When Bill Cheesbourg was 11, he built his own Soap Box Derby car and made the tires out of a garden hose.
The tires fell apart before he could complete the race.
Two years later he sold a donkey from his family’s ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ farm for $11, after which he paid $7 to buy a rickety Model T Ford.
“Then I had to go borrow the donkey to tow the car home,’’ he told Star columnist Bonnie Henry in 1988.
From those humble beginnings, William Bernard Cheesbourg Jr., went on to race in the Indy 500 seven times between 1956 and 1965, when the race was one of the four or five leading sports events in America.
No. 70 on our list of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s Top 100 Sports Figures of the last 100 years, Cheesbourg was a one-of-a-kind personality, a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ High School grad who was cited for speeding 27 times before he took his urge to drive fast to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s then-primitive racetracks like the Gilpin Speedway near Interstate 10 and Prince Road.
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Most of those in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ racing community called him “Wild Bill,’’ a rugged, 200-pound, self-taught racer who found no challenge too big.
Before he qualified for his first Indy 500 in 1956, Cheesbourg won 73 of 75 races at various racetracks in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and the Southwest. Without sustained funding from national-level sponsors, Cheesbourg worked as a welder and a mechanic. It wasn’t always easy. Bill and his wife, Leigh, raised seven kids. One of his sons, Billy, died when he was 2, during a week Bill was attempting to qualify for the 1958 Indy 500.
Ultimately, his lack of a national sponsor prevented him from consistently challenging the big names of auto racing in the 1960s, men like A.J. Foyt and Bill Vukovich. Yet Cheesbourg was so respected in the industry that he was hired by Champion Spark Plug to tour the country and talk to high school kids about highway safety.
“He was a great storyteller,’’ said Hal Burns, former general manager of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Raceway Park. “He was an affable man with a positive personality.’’
Cheesbourg was the first driver inducted into the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Raceway Park Hall of Fame, in 1992.
As his career began to wind down, Cheesbourg sold his racing equipment and, among other things, planted a garden and put the same energy into growing flowers. He became close friends with 1949 Indy 500 champion Bill Holland, who moved to ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ in the 1970s.
When Holland died in 1984, Cheesbourg took on the responsibility of helping Holland’s widow, Myra. He would shop for her groceries, give her rides to church, do odd jobs at her house and make sure she was not in need.
“That’s Bill for you,’’ said Burns. “He’s a legend in this town.’’
Cheesbourg died in 1995 of cancer at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Medical Center. He was 68.
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. On Twitter: @ghansen711
Greg Hansen
Columnist
