Billy Greco

Competitor
CLASS OF 1999

Billy Greco’s first race car was a Dodge 6-cylinder powered car, running in the non-Ford division at West Haven. He debuted in the #1147, but the number was shortened to 147 at the urging of track announcer Tom Galan, who said that the number took too long to repeat. The following year, the number was changed again, this time to K9, because, according to Greco, “The car was a dog.”

Greco began racing in 1951, and established himself in the sport early on, by taking track championships at West Haven Speedway (CT) in 1955, and again in 1956 and 1958. He won Saturday night championships at Riverside Park Speedway in 1965 and 1967, and also took down several Tuesday night track championships at the Park. His combined feature win total at The Park is 68 including five Riverside 500 team races.

Bill’s success was not limited to just driving for Harvey Tattersall’s United Stock Car Racing Club. He was a charter member for the All Star Racing league and had success on both dirt and asphalt. In the late sixties he tried his hand with NASCAR. Later in his career he was allowed to join NYSSCRA and he raced at the Danbury Racearena. In 1977, he reunited with Harvey Tattersall Jr, who by then owned & operated the Waterford Speedbowl and won 3 Modified races that season in Joe Zenga’s #06.

He was presented the Frank Maratta Award for outstanding contribution to auto racing in 2013. Bill Greco, whose real first name was actually Sylvester, passed away peacefully at the age of 93 on May 5, 2023.