Bud Koehler - “The King of Raceway Park”

         Robert “Bud” Koehler has to be considered the winningest driver in Chicagoland racing history. Winner of over 500 main events in both midgets and stock car racing competition, Koehler was an 11-time stock car champion at the now defunct Raceway Park, minutes away from his Blue Island, Illinois home, winning a total of 490 stock car feature races there in addition to 10 midget features. All this was accomplished by a man who as a youngster lost part of his hand and fingers in an accident while playing in a railroad yard. In Post War era, Koehler established himself as one of the top midget drivers in the Midwest. He won his first midget driving championship at Raceway Park in 1949, the same year he won his first stock car title at the Chicago area speedway. He was crowned the Midwest Car Owners and Drivers Association midget champion in 1949 and again in 1951 and 1952. Carrying his trademark number “77”, Koehler piloted a 1940 Ford to his first stock car championship at Raceway in 1949 while winning eight feature races during his initial season in stock car action. An interior decorator/house painter by trade, Koehler took off only one year in 1949 to go full time racing, winning over $12,000 during a hectic, sometimes seven nights a week racing schedule of the old Chicago-based Championship Stock Car Club. Koehler would go on to win the stock car championship at the Blue Island oval another ten times, capturing season honors in 1952, 1954, 1957, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1976. Koehler would capture Raceway's annual 300 lap classic an incredible seven times. He was also the stock car champion at the old Mance Park Speedway in Hodgkins, Illinois in 1959. Highlights of Koehler's career could fill a book with championships, winning cars and stories behind the victories and near victories almost unbelievable. Big old Nash Ambassadors, 1950-51 versions, carried Koehler to countless victories at Raceway in the early 1950's. He used the Nashes until 1957 when Raceway invoked a “late model cars” only ruling. A 1956 Studebaker Hawk, prepared by Bob Pohlman, was Koehler's ride during those first years of late model competition with the results pretty much the same – winning. A 1956 Mercury, a 1960 Ford and then a 1964 Mercury Marauder were used, resulting in the same outcome. Koehler drove the Bob Pohlman/Walt Mortenson 1964 Mercury to 28 feature wins in 1964, grabbing his fifth Raceway title. Koehler joined forces with car owner Bill Koenig in 1966 and won 28 features again in a single season. Koenig's rapid running 1965 Chevelle would propel Koehler to yet another Raceway crown. Still driving for Koenig, Koehler would score his career best 30 in a single season in 1967. The Koehler/Koenig combination would go on to win a total of six driving titles at Raceway, including a string of three in a row, 1974 through 1976. Without much fanfare Koehler bowed out of racing after the 1978 campaign. At age 82, Bud Koehler passed away on April 21, 2003. “He was a true friend and the greatest short track driver of all time,” said longtime Raceway Park announcer Wayne Adams. “Raceway during all of those years lined up the cars 100% inverted. The races he won back then had 25 or 30 cars in the feature. He had to batter his way through a lot of competition.” Adams, a longtime journalist for the old Illustrated Speedway News racing newspaper, once wrote, “if and when a history of short track stock car racing is ever compiled, the name of Bud Koehler could almost be included on every page. Koehler's career records at a single track will probably never be broken, considering the number of years he raced and the number of events Raceway would run during a single season. Bud Koehler was definitely the “King of Raceway Park.”