My mother and I were talking this morning about the old Soldier Field races, particularly how the 1957 Convertible race there how a strange field with such names as Allen Swenson, George Lay, Mr. Clutteham, Clyde Swick, and K. Winkler, amongst others, making their only NASCAR appearances. I tried to search for info about this on Google, supposing that maybe the drivers were part of Andy Granatelli's gang of clowns who raced in that era. I found nothing on this.

I next turned my attentions to the finishing order, noting that Glenn Wood, Possum Jones, and Tom Pistone were confirmed living drivers from this race. As for the others, who knows if they were even real, particularly Mr. Clutteham who has a made up last name! The other known names, like Larry Frank and Bob Welborn, are deceased.

Seeing this, I commented to my mother that I would have to one day have the opportunity to speak to Glenn, Possum, or the Tiger about this whilst they're still living. I wondered silently to myself about Possum. Since even Florida transplants, like Dave Dion, Jack Anderson, Joe Mihalic, and Curtis Crider (RIP), made themselves a fixture at Living Legends of Auto Racing events, why hasn't Possum. I set out to discover Possum's whereabouts.

Possum Jones passed away over 17 years ago in Okeechobee, Florida. I was dismayed to discover this, but this is not the first time this has happened to me. Several months ago, I found out that Bob Derrington (6th in points in 1965, his only full season!) had actually died in 2011 without mention. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed to discover this. I set about to correct the mistakes propagated by the internet with a heavy heart.

Watched Bob Derrington score a 5th place finish at Richmond in March 1965, one position behind Crawfish Crider, though Bob was 13 laps behind winner, Junior Johnson. Bob started over 50 races in 1965. Guys like him made the show.

As late as June 24, 1967, Clyde Swick was fielding a car at Macon (Illinois) Speedway, according to what I can glean from some abbreviated copy in that day's edition of the Decatur (IL) Herald on page 13. Not planning to pay for opening the paper, but maybe this will give you a lead:

Here are obits for Clyde Swick suggesting memorial donations to Victory Junction Gang Camp:

Allen Swenson was another "real" driver. My first search uncovered a 1999 obituary story in the Chicago Tribune.

I'm going to jump in the deep end and make some wild guesses about "Mr. Clutteham" from the Soldier Field race.

Clutte R ham was a common name around the Chicago area.

A Bob Clutterham is shown not making the field for a 1958 combined USAC/ARCA stock car race at Milwaukee won by Fred Lorenzen with Tiger Tom Pistone 2nd.

My guess is that Bob Clutterham at the 1958 Milwaukee race is also Mr. Clutteham at the 1957 Soldier Field race.

Further, there was at the time, a professor at the University of Illinois - Champaign named David Robert "Bob" Clutterham who authored a book titled "Interaction of Curved Shocks" during the same time frame as those Chicago and Milwaukee stock car races.

I wonder if the book author is also our Mr. Clutteham from Soldier Field and Bob Clutterham from Milwaukee?

If these fellows are one and the same, it appears that David Robert "Bob" Clutterham wound up down in your neck of the woods where he passed in 2009.

This is a lot of supposition, but who knows?

I'm not finding any mention of racing in Mr. Clutterham's bios/obits, but I'm still guessing that the Mr. Clutteham from Soldier Field was a Chicago area Clutterham.

The irony. Florida Tech is the school I just graduated from this past May! I even was a math major (double in addition to meteorology) for 2 years before dropping it.

David Clutterham's book is actually his Ph.D. thesis, and that's actually a paper on shock waves, not automotive shocks. According to the obituary you posted, he lived in Texas at the time of the '57 Soldier Field race and in my town during the '58 Milwaukee race.

I was thinking maybe the Mr. Robert E. Clutterham mentioned here: https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&englishSubcountryName=Illinois&query=%2Bgivenname%3Abob~%20%2Bsurname%3Aclutterham~%20%2Brecord_country%3A%22United%20States%22%20%2Brecord_subcountry%3A%22United%20States%2CIllinois%22

Could be our man: