Author: tm500

There have been about 200 drivers enter the Montana 500 over the course of the last 40 years. Almost everyone who enters comes back another year to try it again. In fact about 80 percent of Montana 500 drivers return after their first try.

Not including current drivers (folks who have entered in the last five years) to date, there have been 34 people who have only entered one endurance run, they are: Judge Brownlee, Jim Gendreau, Joe Hoover, Norman Kerr, A. B. Lee, Melvin Lingle, Claude Sims, Tom Stanton, Tom Watson, Paul Winebarger, Arndt Zeller, Walt Mangold, Frank Schuler, Merle Clark, Clint Derby, Jim Faught, Bob Hunt, Laurin Cowling, Jeff Danielson, George Teves, Mavel Rector, Hugo Rintala, Hank See, John F. Cipra, Jr., C. E. “Andy” Anderson, Jim Stout, Ross Anderson, Jon DeVick, John Morris, Jon Bodine, Craig Rang, Jack Engdahl, Cort Strobel and Joyce Smith.

Of these 34, eleven were from the first year. Why there was such a drop out of first year people is beyond me. Of the remaining people, I only know one of them and that is Jon Bodine. I have been in touch with him and he says that he would like to come back some day. Jon ran in 1977 in a coupe. It was a bone stock original car right on down to the cast iron pistons. It never missed a beat in 500 miles and Jon finished with an respectable average speed of about 45 miles per hour.

by Tom Carnegie

Hal Wilson passed away recently. I knew him from when I ran in the Montana 500 in the seventies. I will describe my first impression of him. I don’t recall what year it was, but on this particular run his car was disqualified in the pre-race inspection because he had relocated his fuel tank underneath the dash instead of underneath the seat. At that time it was common to switch body parts around from year to year. His car had very early flat style fenders and a 1925 or so body. His thought was that since 1926-7 cars had their tank in the cowl, why not an earlier car? At some point in the pre-race meeting the drivers voted to overturn the inspectors’ and directors’ decision and allow Hal to run his car that year. I understand that Hal was a full-bird Colonel in the air-force and generally had the stoic demeaner fitting to the rank, but I could tell that he was affected by the show of support from the drivers.

The next year another car was disqualified at the start and Hal stood up at the prerace drivers’ meeting and made a motion to allow this fellow to run. The motion passed. Hal and several other fellows from Colorado were quite involved in T road racing and formed their own race called the Colorado 500 that ran for several years in Colorado. Hal was known to drive his model T (usually a brass roadster) great distances. He liked to drive from Colorado all the way into Canada and into the Arctic circle, often on primitive roads. He had articles published in both the Vintage Ford and the Model T Times.

As remembered by Nan Robison

My first recollection of Cokey Williams was in 1972. My brother Rick had decided to try his luck in the Montana 500 endurance run. My Mom and I had been enlisted as pit crew.

When we arrived on check in day, the multitude and variety of T’s amazed me. There were T’s of every color and condition, but one really stood out. That was Cokey’s. Cokey hailed from Hayward, CA. This was his second race, having entered in 1971. That year he placed 9th, and swore he would come back and win the 1972 race. He drove a 1924 and, he said that he was going to chrome everything if his car didn’t win in “71”. It didn’t, and he did.

Cokey stood out in a crowd. He was a very confident man, and while racing, always wore stylish coveralls, and a very natty chapeau. I constantly marveled at how his coveralls were always immaculate. I saw him in and under his car’s engine as often as any other driver. How he kept them so spotless is still a mystery to me.

His car in 1972 was a beaut! It was a sleek silver-gray and black 26-7 roadster, with Model A wheels, and lots of chrome. He had purchased the car at the Reno swap meet about 2 years before the race. It was a mass of rust and the turtle deck was riddled with bullet holes when he bought it. Cokey stated that “It looked like Bonnie and Clyde’s car”. You could see the filled bullet holes if you looked in the turtle deck. He estimated that he had spent about $1400.00 and 3000 hours restoring it to virtually mint condition. Rumor had it that he said it had somewhere between 21-47 coats of hand rubbed lacquer.

How many it actually had was never known for sure, but that car positively glowed. At that time, race rules required that you have a sign on the side of your car that stated your name and where you were from, but Cokey did not want to put one on his car as he was afraid it would mar the finish. He had made many of the parts he couldn’t find for the car himself. The car had a chrome Model A bumper, and both a brake light and a tail light, of which he was inordinately proud.

The race that year was 540 miles long. It began and ended in Miles City. Twenty-five cars were entered, with twenty-four starting. The first leg ended in Sidney, where Cokey led by nine minutes over Dave Ratzburg. He did have some sort of trouble outside of Plentywood, but still managed to come in ahead.

At the end of the race, Cokey came in first with a time of 10:39:54. He averaged 50.63 mph. After teardown, his car was found to have a cast iron head with a combustion chamber like a “Z” head. Whether it was legal or not was put to a vote of the drivers, and after the votes were counted, President Rich Armstrong said; “Sorry Cokey, it didn’t go your way”. His car was disqualified. He did not return in 1973.