Don Wilbur's motor ran hard and strong right to the finish line

The hand shake — not to be confused with a good firm, friendly handshake — was evident one day at lunch about 15 years ago.

This was a barely noticeable shaking, but one that made me wonder, was something wrong? And sure enough, what I observed was the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease. It’s an affliction that dogged Don Wilbur for years since and finally led to his death on Sept. 17 at Hospice House in Spokane at age 76.

Some may recall that prior to coming to Cheney in 2007 and the Free Press, I dabbled in journalism for a hobby as a motorsports columnist for 21 years at the Spokesman Review. My first work published at the SR came March 26, 1987 when I interviewed Wilbur about the Spokane Auto Boat Speed Show.

I had heard Wilbur’s name through the years, but the car show he and partner Orville Moe had produced for nearly a quarter-century at that time was how he was best known. The show ended a 49-year run in 2012 with Wilbur bowing out in 2009. Moe passed away in 2015.

Wilbur and I worked for many years producing the show program. I thought got to know him reasonably well, but apparently there was plenty I was missing.

But as I would find out, while assisting Wilbur’s brother Dave in a project to earn Don Wilbur a place in the Inland Empire Sports Hall of Fame, there was much more to him than involvement in what was fondly referred to on radio and television ads as “The Spring Spectacular.”

Some Canadians, it is said, are born with skates on, referring to the country’s obsession with hockey. Don Wilbur, you might say, came into this world with motor oil in his veins.

Born April 16, 1940, Wilbur grew up in Davenport, Wash. where he graduated from high school and served as the student body president.

Ironically, Wilbur’s family was in the publishing business in Davenport where they once operated one of Free Press Publishing’s family of papers, the Davenport Times — printed then, as it is now, on the same press that prints the Cheney Free Press.

It was in Davenport in 1956 when he and some of his buddies started the Road Knights car club. They would meet weekly in Wilbur’s parent’s basement. The car club is still active today.

His motorsports resume was much more broad, however, and had significant impact, more than he may have ever realized.

He was involved in world-record-setting limited hydroplanes like the “Holy Smoke” and “Miss Marion Blue Grass” in the 1960s.

Wilbur and partner Vern Massie went drag racing across the West with a 1930 Ford, “The Destroyer.” It set national records and ran at the legendary Lion’s Drag Strip in California. Aptly-named, the car raced until 1967 it crashed and was totaled at the Deer Park Drag Strip.

That just scratched the surface of his time as a car owner. In 1968, Wilbur’s car won 18 out of 20 Northwest races and set many national records, again with Massie on the throttle.

Wilbur’s sprint car traveled to the Minnesota State Fair in 1969 and the team, with driver Norm Ellefson, totally dominated the best drivers in the nation at the time.

And little known, is an innovation with which Wilbur is credited making that revolutionized racing. When it was discovered that a local open-wheel car was producing too much horsepower for its own good, Wilbur said what was needed was more “down force” that could only be created with a wing above the car.

Wilbur and his crew built one out of wood. It didn’t look good but it worked and so was born a generation of winged-sprint cars.

Despite suffering from the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s, Wilbur never lost his passion for motors and speed. A decade ago he cobbled together a bunch of fellow senior-citizen drag racing buddies and campaigned an old-fashioned front-motored dragster that raced across the Northwest. It’s a story all to itself.

Wilbur, along with a cadre of others, brought racing of all kinds into the local headlines in the 1960s and 1970s and made local heroes of the guy next door. Some, like 1983 Indy 500 winner Tom Sneva, were also part of that madness.

It’s funny, yet sad, that Wilbur’s death came on the day many old friends from the Deer Park Drag Strip gathered for their annual reunion.

His service is still pending but tentatively scheduled for April 2017. But how great would it be to stage it at the fairgrounds and have autos, boats and everything speed to officially send him off?

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.