MOUNT MORRIS – Oregon native Ron Colson wasn’t expecting the surprise he received during the Ogle County Board meeting in August.
Colson arrived at the meeting prepared for plenty of tense discussion about solar farms, which drew a standing-room-only crowd and served as the meeting’s primary debate topic. Colson jokingly admitted that he planned to play peacemaker in case arguments became heated.
But after Colson began the meeting with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance, he received stunning news from his fellow board members that the board planned to pass a resolution for Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018 to be recognized in Ogle County as Ron Colson and Ron Leek Day in honor of their most recent achievements in the sport of drag racing.
“That announcement floored me,” Colson said. “We had three solar farms coming up for vote and it was a very pretentious issue… That was really what was on my mind. But the other board members brought up a special item that wasn’t on the agenda and I thought, ‘We can’t vote on something that isn’t on the official agenda.’ Then they said they were dedicating a day to Ron and I, and I about had to pick myself off the floor after that one.”
Colson and Leek were honored in recognition of their recent selections for the inaugural class of the World Series of Drag Racing Hall of Fame. The two racing legends were enshrined at Cordova International Raceway on Aug. 25. Colson is now a three-time Hall of Famer after he was selected for the Great Lakes Dragaway Hall of Fame in 2008 and the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame in 2015.
Colson said he was honored to be enshrined at Cordova International Raceway alongside many of his close friends and role models in the racing community including the late Bob Bartel, Leek and track founder Don “Big Daddy” Garlits.
“I always thought it would happen some time,” Colson said. “I’m as honored to be in that group of people as I am to be in a Hall of Fame… Bob Bartel got me started in the sport and he hired me for my first paid match race. To be going in with him has a tremendous impact on me.”
Colson’s history with racing can be traced all the way back to when he was around 5 years old. His father Leo owned an auto repair shop, and growing up, Colson used to work on cars inside his father’s garage, doing things like grinding valves for customers once he had enough experience. His father also had harness horses, and Colson said his father was a prominent figure in the local harness horse racing scene.
“His garage was a mainstay in the community,” Colson said. “I combined the horse racing side of things with the automotive side, and I never expected it to turn into a lifetime profession.”
Colson’s interest in racing grew tremendously as he moved into high school. He even recalled an exchange with his high school principal about pursuing a career as a race car driver.
“My high school principal tried giving me some guidance, and when I told him I wanted to have a race car and go racing from track to track, he said I wouldn’t be able to do that. A couple of years later, I was racing.”
It was thin living at the beginning of his racing career, but Colson was more than happy to go along for the ride. He started learning how to build his own cars after high school, and not long after, he was sought out by many notable names in the racing industry such as Gary Wood, to race cars for them.
Colson’s racing career spanned roughly 20 years from 1961 to 1980. The most memorable experiences of his career include his infamous burnout on the sidewalk in front of the Buckingham Fountain at Chicago’s Grant Park in 1962. His record-setting performance at Cordova (after previously setting a record in Oswego) while driving a 1941 Studebaker with a 1962 Corvette engine (a car built by Wood) earned him national exposure in Hot Rod Magazine in 1963.
A classic race-to-the-finish against rival competitor Don “The Snake” Prudhomme at Union Grove, Wisconsin in 1979 (one of the last races of Colson’s career) also stays true in his mind. Colson traveled a lot throughout his racing career, but he enjoyed the sport so much that long trips didn’t bother him much.
“It was just about living the dream,” Colson said. “Being on the road is a negative aspect for a lot of people but I always focused on what was over the next horizon.”
While Colson stopped racing cars in 1980, he remained heavily involved with the sport. He produced races for broadcasting with the United Drag Racers Association, and he worked with a drag racing newspaper (United Racer) for about 10 years to help promote up-and-coming racers. He also moved into more consulting work with race tracks all across the area, even working on facilities such as Cordova International Raceway.
Colson and his girlfriend currently live in Mount Morris, and Colson has been a member of the Ogle County Board for roughly 16 years, holding a (not-so) coincidental position as chairman of roads and bridges. He still works in track consulting on occasion, but much of his time over the past decade has been focused on his health. However, his passion for racing has never wavered, and he said he couldn’t imagine his life without the sport he knows so well.
“It’s taken my life to such as extend that I feel the most complete when I’m in a funny car and I have 5,000 horsepower in front of me,” Colson said. “I’m most on top of the world when I’m in the race car and I have the engine running.”\
