Chicago area short-track stock-car racing came to be in the late 1940s and began to develop a rich tradition in the 1950s and ’60s at a half-dozen or so speed plants in and around the “Windy City.”  
The races were exciting with a definite “give no quarter, take no quarter” style of action. One of the tracks was O’Hare Stadium in Schiller Park, located a “stone’s throw” from Chicago’s O’Hare Int’l Airport.
Situated southwest of the corner of Mannheim and Irving Park Road, the banked quarter-mile paved oval opened in 1956. Once things got rolling, Bill Cherney and Tex Wooten were the promoters, calling the shots until the speedway held its last race in 1968.
Gene Marmor in a late model Chevrolet was O’Hare’s first champion in 1956 and repeated in 1957. A 23-year-old Fred Lorenzen earned the title in 1958 with Louisville, Ky., native Bill Lutz winning it in 1959. Roy Czach captured back-to-back late-model titles in 1960 and 1961 with NASCAR sanctioning the racing action those two years.
The track called for strictly convertible late models in 1963, 1964 and 1965. Marmor again repeated his winning ways in 1963 with Lutz grabbing his second title in 1964.  Johnson and his racing partner and car owner Roy Martinelli would split the final four driving titles at the speedway with Martinelli winning in 1965 and ’66 and Johnson nailing down the crown in 1967 and ’68. Weeks after Martinelli won the final 30-lap late model feature on Sept. 7, 1968, the track was demolished ending the speedway’s 13-year run.
A few weeks ago, some of the old gang gathered at Sorrento Village Restaurant in Melrose Park for the speedway’s fourth-annual reunion hosted by Bill Lutz and his wife, Jeannie.
Lutz, along with other late model champs Marmor and Johnson, joined the likes of former front runners Sal Tovella, Eddie Jast, Ed Hoffman, Bob Schultz, Bob Weyrauch, Barrie Fritsche, Mike Terrafino, Tom White and Bob Boyce to reminisce about the “good old days” of racing. As one former competitor said, “it seems like the older I got, the faster I was.”
The highlight of the evening was the appearance of Lorenzen, the former local “hot shoe” that made it big in NASCAR Cup racing.  Lorenzen, who will turn 73 years old this December, has retired from his real estate business and resides in the western suburbs of Chicago.
Lorenzen, who grew up west of Chicago in Elmhurst, listened to auto races on the radio as a kid and zipped around his neighborhood in a tiny racer that he had built using an old washing machine motor as power. His early local racing exploits included competing in demolition derbies and winning the late-model stock-car championship at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 1956. Lorenzen was a feature winner at O’Hare during the track’s inaugural year, with Lorenzen making his first attempt in NASCAR Grand National competition also in ’56.  
A former Tom Pistone ’56 Chevy was Lorenzen’s initial ride in NASCAR with three finishes in seven starts as a rookie. Pretty much broke and leaving NASCAR’s primarily southern circuit, Lorenzen was still winning on the local Chicago racing scene. He would also capture the 1958 and 1959 United States Auto Club “National” stock car championships, beating a bunch of potent stock cars driven by Indianapolis 500 drivers.  
 “Fearless Freddie” got his big break at Christmas in 1961 when Ralph Moody, partner with John Holman, in the famed NASCAR team of Holman Moody offered him a ride in a “factory” Ford. The rest is history. Lorenzen, who would become known as the “Golden Boy” of NASCAR, would make a total of 148 starts and win 26 times during his NASCAR Cup career.
Looking back, Lorenzen was probably born 35 years or so too early.  Retiring early because of stomach ulcers and the wear and tear of the racing life in 1967, Lorenzen came back in 1970, ’71 and ’72 but his star was not as bright.  
As time passes on, Lorenzen’s name has gotten lost amidst NASCAR’s stars.
But a few weeks ago in a Chicago area restaurant, Lorenzen was still “the man” with people wanting to rekindle old racing stories with him, pose for a picture or two or just meet one of the greats from yesteryear.