Eddie Leavitt, driving the R&H Farms #40, won the 1975 National Super Sprint Car Championship at Knoxville Raceway.
By Wayne Grett
Knoxville, Iowa (August 11, 1975) – Being fired from a job can lead to better things.
In baseball, Billy Martin was ousted as the manager of the Texas Rangers and soon was hired as the field boss for the New York Yankees, a better team in the opinion of some.
In sprint car racing, Eddie Leavitt of Kearney, Mo., was fired as a driver by Ed Smith of Lincoln, Neb., about three months ago.
“He told me I couldn’t drive a race car anymore; I had lost my ability,” said Leavitt Saturday night after winning the National Super Sprint Championships A-main at the Marion County Fairgrounds.
Leavitt, 32, a trucking firm operator, had defintely proven he has not lost his ability. When one wins by three-quarters of a lap over the best drivers in the country, lapping all but three cars in the talented 22-car field, including Jan Opperman, who has raced in the Indianapolis 500, he still has something on the ball.
“That was the first time in my life I’ve ever been fired,” Leavitt said. “I was discouraged for a while, then I got a call from the ‘farmers.’”
The farmers are Tom Hill and John Ricky, who farm near Williams, and Hill’s brother Stan, who lives in Denver, Colo.
“Their driver, Thad Dosher of Topeka, Kan., had just recently quit to compete on the United States Auto Club circuit, and they wanted me to drive their car,” Leavitt said.
Dosher, who drove for them for several years, did well in the car, even winning the International Motor Contest Association sprint car title in 1973. “It was a great opportunity, and I jumped at the chance,” Leavitt remarked.
It would be a good match. In his first appearance at Knoxville in the black #40 Chevrolet-powered sprinter on June 28, he was third fastest qualifier and won his heat race. Then, he won a feature on July 5, skipped the July 12 events, won features on July 19 and 26, and also skipped the August 2 regular-season finale.
When Leavitt was driving for Smith, his best finish was fifth in a feature. “I got upside down one week, another time the motor caught on fire, and then another time the motor blew,” explained Leavitt. “I don’t know how you’re supposed to win when those things happen.”
Smith’s car did not qualify for Saturday night’s program. Steve Schultz of Chillicothe, Mo., finished second in a feature on Friday night for the non-qualifiers.
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