Ernie
Gahan is a true New England racing legend. A racing career,
which began in 1948 in his home state of New Hampshire, spanned
twenty-eight years.
Ernie won over 300 feature races at over 60 race tracks from
Canada to Florida, numerous track championships and, in 1966, the NASCAR
Modified National Championship. He competed in eleven
NASCAR Grand National (now Nextel Cup) Series races with two top
ten finishes including a seventh in the 1962 Daytona 500.
A year
later, Ernie along with Bill Wimble and Tiny Lund were honored
with the Carnegie Medal for Heroism and the Bud Shuman Award for
saving the life of Marvin Panch from his burning sports car he
flipped in practice.
Beginning in 1949 and on into the early 1960’s, Ernie was a
regular competitor at several Maine race tracks, including Beech Ridge Speedway, Sanford Speedway, Oxford Plains Speedway
and the Lewiston Fairgrounds, most often racing and winning in
the popular Stoney’s Diner red and white #50 coupes.
Now living in Berwick, Maine, Ernie Gahan is a member of the
New England Auto Racing Hall of Fame, New York Racing Hall of
Fame and the Beech Ridge Speedway/Maine State Stock Car Racing
Association Hall of Fame.
