By Lee Ackerman
Omaha, Neb. - What’s in a name? Well, let’s look at an old racer named
Egnatius Katona, known to the racing world as “Iggy”. Many of the younger
generation of race fans probably know little or nothing of Iggy Katona, but if
you look at the record you will find that Katona was a six-time Auto Racing
Club of America (ARCA) champion.
During his long ARCA career, Iggy made 312 starts, scored an amazing
79 wins, grabbed 44 poles and won six championships, posting championships in
1955, 1956, 1957, 1962, 1966 and 1967. In fact, Iggy finished in the top ten in
the ARCA points standing an incredible 21 straight seasons from 1953 though
1973. He was also the only driver to win a 600-lap race on a half-mile oval doing
that at Dayton Speedway on September 16, 1962, when he led 403 of 600 laps. A
race Iggy won by six laps.
Iggy was born in Toledo, Ohio, on August 16, 1916, and his racing
career started out by racing motorcycles in local races in Michigan and Ohio at
the age of 21 and winning most of the races he entered. In fact, within four
years Iggy was Michigan State Motorcycle Champion.
After a brief tour of duty in
the Army during World War II, he turned to midget car racing. Building his own
engines and chassis and with the help of his sons Ronnie and Jim as a crew,
Katona found quick success on four wheels as well, including posting 14
straight feature wins in a row at Detroit’s famed Motor City Speedway, a dirt
oval.
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In 1951 and 1952 Iggy ran a number of NASCAR Grand National (today’s Cup series) events, usually driving a Chrysler or a Plymouth. His best finish came in September 1952 when he steered his Plymouth to a seventh-place finish at Dayton, Ohio.
Then in 1952, fellow Toledo native John Marcus created the Midwest
Association of Race Cars (MARC) and from the start Iggy was a force to be
reckoned with, finishing third in the series inaugural season, fourth in the
second year of the series and then he became the man to beat as he won the MARC
Championship the next three years in 1955, 1956 and 1957.
In 1955, he won eight of the 33 MARC events with most of those wins in
the Midwest, but he also posted wins at Lakewood Speedway near Atlanta and at
Lancaster, S.C. In 1956, he posted five wins racing mostly in the Midwest and
he had another banner year finishing in the top-five in most races to secure a
second championship. In 1957 his consistent top-five finishes helped him add a
third straight title.
Katona continued to be a mainstay in MARC over the years and was a
driver to be reckoned with as he always was near the front. One of interesting
wins of the period came on August 28, 1960, when he won a 500-lap ARCA event at
the legendary Eldora Speedway near Rossburg, Ohio.
In 1962, Izzy posted a fourth MARC championship, winning seven times
with his most impressive win being the 600-lap win at Dayton in Ohio. In 1963
Izzy posted just four wins and finished second in the MARC points race while
running a very limited schedule.
In 1964, MARC became Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and at
that point more diversity was added to the schedule including superspeedways
such as Charlotte and Daytona. It was about this time that Iggy was asked about
racing on the superspeedways and his answer was, “Oh I love these high-bank
tracks, and I love the speeds but I’m only kidding myself that I can go as fast
as these guys who are used to it.” As we
shall see, Iggy would do alright on the big fast tracks. He won at the Daytona
International Speedway in February of 1965.
It was in 1965 that Iggy switched to Plymouth and Dodges to offset the
tough competition he would be facing. On May 1, 1965, Iggy steered his 65’
Plymouth to victory at the Clark County Speedway in a 100-lap event and
finished the month of May off with another 100-lap ARCA win at the Hagerstown
Speedway in Maryland. June saw him win at Anderson, Indiana and then he posted
a 250-lap win in September at the Michigan State Fairgrounds and then just
missed winning a 500-lap go in late September at Dayton, Ohio where he finished
second.
When the season was over Iggy had posted six wins in ARCA and finished
second in the points while running a limited ARCA schedule.
In 1966, Iggy was at the top of his game. Posting his first win of the season on March 27, 1966, at Meyers Speedway in Houston, Texas, Iggy led 57 of the 100 laps to win the race in 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 38 seconds. Over the course of the he followed that win with wins at Florence, Ky., Toledo, Ohio, Flat Rock Speedway in Michigan, Cloverleaf Speedway in Ohio where he led the entire 100 laps, Mount Clemens Speedway in Michigan, Clarke County Speedway (twice), Columbus Motor Speedway and Canton Speedway in Ohio followed by Auto City Speedway in Michigan and finishing off with a win at Dayton, Ohio on October 2, 1966.
