Chet Wilson’s love affair with racing began after watching a midget race at the Nebraska State Fairgrounds in Lincoln. His first race car, a midget, was built in Lincoln and later updated with a V8-60 Ford after moving to Wichita, Kan., in the early 1940s. In 1947, with Lloyd Ruby at the wheel, National Speed Sport News dubbed the car “the fastest Ford in the country” when he raced against -- and beat -- the Offienhauser-powered machines. In 1957, he built a sprint car to house his own powerful Chevy V-8 engine. This car -- one of the first to be powered by a Chevy -- with such drivers as Harold Leep, Gordon Woolley, Jud Larson and Grady Wade, won many races throughout the country for many years and the red No. 25 became known as “The Offy Killer.” He was inducted into the Nebraska Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1999.