Bobby Cain At Head Table For 2005 DIRT MotorSports Hall of Fame Inductions
by Gary M. Spaid, DIRT MotorSports PR

WEEDSPORT, N.Y. (May 11) – Bobby Cain has been selected as a 2005 inductee into the DIRT MotorSports™ Hall of Fame. Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Sunday, May 29 on the Cayuga County Fairgrounds.

With DIRT MotorSports' charter member track, Cayuga County Fair Speedway, celebrating it's Golden Anniversary in 2005, it's rather appropriate that track pioneer and current Weedsport resident Cain enter his name in the organization's museum for the ages.

What more can be said about anyone that says," I did it all on my own." Life is funny like that. Sometimes one man can stand up and set out on a journey and make it all work. Bobby Cain is such a man. During his 58-year auto racing career Cain has competed at more speedways then most people know even existed. He has raced on the beach at Daytona and roared around local bull rings in midgets, sportsman, modified, supermodified and sprint cars. He even raced in a Sports Car Club of America event during the 1959 season on Watkins Glen (NY) road course.

"I'd have to say of all the tracks I raced at Waterloo's Maple Grove Speedway was my favorite," Cain stated. "I don't know why, it might have been the layout." Maple Grove was a long half-mile tri-oval that was in operation annually from 1949 to 1970 and then was revived for two more seasons, 1976 and 1977, before the local town noise ordinance finally closed the track down for good for weekly racing.

Bobby Cain's legendary racing career began when he was just 16 years old, at the Hilltop Speedway in Lebanon, Pa. An announcement appeared in the local newspaper one day introducing Bobby Cain, the "youngster from Lancaster", as a newcomer to the speedway. He would be racing against the likes of Vic Nauman and Dick 'Toby' Tobias. Cain hopped into a midget and went racing, soonafter he would compete in "roadsters", open topped cars and his own creation without a roll bar. From there he moved up to midgets and later stock cars. Tracks he ventured to at the time included the Mason-Dixon (Md.) Speedway, Westport (Md.) Stadium, Lanter (Va.) and Marlboro (Md.) Speedway.

"I won the first race at the Reading (Pa.) Fairgrounds after it had been closed for a while," Cain recalled. At the time he was then racing mostly in Pennsylvania at Williams Grove, Selinsgrove, Dorney Park, Lincoln, Susquehanna, Richmond (dirt track), Bowling Green Speedway and Rick (Md.) Speedway. But all of this racing would be interrupted by the Korean Conflict. Bob served two years on the front lines in Korea in a tank division. When he returned home he moved south to Key West, FL, where he built a car and raced at Hialeah Speedway, a paved third-mile oval. A few years later he returned north, this time to Central New York, where he found a number of tracks to his liking.

"I won the first time I went to Waterloo Speedway," commented Cain. "We were one of the first race teams in this area to jack weight around inside the car." Most cars of that day

simply had their bodies leaning to the inside of the track and cock-eyed the steering wheel to make left turns easier. Cain went against the norm and shifted weight around inside of the car using cinder blocks. He also picked up a new nickname "Quaker Shaker" during this period, referring to his Pennsylvania background and developed a unique looking sedan bodied car that many referred to as the famed "bath-tub" number 36.

Cain continued to travel, racing at Lancaster on the dirt, Mil-ray Speedway (now Fulton Speedway), and Weedsport Speedway. While his luck shined at Waterloo it would take him 10 years to pick up his first win at the small dirt oval that would later become known as the "Flagship Speedway of DIRT MotorSports." His adventures at Weedsport began during the speedway's first year of existence, 1955, driving the Huck Farley's number 59A. Finally on July 12, 1964, Cain took home his first Weedsport 25-lap feature, winning the Les Sealey Memorial.

It was in the early sixties when Cain began to explore other racing venues. He drove the URC Sprint Car Spring Series in 1962, the same year that marked the birth of the most famed "Quaker Shaker" number 36 --- a "supermodified" with a stock car body on it. He drove this car at Oswego and the next year drove the number 46 modified out of Buffalo and came home second in the Utica-Rome New Yorker 400. He returned to his local speedways in 1965 with his "supermodified" crowned by a Falcon body that made it a "legal" stock car at Central New York tracks.

"We won on opening night at Waterloo and it set off a season long series of protests about that car," Cain added. Bobby did everything the officials wanted him to do. He changed the body and even lengthened the wheelbase, yet the protests still continued. He won many races in that car before it was retired in 1971 after becoming unreliable with too many bent parts. He did pick up track championships at Waterloo (1966) and Weedsport (1970) during the time when he raced against those drivers he considered his toughest competition, Sammy Reakes and Cliff Kotary. During his 1966 summer he also returned to run a sprint car for Ester Burnie in Pennsylvania and later in the 60s fielded a second modified car for both Walt Ellison and Dick Fields.

Cain returned to Waterloo after Dominic Tantello tried to revive the speedway in the mid-1970s. He had one famous run-in during that same period of time with then flagger Marty Beberwick who tried to get Cain off the speedway with the black flag. Unable to do so, Beberwyk stepped down from the flag stand and stood in front of Cain's car, not allowing him to move. But Bobby being Bobby, he moved and made Beberwyk jump, causing him to slam his flags on the hood of the "Quaker Shaker" to the delight of the fans. This act was repeated a number of times until Bobby relented, backed up and drove to the pits.

In the ever-changing times of automotive technology Cain looked at the late models. He began helping out on a number of full-fender teams, including the late Denis Taney and Craig "Cricket" Keel. But working on the cars was not as fulfilling as that was his day-to-day job, owning his own repair garage and machine shop. So he took to the track driving a sprint car in the Empire Super Sprint series while his wife Linda served as his pit crew.

After a few years behind the wheel, Bobby picked up his first ESS win at Merrittville (Ont.) Speedway in 1984. He backed this up in what might have been his most satisfying win, a victory in 1987 at his "home track" in Weedsport, then renamed Cayuga County Fair Speedway. Cain went on to win two more ESS races at Brewerton (NY) Speedway in 1987 and Devil's Bowl (Vt.) the following year.

Cain's worst racing accident was suffered at Evans Mills (NY) Speedway on June 25, 1989, when a part broke on his sprinter sending him solidly into the retaining wall. The impact broke his ribs and lacerated his neck. The impact was so violent that the engine was ripped out of the car and sailed down the track. After recovering there were no second thoughts about returning to race again; so he thought.

One night he was racing his sprint car at Clinton County (Pa.) Speedway when a problem with his heart was diagnosed. An attempt to correct the situation failed back at that time. Since then a successful operation has been performed making him still a healthy man at 74 years old. He sold his ESS car to Bob Podolak in 1997, however, he still could not stay away after selling out all of his racing equipment. At the age of 67 he bought a new sprint car, a bigger motorhome and went off to the Keystone State to run at Mercer, Tri-City, Lernerville, Clinton County and Challenger speedways.

When the United Speedways of North America series was formed in 2000 Cain was chosen to become the group's Engine Tech Inspector. That year ended for the USNA with the series folding so Cain, still healthy, returned to the thing he loved the most---racing!

Today, Bobby remains active racing his sprint car at Mercer on a weekly basis. His fans and friends have seen him win hundreds of features in multiple type cars. His talents truly make him a DIRT MotorSports Hall of Fame driver.