Doug Wolfgang inducted into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame

First driver to be inducted into sports hall of fame won more than 600 races, survived near-fatal crashes

While Doug Wolfgang never sought fame, it certainly found him.

Although his racing career was slowed at the end because of injuries suffered in two near-fatal accidents, Wolfgang's accomplishments while driving a sprint car rank near the top in the sport's history.

"Wolfie," as he is known to many, won more than 600 feature races in 24 states. He scored victories at nearly all of the major sprint car events, collecting prizes of up to $100,000. He twice was named the national Sprint Car Driver of the Year and is a five-time winner of the sport's most prestigious event, the Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals. He is enshrined in a number of racing halls of fame across the country.

He will add another hall to that list when he is inducted into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday in Sioux Falls, the first driver to be inducted.

Wolfgang rose from humble beginnings through hard work, sacrifice and determination in a career that brought triumph and tragedy.

"Doug was probably one of the best, if not THE best, drivers I ever raced against," said Steve Kinser of Bloomington, Ind., who has earned the moniker "King of the Outlaws" as the 20-time World of Outlaws champion, the premier sprint car traveling series.

"Even when he had a car that wasn't at its best, he could still bring it to the front. He was a lot like myself - he just wanted to win real bad."

As a teenager in the mid-1960s, Wolfgang began doing odd jobs at a Sioux Falls' transmission shop on the corner of Fourth and Weber, owned and operated by race car driver Darryl Dawley.

Wolfgang, at age 18, finally got behind the wheel of a race car. He spent the next four years racing in the Sioux Falls area with limited success.

"We weren't great, but we were OK," said Wolfgang. "We had a lot of fun. But looking back, I probably was kind of floundering."

To Wolfgang, "floundering" meant he wasn't progressing toward his ultimate goal - racing in the Indianapolis 500. For years, the top drivers at Indy came from sprint-car backgrounds. So, he decided to leave Sioux Falls.

In 1974, Wolfgang badgered sprint car builder Don Maxwell for a job and Wolfgang, along with his wife, Geri, and their baby daughter moved to Lincoln, Neb.

The salary was minimal, but the knowledge he gained was invaluable.

Maxwell was one of the top sprint car builders in the country. Many of the best sprint car drivers of that era - such as Jan Opperman, Bubby Jones, Rick Ferkel and Roger Rager - would frequent the shop and discuss set-ups and strategies at tracks across the country. Wolfgang quietly worked in the background, absorbing as much information as possible.

That knowledge came in useful in April of 1975 when, on the day of the Knoxville Raceway season opener, Dick Morris offered him a one-time opportunity to drive his car.

Recalling the conversations from the shop, Wolfgang told Morris exactly how he wanted the car set up - even though he had never driven on the intimidating track.

That night, Wolfgang put on one of the most impressive performances ever by a first-timer. He timed second-fastest and finished second in the heat race, trophy dash and feature.

The following week, Wolfgang again made the trip to Knoxville. He sought out each car owner and asked if he could drive their car that night. Just before the night's main event was about to begin Leonard McCarl - who was feeling ill - asked Wolfgang to drive his car. It was another daunting task, but Wolfgang answered with a solid fourth-place finish.

Those finishes opened some eyes, and Wolfgang was quickly racing regularly for many different car owners.

"If I started 10th in a 10-car race and won it, I'd hit all nine cars and both ends of the fence doing it," he said. "I was ragged, but I was learning."

The following year, Wolfgang left Maxwell to work and race for another car builder, Bob Trostle of Des Moines. The pair won 23 of 80 races that year. The following season was even more successful with a record-setting 45 victories, including the Knoxville Nationals.

"He has more determination to succeed than any sprint car driver - anybody - that I've ever seen," Trostle said.

In just over a year, Wolfgang had gone from an unknown to the hottest driver in the sport.

That decade of the 1980s was dominated by "The Big Three" - Kinser, Wolfgang and Sammy Swindell of Tennessee. The trio packed grandstands across the country, thrilling fans.

"I've always considered Steve as being the best driver," said Wolfgang, "with Sammy second. I guess I'd rate myself as maybe being as good as any of the rest."

In 1985, Wolfgang won 55 races in 85 starts, including an eye-catching 17 victories in a row.

