DON DeSALLE, USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK CHAMPION CAR OWNER, PASSES AWAY
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (July 18, 2024)………Don DeSalle, a three-time winning USAC National Sprint Car owner whose team captured the 2001 Indiana Sprint Week title, passed away on July 16, 2024. He was 76 years old.
DeSalle, of Anderson, Indiana, owned the distinctive Tonka and Arctic Cat sponsored cars driven on the USAC National Sprint Car tour between 1999-2003 by the likes of Scott Hull, Mike Mann, John Heydenreich, Eric Gordon, Dave Darland, Jerry Coons Jr., Corey Smith, Derek Davidson, Brian Tyler, Jonathan Vennard, Cory Kruseman, Troy Rutherford, Brandon Petty and Donnie Beechler.
It was with Gordon and Darland who DeSalle achieved his greatest successes in USAC National Sprint Car competition. In 2000, Gordon scored a win for the team in April’s inaugural Glen Niebel Classic at his home track of Anderson (Ind.) Speedway. That August, Gordon took the DeSalle No. 3AC back to winner’s circle in the Joe James-Pat O’Connor Memorial at Salem (Ind.) Speedway.
By 2001, the team had added a second full-time USAC entry for Darland who flourished during the campaign. In July, he gave DeSalle his first USAC victory on dirt during the Indiana Sprint Week round at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway. After notching six top-tens and four top-fives in six starts during the series, Darland and DeSalle locked up the Indiana Sprint Week championship.
DeSalle’s first official involvement in racing came during the early 1980s. When Paragon (Ind.) Speedway briefly closed, DeSalle and racer Keith Ford partnered up to purchase and reopen the venue. In the years to come, DeSalle ultimately sold his share of the track to Ford.
Outside of the racetrack, DeSalle was proud of his accomplishments on the gridiron. Following a decorated high school football career in his native Toledo, Ohio, DeSalle earned a scholarship to play guard on the offensive line for Indiana University, which reached the famed Rose Bowl in 1968. In 1969, DeSalle was named first team all Big Ten by the Associated Press, and soon after, was signed by the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.
In the years to come, DeSalle served as a Graduate Assistant for Indiana University’s football team under then head coach and future ESPN TV personality Lee Corso during the 1973 season. Following his stint in the college ranks, DeSalle was named the football head coach and athletic director at Ohio’s Antwerp High School. In 1976, he was hired as the head varsity football coach at Anderson (Ind.) High School, a role he served in for five seasons until 1980 while also serving as a science teacher.
DeSalle was also a lifelong fanatic of automobiles. He enjoyed collecting and restoring cars, and even owned and operated a Lamborghini rental business in Hawaii. He was also an antiques toy show promoter and collector with a specific interest in Tonka trucks. He was the definitive source on the history of Tonka, writing several books and guides about the subject and even had an exclusive licensing agreement to with Tonka to manufacture replacement parts.
USAC extends its deepest condolences to DeSalle’s family and friends.