Al Campbell's Scrapbook

When I was growing up I played with June and Chip. They were around my age and lived up the alley in the house with the old car sitting in the weeds. My dad used to tell me about their dad, Al who raced stock cars at the local race track.

As I became more interested in racing I decided to look up Al and see if he would be interested in spending some time talking about racing. Al was ready. He had his scrapbook and was ready to recount his many adventures from years gone by.

Al, now in his 70’s has not been to a speedway in several years but instead prefers to watch NASCAR races on television, but that doesn’t mean that the passion for what he did still does not burn. Several times during our conversations, Al who is a tall, physically imposing gentleman would spring to his feet, voice raised, fist clenched, as he spoke of a situation that happened 45 years ago. Recalling in detail the people and places that we spoke about.

Al started his racing career in the 1950’s driving a red #21 coupe for Gil Petrosky of Sunbury. Al affectionately refered to Gil as the "Big Pollock". He raced mostly at Selinsgrove, PA in the days that racing was promoted by Buster Keller and racing was sanctioned by Penn Eastern Racing Association. Al won a race in 1953 at Selinsgrove, when the purse was based on a percentage of the gate. It was a rainy night and after splitting the purse with his owner had $10.00 in his pocket.

The #21 traveled to many of the local Central Pennsylvania speedways of the 1950’s including, Riverview in Williamsport, Muncy, Silver Spring, Evergreen in Drums and The Fairgrounds in Honesdale and Lehighton.

Al later drove for Bob Hollenbach of Selinsgrove. His potent Holman Moody Mercury aquired down south from a NASCAR team later ran at Langhorne Speedway. The team was sponsored by KEO Mobile Homes which would supply the team with light weight aluminum to fix "Race Damage".

Smiley, as he was known and is still known by his old competitors first love was his wife, Pauline and children. On the day they were married, Al and his buddy Bobby Peck took their coupes to a little oval they carved out of the swamp, over the dyke in the north part of Sunbury and ran several test laps against each other. They then took the cars home, got cleaned up and went to Al’s wedding 3 hours later.

Al is typical of many of the 1950’s era drivers I’ve interviewed in that automobile racing was their passion. They put their heart and soul into it. Spent many hours combing junkyards for the right parts. Making what they could not find. Flat towing their hand built racer to the track, whether it was a fairgrounds half mile or a dusty high banked quarter mile carved out of a farmers field, to compete. Sure there were purses advertised and sometimes even actually paid but that was not the motivation. The love of what they were doing was the reason. It’s no wonder the passion still burns, even after 50 years.

- Steve Williams

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