Dick Taylor Memories

Watching the St. Louis Cardinals tonight made me think of a driver who still isn't afraid to get behind the wheel.  You look at him and think, hell...he isn't that old.  Yet he has had  successful son do a lot of what his father made a name for himself doing here in central IL.  Where you been Dick Taylor?

When I was a kid watching the best of central IL run at Farmer City, one of the slickest looking cars on a speedway each night was that of none other than Springfield's Dick Taylor.  He was sort of a kid to the track as well.  He looked like a kid to.  Dick isn't and never was very tall but he always had  nice smile on the face and to say it frank...raced everyone clean.

I said he had the slickest looking car to race against.  I still remeber how a man could put yellow, white and and some red trim on a car.  It was slick.  Whitey Herzog was the Cardinals manager in St. Louis at that time and he would of vouched for a little yellow trim afer how Dick decked out his car.  Wondering why I referenced the St. Louis Cardinals in all this?  Well it had to do with Dick's sponsors. 

When Dick rolled out on to a track, he was easily identified in his #24.  Yet what stood out to me was his sponsorship.  He was sponsored by the Springfield Cardinals at that time...a minor leage, AAA team to the boys in St. Louis.  He had his logo on the car decked out like the real deal with the twin birds sitting on both ends of the bats.  At that time in teh 80's, that logo was easily identifyable to kids of my age and I easily had a connection with what the #24 was doing on the track.

Dick won his fair share of races and to name his top prizes, probably comes with his accomplishments at Macon Speedway, Springfield and Farmer City.  He is a winner of the Hearld and Review 100 along with numerous races across many speedways in central IL.  Dick still runs Dick Taylor Auto Body in Springfield and in looking at pictures, he hasn't changed a bit.  Glad I had to see him run through the years and enjoyed seeing his son run just as good.  Thanks for the memories Dick!