It's hard to do a career like Ferkel's justice, he was a pioneer in so many ways. The Ohio Traveler had the 'outlaw circuit' covered in a way that it's difficult to understand how he didn't win the first (or any other) World of Outlaws title, and even more so when one considers that he would have won if not for the debatable exclusion of the Little 500 that year. Yes, paved tracks would not feature at all on the WoO schedule for the next dozen years or so, but that wasn't clear in 1978 and it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the 'rules' or directives coming from de facto dictator Ted Johnson. He was essentially 'cheated' out of that championship, just sayin'...
And it all didn't come easy to 'Zero Hero', who by his own admission was a failure at almost anything he started as a young man, be it football, the Marine Corps or, yes, motor racing! He didn't have the money to buy a car, so he built one himself which was a "steep learning curve", but ten years later he would be designing one of (if not) the first mass-produced Sprint car(s), built by Tognotti in California way before Gambler or Maxim became household names. You simply cannot beat success bred by failure after failure...
And his driving improved, too, almost inevitably, as he conquered Eldora Speedway, Limaland, Millstream, Fremont, Atomic etc. before he outgrew his homestate, and went on to travel the USofA, doing over a hundred race meets a year, and typically winning every third or fourth against the best drivers all over the country. Like everybody out there, he was dreaming of Indianapolis and the 500, but time was not on his side and by the early seventies, the dirt-track-to-Speedway avenue had largely closed, for most of them anyway, and for ever. And the WoO came just a whisker too late for him to really leave a mark on the sport in terms of records and championships...
But most of all, he made lots of friends along the way. He lost his first wife while on the road, but found his second the same way, and everybody in the racing community regarded him as his pal. Even after his professional driving career was over he stayed involved, first through his role as a WoO official, then by racing in "Legends" events of which he won a fair number, then by 'wrenching' for younger drivers. His contribution to Sprint car racing in general goes beyond the scope of any obituary.
R.I.P., 'Buckeye Traveler" - may there be enough speedways to roam in heaven... 