He set a record for earnings by a sprint car driver in 1989 when, driving for Danny Peace of Tennessee, he won half of the 88 races he entered and collected winnings of about $500,000 - more than twice as much money as any other driver. That year, Sioux Falls men won two of the highest awards in sprint car racing as Wolfgang was voted Driver of the Year and his brother-in-law, Brian Schnee, was the Car Builder of the Year.

The frequent travel was a challenge for Wolfgang, who always wanted his family to accompany him. Nearly all of the races were more than a decent day's drive from Sioux Falls.

"I relied heavily on my wife," said Wolfgang. "She was my right hand person. She often drove on the highway so that I could sleep and be rested to do my job. We used to make the 15-hour, one-way trip to Ohio to race on the weekend and have the kids back in time for school Monday morning."

The challenges got even tougher in 1992 when he suffered a near-fatal accident on April 3 at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City.

A crash into the outside retaining wall left Wolfgang unconscious and his car caught fire. The track's fire crew was unable to extinguish the fire and, after over eight minutes, a group of drivers led by Mark Kinser and Steve Beitler pulled Wolfgang's limp and burned body from the wreckage as the fire continued to rage.

"There's no doubt that I owe my life to Mark, Steve and the others who helped get me out of there," said Wolfgang, who has no memory of the events that day.

He spent over three months in hospitals in Kansas City and Sioux Falls, undergoing about 18 surgeries, most of which tried to repair the third and fourth degree burns that covered much his body's lower half. He also suffered a concussion as well as a broken neck, sternum and pelvis.

"I remember lifting up the sheet and looking at my lower body," he said. "I thought, 'My career is over.' "

After returning home, Wolfgang began a rigorous training regimen, hoping to return to racing.

"Racing is what I did for a living," he said. "I couldn't do much else. I just wanted to go back to work and do my job."

In 1994, Wolfgang filed a lawsuit against Lakeside Speedway and the World of Outlaws. He felt it was the right thing to do and that he had a responsibility to make the sport safer.

The jury found in Wolfgang's favor, awarding him a judgment of slightly over a million dollars.

"Looking back now, I regret doing it," he said regarding the lawsuit. "I lost thousands of fans because of it. I went from a hero to a zero to them. I thought it would help make racing safer, but it doesn't seem to have helped a lot. And it wasn't worth the money I got. After everyone else got paid, it didn't amount to all that much. I certainly didn't get millions of dollars like a lot of folks believed."

After the accident, Wolfgang never dominated like he did before, but still won several races.

Wolfgang decided 1997 would be his last year racing professionally. That season, he qualified for the main event at the Knoxville Nationals, something he hadn't done since his accident.

While finishing out that season, he was involved in another serious crash in Granite City, Ill., once again breaking his neck.

The doctor who treated Wolfgang noticed it was the second time he had suffered a high-neck fracture, the type of injury that can often be fatal.

"'Son, I don't know what it is that you do,'" Wolfgang recalls the doctor saying. "'But I suggest that you stop doing it.'"

On accomplishments

Wolfgang never achieved his dream of racing at Indianapolis, but it was largely beyond his control. At the height of his career, Indy car owners stopped looking to sprint car drivers.

That doesn't mean Wolfgang wouldn't have been able to handle an Indy Car.

Former sprint car driver and current NASCAR Nextel Cup competitor Dave Blaney learned to drive a sprint car by watching Wolfgang and says he would have been successful in any of racing's top series.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Doug could have been successful in either Indy cars or NASCAR. He had tons of talent," said Blaney, a former World of Outlaws champion now in his 10th season in the Nextel Cup. "He knew what he wanted out of his cars and how to get the most out of a car. He was extremely determined. Those are the drivers who go on to be great drivers in anything they race."

Today, Wolfgang builds sprint cars in his shop near Tea. The family still goes racing on weekends, but now it's 14-year-old son Robby who does the competing and the racing is on two wheels instead of four.

"I was a little disappointed when he chose to race motorcycles rather than sprint cars," says his father. "But now I'm glad he did. He doesn't have to worry about following in my footsteps. I'm very proud of what he's done."

Being selected for induction into the S.D. Sports Hall of Fame is a great honor.

"I'm overwhelmed and humbled," Wolfgang said. "It's a great honor to be chosen for - to be listed with all the others who have done so much. But I don't think I'm anyone special. I'm just a guy who did what he was born to do - drive race cars. I'm still pretty much the same person today as I was when I was 18 and didn't have anything."