by Bill Sessa
The Green Bay Packers had Lombardi.   The Yankees had Steinbrenner.   Northern California sprint car racing had Louie Vermeil.

When automobile racing first caught the public’s imagination, it was Vermeil who led it into respectability as professional entertainment.  When its popularity boomed after World War II, it was Vermeil’s steady hand that guided it to prosperity and created a nationwide reputation for Calistoga Speedway that continues today, two decades after his death.

He had a life-long love for the speedway and sprint cars and a strong, unwavering sense of what they needed to succeed.  Some would call him stubborn.  Others would call him dedicated and determined.  Like Lombardi or Steinbrenner, the square-jawed, bulldog of a man, Vermeil stamped his own distinctive style on both.  Fans and drivers alike continue to benefit from his passion, decades after his death.

“He ruled with an iron fist,” recalls Calistoga resident Charlie Wolleson, a life-long friend.  But it was never for the sake of power. It was always with a big heart and for the good of the sport.  “He always played to the fans,” said Wolleson.  “Louie used to remind the racers that if it wasn’t for the fans, they would have no place to race.”

Louie Vermeil’s love of racing was sparked while he was still in high school in San Mateo.  By the time he was 20 years old and living in Calistoga, his interest in the sport revved up considerably, working for a local mechanic who also had a race car.

By the late 1930s, a promoter was looking for someone to help organize racing to improve its appeal to the public.  With Vermeil’s help, the promoter, Charlie Curryer, formed the American Racing Association to sanction events, including races at the fairgrounds in Calistoga.  “We didn’t have very many cars,” he recalled years later.  “Probably didn’t have more than about a dozen.  But we kept sending the same cars out for one race after another.”   The fans, he recalled, felt they got a full afternoon of entertainment.

Vermeil was a charter member of the Bay Cities Racing Association, one of the oldest sanctioning bodies in the country for midgets that still exists today.

By the mid-1960’s, the ARA has outlived its purpose.  Vermeil, ever the architect of racing organizations, formed the Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC), the forerunner of what is today known as the Golden State Challenge Series.  Although the club was a traveling series, it considered Calistoga Speedway its home, hosting up to 11 races a year to sold out grandstands.

Vermeil’s was president for the next 20 years. But his style was more like a General.  He ruled from his post underneath the announcing tower, now long gone, that sat in the infield along the front straightaway.  Clipboard in hand, Vermeil directed races like a choreographer.  To dance, racers had to agree to his tune.  Ever mindful that racing was entertainment, his rules were intended to give the fans their money’s worth to make sure they came back.  “If a laggard wasn’t ready when his race was called, he just didn’t race,” says Wolleson.  It made no difference to Louie who the person was, Wolleson notes.  “He never played favorites.”

Vermeil was a man of few words.  But he was known as a man who kept his word.  “People used to come to him for ideas to make racing better,” says Wolleson.  “They knew that when Louie said something, he was fair and that made them respect him.”

He had a reputation for sizing people up quickly.  And, if he thought someone was a good guy, would go out of his way to help.  As a man of few words, many people thought him to be gruff.  But if they got to know him, they realized he had a big heart.  As a mechanic, he would rather fabricate a part than pay for one.  If it took that to get a racer into the program, Vermeil would reach into the depths of his garage and find something to get the car on the track, especially if he knew that the racer had just put all he had in the car and didn’t have much else.  Many racers went out the back gate after a bad night with a $20 bill from Louie to help them with gas money to get home.

Louie and his wife Alice made their home, at 911 Washington Street, (which had been the summer home for Louie’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Garibaldi Iaacheri) the focal point of race weekends.  The parking lot around his Owl Garage was jammed with race car trailers while Alice would cook for everyone who showed up, often turning it into an impromptu picnic for more than a hundred drivers, mechanics and anyone else who showed up.  That open-hearted hospitality was extended as much to strangers as it was to racers, including stranded motorists that he towed off the Mt. St. Helena highway.  While Louie worked on their car, Alice would invite them in for dinner and charge them next to nothing for the work he did.

Vermeil left racing in 1985 after creating the legacy of Calistoga Speedway, paving the way for a generation of racers who barely knew him.  Calistoga resident Mike Benson, who reached a career milestone by winning a race on the half mile oval, has an appreciation for that.  “In a way, I didn’t realize all that he did,” said Benson, who was a young kid when Vermeil ran NARC.  “I respected him as old school and had to accept him for who he was.  “Louie put the track in a position for me to race there,” Benson continued. “In a way, I couldn’t have won the race I did if it hadn’t been for what Louie did years before.”

BensonRacing.com