Paul Pitzer at the 1977 Knoxville Nationals (Jim Carmichael Photo)
The following year, we went to even more races. After the holidays and when the snow was flying, we went to Florida for a vacation and met up with Grandpa at his winter home in Punta Gorda. I didn’t realize that there was racing in Florida in the wintertime….I was thinking about Disney World, orange trees and beaches. I am glad Dad had racing on his mind! It was no coincidence that there was a series of races going on at the same time we were vacationing. There were events on dirt as well as some on asphalt. I can’t remember if we saw any of the asphalt races but I know we went to East Bay and also to Lake City Speedway, which featured a dirt surface that had oil put down on it…if I remember correctly. For the first time I got to watch Doug Wolfgang in the Van Patten 18, Shane Carson in the Nance 1n and Sammy Swindell in the Bruce Cogle 44 car. Also racing were Bobby Allen in his 1a, Kramer Williamson in the Boops 1, Paul Pitzer in the Weikert 29 and Rick Ferkel in the 0 car. That vacation was loads of fun, needless to say!
Back up north, when the summer came along, we travelled to some new tracks too. New to us were Tri- City Speedway, Mercer, Millstream, and Toledo. It was 1977 and according to the Speed Sport news, Doug Wolfgang was killing the competition after switching to a new, lightweight car. All of this must have come together to create a perfect storm in my father’s head. His appetite for more racing was growing into an obsession and I was all too eager to tag along. So when August rolled around, Dad informed me, out of the blue, that we were going to Iowa…and to the Knoxville Nationals!