Bob Fuller artilcle from the August 17th, 1958 edition of the Elmira Star-Gazette
Bob Fuller WITH THE STOCK CARS
Midget Cars Returning To Area
Friday will be a spectacular night for Chemung Speedrome. That's the night that promotor Jackie Markos will inaugurate the first midget car racing in this area in several years. Sanctioned by the Indianapolis Racing Assn., there will be at least 26 race cars guarenteed to compete and a few Indianapolis drivers present....
Bud Johnson of Alleghany won first place Saturday in the 100-lap Modified Championship. Local drivers competing were Jackie Baldwin, who finished third; Fred Brink, who finished fifth and Percy Brown, 12th after losing a wheel. Percy stayed overnight and won first place the following day at Hunt, N.Y. ... Cecil Keister, now driving at Port Royal, Pa. (near Williamsport) for Al McClure of Troy...Bill Schroth will drive No. 7 in the modified from now on...Gordie Blanchard now using a new Chevy motor in 3A...Jake Miller says he's having a ball, driving a modern car for Southport Fire Dept.
RAIN SPOILED the Glider City Sports Arena show last Sunday with 83 cars competing. This week three features will run first, then the regular race card which will include a mid-season 40 lap "modified' championship...Dick Karlnoski and Bill Chisholm, both from Dundee, are doing well at the two local tracks...Look for Earl Bodine to challange the "A" leaders as soon as he gets his car handling well.
Bucky Buchanan is moving up fast, along with Pete Schaeffer, at the Southport track...Bucky's still the leader at Towanda.... Bobby Jaynes is still having trouble keeping No. 1 on the track...Cliff Pierce blew the motor on No. 9 last week...47 modern cars are now running at Southport...Jack Soper won a big one at Chemung Saturday, but Bill Schroth had a chance all the way.
MEET THE DRIVER...Earl Zimdahl
A veteran driver who started at Big Flats Airport Raceway (Tri-Cities ed) in 1938, "Zim" (as most people call him) was top driver there along with Johnny Granger and Red Davis. His car was a 1927 Chrysler, which co-driver Davis termed the hottest on the track.
Money being scarce and welding so expensive, the car was literally braced and held together by baling wire and straps. Zim recalls that $3 for a heat win was good money then. Zim served in the Army during World War II and fought in Europe, being wounded once.
He returned to stock car racing in 1950 when Corning started it's strictly stock policy. He's also driven at Wellsville, Naples, Owego, Glen Aubrey, Five-Mile Point, Chemung and Southport in New York and Williamsport in Pennsylvannia. He has won at least one feature at every one of these tracks, except Southport.
Zim drives No. 65, a Chevy in the modified class. At pesent he's high point man at Glider City track and sixth in point standings at Chemung. He's one of the few drivers who owns the car he drives.
Zim is 37, married and lives in Horseheads with his wife, Regina, and their three daughters, aged 15, 11 and 5. He's a mechanic with his own place, the Zimdahl LaFrance Garage. He's well-liked by both drivers and fans and won the first feature-run at Chemung Speedrome. Unfortunately, Zim is under a doctor's care now. He's been suffering chest pains and loss of breath and possibly shouldn't have been driving the past two weeks. We certainly hope that the condition will clear up soon so that the fans can see the No. 65 back in action and better than ever.