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Soldier Field Recollections – Part One

One of the very first memories in my fuzzy little brain is looking down to see a car starting on fire as the driver climbed out. My Mom and Dad took me to the races at Soldier Field and we were sitting in the first row of seats behind the big, thick concrete wall in turn one. Later, when I was older and growing up in the city of Chicago , making the trip down to the lakefront race track was easy on buses and the famous “L” subway trains of the CTA. For a kid that couldn’t legally drive yet, they were a blessing.

By the time I got to be a teenager, Sal Tovella was my favorite driver. I proclaimed myself his biggest fan and when I got older and into sign painting, he gave me a shot to do some painting on his car. His cars were always lettered by ‘Da Man’ of Chicago signs, the great Dexter. Sal’s crew had replaced the driver’s door and only needed the number ‘4’ repainted. It would be my job to copy Dexter’s carved number on Sal’s 1967 Dodge Charger used in USAC competition. That meant going to Sal’s race shop and that was always an adventure.

Sal’s race shop was not at his infamous used car lot on Milwaukee Avenue . It was a few blocks away and in one of the more, shall we say, ‘active’ neighborhoods in the city. I knew the area. My cousin Mike lived nearby and I all but lived there. The neighborhood around Sal’s shop was one where you could fire up a 750 horse Hemi with no mufflers at any hour of the day or night and not bother anyone. It’s not that the shop was out in the sticks; quite the opposite. It was deep in the city, about a block or two from Western Avenue and would provide the backdrop for another great Chicago racing story.

As this story goes, the guys were working late at the shop one night and decided to order some pizzas. Dick was Sal’s chief mechanic and heard an almost frantic pounding on the door. He answered it expecting to get the pizzas but when he opened it, he saw the pizza guy being robbed. Dick, always the smart thinker, grabbed the pizzas and slammed the door shut. Then locked it. Somebody outside shouted, “HEEEYY!” and the pounding continued but Dick didn’t answer it. He figured why pay for ’em when it was just gonna go to the robber, anyway? It was that kind of neighborhood. After that, the Pizza place decided Dick set up the whole thing and refused to deliver any more pizzas to that address. No problem, Chicago had plenty of great Pizza joints.

Sal’s shop also had two big ass Dobermans that liked to eat go kart tires for fun. They were big and nasty looking and could probably devour you in three bites. But if they knew you, they were total pussycats. If they didn’t know you, they had to be introduced to you by Dick or one of the guys. After that, they would kill you by slobbering all over you or by standing up and making you fall over with them on top of you. That was their idea of playing with their new friends/toys.

Anyway, I went over to the shop to try to duplicate the number four Dexter had painted on Sal’s Dodge. I was new at this and it probably took me the better part of the day to paint just that single number on the driver’s door. It turned out to be a good ten-foot lettering job. That’s what we called signs that looked passable at a distance of ten feet. But when I saw that number on the track, racing at Soldier Field took on a whole new level for me. It took on another complete dimension when I got to finally race at Soldier Field.

(John Carollo grew up in the Chicago area, but relocated to Willoughby , Ohio a number of years ago. John will tell you that he is a race fan first and foremost. He has played many roles in the “sport of speed” from being a fan, pit crew member, driver, car owner, official and media member. John has written articles on racing for nearly 100 auto-related publications. His racing journalism earned him the prestigious Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) National Motorsports Media Award. In 1999, he and fellow motorsport writer, Bill Holder, co-authored the book – Stock Cars! America ‘s Most Popular Motorsport.)

More on Sal Tovella
by Stan Kalwasinski

Sal Tovella was born on August 14, 1928. The Chicago resident began racing stock cars at the Andy Granatelli-promoted Soldier Field around 1950. Tovella scored his first feature race victory at Soldier Field on June 21, 1952. Tovella and his “battered” ’49 Ford defeated Terry Gaffney and Lou Fegers before a reported crowd of 18,846. A regular at the “Field” for many years, Tovella captured the track’s late model stock car championship in 1963 after a season-long “battle” with rival Bob Chapman. A “double-points” 100-lap victory on June 29, 1963 helped push Tovella to the title. Tovella wheeled a ’63 Chevy II to the championship. Tovella had the distinction of winning the last stock car feature race ever held at Soldier Field, scoring the win on June 9, 1968.

Tovella was a long time competitor on the old United States Auto Club (USAC) stock car circuit. Tovella was USAC’s “rookie of the year” in 1963, although he made his first USAC start in 1957. Tovella garnered his first USAC stock car victory on July 30, 1966 at the Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville , Ontario , Canada . Tovella piloted his ’65 Plymouth to the win in the second “50-lap heat” on the 2.5 mile road course, defeating Billy Foster and Roger Regeth. One of his most memorable victories was his first USAC win at the famed “Milwaukee Mile” on August 10, 1975. Behind the wheel of his ’72 Plymouth, prepared by his brother Fred, Tovella took the checkered flag in the 200-miler ahead of Ramo Stott, Roger McCluskey, Butch Hartman and Larry Moore. During his career, Tovella posted a total of six USAC stock car victories, his last coming in 1980 on the one-mile dirt track at DuQuoin , Ill.

From time to time, Tovella would also try his luck in NASCAR Grand National (today’s Nextel Cup racing) competition. Tovella would compete in a total of 14 NASCAR events during his career, dating back to 1956. Tovella finished 16th in the NASCAR GN event held at Soldier Field on July 21, 1956, “Fireball” Roberts was the winner with Tovella and his ’56 Ford dropping out with brake problems. Tovella would compete in the Daytona 500 five straight years from 1960 through 1964 with a 14th place finish in 1961 in a ’61 Ford being his best Daytona effort.

Sal has been in the used car business for most of his life. He currently operates Sal’s Auto Sales in Elmhurst , Ill.

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