By: Tony Karis

The Johnny Key Classic this Saturday will memorialize the man from Salinas whose one-year record of 57 wins – in all forms of racing – remains unchallenged.

Racing in what was considered the most deadly era in open-wheel competition, Key forged a reputation that lives with racers and race fans today. During the 1930s to the 1960s, drivers raced without safety belts, fire suits or roll cages.  Even their helmets were leather. 

The period was memorialized in “Damn Few Died in Bed,” Thomas F. Saal’s book depicting life on the road to the Indianapolis 500.  

A sure bet to succeed, Key had the intellect, tenacity and bravado—as well as a sixth- sense on the race track—to be a champion.

The 50^th running of the Key Classic begins Saturday afternoon with spectator gates opening at 3:30 at Ocean Speedway. The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds track is a quarter-mile clay oval similar to the one in which Key lost his life on June 30, 1954.

Key, 30, died after crashing during a midget race at the Cincinnati Race Bowl.

More than a half-century later, 22 of the region's best sprint car drivers will try to capture both his spirit and a winner's prize of $5000.

"The Key race became the most prestigious race to win," said Brent Kaeding, thirteen-time King of California winged sprint car champion and winner of two of the 49 Key Memorial races to date "My first win was the most memorable. That was a wild and crazy night; I consider it one of the top four or five wins of my career. The real enjoyment and satisfaction was competing with my dad and now racing with my sons."

As the phrase implies, Key didn't die in bed. He died following a dream and a career that took him out of the farm lands of Salinas.

Running third in the feature, the front suspension of his midget race car failed in the regular Wednesday night race in Cincinnati. It sent him crashing into the wood-posted steel guardrail, throwing Key from the car. 

Dazed and still on the race track, he was run over by his best friend and traveling companion, Elmer George, as well as Seattle's Jack Turner. George didn't continue the 50-lap AAA sanctioned race, but Turner went on to finish second.

One of five children, Key was born May 24, 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas. The family moved to Arizona in 1925, then migrated to Salinas in 1926. Key attended Salinas High and excelled at swimming.  The drama and excitement of auto racing stirred his passion for the sport. Like a drug, once drawn in, you can be hooked for life. 

Key won his very first race at Devil’s Bowl Speedway, later named Salinas Speedway, located in the Alisal area on the east side.

He never completed high school, but instead found success driving race cars. He also won the first race ever run at the old Oakland Speedway.

"Key studied racing," wrote race promoter Bob Barkheimer in his book, Tales of the Oval. "His goal was to better himself; he was hard driving but in an intelligent way. Key was like Parnelli Jones. Along with Marshal Sargent, Elmer George, Johnny Smith, Norm Garland and Studious Paul Kamm, Key worked the lettuce farms around Salinas and saw auto racing as a way to better his life."

Key's record is remarkable. He won four San Jose Speedway track titles in five years in Barkheimer's California Stock Car Racing Association. It was later renamed NASCAR after a handshake and a gentleman's agreement between Barkheimer and Bill France Sr. That agreement transformed NASCAR into the first true national stock car racing organization.

"He won more races in the four-year history of the association than any two drivers," Barkheimer wrote. "He started racing the roaring roadsters in 1946.  I convinced him to race with our association in 1949."

With 21 race tracks under Barkheimer's supervision, there was racing every night of the week. By the time Key finished second in the CSCRA championship in 1951, he had won 42 main events. In 1952, his most memorable year, Key won the state championship and tallied 57 feature wins, including three in non-sanctioned events. His most remarkable accomplishment that year, though, was winning eight races in seven days during the month of August.

According to accounts by Bruce Richardson, who covered motor sports for the San Jose Mercury News in the 1970s, sports writers were confronted almost daily with stories of Key's exploits and liked him. For one thing, his three-letter last name was handy for headlines. Then again, everything about the always well-dressed Key was pleasant.

Key's death stunned the California racing community. Out of respect and recognition for his talent and successes, Barkheimer proposed a plan for a memorial race that would perpetuate his name.

The first race took place on August 14, 1954 and for seven years was run at the non-stop marathon distance of 200 laps around San Jose Speedway's one-third mile, high-banked, paved track.

The race was reduced to 150 laps until the early 1970s. It was shortened to 100 laps when it moved to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, then reduced again to 50 laps prior to the closing of the fairground's speedway in 1999.

Ocean Speedway promoter John Prentice reinstated the Key Classic in 2007, creating a place for local sprint car drivers and fans to call home. Jason Statler won that year. The next two years, Campbell’s Brent Kaeding and Fresno’s Tommy Tarlton were winners.

Kaeding has the recognition of having the longest span between wins, his first being in 1980. Tarlton is only the third driver from the Fresno Area to win. Fresno’s Al Pombo won in 1955 and Everett Edlund won in 1971.

Considered one of the oldest races of its kind, the Johnny Key Classic has produced 33 winners in 49 events. Among retired racers, San Francisco's Nick Rescino won six times, his last in 1986. Campbell's Howard Kaeding, the patriarch of the Kaeding dynasty, has four wins, his last achieved in 1987. Clyde Palmer won three Key races, including back-to-back victories in 1961-62’. Joining him as drivers scoring double wins are Burt Foland, 1965-66’, Rescino in 1974-75’ and Chuck Miller 1993-94’.

"For racers in Northern and Central California, the Johnny Key race was our Daytona 500," said Howard Kaeding. "It started as a 200-lap endurance race, requiring both speed and endurance.  Today, using sprint cars, it's a speed race and being lucky. I really appreciate John Prentice's efforts to continue the tradition of the Key race. In its heyday, I remember standing-room-only crowds two hours before the start. "

Current drivers with Key Classic wins include: "Cowboy" Craig Smith, 1997, Bud Kaeding, 1996 and Brent Kaeding 1980 and 2008, Salinas' Ronnie Day, 1998, and Statler.

With the format changed from previous years, only six drivers are holding guaranteed starting spots. They include last year’s Key winner Tarlton, Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson, 18, Salinas’ Day, Clovis’ Peter Murphy, and Brent Kaeding. All six drivers will compete in a sprint dash to determine the starting line up for the first three rows. The remaining field will be filled through qualifying and B, C, and D main events.

Micro 600 mini sprints and traditional non-wing sprint cars are the supporting cast for Saturday night’s memorial race.