956 Robert was a car owner he had a "Claiming Car". The driver was Paul Davis they got no wins but they finished 2nd once. Robert would have to pay for Paul David's pit pass fee.

Robert drove for one race in 1960, he finished near last driving in the division Non-Ford.

Moe Gerse wanted Robert to buy his car. Robert would pay for fixing, tires and gas and also pay to get to the track as Moe would drive it. Robert said no.

Some times Robert would have walked all the way from Montville to the Speedbowl. He did not count how long it took him to walk or how many miles it was.

Back then he remembers that a ticket would cost 75 cents. and a cup of beer would cost 50 cents.

They used to race on Sundays but once they got lights for the track they would race on Saturday and if Saturday would rain out they would race on Sunday.

Well that's all I could get form him. There is more he just could not remember at the time. Hope you all enjoyed reading this. It was fun lessening to him speaking about the past.

Cool Stuff Paul... lemme help ya with a couple o' nuggets:

Dick Beauregard
Don Collins
Ed "Spinner" Smith
Charlie Webster
Bob Potter
Don Pernell - not familiar with this name - see below
George "Moose" Hewitt
Moe Gherzi
Dave Roselund
Ed Flemke Sr

side note: when we interview Benvenuti, he was confused between Moose Hewitt and his older brother Ben "Turk" Hewitt who raced in the late 50's / early 60's


NASCAR wasn't part of the 'bowl until 1985 - it was quite common for many drivers to change their names for various reasons: NASCAR drivers wanting to race at non-NASCAR tracks without a penalty happened quite a bit. In fact, the legend Richie Evans - before becoming the celebrated 9-time NASCAR champ fought with NASCAR on this very issue.... and won in court on the claim that NASCAR, by penalizing him for racing non-NASCAR events, was hampering his ability to make a living. Just another nugget for the only Modified King!

Some other name-changing nuggets I've learned along the way: at the bowl, Ed Moody used to drive under different registered names when they told him he was winning too much (he won a record 43 Bomber races in a 3-year span). Bugsy Stevens isn't his real name (see his son Dave Berghman). I believe Bugsy changed his name so he could race while on leave from military without getting into trouble.... something like that. I can tell ya.... all this name-changing stuff made creating an accurate statistic base for the 'bowl all that more difficult!


Is it possible he was talking about Eddie Bunnell?? I don't have Don Pernell listed as a feature winner in any division. Pernell/Bunnell could be confused when you're trying to remember back that long... Ed had a brother Don who also raced.... so maybe he crossed the brothers up?? I suggest because Eddie Bunnell won 6 Bomber races in a row back in 1966, so I'm thinking maybe this was who he was thinking of


From what people have told me about this guy, that sounds about right. Gherzi apparently was quite the character and would try anything to race anywhere


True - Benvenuti told us they would open on Easter Sunday, race Sunday afternoons til the weather got warmer (typically Mem Day to Labor Day), then back to Sundays in the fall.


Now that's a die-hard!!

Cool stuff man - email me when you get a chance
Thanks
Sid

Sid, thanks for being the historian. In my daytime line of work, if it isnt documented, it didnt happen, and that could apply here. if you dont write it down, it will be the same as not happening.

Those were the good ole days....I think the some of the best racing was the Super Stocks in the 80's....maybe I'm just bias...lots of clean paint rubbing.

Rubbed fenders with Art Jr. back in the mid 80's. What a blast we had back then. He was a clean racer and never a worry when you were in the outside groove along side him. Boy...Those were the days!

Thanks for the help Sid. My 73 year old grandfather was trying his best to remember. It took him a long time to remember all that old and small stuff. But as with coming age some things do get mixed up like the brothers you have mentioned. I'll interview my father this time. see if I can distract him away from the computer more then a few minutes. I'm not sure if I'll get anything seeing that he was more into girls back then, then the racing it self lol.

Paul & Sid, thanks, that is some good old stuff.

Thanks Bill, you were a guy that would run everyone clean too! Never had a problem, unlike others.

Some pretty interesting stuff there, its nice to look at stuff for the good ole days. I noticed Ed Moody is on the list on interviews. Alot of the cars he drove were built in my dads garage, Ed still lives right up the street from me and stops by to say hi every now and then. He is very nice guy. We have some pics of the old cars but they are currently mis-placed. i will try and locate them and try to put a few up for peeps to see. Reading all those names brings back memories for me as a kid at the track with my dad. He pretty much knows em all and would tell me about how it used to be. Kinda wish it was like it was then now.