The auditorium at the Time Warner Media Center here at Lowe’s Motor Speedway is jampacked for a driver’s meeting for one of the recent Summer Shootout Series for Legends Cars events.
No seats are available. A couple of rows up from the floor, a conspicuous-looking couple is holding court. The couple is as out of character as a two-dollar bill. They are older than the others in the room.
He’s showing his age with his white hair. That makes him different, if nothing else.
He’s recognizable and anyone who’s ever seen this guy race in Tampa, Fla., or Middletown, N.Y., knows right-off hand that this is the legendary Will Cagle.
Cagle says he’s only 69. He seems much older.
The woman sitting with him is his wife, and they’ve been married for 33 years.
Cagle is running the No. 24 in the Masters Division with the hopes of attracting a ride in the NASCAR Busch Series or the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. He wouldn’t mind running a NASCAR Nextel Cup race.
There’s absolutely no reason for Will Cagle to be doing any of this. He’s already done it all.
He started racing in 1953 at the age of 15 and has recorded more than 900 victories and claimed more than 30 track and series championships. The majority of his success came while racing modifieds in the Northeast on the DIRT circuit.
Upon being inducted into the DIRT Hall of Fame in Weedsport, N.Y., in 1992, a plaque, honoring Cagle’s accomplishments, included a phrase that read: “If Yankee Stadium was the house that Ruth built, then DIRT was the circuit that Will Cagle built.”
Partly because of a leg injury suffered during a racing accident in 1985, Cagle has been off the track for 22 years, but he has never been far from it. He spent several years as a driving instructor and, for 11 years, was the general manager of Orange County Fair Speedway, a legendary fairgrounds dirt track in Middletown, N.Y. He’s also managed Can-Am Speedway in LaFargeville, N.Y., Thunder Alley Speedway in Evans Mills, N.Y., and was president-consultant of East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, Fla.,
For a while Cagle even operated his own speed shop in Albany, N.Y., and Weedsport.
While running Golden Gate in Tampa, Cagle would compete in late models on Friday nights and supermodifieds on Saturday nights. Then, during the summer months, Cagle was off to New York, running the DIRT Modifieds at Orange County.
So, why is Will Cagle doing all this now?
“I can still drive and I still have the desire and enthusiasm,” said Cagle. “All I need is for somebody to give me a chance.
“I know there are a lot of guys out there running today who I can beat.
“What I’m asking someone to do is let me go testing with them for a couple of days, and if I don’t beat their guys, I’ll walk away. I‘ll go sit on the porch.”
He might well start to think about sitting on the porch.
After the first couple of weeks of the 14th annual Summer Shootout, which runs on Tuesday nights through the middle of August, Cagle was in the top five in Masters Division points, only a handful of points out of first.
In three races, Cagle’s now well back in points and hasn’t shown any sign of winning.
“It felt decent to run well, but it will feel better when I win — and I will win,” said Cagle.
“I know I’m capable and I have the experience. I can tell you what’s going to happen in a race before it happens. I can still race as well as anybody.
“I know what I’ve done, I know what I can do and I know how it feels to win.”
Move over, Will Cagle.
Leave this sport to the younger generation. You’ve had you’re moment.