Race car donated to Belleville museum
Staff reporter
A racing icon soon will be in a new home.
A home-built, 1958 sprint car that competed in and won hundreds of races soon will be on display in a car museum.
Owner Phil Shapel, Wichita resident and part-time Marion County Park and Lake resident, said his grandfather, Ernest "Red" Forshee built the homemade race car.
"My granddad built the car in his garage in 1958," Shapel said. "It took him about a year to build."
Resembling an old Indianapolis race car, the car has seen many races and race tracks.
Primarily racing in Belleville, the dirt track sprint car was owned by Forshee and had 14 drivers, winning numerous races and track championships.
"The car won the Belleville Nationals Championship several times," Shapel recalled. "It won the BCRA (Bay City Racing Association) Championship in 1967 and 1968."
Races were entered and won in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa.
The car's body is a fiberglass aluminum body with tubing chassis and a V-8 Chevrolet motor.
Modern sprint cars are simple and brutally powerful. There is no dead weight on the car. If a part doesn't contribute to the car's performance, it's left off.
Midget sprint cars are like the regular sprint car, except it is smaller in size.
Surviving 45 years, the car has had its share of accidents and body repairs.
"Basically, it has its original body," Shapel said. "Spare parts were built when the car was built and I put them away in my attic."
Some parts have been reproduced as needed but the body itself is original.
"It caught fire once," Shapel said. "The driver was injured and in the hospital for months."
Racing is a family tradition. Shapel raced sprint and midget cars. Shapel and his wife Gloria have three children — Shaun, Jesse, and Jeremy.
Shaun and Jesse race go-carts, Shapel said.
"In 2002, the two boys won 28 races," Shapel said.
The grand car with a million stories soon will be in a new home — a Belleville museum.
The Highbanks Hall of Fame National Midget Auto Racing Museum in Belleville opened this past summer.
"The car will be the main attraction in the museum," Shapel said.
Boasting the fastest half mile dirt track in the world, the Belleville high-bank track has attracted top drivers worldwide to compete.
Currently, the museum is open during race dates and by special appointment.
Most of the materials and labor to the project were donated or purchased with donations or grants.
Each year, the museum committee chooses inductees who made a significant impact on the sport of midget auto racing.
Forshee was inducted in 1999 in the Highbanks Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Shapel's grandfather returned to Belleville and drove the car one more time.
"An 80-year-old man going 100 mph scared me," Shapel said with a smile.
Shapel's grandfather died a year ago but the car and racing memories will live on in the museum.
