Dirt
TRIBUTE
Ron Leek
1939-2019
R
on Leek, best
known as the
longtime owner
and announcer at
Byron Dragway, passed away
July 10, 2019, at 80. Leek’s
contribution to motorsports
transcend the racetrack he
called home for over 50 years.
As a steward of the sport,
Leek held positions at numer-
ous racetracks throughout the
Midwest before acquiring Il-
linois’ Byron Dragway in 1969.
Leek was an extremely gift-
ed promoter and pioneered
a seemingly endless list of
groundbreaking events which
forever revolutionized drag
racing. NHRA lead announc-
er and Bangshift.com editor
in chief Brian Lohnes worked
with Leek on numerous occa-
sions and paid tribute to the
man in this piece originally
published on Bangshift.com.
“Well, Brian...I have pul-
monary fibrosis and I’m 80
years old...” That was how my
last chat with Ron Leek be-
gan a couple of weeks before
his passing. Ron was making
one final lap of his contact list
and effectively saying good-
bye to all of us. He did not
know the end of his life was a
few short weeks away but he
did know that the meter was
running and that he wanted
to talk to as many people as
possible before he was un-
able to. A conversation with
Don Garlits shortly before
he began dialing in earnest
inspired him to do what he did and frankly, it
was an awesome talk. But this is not about that
conversation, this is about a guy who was among
the most interesting people I’ll ever meet in my
life and that’s a statement that anyone who knew
Ron Leek could make.
There have been many detailed stories recount-
ing of the man’s life. His start as a parentless
38 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
orphan, his time living on the street in Chicago,
his move to Rockford to start a life, living in an
ambulance on the lot of a garage he was wrench-
ing at, finding motorsports, announcing, promo-
tions, buying the drag strip, building a trucking
company. He was a freaking dynamo.
He was one of those people that had 30ft of
concrete stacked on top of him to start his life and
he not only bored through all
of it to find daylight and suc-
cess, he did it with a smile
on his face and with the kind
of hellacious determination
few on planet Earth could
ever fathom. He came from
nothing and truly made his
own way like a piece of hu-
man construction equipment.
If there was one hallmark of
Ron Leek’s life, it was never
taking the shortcut or easy
way out of anything or any
situation.
It normally makes me want
to barf when people insert
themselves in their remem-
brances of others like Ron but
I think the best way I can tell
you about how awesome this
man was is to share some of
the experiences and stories
I heard from him firsthand.
To set the scene, I first
met Ron at the 2012 Holley
NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in
Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Steve Gibbs of the NHRA had
hired me to work with Ron
and announce the weekend’s
activities on the track and off
of it. Within 10 seconds I did
not know whether to be pet-
rified of this guy or to throw
my arms around him and give
him the hug of the century.
His voice was a booming
unit which was so forceful it
always made me think that
his body had somehow been
equipped with its own natu-
ral source of amplification. It
was not annoying loud, it was
just a sort of hammering series of sound waves
that cut through whatever obstacle it ran into,
including fuel cars. We hit it off immediately
and the laughs started from there. So did the
stories. I couldn’t help myself. Between pairs,
between rounds, I would pepper him with ques-
tions about his life, about his track, and anything
else I could think of.
Issue 147
Remembering a true American original that helped shape drag racing, motorized entertainment
By Brian Lohnes