Russell Hibbard smiles as he sits in his Ray's Sinclair No. 27 racer at Sportsman's Speedway in Marshall. (Contributed photo) [Click to enlarge]

Editor's note: Our series on the history and people of Saline County's auto racing scene continues.

Many have heard of the racing trio from Slater, which included Ken Taylor, Roy Hibbard and, last but not least, Russell Hibbard. These three men would put on a "heck of a show" every Sunday night at Sportsman Speedway in the 1960s, according to racing fans of the era.

Ray Lee Goodwin was quoted in a nomination form for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in tribute to these three amazing drivers saying, "Russell, Roy and Kenneth could take their helmet bag anywhere in the country and win races."

Russell began racing in 1955 and was voted the most improved driver in the Central Missouri Racing Association (C.M.R.A.) in 1956.

Roy Hibbard said, "It was a good night if I finished eighth and Russell finished ninth. It was a bad night when I finished second and Russell won."

Russell was five years older than his brother Roy but Roy had two more years experience of racing on the central Missouri dirt tracks.

Russell Hibbard had a lot of near-misses and hundreds of wins. He was runner-up in the Missouri Championship race in 1957. In 1968, he lost the Missouri Championship in the last 50 feet of the race to Ken Taylor.

In 1957, 1958 and 1959, Russell was runner-up in three years of the tightest point battles in the C.M.R.A. He earned the C.M.R.A. Championship in 1960 barely beating out Ken Taylor. Roy was fifth that year.

He won the Missouri State Fair race in 1963. Also that year, Russell had an outstanding sixth-place finish in the Knoxville Nationals. In 1968, he finished 11th at Knoxville after coming from the back of the field.

"They used to accuse us of blocking cars when we ran side by side," Roy said. "That was not the case because neither one of us wanted to see the other win."

Most know Roy as the ornery practical jokester of the famil. Russell was a little quieter but was just as capable of stirring up a little ruckus now and then.

At Sportsman's Speedway, Roy would always race with a white T-shirt on and Russell would race with a red T-shirt on.

"If my car broke down, we would switch shirts and I would drive his car," Roy said with a huge grin on his face. "We did that 20 or 30 times and only got caught once."

Roy said Russell would rather work on cars than drive them. He is well known throughout the Midwest for his mechanical skills.

Roy chuckled as he ran across a clipping, which reminded him of that exact moment when Russell lost the State Fair race two laps from the end because he ran out of gas.

"We were one and two in a lot of races," Roy said.

Unlike Roy who wanted to win and didn't want to settle for anything less, Russell viewed losses as "just racing."

Goodwin told Roy that when the Kansas City drivers came to Marshall's track, they would stop for coffee in Odessa on their way home. He recalled them saying, "If they outran the Hibbards, they had a good night."

Russell quit racing after a severe back injury in a racing accident at Capital Speedway in Holt Summit on May 16, 1974.

He died on Monday, Aug. 28, 2006. Roy said Russell had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He worked 40 years as a mechanic at Hall & Riley Rock Quarry.

Roy said he joked with Russell that he had COPD from "following me around the race track and getting dusted all the time."

Russell replied, "I did get a lot of dust from lapping you all the time."

In the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame nomination form, Rick Hays of Slater wrote, "(Russell) is truly one of the good guys in racing, and stories like Russell almost missing a race because he was helping a fellow competitor work on his car or helping rescue a fellow racer trapped in his burning mount while Russell's car was also burning to the ground is what racing legends are made from and Russell is just that, a racing legend."

Contact Rachel Harper at

marshallcity@socket.net