Dick Trickle sure uses the word “retired” a lot for a guy who says he’s not retired. Then again, the ageless one is coming up on 68, and “hip replacement” and “Plavix” dot his conversations the way “drafting partner” and “Goodyear” and “Pabst Blue Ribbon” once did. “For all the victories I’ve had, which I appreciate, you know I had a few times when I came in backwards, too,” Trickle said this week from his home in North Carolina. “They didn’t have soft walls here in my time. I’m paying for some of my good times, but at the same time, I’m getting better and better with old age.” Wisconsin’s most prolific short-track stock-car racer of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s hasn’t driven competitively in more than a year, but that’s as much his doctors’ choice and his family’s suggestion as it is his choice. The 2007 hip replacement – actually the result of a fall as a child that left Trickle with a distinctive gait – isn’t an impediment, nor is residual pain from countless cracked ribs, cartilage tears and knocks to the head. But he’s still on blood thinners after a heart procedure in mid-March 2008 and shouldn’t put himself at risk for internal injuries. “I’m healthy enough, I’m young enough, I’m feisty enough and I’d like to, but I ain’t going to cry over a great career,” said Trickle, whose résumé includes some 1,200 feature victories. “As I get younger here and get feeling better and better, I could race, and then again I could not.” So that’s what he’ll do – that and shake hands, pose for pictures and sign autographs – when he comes home to Wisconsin for the Miller Lite Slinger Nationals on Tuesday. The Nationals is an event Trickle created nearly 30 years ago with Slinger Speedway owner WayneErickson, when Trickle was a barnstorming legend and Erickson was eager to promote him in a big show. Trickle eventually left to race in NASCAR and earned the rookie -of-the-year title in 1989 in what has become Sprint Cup. The shelf life of a 48-year-old rookie is limited, and shortly after Trickle arrived, owners began to choose youth over experience. The last NASCAR race to include Trickle was on June 2, 2002. These days he enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren in North Carolina and keeps busy with home improvements and puttering around on small welding projects. The highlight Tuesday was a trip to pick up a burning permit. Trickle keeps up on NASCAR, watches the Packers and when they’re not on TV will tune in to golf.(full story at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)(7-19-2009)
