Tom Marks
October 24, 1941
December 27, 2010
Memories from 24 years ago came rushing back to Fred Otterbein when he was thumbing through the obituaries and read that Tom Marks of Caledonia died Monday.
Mr. Marks, 69, was a successful stock car and open wheel racer during his career that ran from the mid-1960s through the early 1990s. Otterbein attended one of Mr. Marks’ International Supermodified Association races at Sandusky Speedway in Ohio, in 1986.
The race was the famed 100-lap Hy-Miler, and Mr. Marks finished fourth.
“There were three announcers, and before the race, they predicted who was going to win,” said Otterbein, a veteran Grand Rapids area vintage racer. “One guy picked Bentley Warren, and I don’t remember who the second one picked, but the third guy said Tom Marks, and Tom wasn’t recognized like Bentley.
“I was so impressed at the time that Tom was one of the guys they picked. You had 25 or 26 cars, and they were some of the top Supermodifieds from the East Coast and Canada, and about two-thirds of them could have won that race.”
Mr. Marks won the 1968 Berlin Raceway Semi-Late Model division track championship. He later transitioned into open wheel racing, driving Supermodifieds for brothers Todd and Wayne Stickney of Girard beginning in 1979. Career highlights for Mr. Marks include winning the warm-up race at Sandusky the night before the 1986 Hy-Miler.
“Tom raced for us from 1979 through the early 1990s, and he won some big races for us, with that warm-up race probably being the biggest,” Wayne Stickney said. “But he also won a couple of races at Winchester, and that was the fastest half-miler for the Supers. He set a track record of 125 miles per hour at Salem, Ind., in 1986.
“We all worked good together, and he knew what it took to make a car go fast, and he had the talent to do it.”
Marks is survived by his wife, Esther, and sons Ray Chapin and Rusty Chapin, and three grandchildren. The funeral service is scheduled for today at Stroo Funeral Home, 1095 68th St.
“He was absolutely a deluxe open wheel driver,” Otterbein said. “Tom did well in Sprints and Supermodifieds, and he did well on pavement, and he could run on dirt.
“He was extremely quiet. You could have a dozen people around him and he wouldn’t say anything. But in a car, he was methodical and efficient.”
