Kenneth W. Wright was born in 1940 in
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and was a
race car
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organi ...
driver and mechanic for, among other teams, Black American Racers, Inc. (BAR), the first African American auto racing team to acquire national sponsorship in the United States.
Early years
Wright's friendship with the Miller brothers - Dexter G. and Leonard W. - began at age five. His love of
hot rods
Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made ...
and race cars began in earnest at age 13, when
Leonard W. Miller
Leonard W. Miller (born 1934) is one of two black motor racing pioneers living in the United States.
Early life
Miller was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in its suburbs. His lifelong love of automobiles began at age five in 193 ...
would visit his community in a
1940 Ford hot rod convertible. Riding in the car, and watching the advanced modifications made to the motor, sparked Wright's interest in becoming a full-time automotive technician after graduating from
Conestoga High School
Conestoga High School, located in Tredyffrin Township, Pennsylvania, is the only upper secondary school in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District. It has a Berwyn post office address, though it is not in the Berwyn census-designated place.
Co ...
in
Berwyn, Pennsylvania. He took every auto class offered in the school.
In 1956, Wright co-founded the Black Hawk Auto Club, with Horace “Buddy” Sparrow and other African American youth living in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of
Wayne, Pennsylvania. In 1957, a trip with the club to the York Dragway in
York, Pennsylvania piqued his interest in becoming a drag racer.
After high school, he began his apprenticeship training at Sharpless Auto Body in
Devon, Pennsylvania, where he learned all aspects of automotive collision repair. After learning the basics, he attended the Spring Garden Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, along with Dexter Miller. He graduated in 1962. After graduation he was employed at Horsiey's Automotive Service Center in
Narberth, Pennsylvania.
In the midst of the
Civil Rights Movement and the
Vietnam War, Wright's skills were extremely rare among African Americans. He was one of only a few to hold jobs in the auto body trade at a mainstream facility in one of the wealthiest regions of America. Citizens in the community, including African Americans, would note Wright's capacity at every pass.
Educator
In 1966 Wright joined the
School District of Philadelphia, where he taught automotive collision repair to adults aged 18–35 at the John F. Kennedy Center for Vocational Education. While employed by the district, he obtained a B.S. in education from
Temple University in 1979. He retired from the district in 2002.
Race car driver
In 1969–70, Wright drove a
National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) 1955
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...
station wagon to dozens of track victories for Miller Brothers Racing at Atco Dragway in
Atco, New Jersey
Atco is an unincorporated community in Waterford Township in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the Philadelphia- Camden metropolitan area, located southeast of Camden. Though generally considered part of Waterford Township, ...
, Englishtown Raceway Park in
Englishtown, New Jersey,
McGuire Air Force Base
McGuire AFB/McGuire, the common name of the McGuire unit of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, is a United States Air Force base in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, approximately south-southeast of Trenton. McGuire is under the j ...
drag strip in
Burlington County, New Jersey
Burlington County is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The county is the largest by area in New Jersey. Its county seat is Mount Holly. , and the
Maple Grove Raceway in
Mohnton, Pennsylvania.
Black American Racers Association (BARA)
When Leonard W. Miller helped launch the
Black American Racers Association
The Black American Racers Association (BARA) was founded in August 1972 in Trenton, New Jersey by Leonard W. Miller, Ron Hines, Eugene Gadson, and Charles Singleton. BARA was formed to give recognition to black racing drivers, crews, mechanics, ...
(BARA) in 1972, Wright became a charter member. Through this unique group, which comprised 5,000 African American auto racers from coast to coast and encompassed drag racing teams, mechanics, car collectors, and participants in
Sports Car Club of America
The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...
(SCCA) sports car competition, Wright met
Ron Hines
Ron Hines (born 1940) was the first black Ivy League-educated auto racing engineer on America's road racing circuits. He was an engineer for Black American Racers, Inc. (BAR), the first black auto racing team to attain national sponsorship in Am ...
, a founding member of BARA, and African American
NASCAR legend
Wendell Scott.
