ELMHURST, Ill. — Former Chicago area stock car driver and car owner, Mike Terrafino died at his home here on Thursday at the age of 85.
Terrafino got into racing at the old Mance Park Speedway in Hodgkins, Ill., driving his MG sports car in a race after telling his girlfriend, Joanne, who would later become his wife, that he was going to leave her in the grandstands and go buy a box of popcorn.
Terrafino competed in late model competition at O’Hare Stadium in Schiller Park, Ill., in 1956 when the track first opened. He raced there in 1957 and ’58 with his best points finish being 16th in 1958.
Around 1960 or so, Terrafino became a car owner and enlisted William “Whitey” Gerken to be his driver.
“I thought I was a pretty decent mechanic, but I was coming up short as a driver,” Terrafino said years later. “Steve from Steve’s Frame and Axle said I should put Whitey in the car. Whitey hot lapped my car and the first night finished in the top five. He said the car needed a change in the shocks and a little more power.”
The Gerken/Terrafino combo clicked with the team winning five of the last six late model feature races at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 1960, including the 100-lap Season Championship race. Gerken, wheeling Terrafino’s black ’57 Chevy No. 22, also captured the Season Championship race at Soldier Field in 1961. With Gerken in the driver’s seat, Terrafino’s Chevy was also a winner at the Rockford Speedway.
In September of 1961, Gerken drove Gene Marmor’s ’60 Chevy to victory in the USAC-sanctioned 250-miler at The Milwaukee Mile. Terrafino acted as Gerken’s crew chief that day and, years later, told the story that he might have shorted Gerken fuel on the last pit stop enabling him not to make it to the end of the race.
Gerken ventured down south to look for a NASCAR ride, leaving Terrafino’s new ’61 Chevy short track car. Terrafino put Bill Lutz in the No. 44 and Lutz won the O’Hare American 500 at O’Hare Stadium in 1962 with Gerken’s name still on the roof of the winning car.
The short track racing season was well underway in 1963 with Lutz driving the Terrafino Automotive ‘62 Chevy convertible No. 1. Gerken returned to the Chicago area looking for a ride. In about three weeks or so, Terrafino built a new ’63 Chevy convertible for Gerken to race with Gerken winning the O’Hare 500 that year, giving Terrafino two 500 wins in a row.
Terrafino, commenting about Gerken as his driver, said, “There were nights when we were off and there were nights when we were on, but when the car was on, he was there on the wheel.”
Terrafino and Gerken were ready to go USAC racing in 1964.
“We got a Ford factory car from Holman-Moody to campaign in USAC (in 1964),” reminisced Terrafino years later. “That’s the ’64 Ford that ran Daytona (with Bobby Marshman driving) and got crashed at Atlanta (with Larry Frank driving). It was wrecked in the right front and we fixed it up. They (Holman-Moody) dropped off I don’t know how many wheels and three complete engines with carburetors. I thought I died and went to heaven.”
Gerken drove the Terrafino entry No. 28 to a fifth place finish at The Milwaukee Mile in July of 1964.
Terrafino, who was working as a mechanic at Nickey Chevrolet in Chicago in 1966, helped stuff a big Chevy 427 into a Camaro as Chevrolet engineers oversaw the project. Soon, the 427 became a high-performance option for the Chevy Camaro.
Terrafino got behind the wheel himself again in 1967, competing at several area tracks, including Rockford Speedway. On Sunday night, June 25, 1967, Terrafino, driving his Chevy convertible No. 22, won the 30-lap late model feature at the high-banked, quarter-mile, Rockford oval over Danny Bellard and Joe Shear.
Terrafino and his wife, Joanne, raised a family which included three sons and two daughters. Grandchildren came along including Mike Terrafino III, who raced stock cars at Illinois’ Grundy County Speedway for several years.
Terrafino was inducted into the Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2016.