Ed ‘Steady Eddie’ Flemke was active as an American racing car driver and car builder from 1948 until his death in 1984. Although he was best known as a driver, he built many race cars for himself and others, was a technical innovator, and was renowned as a mentor to his competitors. His specialty was ‘Modified’ stock car racing, which was immensely popular in the US in the decades following World War II. Flemke has been called “likely New England’s most legendary stock car racer”.^[1] Flemke may have had more overall impact than any other individual on Modified racing in the US, as he was ‘a pioneer, innovator, teacher, fierce competitor, and living legend all rolled into one’.^[2]

Early Life

From a young age Flemke was exposed to cars and racing. His father Jake owned and ran a garage in New Britain, CT, and his older brother George drove midget racing cars for many years. In 1948, when Flemke was 17, he was helping a friend at a race, was dared to try driving the race car himself, and at the spur of the moment drove out onto the track and began to compete. He fell in love with racing and made it his focus for the rest of his life.^[3]

Flemke’s mentors were his brother George, Bert Brooks, and Mike Nazaruk, who were all drivers of midgets. Flemke himself preferred driving midgets to other kinds of racing, but the prize money available was greater in Modifieds, and he therefore concentrated his efforts on the latter.

United Racing Club years

When Flemke began to race Modified cars, dozens of tracks on the east coast ran Modified races on a weekly basis. Each track operated either as an independent entity or as a member of a sanctioning organization, of which the biggest were the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) and the United Stock Car Racing Club. NASCAR tracks tended to be located in the Southeast, United tracks in the Northeast. The independents were geographically dispersed, although most often found in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Being based in Connecticut, Flemke joined United and regularly raced at Riverside Park (MA), Plainville (CT), New London-Waterford (CT), Savin Rock/West Haven (CT), Candlelite Stadium (Bridgeport, CT), and Springfield Exposition Fairgrounds (MA). These were all paved, asphalt-surface tracks, which Flemke preferred to the dirt-surface tracks that were also common in Modified racing.^[4]

In mid-1952 Flemke was drafted into the U.S. Army. At different times he was posted to Fort Jackson, SC, Fort Devens, MA, Fort Dix, NJ, and Fort Knox, KY. While residing at each of those bases he drove in races whenever he was given leave (and occasionally when he did not have leave), but records of how he did in those races are scant. He remained in the Army until late 1954.

In the early 1950s, Flemke usually drove either his own #61 or the #1 cars owned and run by Rich Yurewich. In 1955, he became the regular driver of the #28 and #14 cars owned and run by Richie and Ray Garuti and he continued with the Garutis through the 1958 season. For 1959 Flemke again built his own car, the metallic blue and gold #61.

Flemke stayed with United through the 1959 season. The biggest event on the United calendar was the annual Riverside 500. Based on the documentation available, Flemke competed in the Riverside 500 7 times, of which he finished first 3 times, second 3 times, and third once. During his 11 years racing in United, he won track championships at West Haven and Riverside Park and is known to have won at least 25 feature races at Riverside. Very few records are available for 1950s results at Plainville, New London-Waterford, Candlelite, and West Haven.^[5][6][7]

NASCAR Years

Flemke joined NASCAR in 1960. His first NASCAR race was the 250-mile Permatex Modified-Sportsman race at Daytona, in which he substituted for Benny Germano and drove a late-model Studebaker. Despite his unfamiliarity with the car and the track, out of more than 75 entrants he qualified 13^th. In the first lap of that race he was caught up in one of the biggest crashes in the history of motor racing, involving 37 cars, and he had to retire the car.^[8] Over the remainder of the 1960 season he competed strongly at many Northeastern tracks including Islip (NY), Plainville, Empire (Menands, NY), Norwood (MA) and Westboro (MA).

In 1961 Flemke began to expand the area in which he regularly raced to include Westhampton (NY) and Old Bridge, Wall, and Vineland (all in NJ). While racing at Islip he was spotted by the promoter of Southside Speedway in Richmond, VA, who offered him guaranteed money to race at Southside. Flemke accepted the offer, made the trip to Richmond, and won the Southside 400. This was the start of Flemke’s trips from his home in New Britain, CT south to VA and MD. Later in 1961 he won the Fredericksburg (VA) 250 and the Bowman Gray (NC) Tobacco Bowl 150. In 1961 he was track champion at both Old Bridge and Empire.

In 1962 Flemke began a regular weekly circuit, racing at Islip on Wednesday, Fort Dix (NJ) on Thursday, Southside on Friday, Old Dominion (Manassas, VA) on Saturday, Marlboro (MD) on Sunday afternoon, Old Bridge on Sunday evening, and then heading back home to CT to work on his car and get some rest. Accompanying him on the circuit were his protégé, fellow driver Dennis Zimmerman, who later went on to become Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year and chief mechanic (and co-owner of one of the cars that Flemke drove, called the ‘$’) John Stygar. Because of their domination of the southern tracks, locals dubbed Flemke and Zimmerman ‘The Eastern Bandits’.^[9] Two other New England drivers, Rene Charland and Red Foote, heard about Flemke’s and Zimmerman’s southern success and themselves began to travel south to race. The nickname ‘Eastern Bandits’ was then applied to all four drivers, although Flemke and Zimmerman were the originals.^[10]

There is no comprehensive record of how many races Flemke won in 1962, but, competing against the best drivers in the South, it is known that at Old Dominion he won at least 9 races in succession. He also won races at Southside, South Boston (VA), Marlboro, and Fort Dix, and scored numerous high finishes at those tracks and others including Fredericksburg, Old Bridge, Wall, Bowman Gray, and Tar Heel (Randleman, NC).

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