Franklin "Hank" SMITH

SMITH, COWELL, FLETCHALL, FENSTERMANN, TAYLOR, MOTSINGER, BUCK, FETTY, GLENDENNING, TROSTLE, ROBINSON, WAGNER, WOODSIDE

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 6/14/2010 at 01:28:20

FRANKLIN "HANK" SMITH

Franklin "Hank" Smith was born September 11, 1932 to James and Georgia (COWELL) SMITH. His grandmother nicknamed him "Hanky" which later was changed to "Hank."

Hank graduated from Mount Ayr High School in 1951. Shortly after graduation, he married his 16-year-old girlfriend Phyllis Ann FLETCHALL on Decmber 9th, 1951. They were married for more than 55 years until Phyllis' death. Hank and Phyllis were the parents of Terrie (SMITH) FENSTERMANN, Trudy (SMITH) TAYLOR, and Randy SMITH.

Hank was employed by his father selling Nash automobiles, made by the American Motor Company. When Hank was 25-years-old, he and several other young men were shooting pool in Elmer MOTSINGER'S pool hall when they began discussing dirt track racing, wondering about what it would take to build a local track. Elmer offered a pasture he owned that was located on the west side of Highway 169 that was two miles from Mount Ayr. In time, a quarter-mile track was built, complete with seating, lights and an announcer. Sometimes 1,000 people would come to watch different drivers compete, including locals, Hank SMITH, Ronald BUCK, Elza FETTY, and Lloyd GLENDENNING.

Around the year 1960, Max GLENDENNING returned from a super modified race at Knoxville. After converting Max's father's machine shop into a garage, Max and Hank built a chassis which turned out to be a failure due to a lack of a blueprint. Hank puchased a used chassis at Knoxville and with the help of Bob TROSTLE who ran the Pioneer Race Track on East 14th in Des Moines and Marion ROBINSON, future manager of Knoxville Raceway, the built a super modified car. Hank raced only on Saturday night against other drivers who raced four or five nights a week. Some of the drives included A. J. FOYT, Joey CHITWOOD Sr., and Mario ANDRETTI.

Hank's racing career ended in 1967 after he received a double compound fracture of his lower left arm during an accident at Knoxville Raceway. The wound was embedded with dirt, road tar, and debris from the track. Hank had emergency treatment at the hospital in Knoxville, then was transfered to a Des Moines hospital. Although the doctors did their best to treat gangrene which had set in, they were unable to stop the infection. Hank's arm was amputated above the left elbow Wednesday following the accident.

Hank said, "As time went by, I built up my good arm and I started using this old beater (prostesis) for everything. I used it as a hammer, a chisel, and a punch. Yeah, I used to wear the mechanical parts of these things out. They are supposed to be indestructible, but I managed to break one.

During the five years that Earl WAGNER drove for Hank, he won several races on various tracks throughout the country. Jay WOODSIDE drove for Hank, accumulating enought points to finish 3rd in the IMCA total for the year. In 1976, Hank built a car for his son Randy to drive.

For his contribution to auto racing, Hank was inducted in thto the Knoxville Raceway Hall of Fame in 1984.

Hank and Phyllis call Mount Ayr their home.

SOURCE: FETTY, Jack. Rings of Gold Pp. 115-121. Palindrome Pub. Co. Iowa. 2007.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2010

Ringgold Biographies maintained by Tony Mercer.
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