THE CRESCENT HILLBILLY Pete Corey

THE CRESCENT HILLBILLY
Pete Corey, One of Racing's Pioneers and Great Innovators

Bob Frazier Photo Courtesy of Ed Fabian
The typical Corey photo - leaning against the car, cigarette in hand. Pete didn't
like a lot of things, and posing was one.

From what I can gather from readings and conversations, it was hard to think of Pete Corey and Ken Shoemaker, one without the other. They roomed together in a small apartment in the Capital District of New York, they began racing together, and one ran pretty much where the other one did. So, when one night in a fit of exasperation, Shoemaker hollered at Corey' "%#$X!, you Crescent Hillbilly !" Corey loved it and the name stuck.

From the Fonda Book - No Other Source Given
Pete and Kenny bought this first race car for $35 - in 1949.

Shoemaker always said Pete was first to drive the $35 first car because Corey was a natural from Day One, whereas Ken said he had to learn to be a driver [he apparently learned very well]. Corey's talents were noticed by Bob Whitbeck of Canajoharie, NY whose car was already widely known in New York racing circles. As it would turn out, Whitbeck began the long line of #37's with which Corey would be forever linked [albeit through three different owners: Whitbeck, Kitler and Wolf, A.C. Caprara,Tony Villano, Sr., and finally Hank Spetla.]
While Corey was still driving successfully for Whitbeck, Bob sold the operation to the team of Gibby Wolf and western meats dealer Sam Kitler. They wanted Jeep Herbert as driver, so Corey moved over to Bob Mott's yellow #3, a car he would later describe as his all-time favorite ride. It was this car's yellow and silver scheme that Corey would use on his own cars in the 1960's.

From the Schenectady Collection, Otto Graham Site
Pete gathers a Fonda win in the Bob Whitbeck flaming 22.

         When Fonda began to give Mott grief about the body on his car, Mott sold it and bowed out. Whitbeck was car building again and had started the black paint scheme with flaming #22, a scheme that would Dave Lape would make more famous in the 1980's. Corey returned to Whitbeck in the middle 1950's. Corey and Whitbeck were magic at Fonda until Whitbeck's race operations suffered a terminal garage fire in 1959.
            With Corey out a ride again, he was re-hired to drive the very #37 he had been released from in the early '50's. By now, the team was owned by A.C. Caprara. Corey raced for the next while in both Caprara and Frank Trinkhaus cars, winning with both. Corey was still at the wheel when the car was sold to Tony Villano, who added his own unique paint scheme to the car. That is the first Corey car I can remember.

From the Bill Fifield Collection
My first memory of Fonda is the hot laps during practice, and
Pete Corey flying through Turn One sideways, leaning so far to the left
that his yellow helmet was sticking out the driver's window.

By around 1962, Corey and Shoemaker had been given the chance to run together, as team mates, in a sort of super team. Chris Drellos had bought out the red and white coupes of Henry Caputo, re-outfitted the cars, and set out to win glory. Shoemaker was already ensconced in the #111, clearly the better of the two cars, and - for the first year - the 111A was driven with moderate success by Jeep Herbert. The following year, the backup car was improved, numbered 11, and placed in the hands of Corey.
Not only did the two scald the track at Fonda, but the team would descend upon Stafford Springs, Connecticut [perhaps to repay the invasion by SS regulars like George Janoski and Ernie Gahan]. In the words of Stafford regular fan [and a future star, himself], Dick Berggren, the Fonda cars "killed our locals". Corey was not always happy to play second fiddle to Shoemaker and he left by the 1963-64 season, when Drellos sold Shoe's car to Frank Trinkhaus and Pete's car to Buck Holliday.

Photo Source Unknown
The highly - impressive Drellos team sits in the pits at Fonda, waiting
to go out and dominate another feature. The right hand car is probably
Jeep, not Pete.

