— by Mike Goldfine

My grandfather, Leo Dobry, loved talking about his racing days. He called them his glory days. By the time I was a young teenager, I could appreciate listening to his stories — both the wins on the track and the close calls. He would often start way back with his midget cars, and then his dirt track racing cars. And then the glory days lining up for the Indianapolis 500 and all the stories that surrounded it.

One of his favorite parts of the story was just prior to the race. He needed a very important part for his car, and the only one was in Milwaukee. Having it shipped in time would be an impossibility, but one of the greatest drivers of the era, Rex Mays, stepped up to help. Rex took my grandfather to his private plane and flew him to Milwaukee to get the part and returned just in time for the race. Close call: there would’ve been no other way to run the car that day. He was a lifesaver, according to my grandfather.

I never got tired of listening to my grandfather’s stories. I was lucky to have known him and have him part of my life until I was 20 when he passed away of cancer at the age 80. Just to give you some idea of his drive throughout his life, he worked until he was 79, the last 15 years for Pacific Rim expediters sending truck parts to Alaska as they were putting in the oil pipeline together.

But back to the racing stories:

Leo Dobry was a successful sprint car owner in the region before World War II, his cars well known throughout West Coast racing circles. When wartime restrictions ended, Leo continued with the sprint cars, but he held onto a bigger dream—to qualify a car for the Indianapolis 500. In 1948, with the “City of Tacoma,” he became the first owner/operator from Washington to enter the Indianapolis 500, and actually finished the race in sixth place, which was unheard of for a first time Indy racer.

The car was driven by veteran driver Jack McGrath, which would account for such a strong finish. Dobry and the City of Tacoma racing team went back to Indianapolis three more times with limited success. After Indianapolis, Dobry and his racing team entered the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 1952 and won 1st place, with another first place finish in 1953.

One last beat to this story: pictured below at left is the menu at the speedway race award dinner in 1949. The picture to the right, a pencil drawing of Rex Mays, was hand drawn on the center page of the menu by Woody Cooper, a local artist from Washington. My grandfather had said he was going to give it to Rex as a thank you for the previous year flight to Milwaukee, but kept it instead because he enjoyed it so much.