JOHN McLAREN

"The Fastest Man Ever"

May 31, 1976

15.05.08 Seconds

129.115 MPH

     Sometime ago I posted the story of the Dayton Speedway 100 lap leg of the 1976 Ohio 500 for Supermodifieds.  You can check it out here.  Along with the story I asked anyone who had any photographs of the cars at that event to contact me.  That plea went unanswered until I went rooting through photographs that I had taken back in the '70s and found...you guessed it...photos of the Ohio 500 at Dayton.

     Among those photos were several of John McLaren who set a new track record at the event.  No one ever covered the 1/2 mile+210 foot long Dayton Speedway faster than McLaren.  As time permits I hope to uncover more information about McLaren, but in the meantime here are some photos of John from May 31, 1976.

     Mickey

     January 7, 2009

---All photos below from the collection of Wm. M. Thompson

      This news clipping appears to show the end of the road for John McLaren's record setting Hite supermodified.

      Like McLaren, Ricky Otts drove a Hite supermodified, and drove it very well.  He held the Winchester track record from 1981 to 1988, and the Oswego track record from 1984 until at least 1986.

       The photos below show Otts' car and McLaren's car and it's remarkable how similar the two cars are right down to the color.

     Ricky Otts #33.

     John McLaren #13 (changed to #43 during his record setting appearance at Dayton Speedway).