Midstate Vintage Stock Car Club

Car	Engine	Favorite Track	Hobbies	Sponsors	Crew Members
1936 Chevy Coupe	230 Chevy	All of them	Racing, Flea Markets and Street Rodding	H and P Auto Parts - Sherkston,ON	Liz, Aric and Bethy Greco

More about Harold Sonnenberg
This article is about one of my favorite MVSCC members (sorry - I'm a little partial!). Harold Sonnenberg joined the Midstate club in 2000. His racing reputation precedes him where ever he goes from Woodhull to Weedsport to Merrittville. Over the years he has earned the respect of many in the racing community. Harold Sonnenberg grew up in the small Ontario town of Dain City. Harold was a mere spectator at the local race tracks - Merrittville, which opened in 1952 and Humberstone which John Puhl built and opened late in 1957. After spectating awhile, he felt he may know enough about cars and racing to try his luck at the sport. There was no rule book, only word of mouth. He felt he needed to test his knowledge of cars and racing. He tried to gather pointers, as you were pretty much on your own - no books to mull over or website to peruse. He was not sure why some things were even on the car. He felt the least amount of parts on a race car were better. Why spend his time on broken or bent parts that really did not need to be on the car when he could be focusing on speed... and that is all she wrote, the rest is history. Harold, a.k.a., the 'Ole Master' mastered the speed, the driving and the sport. Most fans and competitors admire him for his clean and legal race style. Others felt he won too much, some felt he must be up to no good, never accepting that it was his drive to better himself through constant self-education and testing. Harold's thoughts on this subject are that one person can not please everyone and you'll never win with out determination and luck! He focused on running clean and legal - not making everyone happy. Rumor in the pits were that he hid 'IT' so well, not even the tech. man could find it. He relayed a story about a tech. man at Ransomville who tore him down often. He vowed that one day he would find 'IT'. The fellow retired, but not before shaking Harold's hand, as he realized, there was nothing to find - unless you consider ingenuity illegal ! His driving philosophy is to put on a good race and do it well. Anybody can win being reckless and not respecting other drivers, he said. Surprisingly, when asked about 'Luck', I found out that he does have a few rituals. Harold purchased a souvenir coin at a booth at the Monroe County Fairgrounds in the sixties. On it, is written 'Prosperity Good Luck Pocket Piece'. He has had it in his pocket with out fail, ever since. There is also an aluminum shamrock mounted on the dash in his 'Cagle' coupe. On Harold's website, you can see an old photo of him in a plaid shirt. Harold wore this to every race until fire suits arrived on the scene - he said it was a good thing because it was just about wore out by then! His original firesuit was the plaid shirt, jeans, penny loafers and half helmet - that was the racing uniform in the day. From luck he moved on to engines - early on he discovered that it was far cheaper to maintain a Chevy or GM product. He used to get three gaskets for his Chevy 6 cylinder for the price of one Ford. The cost of parts and repairs were more reasonable and they were easier to get. When you take into consideration that he had a fleet of 11 cars, he would have needed flexibility and low overhead! Many GM parts were interchangeable, throughout many models and years. Harold stored this knowledge (and spare parts) and put it to good use! At one time Harold had so many cars and drivers on the go, they were admirably dubbed the 'Donkey Ranch'. At one point, several of the cars had the same paint scheme. Apparently, on the track as they all headed up and through the pack - drivers didn't know who was coming at them. This lead to a new nick name - The Posse. Posse members were Finnie MacInnis, Bruce Parkes, Johnny Gaboury, Tim Hatt, Al Wagner, Brian Page, Huey Tripp and his son, Pat. Harold started his career in what was called the 'Jalopy' class. Years later the class would be renamed to 'B' Class, then to 'A' Class, Limited Sportsmen and finally to Sportsmen. The classes were named differently, but they were all six cylinders. Harold excelled in the six cylinder class and spent most of his racing career mastering it. Remember that wonderful sound? You may have been at the canteen or in the washroom - but you new when the 6 cylinders came out on the track. The sound even told you who was driving a Ford and who was driving a Chevy! In the mid-seventies the sportsmen class fell on tough times. Some tracks even threw the class out. Harold and folks like Tom Mallory and Kirk Douglas weathered this storm by racing at Ransomville with the Late Models. In the early 80's, Harold tried his hand with the 320's. Remember those huge tires? It was a different site for his fans - pipes were coming out of both sides! In 1974, the original 1936 Chev Cagle 'Elephant' car was found for sale in Weedsport, New York. George Eli was driving the car for a fellow, who passed away and his wife wanted to sell the car. The car was appropriately dubbed the Elephant car as there was flexible pipe from the rear brake area up to the side windows. This ingenious device helped to cool the brakes. Harold jumped at the chance to purchase the car. With Harold's help, the car has become a legend once again. Harold had two great mentors - Will Cagle and Buzzie Reutimann. He felt that Will Cagle accomplished a lot and the fact that he had very few sponsors and staked his territory pretty much on his own said it all. Will said very little, but when he spoke, Harold listened - because what he did say, always proved to be the right answer. Harold even attended one of Will's race school classes, where he learned some pretty basic, but helpful tips - such as not turning or touching more than 3 items on the car at one time. Move it, test it, use it or lose it! He also learned that a car doesn't have to be polished to get the job done. He feels that Buzzie Reutimann he is a great person, who is very pleasant to talk to. You can walk right up to him to talk at anytime. If he was asked a race related question, he would always give a straight up answer. Harold enjoyed watching him race - he was a tough competitor and was always 'cool' at the wheel. Great taste in paint schemes too! (Harold's fleet of cars in the 70's, took on the familiar Reutimann blue and white colors). But enough can't be said about the respect people have for Harold. His trial and error learning style and his many years of racing experience have made him a great man. He reminds me of Peter Piper playing a tune with all the folks following and gathering around him to listen! As he recites his little quips with his slow, mellow voice - listen carefully, as there is bound to be 'racing' advice thrown in there somewhere! "If'n' it's to be said that..." To read more about Harold's 45 plus year racing career, check out his website at: www.vaxxine.com/haroldsonnenberg78