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Updated 8/23/19


Joe and Ellen Ellis


Ellen the model


Ellen checking her bag


Ellen with Sammy


Ellen


Ellen wanders the Canyon pits


Ellen wandering the Canyon pits again


Ellen checks the chili


Ellen


Ellen posing on a hill at Ventura


Ellen doing what she is famous for


Ellen opening her birthday card


Ellen with a new hat


Ellen at Arizona Speedway


Ellen just hanging


Ellen ready to go watch some racing


Ellen taking a ride at the Museum


Ellen a little sleepy?


Joe at breakfast


Joe at Putnamville


Joe


Joe with a rental car on tour in Ohio


Joe at Wagsdash


Joe with his dogs


Joe in the chili cooking kitchen at Ventura


Joe at his 80th party


Joe's cake


Caramba!


Joe suffering at his birthday party


Joe at Ventura


Joe patient


Joe relaxing in his chair


Joe


Joe still relaxing


Joe in the Ventura kitchen


Joe and his buddy


Joe at Ventura

The following 24 pictures were provided by Ellen's siter Martha


Ellen dressed up for her ride with Lealand McSpadden


Ellen taking pictures at the Chili Bowl


Ellen shooting more


Ellen "the" back seat driver


Ellen and Wayne Weiler


Ellen at the Chili Bowl


Ellen with Tony Stewart


Ellen with Tony Stewart


Ellen with Nelson Stewart


Ellen with her sister Martha


Ellen and Keith Rausch


Ellen and JD Cormack


Ellen with Johnny Heidenreich


Ellen at PIR


Ellen with Dave Darland and Stevie Reeves


Ellen at the Chili Bowl


Ellen with Wags, George Rimmer, Mike Clark, JD Cormack, Leroy Bedingfield and Jim Thurman


Ellen with Ed and Juanita Raucsh and George Rimmer at the Chili Bowl


Ellen with Joe, JD Cormack and Jason Leffler's fiancee


Ellen in Ricky Johnson's midget with him smiling


Ellen in the back seat!


Ellen and Lealand ready to go


Ellen and Joe, Race Fans!


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen at Bakersfield


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen's with her famous Lighted Lealand sign


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen at Manzy reunion


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Martha, Ellen's sister


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen at AZ museum


Joe and Ellen getting chili


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen


Joe and Ellen with 45th Anniversary


Joe and Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen at Smart and Final shopping for the Wagsdash


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen in the Manzy grandstands


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen


Joe & Ellen and the famous lighted sign


Joe & Ellen


Joe and Ellen in their back yard


Joe and Ellen


Ellen in front of their garage


Ellen with Wags


Ellen and Sonia Duffy


Ellen with Sherri Spencer


Ellen and Sherri Spencer


Ellen the Manzy Queen interviewed by Mickey Meyer


Ellen and Mickey Meyer


Ellen with Mickey Meyer making her the Manzy Queen


Ellen and Mickey Meyer


Ellen with Steve Stroud


Ellen with Rip Williams


Ellen with her Sister Martha at the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, OK


