For 22 years, Gordon Dukes recorded numerous championships, set track records and won races all over the eastern part of the United States and Canada, dominating both dirt and asphalt tracks.

Dukes, known as the ‘Findlay Flier’ and for his clean and skillful driving, built his first car which featured a flathead Ford engine, in 1951. Then he drove his initial super-modified racer in 1957, and two years later registered his first track record.

Billed as “the most consistent driver from the tri-state area”, he set track records at Flamboro Speedway in Canada, won the prestigious 200-mile International Classic at Oswego, N.Y. in 1965 and claimed the Sandusky International Classic three straight years and won the event four times in all.

Dukes, also known as a top designer and builder of racecars, became one of the first American drivers to win a super-modified feature at Delaware International Speedway in Ontario, Canada. He was runner-up at Oswego in 1966 and was the first to break the existing Classic qualifying record in 1974.

In 1979, Dukes was first driver inducted into the Sandusky Racing Hall of Fame.