When it came to racing, Harry Hein preferred to do it himself.

He didn't want to drive for other car owners. He didn't like to buy race cars from others, either.

Hein built his own cars, built his own engines and raced his own vehicles — right into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Already a member of the Pittsburgh Circle Track Hall of Fame, Hein will be honored at the Butler Hall's 43rd annual banquet Saturday night at the Butler Days Inn.

Hein, 79, won numerous races and competed on more than 50 tracks from 1950-69. He is credited with hundreds of victories, either as a driver or as the builder of cars and engines for others.

"I began racing when I was 21,"Hein said. "I enjoyed taking junk cars and turning them into race cars.

"I grew up working in a gas station and we overhauled a lot of engines. I was always mechanically inclined that way."

Hein's race career began at Butler Speedway in 1950, competing in the NASCARSportsmen Division through 1953. He often raced five nights a week.

During the 1952 season, he finished 17th nationally in points in the Sportsmen Division.

"That was despite missing a month after we wrecked,"Hein said. "I spent a week in the hospital, came out, put another car together and got back in action."

Injuries sidelined Hein on occasion during his career. He sat out the 1959 season as a driver, but still built winning cars for others.

He raced in the MARCseries, known as the ARCAseries today, in 1954.

His race career ended in 1969, after he was involved in a serious accident at Lernerville Speedway.

"A rookie driver bounced off the wall in front of me and we came together,"Hein recalled. "My car rolled over several times and my seat belt broke.

"My left arm was smashed, I had a ruptured spleen, some broken ribs — I was laid up for nine months. It was a long time to think about getting back into a race car."

Hein tried driving for other car owners, but couldn't do it.

"They always had different ideas I knew wouldn't work," he said. "I had to do things my own way. I worked awfully hard at the race game. I never had a lot of help."

Hein said he could never survive in racing today.

"Racing was always hard, always tough," he said. "There's no comparison now to back in my day. You need sponsorship, you need a race team, you need a good bit of money.

"Racing four or five nights a week — nobody can do that anymore."

Late in 1960, Hein built a 1937 Plymouth coupe race car and won six of the final seven feature events he competed in that year.

That late surge set him up to win the ARIchampionship, a series that tallied points from Butler Speedway, Hickory Speedway, Blanket Hill Speedway and Meadville Speedway, in 1961.

A popular driver in his day, Hein was named Driver of the Year and Sportsman of the Year at Tri-City Speedway in 1968.

"Being able to design engines and new ways to develop power always invigorated me,"Hein said. "Doing it myself made it more challenging than buying something off the shelf."

<I>This is the seventh in a series of articles profiling the 2008 inductees into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame.</I>