William “Billy” Rafter is a retired American champion
stock car
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southe ...
driver from
Clarence Center, New York and a pioneer of the sport.
Racing career
Billy Rafter made 35 appearances in the NASCAR
Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series:
*National-level stock car series:
**NASCAR Cup Series (the top NASCAR series, known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 and 1970, then the NASCAR ...
, the first of which was in 1949, the inaugural year of the Cup division.
He otherwise spent the majority of his career racing in the
Late Model Sportsman and Modified divisions, competing at the renowned tracks of the northeast, including
Fonda Speedway
Fonda Speedway is a half-mile (0.8 km) dirt oval track located in Fonda, New York. The track hosted NASCAR Cup Series races in 1955 and 1966 to 1968. It is home to the Fonda 200. The track hosts Saturday night races with Modified, Sportsman, Lim ...
NY,
Langhorne Speedway
Langhorne Speedway was an automobile racetrack in Middletown Township, Bucks County, near the borough of Langhorne, Pennsylvania, a northern suburb of Philadelphia.
According to the book ''Langhorne! No Man's Land'' by L. Spencer Riggs: "With ...
PA, and
Perry Speedway NY.
In 1961 he won the inaugural event at the newly opened
Utica-Rome Speedway
Utica-Rome Speedway is a half-mile dirt oval raceway in Vernon, New York. It is known as the “Home of Heroes” and has been the home track of several NASCAR national champions.
History
The Utica-Rome Speedway was built in 1961 by Joe Lesik a ...
.
Rafter was inducted into the
New York State Stock Car Association and the
Northeast Dirt Modified Halls of Fame.
Motorsports career results
NASCAR
(
key) (
Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
Grand National Series
References
External links
*
Racers Reunion - Bill Rafter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rafter, Billy
1929 births
NASCAR drivers
Racing drivers from New York (state)
Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame