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This morning at 8:35 a husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and legend passed away. Wayne Landon packed a ton of life in 87 years. He was surrounded by a room full of family. REST IN PEACE RACER WAYNE, MAY GOD BE WITH THE LANDON FAMILY WITH COMFORT AND STRENGTH, YOU WILL BE MISSED.
Mr. Landon, a member of the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame, was known for his success, versatility and longevity. He started racing motorcycles in 1947, before transitioning into stock car racing at Hastings Raceway in 1953. Mr. Landon would win multiple championships at a number of tracks in the early 1960s, including the Grand Rapids Speedrome, Owosso Speedway, Dixie Speedway and Tri-State Auto Club.
But Mr. Landon continued to evolve as a driver - and win. He raced Supermodifieds and later helped develop Mini-Champs with the late Mace Thomas. Mr. Landon also mentored a young Gordon Johncock, who would go on to win two Indianapolis 500s.
In all, Mr. Landon won an estimated 300 feature races during a career that spanned 60 years, But the sport of auto racing brought him great pain, too. The Landons were at Hastings Raceway in 1956 when a wheel hit the fence where he and his wife’s oldest daughter, Rita, was standing. Rita was killed at the age of three.
Tragedy struck again. Mr. Landon’s son, Jerry Landon, 33, was killed in a Mini Champ accident at Kalamazoo Speedway in 1989.
But Mr. Landon never lost his passion for racing. He continued to race into his 70s. He continued to help his grandson, and he celebrated with him in Victory Lane when Nick Landon won a Winged 600 Sprint feature at the DeltaPlex Arena in Walker.
“Basically, all the words my grandpa could muster through the tears (in Victory Lane) was that we finally did it,” Nick Landon told MLive.com. "Not you did it or I did it. We did it. If we can’t afford to buy it, we built it together, and that’s 90 percent of what we have. Most of it is handmade, and if not, it is someone else’s thrown-out stuff.”
. . . written by Steve Kaminski
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