Biography                       

​Tribute to My Dad

​Early years:

Gary Allen Weckesser was born in Chicago on February 2, 1941, the son of Vincent George Jr. and Agnes Sue (Cook) Weckesser. He had a brother: Guy, two years older; 13 years later, brother Mark was born.

For Gary’s first four years the family lived in a tiny trailer home in Hammond, Indiana. They then moved to Shorewood, Wisconsin, where he described his life in the 1940s and ‘50s as being somewhat like the “Happy Days” TV show.

He got his first job at age 11, delivering the Milwaukee Journal and Chicago Tribune; from that time on he always worked, until retirement just before he turned 71.

Gary was in Cub and Boy Scouts, and received the Order of the Arrow honor. When he discovered girls and, especially, cars, he lost interest in scouting, so he didn’t go on to attain the Eagle Scout rank, as Guy did.

He bought his first car at age 14, and listened and observed as Guy and his friends worked on their cars, learning all he could. When he reached age 16, he joined his brother in being the hot-rodders and hellions of Shorewood, and a constant annoyance to the village police. His friends nicknamed him “Stick Shift Weckesser.”

Through the years, our family has heard many stories of Gary’s life growing up, mostly humorous. For example, after hearing of Gary’s death, Chris Hamm, an old friend of Gary’s, sent a message:

“I too had the privilege of sharing high school times with Gary. Geez, if we had been caught for all of the mischief we got into, our lives might have been different! Example: Gary drove my Dad's relatively hot '58 Impala at Union Grove dragstrip on many Sunday afternoons. Dad couldn't figure out why the brakes and rear tires didn't last (!).

“On another occasion, Gary was returning home from Iowa one summer night and, not wanting to awaken his parents in the wee hours that it was, climbed up on our sunroom roof to knock on my window to procure a blanket, when he was spotted by our across-the-street neighbor, Peggy J's mom, who promptly called the cops.  In true Shorewood-cop fashion, the whole department showed up, spotlights on and shotguns drawn.  They woke my parents, who ID'd Gary as a friend of mine and off they drove.  I did lend Gary a couple of blankets.”

Chris ended his note with, “May his soul rest in peace, although he’s probably teaching God to speed-shift right now!”

After high school graduation, Gary spent two years at Parsons College in Ames, Iowa, drag racing his coupe on the weekends. Racing took more and more of his interest, and he didn’t finish college.

Adult life:

In late spring of 1963, he met Jill and her year-old daughter, Eve, from a previous marriage. While enjoying a ride on Gary’s BSA motorcycle one night early in their relationship, some of his old school friends spotted him and called out, “Hey, Wecky!” Jill misunderstood what they said, and started calling him ‘Wacky.’ The name stuck, and for the rest of his life, he was known as Wacky to his friends and family.

Gary and Jill remained sweethearts until his death. He told her of his goal: to race in the Indianapolis 500, and even though he now had a small family, he still worked to fulfill this dream.

He considered every job a stepping stone to what he wanted: from working in gas stations, to construction work, managing a bar, and finally, while living in Los Angeles County, California, he bought a catering truck, driving a 100-mile route six days a week, 18 hours a day, bringing meals and snacks to different businesses.

Part of his route served a small area in the San Fernando Valley where race cars were being built; everything from chassis, to engine work, to chrome moly tubing, to parachutes, here was Gary’s favorite part of the route, and he often talked to the people there about his own dream.

Frank Huszar, owner of Race Car Specialties in Tarzana, advised that he’d probably never be able to earn enough money for an Indy car, so why not start with something that would be a moneymaker even if he didn’t win races. And that’s when the idea of the four-engine Ford Mustang exhibition funny car was conceived. He sold the catering truck business and put his energies into building the racecar at RCS.

There were plenty of roadblocks along the way: Roy Steen, the brilliant guy who invented the gear box that allowed the four engines to run like a single 32-cylinder engine, was drafted and sent to Vietnam before the race car was completed. Gary, hot-dogging on his BSA motorcycle on Memorial Day 1968, missed a curve, flew into some hedges and broke his neck, causing him to spend seven weeks in the hospital plus recuperation time at home. The family consisted now of four children (Kathy, born in 1966, and twins Randall and Robin, born in 1967).

Gary met racecar builder Kent Fuller, and the family moved up to Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, near to where Fuller had his shop in Scotts Valley. It was there the car was finally finished, with a bit of tweaking to go.

During the Labor Day weekend of 1970, at a big meet at Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin, while match racing Tom McCourry’s four-engine Buick, the Mach IV slid on some oil left over from a mishap of the Little Red Wagon. The car broke through a guardrail, causing a lot of damage, but with minor injuries to Gary. Nevertheless, it was ‘pack up and go home’ time for Gary and the Mach IV.

After the body was redone, Gary traveled the car show circuit for a number of years before coming home to help raise his four growing children. Surprisingly, years later, he was asked what the happiest moments in his life were, and he didn’t say ‘racing’; he said, “When my kids were born.”

After driving a AAA tow truck, then a route truck delivering food supplies to restaurants, Gary bought his first semi tractor and trailer and became a long haul trucker, going back and forth from Wisconsin to the western states. He called this his ‘temporary job,’ which would last only until he could fix up the racecar and go back to what he loved most. This temporary job lasted 36 years, until he retired.

At last, in 2012, Gary, with the help of friends, mechanics and family, started working on his dream again, even using the airstrip at Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan, Wisconsin, where the family now lived, for some of the first runs in decades.

In September 2013, Gary and Jill took the racecar to Van Nuys, California, to his original major sponsor, Galpin Ford, to be a part of their 60th anniversary, and to honor owner Bert Boeckmann.  While there, the Boeckmanns made him what Gary called ‘an offer he couldn’t refuse,’ and he sold the car to them. It now sits in their Galpin Auto Sports museum when not being put on display around the Southwest.

Gary now enjoyed the leisure life, and wintering with Jill in their motorhome. He had the usual aches and pains of a man in his 70s, and the aftermath of his broken neck in 1968, but he started feeling more ill than usual around the first part of 2016. It wasn’t until the 3rd of March that he was diagnosed with endocrine cancer of the colon, which had spread into his liver and lymph nodes. Just 30 days later, Gary took his last breath, on April 2, 2016 at 1:22 a.m., at a hospital in Las Vegas, with Jill at his side holding his hand.

​By Evelyn Walker