Ellen with Danny Sheridan


Ellen with Alan Ballard


Ellen with Janet McSpadden


Ellen with Ricky Johnson


Ellen and Dave Darland


Ellen and Lealand


Ellen with Mrs Wags at Ventura


Ellen and Biker Bruce Fischer


Ellen and Seth Wilson


Ellen and Richard Watkins


Ellen with Damion Gardner


Ellen and my son Kevin


Ellen and Ron Chaffin


Ellen and Wags at Ventura


Ellen and Joy Paulson


Ellen and Joy Paulson


Ellen and Jim Fargo


Joe and Mrs Wags eating


Joe and Ol Milwaukee


Joe and Ellen at Wagsland


Joe and Ellen with Mrs Wags at Manzy


Joe and Ellen and Joy Paulson


Joe and Ellen and Wags


Joe and Ellen and Tracy Johnson


Joe and Ellen with Ron Didonato


Joe and Ellen with Joy Paulson


Joe and Ellen with Carey Davis


Joe and Ellen with Darleen


Joe and Ellen with Mrs Wags


Joe & Ellen with Steve and Korie Lafond


Joe & Ellen back in Susquehanna feed in 1992


Joe & Ellen with Mrs Wags at Bakersfield in 1994


Joe & Ellen with Leroy Sweeney and Evelyn Clark


Joe & Ellen with Mrs Wags


Joe & Ellen at the Arizona Museum


Joe & Ellen with Janet McSpadden


Joe & Ellen with Joy Paulson


Joe & Ellen with Tracy Johnson


Joe & Ellen at Manzy with Carey Davis


Joe & Ellen with Jim Herdrich


Joe & Ellen with Jim Herdrich


Joe & Ellen with Doris Clark and Carey Davis


Joe & Ellen with Joy Paulson


Joe & Ellen with Darleen Dils


Joe & Ellen at home with Lealand McSpadden


Joe & Ellen with Janet McSpadden


Joe & Ellen with Lealand, George Rimmer, Jeff McSpadden, Russ Creason and a guy from down under whose name escapes me


Joe & Ellen with Mrs Wags and Steve Stroud


Joe & Ellen with Lealand


Joe and Ellen with Lealand


Janet and Ellen Ellis


Janet with fran and ellen with Brodie Roa behind


Janet with Brody, Ellen and Joe


Joe and Ellen Ellis with Fran and Jim Herdrich


Ellen taking pics


Ellen with Mrs Wags and Leroy Bedingfield


Ellen at the Wagsdash


Ellen with Gale Davis


Ellen at the Wagsdash with Sherri Spencer and Fran Herdrich


Ellen in the Arizona Museum with Mark Thrasher


Ellen with Jeff McSpadden


Joe with Doris Clark and Fran and Jim


Joe with Fran and Jim


Joe's trying to switch the number 80 backwards


Joe with Wilda Kindoll and Walt James


Joe with Galen Fitzgerald and his wife


Joe with Wagtimer Krista


Joe with Don and Dode Templeton


Ellen with Lealand and The Ripper


Front porch duck


Ellen's ride in a two seater


Joe's cake

The Golden Driller awarded to Ellen by Emmett Hahn


Ellen with her Golden Driller


The Golden Driller inscription to Ellen


The Golden Driller


The letter from Emmett Hahn

The first time I saw Ellen Ellis was at the races, and two things stood out immediately before I even met her. First, she always had a bag on her shoulder decorated with racing patches that had a strap that went across her chest, and second, she always wore racing shirts of her favorite drivers that she modified into a lady’s V-neck. In addition, she wore many items that were decorated with black and white checkers like earrings, rings, pins, hats, shoes and even watches. She also had a 3-foot long by about a foot-deep white sign that had LEALAND written in black with lights around the edges. Every time her favorite driver, Lealand McSpadden, hit the track, the sign came out and she lit it up for all to see! You could always tell where she sat in the grandstands because that sign was so unique when she held it up and cheered him on. I’m sure he could always see it when he was on the track! The bag that she always carried was packed with a lot of pictures that she took at every race that had not been “delivered” yet to the subject(s) in each picture. Every race she spent a lot of time in the pits before and after the races visiting and taking pictures of every driver she ran across, fans and car owners, too. Sometimes, it would be months and even years before she found her subject again and was able to give them their own copy, personally. Often, she made an extra 8 x 10 copy, especially if she was in the picture with, to get it autographed for herself.

In her home in Tempe, Arizona are several walls in the “picture room” covered with the pictures she has taken over the years. They are all individually enclosed in a plastic cover and then tacked onto the wall and stacked many layers deep on top of each other! If you had a mind to see all of them, it would take hours to keep lifting the pictures to see them, but it would be worth it! I don’t have a clue as to how many pictures are in her “picture room” but it’s hundreds for sure. Her files are overflowing with all the negatives, before digital cameras happened, and everything organized so she can find them. >{? There are many famous people like AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones and many more NASCAR and Indy drivers up there on that wall of pictures. Many CRA and USAC champions and drivers like Bubby Jones, Eddie Wirth, Brad Noffsinger, Dave Darland, Lealand McSpadden, and so many more are there as well, and she knows them all! Ellen was doing this routine when I met her at Devil’s Bowl Speedway back in the early 80’s and she hadn’t just started either, she had been doing it a while.

Her and Joe have been to a lot of races around the country and gone on many CRA tours to see Lealand and the other stars race. They went to California frequently to see CRA racing at Ascot, Ventura, Santa Maria and many more tracks. That’s how we got to know them along the way. We became friends and began sitting near them at the top of Manzanita’s grandstands in the reserved seats when we went there. It was great that my press status got me in to the pits and grandstands at most of the USAC and CRA races, but I still bought those reserved seats to sit near them on race nights at Manzanita. They also became part of our Wagtimes group and Ellen got involved in the many things we did. She came up with the idea of the driver calendar! Thanks to her idea, she had them made and then also sold them, with the proceeds always going into the annual Wagsdash. She would sell 50/50 tickets or help organize our Wagtimes booths or whatever needed doing, Ellen was always there helping the Wagtimers along the way.

