Legendary race car driver Elton ‘Wild Man” Hildreth, 95, died Monday afternoon at Cumberland (NJ) Manor nursing home. According to Eastern Motorsport Press Association , Hildreth was one of most colorful drivers to ever compete in the Modifieds. Hildreth is best known for his exploits in his orange and black No. 16-J, a 1937 Chevrolet coupe that was powered by a small-block Chevy engine. A resident of Bridgeton, actually began his racing career in open-cockpit cars back in the 1930s. Then, as an alignment shop/garage owner and Nash dealer with his Hildreth Motors, he got involved with NASCARs new late-model racing series. From 1950 through 1954 , Hildreth ran a virtually-stock #1 Nash in most of NASCARs early Grand National (now Sprint Cup Series) events. With this underpowered car he competed on half-mile dirt tracks, the famed old Daytona Beach-Road Course (where he once led the race with two laps to go before running out of gas on the last lap) and on the legendary Darlington International Raceway. In all, he had seven Top-10s in 51 starts with his best finish of fourth in a 200-lapper on the old half-mile Bloomsburg (Pa.) Fairgrounds in 1953.( NJ.com )
