MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — This Friday’s All Star Circuit of Champions sprint car show at Williams Grove Speedway is meant to honor its original winner. He was the first. He had one of the most recognizable names in motorsports history dating back to the 1930s.
On tap at Williams Grove on Friday will be the annual Tommy Hinnershitz Memorial Spring Classic, honoring the late, great racer from Oley, Pa., who holds the distinction of winning the first run at Williams Grove Speedway on May 21, 1939.
Hinnershitz won the race in what was called a “hard and heady” event to best the famed Joie Chitwood.
Hinnershitz’s death in 1999 left behind an auto-racing legacy worthy of note by any standards.
During his 30-year career spanning 1930-1960, “The Fying Dutchman,” as he was known, amassed seven AAA/USAC Eastern Big Car Championships, taking titles in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1956 and in 1959.
He had garnered 103 total AAA/USAC feature wins with 19 taking place at Williams Grove.
Hinnershitz set 43 AAA track records during his tenure and would compete in three Indianapolis 500s.
Back in 1939, when Hinnershitz passed Chitwood for the lead in that maiden race at Williams Grove, the duel was billed as “one of the most thrilling bits of driving ever witnessed on a Pennsylvania speedway.”
It was said that when Hinnershitz passed Chitwood, “the Big Chief was met with acclaim from the crowd.”
And Williams Grove will bestow even more worthy acclaim in the Big Chief’s honor this Friday night.
The annual Tommy Classic will be the first race of the season in the Hoosier Diamond Series at Williams Grove, paying $6,000 to win the 30-lap affair.
California’s Kyle Larson, an independent driver, pocketed the Tommy Classic loot last season while on his way to claiming the 2021 NASCAR season title.
Larson also copped the classic in 2020.
The late Craig Keel won the first Tommy race in 2007.