    Pete would now enter one of the most famous points in his career. A body man by trade, he would begin to produce some unusual and good-looking cars of his own, with some financial backing from a businessman in his hometown of Crescent. The first such car did a lot to begin the eventual revolution to late model modified bodies. Pete's Falcon was one of his most well-known cars. With this car, he starred at Fonda and at many far-flung tracks all over the Northeast, including the bucolic Fairmont Speedway, in Fair Haven, Vermont [where I got to see it].
     Corey and friend, Irv Taylor, both drove Falcons at Fonda during most of the 1965 [and some of 1966] season. When the Falcon was destroyed, Corey's clever body skills transformed a 1937 Chevy coupe, lengthened and all to a body that would fit the longer frame left from the Falcon. Then after a brief stay in the coupe, came the strangest creation he ever came up with - the Studebaker. Corey had fitted a 1956 Studebaker body [very sleek but five hundred pounds heavier than the competition] onto a standard racing frame and was doing quite well. The huge car was able to hold its own in the wetter conditions of early season; but, as the track surfaces dried out more in mid-summer, the ark began to struggle. So, characteristically, Pete cut it up.

The remaining years of the 1960's would see Pete and Ed Pieniazek build some beautiful race cars, including some standard coupes and a heart-stopping Mustang. Eventually, the cantankerous Pete and Fonda Speedway management had endured their fiery marriage as long as either could stand, and Pete took off to run Lebanon Valley. This was the era when the headliners at the Valley were running late model bodies. Corey constructed an eye-catching 1955 Chevy with his usual colors. The Valley regulars, already chafing at other Fonda invaders coming down and grabbing their prize money, were were outright hostile to Corey and - more often than not - he'd go home to Crescent with his car in pieces.

Arnie Ainsworth Photo
The Valley car - in one piece, which was rare. Sign man Dave Davies never
could spell New Britain.

John Grady Photo, Gater Racing News From Fonda History Book
The Valley car - too many times.

Pete and Pieniazek tried one more run at Fonda, but the gorgeous Mustang show piece he had created ended up in pieces, as well. Pieniazek ran the coupe there some, but Corey had had it with racing by then. He was convinced to come back and try Jerry Rose #93 coupe in 1970, and he even won a feature - but the Rose team was headed for asphalt [with Pieniazek] and Pete really did not like racing any more. He retired to his hunting and fishing. Sadly, Pete ended up quite bitter from his racing experience and soon, thereafter, began to suffer serious health issues.

Beaver Dragon, a legend in his right, was at the same hunting camp with Pete in northern Quebec just before Corey ended up passing away. Even then - one racing giant to another - Pete did not want to talk about racing. His life ended as he raced: on his terms and laced with strong feelings. I always admired Pete Corey and all his innovative ideas. I hated to see it end the way it did.

Ladabouche Photo Pete unloads the Falcon at Fairmont around 1964. Big treat for the locals.	NE Mod SitePhoto Pete wins at Fonda after rolling the car.	Vogel Family Photo Pete, in the Whitbeck car, giving Ted Vogel's kids a ride.
Schenectady Collection Otto Graham Site Another win with the Whitbeck 22.	John GradyPhoto Pete wins one for either Caprara or Villano	Source Unknown Twin Corey coupes await the race.
John Grady Photo Towing the Mott 3 down the NY Thruway.	Courtesy of CJ Richards Pete visits Devils Bowl in the late 1960's. He ended up selling this coupe to Bowl regular Chet Doaner.	Schenectady Collection Otto Graham Site Another win with the Mott 3.
Schenectady Collection Otto Graham Site The Mott 3 which eventually was banned from Fonda because NASCAR's solid roof rule.	Source Not Known Pete in the 3x coupe that was a complement to his Mustang.	Putnam Collection Pete with Art Spoar, an early car owner.
Vogel Photo Collection Pete wins at Devils Bowl in the late 1960's.	Schenectady Collection Otto Graham Site The AC Caprara car Pete was Fonda's champion.	FuezCollection Fonda Book Dramatic shot of Pete cutting himself out of the Capara car in 1960.