Red Vaughn could have easily been one of South Penn Speedway’s top drivers for the duration of the track. But he seldom ran a weekly schedule at any one particular track, if he had the talented driver from Altoona would be mentioned more often in the record books. He was there in the early days at the Everett track and put in some solid runs.
But in 1960 Red was a regular competitor on the 1/4 mile. The core locals of Bob Foor, Lynnford Conner, Bob Clingerman, Frank Dunkle and Rookie Gerald Chamberlain were primed for whatever competition pulled through the pit gate. Then of course there was perennial winner Jr. Ritchey, who didn’t disappoint by leading the list of feature winners with 5. But late in the season the points battle came down to the consistent running Vaughn and one of Hobby Auto Racing’s original Members, John Koontz. The likable Everett resident had teamed with Ed Manges to keep their #15 in the hunt each week, and when John won the August 20th feature over Ritchey & Vaughn it appeared they were title bound. But when Red won the labor day event and followed up with a heat win and a 3rd place finish in the final feature event Vaughn captured the 1960 Championship by 22 points over Koontz with Ritchey, Foor, Clingerman, and Conner trailing. John finished 5th in points and Red 10th the following year, but when Koontz hung up his helmet Vaughn would be a tough competitor well into the 1970’s. He transitioned from the smaller modifieds into the full bodied late-models and continued to be one tough wheelman. His 10th place finish in the 1970 Hillbilly 100 is testimony of that.
