Jim Shampine

Shampine began drag racing in 1959 at the quarter-mile ESTA Safety Park Dragstrip in Cicero, New York. Then in 1962 he bought his friend Nolan Swift's championship-winning “Ten Pins” numbered modified, converted it to a supermodified, and renumbered it the enduring “8-Ball”. He went on to win seven (1967, 1970, 1972–1974, 1976 & 1979) Oswego Speedway track championships, as well as an International Supermodified Association championship competing at venues throughout the northeast.^[2][3][4]

Shampine concurrently campaigned his modified at New York's asphalt speedways: Fulton, Lancaster, Shangri-La in Owego, Spencer in Williamson, and Utica-Rome in Vernon. He also competed successfully in a dirt-track modified at Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania and Weedsport Speedway in New York, and captured the 1970 track championship at the Rolling Wheels Raceway in Elbridge, New York.^[5]

Shampine died in a modified racing accident at Oswego Speedway on September 4, 1982.^[6] He was inducted into the Eastern Motorsports Press Association, the Northeast Dirt Modified and the New York State Stock Car Association Halls of Fame.^[5][7]