Wright's ashes, according to the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing Web site, are to be buried at the Latimore Valley Fairgrounds infield during the annual EMMR convention. His burial site is also within the fairgrounds' one-half-mile clay oval speedway, where traditional open wheel races have been held since 1933.
Wright, who died in an Indianapolis nursing home Dec. 23, would have been 91 Jan. 14. What started as a fascination while a teenager in Depression-era Newark had led him to write 20 racing-oriented books and hundreds of articles as recently as 2007. His work includes histories of Irvington's Tri-City Stadium, The Nutley Velodrome, Paterson's Hinchliffe Stadium and Pine Brook Speedway's early years.
Wright was actually born as Ernest Schlausky to father Michael and mother Julia Vagle in Duquesne, Pa., near Pittsburgh, Jan. 14, 1919. The parents later took Ernest, brothers Michael and Charles and sister Julia, Jr. with them to 63 Clinton Place in Newark's South Ward Homestead Park neighborhood before 1940.
Schlausky, in his "Fate Guides My Destiny," memoirs and "Go! The Bettenhausen Story," recalled how he first became spellbound by local short track racing by bicycling to nearby speedways in the mid-1930s. He was first introduced to night-time motorcycle flat track racing at Tri-City, when owner Rubin Borinsky laid a fifth-mile cinder oval around his baseball diamond in 1933.
Schlausky may have witnessed the work of Emerson "Crocky" Rawding, who had to leave his motorcycle and equipment behind in England when World War II broke out Sept. 1, 1939.
Schlausky would also pedal off to Nutley, Paterson and other local speedways in the late 1930s. The racing featured midget cars - smaller wheelbase versions of Indianapolis 500 cars - that ran on short tracks daily between Philadelphia and Bridgeport, Conn.
The Schlauskys had just moved to 71 Wolcott St. when Uncle Sam called in 1941. Ernest served four years in the 762nd U.S. Army Tank Battalion in the Pacific theater.
Ernest returned to 71 Wolcott as an honorably discharged laborer by 1947 but returned to the local racing scene. Crocky Wright eventually moved with the midgets to Columbus, Ind., near Indianapolis.
Wright championed several drivers, some of whom went on to compete in the Indy 500 and assisted others. He served as an unofficial publicist for now-2002 and 2005 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart and 500 regular Gary Bettenhausen. He wrote biographies on Rex Easton and the late Johnny Thomson when the former was injured in 1959 and the latter was killed in 1960 - and turned proceeds to their families.
Wright, who held was awarded lifetime memberships in the American Racing Drivers Club and United Midget Racing Association, occasionally competed as a driver against a young Mario Andretti, among other midget standouts.
Wright was enshrined in the National Midget Racing Hall of Fame at Sun Prairie, Wis. in 2005. Stewart made a surprise appearance at his induction.
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