Road racing mechanic
In 1973, Wright and Hines joined forces with Miller's
Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model ...
(
Viceroy Cigarettes)-sponsored Black American Racers, Inc. (BAR) team that fielded second-generation African American driver
Benny Scott in
Formula Super Vee (FSV) road racing on circuits such as
Pocono Raceway
Pocono Raceway (formerly Pocono International Raceway), also known as ''The Tricky Triangle'', is a superspeedway located in the Pocono Mountains in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. It is the site of three NASCAR national series races and an ARCA M ...
,
Lime Rock Park,
Watkins Glen International, and
Road Atlanta.
Ken Wright's broad base of other technical skills, including painting, welding, tuning motors, rebuilding transmissions and rear ends, and complete suspension work, transferred readily to BAR's initiatives. Wright prepared the Lola T-324 and T-620. He became a loyalist of the team and was critical to its extraordinary milestones through the 1970s - a period some call “the last decade of the golden era of American road racing.”
Wright remained on the BAR team after Viceroy's unmatched sponsorship expired in late 1975. He was a VIP guest for Benny Scott's and Leonard W. Miller's induction into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame at the
New York Hilton in
Manhattan in 1976. The event's master of ceremonies was actor
Bill Cosby. Celebrities among the more than 1000 attendees at the formal extravaganza included African American female track star
Wilma Rudolph, legendary soul singer
James Brown
James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...
, boxing promoter
Don King, ABC television sports commentator
Howard Cosell, and boxing legend
Jersey Joe Walcott.
Leonard W. Miller started an independent effort in FSV racing after African American driver Tommy Thompson persuaded him to continue the BAR concept in 1977. Ken Wright was a critical component of that team, helping it advance to an SCCA Northeast Championship at
Pocono Raceway
Pocono Raceway (formerly Pocono International Raceway), also known as ''The Tricky Triangle'', is a superspeedway located in the Pocono Mountains in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. It is the site of three NASCAR national series races and an ARCA M ...
in
Pennsylvania.
The team, including Ken Wright, traveled to the
Milwaukee Mile to race on the famed one-mile oval. FSV racing transitioned into the
Mini-Indy series, where select races were paired with Indy Car events held on popular oval courses under the
United States Auto Club (USAC). Wright also traveled to
Texas World Speedway in
College Station, Texas and other FSV races around the country that BAR entered.
At a Mini-Indy event on September 27, 1978, Tommy Thompson was killed in a crash coming off the fourth turn at the 1.5-mile kidney bean-shaped
Trenton Speedway, when a competitor abruptly stopped in front of him, due to a catastrophic mechanical failure.
Retirement
Ken Wright retired from hands-on mechanical race car preparation after Thompson's death, working instead with recreational motor boats and restoring his 1961
Chevrolet Corvette.
For two years BAR did not compete in auto racing, then it started afresh in grassroots competition under other names. Ken Wright remained a booster for the team, but Ron Hines emerged from retirement in 1980 to catapult BAR into several dirt track victories with his superior engine knowledge at the
Flemington Speedway in
Flemington, New Jersey with 19-year-old African American driver Bruce Driver.
In later years Miller Racing Group, Inc. became the solid outgrowth of BAR, recruiting African American grassroots stock car drivers for
NASCAR competition in the Southeast and a Jamaican driver for Formula BMW Americas from 1990 to the present. Leonard W. Miller's son, Leonard T. Miller, has been a significant element in those efforts.
Ken Wright, Ron Hines, and Leonard W. Miller remain in close contact, attending and entering classic car shows and competitions around the United States.
References
* Miller, Leonard W. (2004) ''
Silent Thunder: Breaking Through Cultural, Racial, and Class Barriers in Motorsports'' (The Red Sea Press, Inc., Trenton, New Jersey, USA), pp. 35–36, 38, 41–42, 116, 136–137, 139–40, 145, 156.
* ''The Trentonian'' (Trenton, NJ), April 11, 1974. p. 80.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Ken
1940 births
Living people
People from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
African-American motorsport people
Auto racing people
Mechanics (people)
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople