Ron Berndt

Car Owner
CLASS OF 2013

Ron Berndt’s cars, known as the North End Auto Parts #54 cars (named after his family business) won races throughout southern New England over 6 different decades.

He started out fielding cars at Plainville Stadium with drivers such as Sparky Belmont, Jap Membrino and Ronnie Rocco. His first track championship came at Plainville with Belmont in 1964.

When Plainville closed after the 1981 season, he brought his cars to Riverside Park Speedway (MA) and other Connecticut tracks, finally landing regularly at the Waterford Speedbowl from 1987 through 1993 fielding an SK Modified driven by rising star Ted Christopher. Nobody won more SK Modified races at the shoreline oval than TC in Berndt’s #54 during those 7 seasons. They won the SK Modified Championship at Waterford in 1992, but the duo split up after the first race of the 1994 season.

Berndt had multi-time Late Model champion Phil Rondeau take over for the rest of the ’94 season, scoring 2 wins. And the following season, Ron’s 16 year old grandson Eric took over controls of the North End Auto Parts #54 and they raced all 3 Connecticut oval tracks. At Waterford, they won 15 races from 1995-2002 including back-to-back Budweiser Modified Nationals SK 150’s. The 2002 win netted over $8,000 with lap money on top of the $5,000 winner’s purse. At Stafford, Eric first visited victory lane in 2000. At Thompson, they scored 8 career wins and the 2001 track championship.

Shying from the spotlight, Ron Berndt’s cars were usually numbered 54 or 64. Other drivers who piloted his cars include Stan Greger, Danny Galullo, Ron Wyckoff, Dave Alkas and his sons Timmy and Tommy.