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”I remember the fans with air horns,” he continues.
“They rooted so hard for their favorites.”
And it was crowded in the pits as well.
”Cars almost on top of each other.” Bergin recalls.
One of the big reasons, Bergin believes, was “Harvey just hated to
cancel a show. They would use hundreds of bags of speedy-dry. The people
knew that and they were not afraid to come out when the weather was
threatening. |
Gene's career included many years
at Riverside (Grady Photo) |
Announcer Tom Galan “told the world’s worst jokes. Then he started a
thing about people writing poems about their favorite driver. He was
really good. He announced a race like a boxing match. Got the people
into it.”
There was “the roller coaster after the races. My wife Luci and I just
loved to ride the roller coaster and then go down to the beer garden
where we would always meet somebody to talk with.”
The Riverside Park field of the ‘50s seems to split evenly between those
who stayed – Krebs, Patnode, Humiston – and those who moved on. The
latter includes Flemke, Charland and Denny Zimmerman, charter members
(along with Red Foote) of the Eastern Bandits – a key part of New
England stock car racing coming of age.
Bergin also moved on and can, with a little prodding, run off a
dozen-and-a-half tracks from the Carolinas to Maine on which he scored
victories. Every win, including the historic 1971 200 at Stafford (in
Bob Judkins’ then revolutionary Pinto No.2x) had it genesis at Riverside
Park.
”I would drive the M6 through the turns sideways,” Bergin drops back
into memory mode. “I could dirt track it all the way around, actually
leave a ring of smoke around the place.”
That move did not please his owner, although he had several wins in the
car including the 1961 Riverside 500, teamed with Krebs.
|
Gene wheeled this Jim
Jorgensen/Dexter Burnham owned Flying Zero to many victories at "The
Park". |
He was “all business” and “used my head a little more” when he moved
into the Zero in ’62.
”I finished every race that year,” he claims. “I missed only one feature
with the Zero, but I got a ride in another car and won the feature the
first time I ever got into the car.”
Bergin actually left Riverside to go Sprint Car racing, kicking off
wanderlust that existed throughout a three-decade career. He could and
did drive all kinds of equipment, including Indianapolis cars. He won in
Midgets and Sprints. Success in stock cars, however, put Bergin into the
New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame. |
Many of the tracks where Bergin won (Westboro, Lakeville, Norwood and
Old Bridge among other memories.
Riverside will be joining that group,
and that is an especially painful thing for Bergin.
”They’ll be taking a piece out of me,” he whispers.
***
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1974 - Team cars line up for the
start of the annual 500-lap race every July at the Speedway. |
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