One thing you could be sure of when she was at the races, as hard as she worked for the group, she was always seated in the grandstands when the sprint cars hit the track, she never missed any racing! She and Joe went to every Wags feed along the road, as well, and came for the annual “Wagsland” party we held once a year in Mission Viejo, CA. Ellen was all in on everything she did.

If we raced on Friday and Saturday night at Manzanita, after the Friday night race, and also after PIR day races, she would be up half the night organizing and writing the dates on every picture she had taken to be able to pass them out to the drivers the next day in the pits. Many nights we would hang until we got too tired and then hit the sack as she worked away into the late night. That was her mission every race, to take pictures, get them developed and put in envelopes to give to the drivers, car owners and fellow fans. Over the years, she recorded thousands of wonderful memories for “her guys.” Ellen is a dedicated “ambassador” to the sport of racing and the love she has poured into racing has been returned to her 10-fold because she is loved by all!

Ellen is unique with her love for sprint car racing and watching her interact at the races with her drivers, her friends and other fans is always fun. Seeing her enthusiasm spilling over on all those around her is heartwarming, as they respond in awe at her joy being with them. She will visit in the pits until the lights go out and then hurry home to work on her pictures, time and time again. It has been her life’s work and she is respected for all she has done over the years for so many racers. Everyone who gets a picture from her keeps it, and often will discuss some of them when they are together the next time. And never, I said never, did she ever sell one of her photos, they were always her gift to them!

Another wonderful quality Ellen possesses, is she faithfully sends cards on Christmas, birthdays and other events to all her many friends. Trust me, she receives as many, if not more, in return than she sends out.

Joe and Ellen are loved by all who know them, but they don’t get to travel as much as they once did due to Ellen having Stage 4 lung cancer. An example of that love happened in April at the 4th annual Lealand McSpadden Classic at Arizona Speedway. Ellen was just out of a week-long stay at her local hospital on Thursday before the race, yet was at the track on Saturday visiting with Lealand and many of his followers who gathered around that day. Laurie Sertich, Rip Williams and several others came from the pits to see her and somehow in their conversation she mentioned she had lost her much-loved sprint car ring in the grandstands at Manzanita 10 years ago. Rip quietly asked Laurie, who has made a lot of sprint car jewelry over the years under her business Lad Arts, to make her a new one for Ellen and he would pay for it. He did that because, as he told me later, he really appreciated the many pictures she had given him over the years. He has saved them all and recently spent some time looking through them and enjoying the memories she had captured over his many years of racing. Like many, he loves Ellen and all she has done for him and the other racers. Ellen was beyond touched and appreciative when she received the ring!

Joe and Ellen have been married for nearly 50 years and though they have no children, they always have furry kids (particularly Dachshunds), who are treated better than most kids! Let’s just say their dogs hit the jackpot when they were adopted by Joe and Ellen! Today, they have a lovely little boy named Sammy and he’s spoiled, as all their others have been!

They live in Tempe in a home that is richly decorated in all things racing, including stacks of still boxed die cast cars, racing pillows and more racing pictures than you can imagine! The “Ellis Hacienda” is full of rich stories and memories collected over the years and they can tell you about all of them. We always stay at their place when we go racing nearby and “our” room has a red and white polka dot sign that reads” The Wags Arizona Nest” hung on the door. She has similar signs she puts up for other friends/guests to make us all feel welcome when visiting. We have always felt at home in their home and appreciate their wonderful hospitality each visit! Racing brought us together, but they also became our friends for life, and for that, we are so grateful.

Though Joe is 87 and Ellen 77, they are young in heart, mind and spirit. Unfortunately, they have some heavy health battles they are fighting (like many of us cotton tops). Getting old isn’t easy as many of us know…it just sort of creeps up on you. Some people get in their rockers and are content sitting there as the world goes on by. Others keep on living and enjoying life as much as is possible each day! During our recent visit, despite dealing with the cancer, Ellen never complained. Her mind was on visiting and going to see The Lealand McSpadden Classic!

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