When the season was over Iggy had posted 12 wins (four in a Plymouth
and eight in a Dodge) and scored 2,920 points to claim his fifth ARCA
Championship.
In 1967, Iggy campaigned almost entirely in a Dodge, although he did
drive his 1965 Plymouth to a win in a 100-lap ARCA race at Florence, Kentucky
on April 23, 1967. Behind the wheel of his 1965 Dodge after a number of races
where he ran second or third, Iggy posted a repeat win at Meyers Speedway on
April 2.
Then after winning in his Plymouth at Florence, he posted wins at
Toledo, Auto City, Lorrain County and Millstream in Ohio, the high banks of
Anderson Speedway in Indiana where he led 246 of the 500 lap Anderson 500,
Columbus Motor Speedway and Clarke County in Ohio, and finally at Auto City on
September 3. When the final ARCA points were tallied Iggy had 3,120 points more
than enough to claim his sixth and final ARCA Championship.
Now 51 years old Katona took time to look back on his career. “I’ve been lucky. Sometimes I haven’t been able to run as hard and fast as I wanted to because I was afraid my car wouldn’t stay together, but most of the time, we’ve been able to stick in there with them.” Never seriously injured in a racing accident, his worse accident was on the highway when a drunk plowed into him.
In 1968 running even less ARCA races than normal, Iggy posted three wins at Florence, Beaver Valley and Taylor County (all in Kentucky) in his Dodge but still finished fourth in ARCA points. 1969 saw just two wins and in 1970 followed that up win three wins those coming at the Sharon Speedway and the Trumbull County Fairgrounds in Ohio and on the Salem High Banks in Indiana.
1971 saw just two wins, the biggest coming on February 7 when he won
the 300-mile ARCA 300 at the Daytona International Speedway while leading 42 of
the 120 laps behind the wheel of his 1970 Dodge. 1972 and 1973 saw Iggy post no
wins but on February 10, 1074, the 57-year-old veteran posted his final ARCA
win, but it was a big win as he won the ARCA 200 at Daytona for car owner Buddy
Ward.
1973 and 1974 saw a handful of
NASCAR starts but with no real success and he ended his driving career with
ARCA with single races in 1976 and 1977. So ended a fantastic career which saw
Iggy Katona hold many ARCA records, although some have fallen since.
Current ARCA President Ron Drager shares his thoughts on Iggy Katona. “Iggy
was physically intimidating, not in height but barrel chested, arms like tree
trunks. Very serious about his racing, at the track it well all business,
because he raced for a living-that was his sole source of income. His race team
was all family, his wife Eleanor kept the books and was his race day scorer
(when every car was required to supply one) and his sons Ron and Jim were his
pit crew-they did all maintenance, repair, engine building, fabrication in the
garage at home in Michigan.”
Drager continued, “Iggy would drive straight through only stopping for
fuel to races, regardless of the distance-when he drove the hauler to Daytona,
he would have a jug of iced tea and a bag of pretzels for the trip. When you
look at the schedules, running 50 plus MARC races per year in the 1950s, with
the primitive technology they had at the time and the roadways they had to
travel, running the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit and the Wisconsin
State Fair Park in Milwaukee on back-to-back days, it’s a real testament to how
tough those racers were.”
He added, “Iggy was pretty much the driver to beat for most of 20
years on the MARC/ARCA circuit, racing against some pretty hardscrabble drivers
like Jack Bowsher, Les Snow, Bill Kimmel, Andy Hampton, Bobby Watson, Nelson
Stacy, Darel Dieringer, Fred Lorenzen, Charlie Glotzbach, Benny Parsons, Jack
Shanklin and Curtis Turner. He won Daytona in 1974 in a Dodge Charger Hemi at
the age of 58 which was pretty remarkable at the time.”
So, race fans will remember Iggy Katona as not only one of ARCA’s
greatest drivers but one of the best drivers of his era in all of racing. A hard-working, do-it-yourself individual, who
was a true champion.
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