USAC HALL OF FAMER EARL BALTES DIES AT 93
Earl Baltes, who was inducted into USAC’s Hall of Fame in 2013, has died at the age of 93. The builder of Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio in 1954, his legacy will be one of accomplishment and integrity.
“Earl and Eldora hold a special place for me,“ says USAC CEO/President Kevin Miller, “from feeding my passion for sprint cars in my youth to being honored in working with Earl to present the 2003 Mopar Million, the richest Sprint car race in the world, the USAC event which offered a total purse of one million dollars. Eldora will always be the place to me that Earl built and fostered my desires to be involved in motorsports my entire career. His contributions are immeasurable and his absence leaves a void which will never be replaced.”
From the 1962 USAC debut to last year’s annual “4-Crown Nationals,” Eldora has produced some of our sport’s most memorable moments, like Jack Hewitt and Kyle Larson’s “4-Crown” sweeps in 1998 and 2011 and victories by many of USAC’s most accomplished champions.
Serving as a race organizer at seven different race tracks in Ohio and Indiana, Baltes presented a remarkable 287 USAC races and was twice honored as the USAC “Race Organizer of the Year.”
USAC extends its sincerest condolences to his wife Berneice, his daughter Starr, his son Terry, his six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren and his countless friends and associates throughout the motorsports community.
The family will receive friends from 2-8 pm (EDT) on Friday, March 27 at the Oliver-Floyd Funeral Home, 1000 N. Broadway St., in Greenville, Ohio.
A mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 am, on Saturday, March 28 at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Burkettsville, Ohio. Father Tom Hemm will lead the celebration. Baltes, who was a United States Army Soldier during World War II, will be buried with full military honors in the St. Bernard Catholic Church Cemetery following mass.
In lieu of flowers, the Baltes family requests that memorial contributions be given to the American Heart Association.
