Steve Dooley was an excellent bracket racer.
He drove a 1932 bantam Roadster-Buick powered
The car ran in the high 9's
even back racing at North Star dragways. He was so good and intimidating that on one Sunday all he had to do was show up to the line and everyone he faced red lighted.
His health complications started one day at Rock falls .
He went down the track came back and passed out. He had a brain aneurysm that sidelined him for a couple years. He wasn't allowed to run under 10.0 flat after that.
He didn't race for a very long time and then one day out of the blue he showed up at Rock falls, won the gamblers race and the main event. We never saw him again in that race car.
I grew up at the track racing with his family.
The other day his son Shane e-mailed and mentioned that he noticed my name on the MDRA web site.
We chatted about many things and he sent pictures over of his family. Three days later he sent over this picture of his dads grave stone and titled it "Dads last race" .
I was speechless as I stared at that picture...........
but I did feel extremely proud of his father for what he accomplished on the race track and so did his son Shane.
We both realize how much that grave stone represented
as a symbol of what he loved more then anything....Drag Racing.
Dave Engler
FYI - (I saw his name listed on the 1984 points sheet)
