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Deaf Racecar Driver Continues Family Racing Tradition

By Michael Walton

Ever since he was a little boy, Greg Gunderson remembers being involved in auto racing. Gunderson’s grandpa, Dewey Dirkson, started auto racing in 1954. Grandpa Dewey’s first car, a 1939 Chevy, always raised eyebrows because it was painted purple. Grandpa Dewey numbered his first car “39” in honor of the year his Chevy racer was built.

Grandpa Dewey went on to own several other racecars. Several drivers of Dewey’s cars, including Harold Petree, Roger Larson, and Bud Berger, are in the Racing Hall of Fame in South Dakota.

Like Greg, Gunderson’s father also caught the racing bug. Keith Gunderson was a drag racer from 1967 until 1974. As a young boy, Greg Gunderson was often at the racetrack. He watched his grandpa and his father as they worked on cars with their mechanics and practiced driving for big races.

Gunderson, who attended the South Dakota School for the Deaf and who later graduated from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., remembers telling his grandpa when he was just a little boy that he wanted to grow up to be a racecar driver. He started racing in off-road and snowmobile races when he was 6 years old.

At 17 years old, Gunderson won a contest and was awarded a racecar. He raced for two years with his new car. Then, in 1988, Gunderson borrowed parts from his friends and others and built his own car. At the end of the first year of racing with his hand-built car, his hard work and determination paid off and landed him a job with a car racing team.

Today, Gunderson has won over 40 races. “My most memorable racing moment,” he recalled, “was winning the feature race at the Sioux Empire Fair.”

But Gunderson also remembers a funny, embarrassing, and potentially dangerous moment. “I was in the pole position—the first racecar that the other cars follow. When the starting flag was dropped, I raced ahead to take the lead, but flipped my car upside down on the first lap.”

After his success on the track, Gunderson took some time off from racing to start a family with his wife, Christa. But the racing bug returned and now Gunderson is excited about a new challenge—he is a contestant on the television show, “Racin’ for a Livin’.” If he wins, he will drive a car in a NASCAR race.

Gunderson is excited about returning to the sport he loves. “My fantasy ever since I was little is to be the first deaf driver to win in the Knoxville Nationals, the Daytona 500, and the Indy 500,” he said.

Perhaps he is on his way!

- Information from the Greg Gunderson Racing website