Dick Trickle...Speed Demons #1

Dick Trickle, born in Wisconsin Rapids and raised in Rudolph, has won over 1,200 races. He began in 1958 racing on a wide ranging dirt track network in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. He soon went nationwide. During one single season alone, Trickle won 67 feature races - a record that still stands. Inside the racing world he is known as "The winningest Stock Driver in America."
"I owned and operated my own team until I went to Winston Cup in '89, for 27, 28 ... 30 ... years," Trickle said. "I had as many as nine people working for me. We had a big operation for a short-track crew, and we raced all the way from Canada to Florida, the ones that paid the most. We didn't go for the easy ones. We always went for the tough ones."
In 1984 Trickle fittingly made his NASCAR Busch Series debut at The Milwaukee Mile, the worlds oldest speedway. I love this guy, he drilled a hole in his helmet so he could light up and smoke while he raced and he's the only driver in NASCAR history to be seen smoking a cigarette on camera while driving. How cool is that?
And how many times have we heard sports reporters mention his name just so they could say it? By the late 90's, his name became a running gag on Sports Center. All that aside - with his winning history, he'd be just as memorable with a different name. And the stories Trickle could tell about life as a racer on the road is a story that needs to be told in greater depth. Let's just say he's lead an amazing life.
"I was fortunate, because it's a long way from Rudolph, Wis. to Daytona, I know that," Trickle said. "But I made it."...and he's still doing it.