Ray Grimes, the Savior of Knoxville Raceway
Ray and Naomi Grimes
Thursday, November 3, 2016
by Track Historians Eric Arnold and Bob Wilson
All of us at Knoxville Raceway and the Marion County Fair Association are deeply saddened by the passing of former race promoter Ray Grimes. Grimes’ influence and place in history and development of Knoxville Raceway and the Knoxville Nationals are still felt today.
Ray had a passion for racing at an early age and sold racing newspapers as a teenager at local race tracks. An early stint of racing himself did not pan out due to a lack of funds. He entered the Navy and became a pilot, which would lead him into a successful career as a corporate pilot for various companies around Iowa. After returning home from the Navy the passion for racing was still burning and Grimes became involved with Jerry Blundy’s race team until his involvement as a race official.
Long-time promoter Marion Robinson parted ways with the Marion County Fairgrounds in May of 1974. Ray took over the duties of promoting races with the track bank account depleted of funds and in the red. He volunteered to take on the task of turning the financials around within a window of a few weeks or the Fair Association would shut down the weekly racing program. With the pressure to keep the track turning a profit each night, Grimes was able to turn it around with conservative financial planning and the ability to motivate people to volunteer, including himself not taking a paycheck. Ray Grimes literally saved Knoxville Raceway from being closed down at the end of the 1974 season.
Ray would miss the 1975 season due to a snowmobile accident but returned for the 1976 and 1977 seasons. Grimes’ full-time responsibilities of being a corporate pilot was taking up more of his time as his career advanced and he decided to retire from Knoxville Raceway after the 1977 season, passing the torch of race promoter to Ralph Capitani in 1978. Ray never made a dime working for Knoxville Raceway.
Ray’s wife Naomi also contributed to the Knoxville Raceway. Together they decided to expand the Knoxville Nationals to a four-day event and invented the Nationals scoring system. Ray, Naomi, and their daughters Linda and Teri sat down at the kitchen table and used prior year’s Nationals results to form different scenarios before coming up with the Grimes scoring and point system that is still used today. The Grimes point system has since been copied over and over in different variations across the country.
Grimes was a well respected official and promoter who not only helped make the events more fan friendly, but also helped race teams with increasing purses and supplying items such as oil and spark plugs at times to show his appreciation for their loyalty to Knoxville Raceway. He established a point fund and organized the first banquet for weekly competitors.
Later Ray was able to start his grandson, Dustin Selvage in racing. Dustin has since been able to win seven career 360 features at Knoxville and has finished in the top ten of the 410 weekly standings three of the past five seasons.
“Win friends and influence racing” was one of his copyrighted slogans. Ray certainly accomplished both.
Ray was inducted into the Knoxville Raceway Hall of Fame in 1980 and Naomi would also be inducted in 2004.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Naomi, Linda, Teri, and the rest of their family. Funeral arrangements for Ray are Friday and Saturday. More information can be found here. http://www.overtonfunerals.com/
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