Ollie Silva
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Ollie Silva was one of the greatest race car drivers ever to come out of the Northeast. Wearing his trademark sun glasses and driving cars often built out of junk, Ollie made the most out of used and home-built parts in his cars.
History
Ollie's raced and won features from Canada to Florida. Ollie was the staple driver in a touring SuperModified association known as NESMA. He was a multi-time winner of Star speedway's International Super Modified Classic. He was also a very accomplished modified driver as well often driving home-built cars that were said to "need work". Ollie was very successful at Star, Monadnock, Thompson International Speedway, Dover, The Pines, Westboro and many other area tracks. In a particularly dominating performance, Ollie once lapped the entire field in an All-Star race at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl.
Ollie was involved in a spectacular wreck at Star Speedway when his car went through a building. He survived that and many other obstacles to thrill his fans with multitudes of great wins and memories.
Ollie would occasionally have to drive one-handed if he endured an oil-leak during a race. The other hand was catching the oil!
Memorable Rides
Ollie joined forces for several years with legendary and current car owner Vic Miller in a unique 01 Supermodified which was very successful. One of his last super rides was in the Clyde Booth "nine" car. Ollie was smooth and fast in this great car. Sadly his career was cut short in 1978 when he was seriously injured racing at the Monadnock Speedway in New Hampshire driving a modified with the steering wheel on the right side. This "offset" modified had scored an impressive 4th place in a big-block modified event just days before at Stafford Speeday. Ollie attempted a brief comeback in one of his old "uprights" but soon retired for good.
Legend Lives On
Ollie died in 2004 and his memory has been preserved with the annual "Ollie Silva Classic" at the Lee USA Speedway. For the first event, locals built a replica of one of Ollie's early "Big O" coupe modifieds which was well received.
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