Laclede Record

 Today at 77, Duane Winkel keeps his “right foot flat on the floor, left foot flat on the door” as he drives a truck for RBX, a 200-truck trucking company based in Strafford.
Keeping the gas pedal on the floor and a firm grip on the wheel gives him a top speed of 69 mph. His truck, like many trucks on the highway, is speed-restricted for safety. This helps explain why drivers on I-44 will see two trucks jockeying for position and taking five miles to pass each other.
It was a bit different back in 1968 when Winkel was 27 and behind the wheel of his race car. He passed a lot of cars and was passed by a lot more during those racing years.
“To think now that I used to go 186 mph in a Camaro. I’m going, ‘You had to be a fool, Duane. You had to be a fool. I mean, I get going 70 on the road, and it scares me in my truck,” Winkel said.
He raced against the biggest racing names of his day, names still recognizable today by non-racing fans: Roger Penske, Mark Donahue, A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones and Sam Posey.
And drivers could not just pull up to a track and race with the professionals.
“It takes three years just to get a license to be able to do this, and you have to finish so many races a year just to keep that license. If you don’t finish them, they review you and decide if you’re race quality or not. Luckily, I snuck in,” Winkel said.

For more on this story, see the print or e-Edition of Wednesday's LCR.