Pioneer Driver Don June Joins NE Dirt Mod Hall of Fame
By Gary Rowe & Rich Corbett
The late Don June, a pioneer driver on the North Country auto racing scene in the 1950s and ’60s, will be honored as a 2022 inductee into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame. Driver inductions and special award ceremonies are scheduled for Wednesday, July 20, at the Northeast Dirt Modified Museum and Hall of Fame on the grounds of Weedsport Speedway in New York. The event is free and open to the public.
“Never a dull moment” could be an appropriate title for the story of Don June, a throwback veteran in the formative post-war years of the sport. June began his career in February 1951, at age 21, at the race track that was then located on the grounds of the Edgewood Resort in Alexandria Bay, NY.
Anyone familiar with the North Country and its winters knows February is not exactly the ideal month to hold an auto race. Sure enough, the ground was covered with snow and ice. But in his very first stab at the sport, dodging deep water holes through much of the race, Don persevered to finish second. The following month, in the second race of the year, he placed third. Despite the challenging weather conditions at these two outings, this first taste of racing was enough to give Don a serious case of “race fever.”
He went on to dominate the track’s inaugural season, winning 11 feature events as a rookie driver. June claimed the 1951 title as champion of the Adirondack Stock Car Club, finishing the season more than 200 points ahead of Dick Warner, his closest competitor.
June’s first race car was a Ford, sponsored by Gilman Ford located in his hometown of Theresa, NY.
“I invested $50 in that first car,” June said. “I stripped it down, put a roll cage in it and tuned the engine. I won with it in my third race at Edgewood, and it kept on winning.”
The car was numbered 117, which became Don’s trademark. “We picked 117 because it was all straight lines and could be painted on with a barn broom,” he once told an interviewer.
In the five years the Adirondack Stock Car Club was in existence, sometimes racing twice a week at Edgewood Speedway and the Watertown Fairgrounds, in addition to St. Lawrence Valley Speedway located in Canton, NY, June was the winningest driver of the period. He was so unbeatable that many nights they’d start him on the backstretch, a half-lap behind the field. It didn't matter much because he’d still go on to win the race.
It was during this time that a Chrysler driven by Billy Lang proved to be stiff competition. Not to be outdone, June and friend Gordon Smith built a Chrysler of their own. Always an innovator, and with a reputation for being a master mechanic, Don was one of the first to experiment with “stroking” a crankshaft to gain extra horsepower. It was with this car that Don not only earned the nickname “Stroker,” but also dominated much of the action on the North Country ovals. When June was ready to build another car, he gave the Chrysler to his friend from nearby Evans Mills, Neal “Terrible” Tooley—the start of another long and illustrious career in area racing.
In the early 1950s, Don began driving a Ford for George Shultz at both Edgewood and Canton, where another hot car, a Chevy six driven by Roger Craig, was eating up the competition. To Don, it was another challenge: together with Bill Oathout, he built his first Chevy and continued to compete under the bow-tie banner for the remainder of his career.
Despite being away for military service during a large part of the existence of the ASCC, June was the club’s winningest driver. When Edgewood Speedway closed in mid-1955, racing continued at Watertown from 1956-1974 under the direction of the Northern Stock Car Club. June also ranked in the all-time top 10 with the NSCC, holding his own against Hall of Fame drivers like Dick May, Guy “Shorty” Robinson, Bob Zeigler, Cliff Kotary and Gary Reddick.
Back in those wild and woolly early years, not many accurate records were kept of race results, but photo after photo of Don June in victory lane document the story. In nearly 20 years of active driving—from the ’50s into the 1970s—it was a rare exception when June failed to finish in the top ten. Yet, in the big special events, “I only collected one trophy,” Don noted, “and that was the Watertown Spring Championship in 1962. It seems I was always jinxed in those races and only finished five total in my career.”
Always keeping an eye on the bottom line, June was instrumental in forming the Car Owners and Drivers Association (CODA) in 1972, in an effort to have a say in the rule-making and purse structure at Watertown and Evans Mills speedways. It was important to Don and others that drivers finishing farther down in the race results would at least get a small piece of their investments back, so they could continue to compete.
After a work-related injury forced him out of the driver’s seat in the 1970s, June continued in the sport for another 20 years, as a car owner, mechanic and tech inspector.
In the mid 1960s, June partnered with Ernie Baylog to become the North Country’s first Hoosier Tire distributor.
After retiring as a driver, he fielded cars for Fran Kitchen and Hall of Fame great Frank Andre, among others. June served as crew chief for Dick May’s first NASCAR effort at Daytona in 1967, when May took on the ARCA 250 and the Permatex 300. A true student of the sport, Don became friendly with the likes of both Smokey Yunick and Jim Hurtibise, and regularly sought their advice. His knowledge and ability were recognized when he was invited to sit on the Safety and Rules Committee during Watertown Speedway’s last years.
His final stint in the sport was in the role of tech inspector at Can Am Speedway in the 1990s.
Don June passed away in 1999 at the age of 69.
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