Fri, 30 Apr 2010, 11:22 AM I'm Going to South America

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2010 Jim Samuel

Drew, Ray and Casey Skillman

If you read this column with any regularity you know that it's not unusual for someone to get involved with drag racing and then sit out for a few years while they start a business or raise a family. In most of those situations the hiatus is very brief, a few years or a decade at most, but there are exceptions to every rule. Sixty-eight year old Ray Skillman is an exception to that rule, a very extreme exception. When Ray rolled his latest drag racing vehicle out of the trailer at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis last weekend for the Division 3 Lucas Oil Drag Racing series opener, it marked the first time in forty-nine years that he had been to a drag race. "When I last raced we had flag starters," he said. "When I came back I didn't know anything about the Christmas tree, line-locks for the cars or things like that." After talking to him for a while I'm surprised that Ray even knew that we raced on paved tracks these days. "Back then, some of the racing we did was on eighth-mile dirt tracks." Welcome to the twenty-first century, Ray.

Drew's car

While Ray hasn't been involved with, or even been to the drag races for a while, he has been around cars and racing. With fourteen new car dealerships in and around the Indianapolis area, he sees cars every day. "I would have to say that drag racing and the car business have a lot in common," he said. "They have both changed so much from what they were years ago and I like to think that all the changes are for the better." I don't know about drag racing but if anyone should know about the changes and the ups and downs of the car business it would be Mr. Skillman. "I've been involved with the car business since I was eighteen. In 1960 I started out buying and selling cars back in Owensboro, Kentucky." At that point in the discussion Ray mentioned another famous resident of Owensboro, Mr. Darrell Waltrip. "I could tell you some real stories about Darrell," he added. "Anyway, I began by buying cars, fixing them up and then re-selling them. I was a wholesaler back then." After a few years of doing that he got the opportunity to buy his first new car franchise, and I could give you a dozen guesses about what brand it was and you would never get it. "It was a Fiat dealership. Imagine that." After that auspicious beginning Ray teamed up with a friend of his, Charlie Stewart, in an Oldsmobile dealership. "We stayed partners for about six or seven years and then he wanted to move on so I bought him out." From there, things got progressively bigger for Ray. "One thing led to another, and with the help of some good people and some friendly bankers, it has grown into what it is today. I've been very blessed." What it is today is a group of dealerships that sell everything including Ford, Chevrolet, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Hyundai. What, no Fiat stores?

Before he got his current drag race car Ray did a lot of racing on a lot of different racing surfaces. "Back in 1960 I raced for the folks at Conner Ford in Rockport, Indiana. It was a 352 cubic inch car with cast iron headers and a three speed transmission with overdrive. They didn't have four-speeds in those cars back then." He ran that car for a while at places like the drag strips in Sturgis and Bowling Green, Kentucky before deciding that he wanted to focus his time, energy and resources on the car business. "I put all my capital and resources back into the business and you can't do that and go racing at the same time." So he stopped, cold turkey, and went about twenty-five years without racing anything. But even though Ray hasn't been actively involved in drag racing as a driver for a while his name has been mentioned at the races. "Wes (Wells) has worked for me for years as a line mechanic and he races in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. He does such a great job with what he has to work with and I decided to help him out a bit. It's not what he needs, but it's a help. He has to serve as driver, crew chief and mechanic and it's tough to race like that but he makes the most of it."

Wesley Wells Photo by: Auto Imagery, Inc.

After his self-imposed retirement form racing, Ray did go back to the track he did it on the oval tracks rather than the drag strips. "I raced in several NASCAR classes and really enjoyed it." One of the tours that he competed in was the NASCAR sportsman series. "That was some pretty serious racing and we went to Phoenix and the super speedway in Kentucky and places like that. It was fun." After a few more years of dabbling on the oval Ray knew that he wanted to return to his first love, drag racing. "Ford came out with these new cars and I knew I wanted to have one. They are really neat little hot rods." A check of Ray's pit area at Indy found not one but two of the new Ford Cobra entries. "My grandson, Drew, wanted to race and I thought I would help him out. The cars run well but we're still learning all about them and what they're really capable of doing. We got them with the standard transmissions but I think we would have been better off with an automatic," he said. To date, the best Ray has gone with his car, which runs in the SS/B class, is 9.70. "It has some ignition problems but we'll get it worked out. These are really fast cars and I'm looking forward to racing mine." His grandson's car runs in the AA/S class in Stock Eliminator and I asked Ray how Drew got to be the one to drive it. "Well, I have twelve grandchildren and he was the first one to ask if he could race." When I asked what he would do if the other eleven wanted to race Ray just smiled and said, "I'd go to South America and change my name."

One on the many classic cars Skillman has for sale.

Ray admits to having a very good life and he says that, despite all the changes in the car business in recent years, he still loves everything about it. "We're selling about eleven and a half million cars now as opposed to the sixteen million we were selling nationwide a few years ago. But I'm bullish on the business, after all, I don't see anyone driving rickshaws, they're all driving cars. Some of the smaller dealers may go out of business and I feel badly for them, but I do think it's like every other endeavor and the strong will survive." Ray is among the "strong" and it you need proof of that just go to his dealership on the south side of Indianapolis, because that's where you will find his classic car collection, a collection that features over two hundred cars of all sizes and shapes. "I love the 50's, '60's and '70's cars and we've got a pretty good collection. It's open to the public six days a week and it's free." Among the cars that visitors will see is a 1967 Shelby Ford, a 1957 fuel-injected Chevrolet Corvette and a couple of cars that were raced by A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. And who knows, if Ray or Drew do well, maybe someday their new Ford Cobra cars will be part of the collection. "Right now I am enjoying this and I'd like to race enough and get enough points so that I could run at the U.S. Nationals this year. I also want Drew to be able to race as much as he likes." From what the twenty-two year old said at Indy, he wants to race a lot and he really enjoys hanging out with his grandfather. That's good, because if any of the other grandchildren decide they want to race, the only way Drew may be able to talk to his grandfather is if he places a call to South America.

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