(Press Release from New England Racing Museum)
The North East Motor Sports Museum (922 Rt 106, Loudon, NH 03307) will host the third annual Legends Day celebration and banner raising, this time to honor three outstanding supermodified race car drivers on October 27th.
This year’s museum feature exhibit is supermodified racing. The museum floor features supers that go back to the early 1960s and includes those driven by this year’s Legends Day honorees. Shea Concrete Products sponsors the event and the exhibit.
Ollie Silva, a four-time winner of New England’s most important race for supers, the Star Classic, is an honoree. He won the Classic race four times and was a four-time New England Super Modified Racing Association (NESMRA) Champion.
Silva won feature races from California to Florida, from Ohio to Canada. His style was hard on the gas with his elbows up. He is the all-time top NESMRA feature winner with 179 victories. Silva is deceased.
Bentley Warren is now known as the proprietor of the most successful biker bar in New England, Bentley’s Saloon. Or his huge sand-and-gravel trucking company in Ipswich, MA. But from his teen years through his mid-70s, Bentley was a top-shelf racer who piloted stock cars, sprint cars, and supermodifieds to checkered flags.
His racing resume is unmatched: Six-time Oswego Classic winner, six-time Star Speedway Classic winner, twice winner of the Little 500, six-time Oswego champion, four-time ISMA point champion, two-time Indy 500 starter…and so much more. Bentley is a unique personality, a guy who has lived life on the very edge and laughed at danger all the way.
Ed West is a six-time NESMRA champion, winner of 107 NESMRA feature races, second all-time. He was a quiet racer who often started in the back because that’s where the great ones lined up in Eddie’s day and nights behind the wheel.
He wasn’t spectacular so when the race neared its end, fans looked around as Westy took the lead and asked each other “Where did he come from?” The two-time URDC season champion won the NESMRA Classic three times.
The ceremony honoring the drivers will be held at the museum on Sunday, October 27th with doors opening at 11am. The event will begin at noon. Tickets are priced at $25 for museum members, $30 for non-members and include a light lunch and access to the museum all day. The museum’s annual meeting will follow the Legends Day ceremonies and is open to all paid museum members.
Be there to see three of New England’s finest race car drivers honored. Watch as banners that will hang permanently from the ceiling are unveiled. Only 200 tickets are available. Buy yours online now, call 603-783-0183 or send payment to North East Motor Sports Museum, 922 Rt 106, Loudon, NH 03307.
Supermodified drivers from this generation like Silva, West and Warren put on great shows. No mirrors so it was much harder to block. No spotters, so if you didn’t get your car far enough on the side of them, you weren’t there. If you won the feature one week the next week you started last (somewhere around 24th) along with other drivers that were high in points. This always made for great passing when the faster cars started in the back. Rules were so wide open back then, 350’s vs big blocks, you had supers, sprint cars, rear engines, badgers and roadsters. I always looked forward to the big shows at Star and Thompson when the Oswego regulars would show up like Shampine, Swift, and Andrews. The modified races on the same day were great too as you would have Desarro, Stevens, Flemke and Santos to name a few. The mods seem to be getting better with numbers these days, I hope that trend continues. For the supers, hopefully something can get pulled together because when you get a full field on a short track they are still awesome to watch.