Al Weiland, area dirt-track racing icon, is celebrating his 100th birthday today. He will be honored at a public reception from 1 to 4 p.m. at the American Legion, 712 W. Patterson Ave.
Weiland wondered this week if anyone would come to “the shindig,” allowing that “I’m just an old shade-tree mechanic.”
He tends to self-deprecation, but anyone who knows Weiland knows there was a span of about 45 years when he was one of the best mechanics around, and had a knack of building race cars that consistently crossed the finish line first.