Fred Peters

28/9/1920 - 25/12/1993

Record updated 08-Nov-06

Fred "Jiggs" Peters started racing Midgets in 1948, winning the ARDC championship in 1951. He then moved into Sprint Cars. In 1955 he unsuccesfully attempted to qualify for the Indy 500 in a Scopa-Offy.

Fred Peters
Fred "Jiggs" Peters was born in Edison, New Jersey, one of 13 brothers and sisters. He grew up a a working dairy farm, Woodbrook Farm. During WWII he served with the U.S. Army in Italy He was wounded in combat and lost part of right foot which was repaired by having a steel plate inserted in his heel.
 
He returned home in 1947 and attended the Lou Volk Driving School for upcoming Midget racing drivers and took to the tracks in 1948. He was a runner up in the points in both the ARDC and URC Sprints and won many features in midgets, sprints and champ cars throughout his career. In 1951 he became the ARDC Champion.

He then moved into Sprint Cars. In 1955 he unsuccesfully attempted to qualify for the Indy 500 in a Scopa-Offy. Equally at home on dirt or asphalt, he tried to qualify for Indy again in the Lee Glessner Offy in 1957. Short on speed on the first weekend, he was fast enough on the second to qualify but he chose to come home to NJ to run locally to make money as opposed to sitting in Indy for the whole month of May without an income.

He was very good in long distance races and won numerous times at long tracks like Trenton, N.J. and Langhorne, Pa. He was injured at Bedford Speedway in 1969 in a URC race and retired after that.

He continued to stay involved by running the pit gate at Grandview Speedway for promotor Ed Darrell. He also was very involved in numerous Old Timer Clubs until his passing.

He was cremated and his ashes spread over the dirt oval at the Latimore Valley Fairgrounds in York Springs, Pa.



Thanks to John Peters, Jiggs' nephew.

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