The Vault
MEMORIES OF SHAWANO SPEEDWAY HALL OF FAMER KEVIN TOBER
Posted on: Thursday January 26, 2023
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(The following are excerpts from the 2021 Amazon No. 1 motorsports best seller “5-10-32 McBride, Parker & Anvelink.” Kevin Tober, a Shawano Speedway Hall of Famer who recently passed away chimed in and provided us some good material on all three of these dirt late model legends. RIP 97)
MEMORIES OF MCBRIDE
“MJ (McBride) went pheasant and deer hunting south of my house for 27 years on my uncle and dad’s property.
When M.J. retired he took up bow hunting. M.J. shot a huge buck out here. It had almost a 20 inch wide spread. It was an 11 pointer. M.J. was very much into the hunting aspect.
In the mid 90’s I had bought one of M.J.’s backup cars called ‘Blackjack.” M.J. needed a car to run the Punky Manor race in Menominee. He changed the shocks and springs and towed it out there with our old race trailer. It was a rare time M.J. raced the number 97. It was the Miller Genuine Draft car. He won his heat race and I want to say finished really well there.
When we ran the sportsman class M.J. and his crew – they helped us out a lot. We were very competitive.
We’d go run the big half-mile at Manitowoc on Wednesday nights with the late models to get some seat time. M.J. blew his motor hot lapping there one night. He borrowed my car. We had steel wheels and put his aluminum wheels on. And swapped shocks and springs too. He wound up being the Expo champion. Running those Wednesday nights at Expo really helped me out. We’d try a lot of different setups at Manitowoc, and it was basically a practice session for Saturday nights at Shawano.
I remember one night at the opener at Antigo. Pete, Terry and M.J. all had new cars and were tinkering with things. I hung with them I the heat but by feature time they got stuff figured out and blew my doors off!
I remember one time I paid M.J. $100, and I wound up with 22 slightly used tires. Again, they were always there to help you out. I remember in his later years in life M.J. loved to play cards. He played a lot. I’ve got all great memories of M.J.”
Terry’s Tidbits
“I actually got to know Terry (Anvelink) during deer hunting one year of all things. Me and a couple of guys were hunting with some guys from the Navarino area. I had wrecked the transmission in my streetcar. I let Terry know. He told me ‘I’ll fix it up for ya.’ He fixed it up for me. I knew him when he worked as a mechanic in Black Creek. One of my pit crew guys worked down there he’s a good guy.
Over the years I’d stay in touch with Terry and his wife. We were up in the stands, and we cheered for Terry because he ran big blocks like us although he won a track championship that one year with a small block motor.”
Parker’s Pieces & Parts
“I had a couple of good races with Pete (Parker) but one of the best stories was a race we had with our haulers on the way to Antigo one night.
Pete was always running late getting to Antigo on Fridays. We had a farm we had to work on, so we were often running late too. One afternoon we took a shortcut through Pella and Leopolis and hit highway 29. We saw Pete coming up highway 45. I remember one time Pete was in front of us. We were at a stop sign and we flew past Pete going on highway 45 just south of the racetrack. Only problem is there was a cop sitting there. Well at least we could say we passed Pete Parker – even if it was while we were racing each other with our haulers on the way to the track!
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