Jason and all,
I make no bones about my mentor in racing, Wedge Rafferty is the one that
got me into TR's and had I not met him I do not believe I would have ever got
into road racing. Wedge and his family took me in when I was in college at
BGSU in 1970. I worked part time at a American Gas station pumping gas and
fixing cars. Wedge was the dealer rep for American. He notice that I was
fixing all types of cars and asked me if I wanted to go to IRP and help him
race his Triumph. Immediately I thought we were going drag racing as I had
gone to the NHRA nationals at IRP every fall. When I pulled into Wedge's
driveway there sat a school bus yellow TR4 with a roll cage, no windsheild,
big fat tires and flared fenders. I still thought we were going to drag race
it! Once we got to IRP Wedge unloaded the TR4 and fired it up and I think at
that moment I was hooked. When I discovered the road course I knew I had to
become a road racer. I helped Wedge for a couple of years and he helped me
with my first TR4. I owe allot to Wedge!
Wedge mentored me for many years and he is a legend in road racing from Cam
Am to all sorts of road racing cars including 24 hours races. My first phone
call after the win at the runoffs was to Wedge. In fact my gold medal hangs on
a picture of my car in the rain at RA in a yellow school bus picture frame
that Wedge painted himself and sent to me after the race. I keep in touch with
him and he's still wrenching on cars! If you see him talk a look at his kit
car Catterham!
Thanks for sharing your story Jason! The "Wedger" as we call him, is a true
hero to me!
Sam
> Date: Wed, 11 May 2011 17:20:03 -0500
> From: jason@multivintage.com
> To: fot@autox.team.net
> Subject: [Fot] Small world, Sam Halkias,Little 500
>
> - just a bit of small town Triumph irony that made me feel big in racing -
>
>>
>
> With my race car on the trailer, word spreads fast in a small town... soon
a
> few of the town's racing legends were down at the local machine shop to
> check out my ride. Racing is pretty big in Rensselaer. And at the top of
the
> heap is a fellow named Wedge Rafferty, an old time SCCA'er with
> legendary endurance racing and sports car history. I have known Wedge for
> over 20 years, he was a sponsor for my Go Kart teams and has great racing
> "know how." I bought my first trailer from him 20 years ago. In the coarse
> of bench racing chatter and B.S. with Wedge, someone who really understands
> the thrill of racing, I was talking about how great this past year has been
> for me racing the GT6, the coolness of FOT,meeting Kas Kastner, Racing the
> Kastner Cup. etc. When I mentioned that I was racing against these great
> Triumph guys....he instantly dropped the name Sam Halkias and continued to
> divulge that Sam worked on his pit crew fresh out of school when, Mr. EP
> Champ, was just a wee lad with a minimal interest in racing.
>
> I won major points with that group when I told Wedge that not only did I
> see Sam win the SCCA National Championship from Canada Corner at Elkhart
> Lake, I also raced against him at Heartland Park and enjoyed a few
> conversations with him at our last Kastner Cup. So yeah, Team Turtle, Wedge
> Rafferty...old small town college road racing hero's of
> mine, apparently helped Sam Halkias get some sort of introduction to
racing?
> Wedge was delighted to hear that all of us somehow knew each other and the
> friendship and history made a neat conection of three generations of
racing.
> >From Wedge Rafferty, to Sam Halkias, to me.... so, Small world eh Sam?
>
> Jason Ostrowski
> Friendly Ghost Racing GT6 #27
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