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Marvin Rifchin, owner of the former M&H
Tire in Watertown, started in racing after WWII as the owner of
midgets. Later on he got involved in stock cars. His cars raced at
many area tracks, including Thompson and Waterford. He won
championships at Seekonk and Stafford. The last raced car he owned
was the #7 pinto bodied modified, driven by Ron Bouchard in the
years before Bouchard moved south to become the 1981 Winston Cup
Rookie of the Year.
But it was not as a car owner that
Marvin is remembered but as a builder of racing tires. It was very
difficult to get racing tires for local cars on the 40’s so Marvin
formed M&H Tires, and provided all types of racing tires, until
closing his doors in 1986.
Marvin recalls that, unlike today,
there were no track tires, and M&H or Firestone were the two main
choices for early racing tires. With the limited technology of the
time, everything was trial and error. He estimates that, between
midgets, stock cars, dragsters, and formula cars, he sold over
100,000 tires through the years.
Like so many others, Marvin sees
money as the biggest change in racing over the years, “In the early
days, everybody was so broke, I’d have to give ‘em a tire every now
and then to keep ‘em going. You know, I worked with a lot of fellows
in racing, and I never found a bad one. |
