Joe Sostilio

3/1/1915 - 9/7/2000

Record updated 02-Jan-07

Joe Sostilio raced both sprint cars and midgets. He won the New England Dirt Championship in 1935, 1936 and 1938. He also won the Bay State Midget Racing Association Championship in 1947 and Eastern Sprint Car Championship in 1953.

Joe Sostilio
Joe Sostilio was born in Newton, Massachusetts. He started racing in 1932, at the age of 17, and won the first race he ever entered, driving a Model A Ford.

In 1935, he won the New England Dirt Championship and repeated the feat in 1936 and 1938. He captured the 1939 Vermont State Midget Championship.

He came 4th in the first midget race ever run at Williams Grove on October 5, 1941 but then the war interrupted his racing.

After World War II he competed with the Bay State Midget Racing Association loosing out in the championship race in 1944 to Bob Blair by just a single point. Racing at places like Seekonk, MA, Lonsdale, RI and Norwood, MA, Joe placed 2nd in the BSMRA points in 1945. He was 4th in 1946 and won the Championship in 1947 with 31 wins, 23 seconds and 12 third-place finishes.

In 1948 he placed 6th in the United Car Owners Association points battle. Joe was a part of the MacLeod Racing Team with Hall of Fame member, Johnny Thomson.

In 1949, he turned to Stock Car racing but still continued in open wheel racing. Between 1948 and 1950 Joe won seven races in AAA competition as teammate to Johnnie Parsons. Joe was 5th in the AAA Eastern Sprint Car Championship in 1952, he beat Tommy Hinnershitz to the title in 1953 and finished 6th in 1954.

His best finishes on the Champ Car circuit were a 7th at Langhorne Speedway and another 7th at Darlington Speedway in 1954.

Joe passed away on July 9, 2000 at the age of 85.



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