One of the most accomplished drivers in Dirt-Track Modified Stock Car Racing history, Will Cagle (March 24, 1938-February 5, 2025) was known for his unique ways of getting the mechanical and mental edge on his competition, and for also being a respected racing official.

Cagle began racing in his native Tampa, Florida, in 1953 at the age of 15 and came to the Northeast in 1959 with a Sprint Car because he heard tales of more racing and increased purses.  But once in the region, he caught on with Lucky Jordan and raced in with great success in the famed car owner’s No. 2 (1959-1960) and claiming the 1960 Sportsman Championship at Alcyon Speedway in Pitman, New Jersey.

Plus, he drove Lucky Jordan’s famed No. 2 Modifieds and the No. 12 1955 Chevrolet that Jordan built for Daytona International Speedway in his Riverton, New Jersey, race shop.

Success in the Northeast added to Cagle’s racing résumé, but it did not take away from his “winter accomplishments” when he returned to Florida and won the 1962 Golden Gate Speedway (Tampa) Super Modified and 1962 Georgia State Super Modified Championships.

 Still, Northeast Dirt-Track Modified Stock Car Racing was still something he was getting used to in those early days.  And he often told the story of how the first 1936 Chevrolet Coupe Modified that he built was some 350 pounds heavier than the cars that he would be racing against.  But once he learned the “ins and outs” of Northeast Racing, Cagle and his signature No. 24 Modifieds – Coupes and Sedans – were usually running at the head of the pack.

In 1965, the “Tampa Terror” started racing on the “hard clay” at Orange Country Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York, and between 1966 and 1970 he won five straight OCFS Modified titles and 46 features, including four Eastern States 200s (1966, 1968, 1970 & 1971).

One of the major highlights of his career, though, took place in 1966 when he put an asphalt setup under his Dirt-Track Modified and won the Race of Champions on the old one-mile Langhorne (PA) Speedway.  He then won the Dirt-Track Modified titles at the old Nazareth (PA) Raceway in 1967 and at the old East Windsor (NJ) Speedway in 1969. 

But Cagle was not just a “dirt racer,” as he also had success in the early 1960s on the New Jersey asphalt layouts in Atco, Fort Dix, Hightstown and Vineland.

In addition to Modified Stock Car Racing, Cagle competed in two USAC Championship Races in Gene White’s No. 12 Chevy-powered entry and he was ninth in the 1970 Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.  And he was eighth in the 1978 USAC Silver Crown Dirt Car Salt City 100 at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse in the No. 55 Pizza Hut entry; a car that was powered by a high-revving, fuel-injected/DOHC 255-cubic-inch Ford V-8 Racing Engine.

 

Cagle also raced in three (1960, 1964 & 1965) NASCAR Modified-Sportsman events on Daytona’s 2.5-mile high-banked oval and was ninth in 1965 in his No. 35 1960 Pontiac. 

And he was sixth in the No. 66 AMC Gremlin in the 1975 NASCAR Permatex 200 Modified race on Daytona’s 3.85-mile infield road course.      

Beginning in the early 1970s, Cagle was a regular on New York’s DIRT Modified circuit and won: 53 races and six track titles at Canandaigua; 70 races and five championships at Rolling Wheels in Elbridge; and, 84 races and three track titles at Cayuga County Fair Speedway in Weedsport.  In all, Cagle won 26 track championships, three Mr. DIRT titles (1976, 1978 & 1979) and four consecutive (1974-1977) Super DIRT Series titles. 

“Wiley Will” was also one of the first drivers to use psychology to his advantage as he would often direct attention away from something new on his No. 24s by covering another portion of the car with a rag or tarpaulin to give the other racers something else to think about.

And, in one of his more unusual adventures, Cagle gave legendary actor and talented race-driver Paul Newman a private “test session” on June 3, 1976, in his No. 24 Chevy-powered Pinto at the then-named Weedsport (NY) Speedway.    

Cagle retired from racing in 1985 with 498 victories after suffering a severe leg injury when a driveshaft broke during a Modified race at Cayuga County.  He then became the General Manager at Orange County from 1986 through 1997, and also promoted New York’s Can-Am and Thunder Alley Speedways and Florida’s old East Bay Raceway in Tampa and old USA International Speedway in Lakeland. 

Then, after some years on the sidelines, Cagle returned to racing in 2007-20010 – with the same intensity but on a more fun-style basis – in a scaled-down Masters Class Legends version of his No. 24, with his time in those cars including races on Charlotte (NC) Motor Speedway’s infield quarter-mile track.  

And at age 77 in 2016 the popular and versatile competitor even did some T-Q Midget Racing at the Indoor Races in the PPL Center in Allentown, PA.