Full Throttle

Stan Yee, legendary ARCA late model car owner, passed away over the weekend while vacationing in Las Vegas. He would have been 76 today May 20.

Stan Yee and his brother John, through the Stan Yee’s Collision shop, developed an interest in racing in the 1960s. Initially dabbling in drag racing through an association with Connie Kalitta, Stan turned to oval track stock car racing and became a fixture in the late model racing community for over 40 years.

His trademark yellow No. 33 “Chinese Chariot” race cars won races throughout the Midwest over four decades with drivers including Marv Parenteu, Joe Ruttman, John Anderson, Harold Cook, Art Sommers, Danny Byrd, Chuck Roumell, Steve Lee, and most recently his son Stan Yee Jr.

In the 1970s, Yee traveled throughout the Midwest and enjoyed victories in major late model races including Ruttman’s win in the 1972 World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna in Florida during February Speedweeks and a string of major event wins with Anderson behind the wheel including the Glass City 200 (1973-74) and Howard Williams Memorial at Toledo Speedway in Ohio; the Midwest 300 at Salem Speedway in Indiana; the Graduation 300 at Hartford Speedway in Michigan; and the Export A 200 at Cayuga Speedway Park in Ontario Canada.

For the past several years, Stan Yee rarely missed attending a Saturday night ARCA Late Model race at Flat Rock Speedway with Stan Jr., and the pair combined efforts to win six feature events and the 2003 Flat Rock ARCA Late Model championship.

In 2003 Yee was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Michigan Automobile Racing Fan Club.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

From my perspective: Memories of Stan Yee owned late models go back to the vary origins of my circle track obsession.

In the early sixties Stan Yee owned cars driven by Marv Parenteu and Art Sommers at the long ago and dearly departed Mt Clemens (MI) speedway. Through-out the sixties was the hayday for the track and it was common to have a Yee owned late model win on each of the three days the track ran each week. (Mon, Thur, and Sat)

When Mt Clemens paved over the half mile dirt oval Yee owned cars expanded beyond Mt Clemens and competed at Flat Rock and through-out the mid-west as detailed above.

Stan was an innovator at heart and adopted many “firsts’ throughout his long career. Among his innovations were the use of dropped spindles based off an old Cadillac disc brake spindle from the 1960’s and he was one of the first to utilize coil over shocks on a late model.

He was one of the first to replace the Camaro front clip with a fabricated tubular clip. When tracks did not have weight rules Stan Yee used an all aluminum big block Chevy V8. When they added weight rules, he was one of the first to win with a small block against the big blocks.

Before the days of fancy-shmancy gages to check bump steer Yee used a long piece of angle iron clamped to the rotor, with a couple of plumb bobs.

Michigan short track racing has lost a true legend. Full Throttle sends its respects and condolences to all Stan’s family, friends and competitors. God Speed Stan, we’re gonna miss you.

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