OSWEGO VALLEY NEWS - FULTON, N.Y. - WEDNESDAY,DECEMBER 10. 1975

Kenny Reece Sells Supermodified

by Donald LeeWilcox

Throughout the past 3 or 4 years, there was a man who went racing in the supermodified class, who "never really seemed" to get any credit. He came as a car owner, not a driver, and also as a car builder. He was a man who had a lot of pride and a lot of respect for the racing game. I speak of Kenny Reece of Marion, Ohio, owner of the car Jim Gray drove to his first victory at the Oswego Speedway on July 13, 1975.

Kenny came to Oswego as much as he could - not just to race but to visit the many people whom he got to know. The 1975 season for Kenny got off to a good start in February when he took off to Florida with a new car for the young charger Gary Allbritain of Canton, Ohio. They had a good series in Florida, getting top finishing spots in almost all the shows. After Florida, the owner of Gary's car, Dick Routh, had disagreements and pulled the car away from Kenny so he had to build a new car. This took place in April and Kenny and crew set out to build a new one. They used the same design as Gary's car but a few changes were made. Kenny built Gary Allbritain's car with the help of Todd Gibson. It took just 29 days for them to build the new car and set out to run in the Ohio tracks. Paul Baumhauer was the driver at the time and had all sorts of problems keeping engines together. Kenny made his first appearance on June 28th but he had no driver as he had fired Baumhauer.

Jim Gray was looking for a ride so Kenny took him into the car to see what he could do. The first time out, the block cracked early in the warm-ups and put him out for the night. The following week was the 100lap Grand Prix and in that race he was put into the wall. The third week saw them back and starting on the pole in the Feature. When the green came out Gray set rail after his first victory and that he got. There was only one yellow in the race but still he had all the hot shoes on his tail in the re-start but never gave the lead up. The following week someone else was given the credit for stopping the rest of the field from catching him. It was said that Gray's car was built by Todd Gibson.

The rest of the season was filled with all sorts of disappointments and the worst was at Star Speedway when Jimmy lost a wheel and hit the wall, puting an end to the 00.Kenny never blamed Gray for the accident but it was a big let-down so he put the car up for sale. Dick Routh came along and purchased the car from Kenny and will be running it at Oswego next year. There are a lot of rumors as to who will drive the car next year. The biggest rumor is that Todd Gibson will be in it in 1976. It is not known at this time what Kenny Reece will do, but he is unhappy about the way he was used in 1975 - not just by any one track but to everyone who said the car of Gary Allbritain and Jim Gray was built all by ToddGibson, and nothing was said about what Kenny Reece had done.