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Sue Woloscsuk The origins of the Leaping Lizards corner crew date back to the the late 1960's, when a small group of five or six people from Kansas City were working corners at the local road race tracks. By the mid-70's, the number of Kansas City corner workers had grown to about 30, and it was at this time that the group got its name.
Russ Scholta, who worked with the Lizards before becoming a driver (which is not uncommon), worked for Quaker State Oil and thought it would be good publicity for the company if they sponsored the Lizards. Quaker State liked the idea and so the Leaping Lizards became the first corner crew to have a national sponsor. Quaker State provided hats, shirts and jackets with their logo on the front and the Lizard logo on the back. They also gave banners to display on the corner station, patches, decals and, of course, several cases of oil.
In the 1970's the Lizards first went to the Runoffs and there have been some members of the group at every Runoffs since then. Four Lizards have been MidWest Divisional Administrators of Flagging and Communications, and two have been National Administrators of F&C. Some of the current Lizards are second-generation kids who grew up at the races. We hope the tradition goes on for more generations to come. |