Frank Secrist of Oildale, Calif. won 1951-54 jalopy championships – then the top weekly racing division – at Bakersfield Speedway as well as the 1953-55 jalopy titles at Hanford, Calif.
Secrist won the 1960 modified sportsman championship in Bakersfield and finished third in NASCAR’s California standings in 1961.
He also competed at the then-new Daytona International Speedway, setting modified sportsman track records in 1961 and 1962 – in the latter event erasing NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough’s speed from the books. Starting from the pole in his No. 86 Studebaker/Ford, Secrist finished fourth.
He won nine of 11 super modified races in 1963 and won the first United States Auto Club (USAC) midget race he entered in 1966.
Secrist, 88, competed in eight NASCAR premier series races winning one pole at the 1.4-mile Marchbanks Speedway in Hanford. His best finish was fourth at Sacramento’s old state fairgrounds mile track in 1961.
Secrist also made several USAC sprint car appearances with a best finish of second in 1966 at Ascot Park in Gardena, Calif. He attempted to qualify for USAC championship car races.
“Frank Secrist was a natural in anything with four wheels,” said Richard Woodland, a 2017 West Coast Hall of Fame nominee. “He helped me as my mentor in my NASCAR modified driving days plus he would hop into my car, when asked, in order to help sort things out for me. Later, he drove off for me for several years in CRA and NARC sprint cars.
“In other words, I both drove against him and he drove for me. He was, without a doubt, one of the hardest charging drivers I know of while, at the same time, one of the cleanest.”
