Full Throttle

… they just pull in for an elongated pitstop. Nick Trgovich isn’t ready for that final “gas an go” and even at the young age of 79 he still has the desire to rub a few finders and play “bumper tag” with the rest of the boys at Illiana Motor Speedway.

A front-runner at Illiana more than 50 years ago, Trgovich got the bug to go racing again a few years ago after driving a NASCAR-type stock car at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet during a session of the Richard Petty Driving Experience.

The Petty Experience gives fans a taste of the real thing, as they are able — under strict supervision — to wheel a race car at more than 130 miles per hour on a super speedway.

“The instructor asked me if I had done this before,” Trgovich said. “He told me, ‘You can handle a car. You must have done this before.’ ”

Trgovich’s reply: “Yes, 50 years ago!”

A native of East Chicago, Trgovich began racing in the early 50’s, making the then-dirt Illiana oval and the old Savage Speedway in Gary his regular stomping grounds.

Trgovich and six other drivers were featured in Illiana’s 1953 souvenir program as the track’s “Big Seven” for their stock car exploits during the ‘52 season at Illiana.

One of Trgovich’s stock car rides was a ‘39 Ford coupe with a Cadillac engine in it.

“We ran the thing between 8,500 and 9,000 rpms,” Trgovich said. “The thing really flew on the dirt at Illiana. We were pulling 650 horsepower. It sounded like a P51 (fighter plane).”

The car didn’t have the safety features of today’s models.

Still, Trgovich, said, “I had what could be considered an early version of a roll cage. I had an aluminum seat out of an airplane and a lap (safety) belt.”

After about 10 years of racing, Trgovich’s driving career came to an end.

“I was just too busy,” he said. “I was married and raising a family and getting involved in my body shop business. We had three race cars there and it was interfering with the business.”

Over the years, Trgovich has owned two area body shops, a local marina and two country and western bars.

Other than attending a few NASCAR events every year and watching the races at Illiana, he pretty much figured his racing days were done.

Then he tried the Petty Driving Experience.

“(NASCAR drivers) Rusty Wallace and Bill Elliott are my favorites because I guess they’re older than the rest of them and I’m old, too,” Trgovich said with a laugh. “My wife (Pat) and daughter (Lisa) surprised me with the driving school for my birthday and that kind of started something.”

Feeling the old sensation of being behind the wheel of a stock car, Trgovich planned on getting his own car for the Saturday night action at Illiana.

“I had sold my boat that I had and I said I’m going to get me a race car,” Trgovich said. “Of course, my wife and daughter were against it, but I bought it anyways.”

The more Trgovich talked about racing the car himself, the more his family was against his getting back behind the wheel.

“I feel confident that I can do it, but my wife said if I do you have to leave the house,” added Trgovich. “She kept saying no, no, you have to let Jack drive it. What makes me laugh is that Lisa and my wife never met Jack or knew him, but Jack is their driver.”

“Jack” is Jack Kalwasinski, a Munster High School and Purdue Calumet grad who met Trgovich through family friend and Trgovich neighbor Bernie Beda.

“For a couple of years, I kept my car at Bernie’s during the winter,” said Kalwasinski, who is in his fifth year of driving stock cars.

“We would be working on the car and Nick would come down and see how we were doing,” said Kalwasinski, who now lives in Midlothian. “I’m really happy that Nick is letting me drive his car. It is giving me more seat time and the chance of running a late model-type car.”

Trgovich is the first one to admit that things have changed on the local stock car racing scene during the last 40 years or so.

“We were basically doing the same things that they are doing today, as far as setting up the chassis and that,” Trgovich said. “There just seems to be a lot more to it, scaling the car, getting the (weight) percentages right, the right tire sizes, things like that. Before I bought the car, I had no idea of how much time it takes to get a car ready to go.”

The whole Trgovich family is pretty enthused about the racing at Illiana, including Trgovich’s wife and daughter and son, Nick Jr., in addition to Trgovich’s brother, John. Another Trgovich son, Robert, and his family live in Fort Wayne.

Still itching to get in the car, Trgovich says the only reason his daughter comes to the races is to make sure he doesn’t get in the car.

Trgovich plans on “hot lapping” the car during practice later on this season. Who knows? One night when Lisa is not there, Nick Trgovich and his No. 11 might be back racing at Illiana.

Forever young. And you thought Jimmy Spencer was old!