Gene Potts

1930 - 2013

 

The #24 Schrater Special Rail

From Left to right, crewman Cecil Appel; driver Gene Potts; builder, mechanic, and former car owner Vernon Schrater; and car owner Howard Pedigo.  Click your mouse on the photo above to see another photo showing the other side of this car.

 

 

Gene Potts of Great Bend, Kansas in the Schrater Special before the crash at Oakley, Kansas

 

Front view of the #24 Schrater Special sitting on a trailer after the crash at Oakley, Kansas on August 20, 1961

 

On the Trailer after the Crash

Gene Potts of Great Bend, Kansas suffered a broken left arm when he crashed the Schrater Special rail during a warm-up period before the races at Oakley, Kansas on August 20, 1961.  Vernon Schrater and John Kunzelmann rebuilt the car in time for Potts to drive it (with his arm in a cast) at Dodge City, Kansas a week later gaining enough points to win the season points championship.

 

It did not look any better from the back

 

 

 

This photograph of the #24 Schrater Special was taken after it was rebuilt by Vernon Schrater and John Kunzelmann.  Gene Potts was injured when he crashed this Howard Pedigo owned “rail” in front of the grandstand at Oakley, Kansas on August 20, 1961.  Note that a top was added to the rebuilt car in an effort to keep the driver’s arms inside the car in the event of a similar accident.

 

 

 

 A rear view of the rebuilt Schrater Special

 

 

All photographs on this web page are from the Schrater family collection