RAPID CITY -- A "shoe" is an auto racing slang term for driver, referring to the heavy right foot that stays planted on the accelerator pedal of a race car.

Leo Ray was a good shoe.

Ray, of Rapid City, died on Oct. 23, 2007, at the age of 82, and a ton of auto racing history went with him.

He was a two-time point champion and track record holder at Black Hills Speedway and also raced many times at the South Dakota State Fair in Huron.

He was also known for a single outing in July of 1953, when he raced against the national pioneers of the sport in his own backyard.

"He was a tough competitor, but a real nice guy to be around," said former driver and Black Hills Speedway flagman Butch Murner of Rapid City.

Ray was born in Illinois but raised in Midland. He earned a purple heart and bronze service arrowhead for his service with the U.S. Army in the Phillippines during World War II.

He returned to Rapid City and became involved in racing after his discharge from the service.

Ray and Chuck Root (a cousin of Ray's wife Darlene) went racing at the old Pennington County Fairgrounds, at South 79 Speedway south of Rapid City, and at Rapid Valley Race Track (now Black Hills Speedway), east of Rapid City.

"They got a couple cars together, and when the track opened, they went racing," recalled David Ray of Gillette, one of three children born to Leo and Darlene. A son, Denis, and daughter, Cheryl Cox, live in Rapid City.

Root's driving career lasted only a couple of seasons, David Ray recalled, but Leo became known for his trademark No. 0, or "Aught" cars.

His two BHS championships came in later years. The first came in 1969, driving a No. 12 Modified for Jim Lowell and Alvin Morehouse of Rapid City.

"Jim was having some medical problems and decided he needed to get out of the car. He was thinking about who he wanted to drive and said he wanted Leo Ray. I was also thinking about it and said the same thing, so that discussion didn't last long," recalled Morehouse, of Rapid City.

"The first night he was in the car, he come third in the first race, second in the next race and he won the main event," Morehouse said.

"It didn't take him long to learn."

"The thing about him was he was real good, but he was cautious," said Ralph Rogers of Rapid City, a mechanic and pitman for Lowell and Ray. "He didn't take any crazy chances."

Ray's final championship came in 1971, when he teamed with Murner and Les Stadel in Chevrolet late model stock cars owned by Ken Friez of Rapid City.

Problems with cataracts forced him to hang up his helmet for good after the 1972 season.

"He got to where he couldn't see very good at night with the lights," David Ray said. "He kind of went out at the top of his game."

In 2006, Ray was honored by NASCAR.com as the "Best in South Dakota" for his eighth-place finish in a 200-lap NASCAR Grand National Circuit race at Rapid Valley Race Track.

The race, on July 22, 1953, was the only appearance in the state by what would later become the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

"I was working for a body shop, and they were looking for local guys to race," Leo Ray told NASCAR.com writer Mark Aumann. "Another guy and I pulled out an old Nash and entered it."

Rogers said the car was fitted with an old bedstead for a rollover bar.

Ray won $100 for finishing eighth, not far behind a virtual who's who of the early days of NASCAR, Herb Thomas, Dick Rathman, Fonty Flock, Lee Petty and Buck Baker.

David Ray said his Dad didn't speak much about his World War II service or his racing career.

"I learned a lot of things about him at his funeral," Murner said. "I didn't know he had a Purple Heart.

"He was pretty quiet about that stuff," Ray said. "A lot of the family didn't even know that."

Leo Ray worked for many years as a truck driver and mechanic for Moyle Petroleum and the South Dakota Cement Plant.

His involvement in racing ended with his retirement from driving. "He'd watch NASCAR races on TV, but I could never get him to go out to the races here," Ray said. "He said he couldn't just sit there and watch."

David and his father, Murner, and others enjoyed snowmobiling together. "Just a couple of weeks before he died, we had talked about getting the snowmobiles out and ready to go," David Ray said.

Murner said Ray's ability was still evident on a snowmobile

"Even last year, as old as he was, if you went 150 miles, he'd be right there with you," Murner said. "He was still real competitive."