Gene Sagmoen was a salesman with a gift for reading the thoughts of his customers and that made him good at his job.
He knew when to apply a bit of pressure and when to back off to make a sale.
In the words of former Prince George mayor Colin Kinsley, "Gene could sell a Fat Burger to a vegan."
But if you were race car driver and you weren't buying what Sagmoen was selling from his spot on the flagstand, you were in for a world of hurt. The legendary Prince George Auto Racing Association flagman knew it was his job to keep the race track running safely. He was known to hop the fence and lean out to toss a black flag hard and far enough to hit drivers as they passed by for not heeding his instructions to head into the pits.
Sagmoen died in Prince George on Feb. 1 at age 75. He leaves behind his daughter Tracey James, son-in-law Larry, granddaughters Taylor and Jenna, sisters Karen (Tom) Kilpatrick and Sandra (Neil) Walton, and numerous nieces, nephews, ex-wives and stepchildren.
"He was pretty colourful and opinionated and I would say 99 times out of 100 you got a fair shake out of Gene when he was the starter," said Kinsley, a longtime racer and former PGARA president, from his home in Phoenix, Ariz.
"When someone was jerking you around, he would black-flag them. He was a good flagman and he was there for years. Gene could flag well in any class of cars; he did the super-modifieds, the midgets, claimers, hobby stocks, open-class super-stocks. He knew his craft and he was all about racing forever."
For 30 years, Sagmoen was a fixture at both racetracks PGARA called home. In a June 2002 Citizen story to commemorate PGARA's 50th anniversary, Sagmoen talked about one memorable night at the old Ferry Avenue track (on the site now occupied by Superstore), where he volunteered his services as flagman. At that time, it was customary for the flagman to stand in the middle the track holding the green flag to start the race - drag-racing style - while cars whizzed by with their throttles wide-open. Sagmoen, who loved to tell stories, was never afraid to embellish.
"I was standing in the middle wearing white running shoes and I went up with the flags and came down and I had black rubber marks on the toes of my shoes where they had hit the tires," said Sagmoen.
"That was 1967, and my mother (Reita) never came to another race after that. We used to stand right on the track because it was exciting for the fans. At the old track the stands were a long way from the track and you had to do something to make it look good, and we did."
Sagmoen loved open-wheel modified racing and PGARA was well-entrenched with its racing community and the sponsorship local businesses provided to help the sport thrive. Crowds of 4,000 were not unusual on a race weekend, especially in the late-'60s and early '70s, when the city was hosting Canadian American Modified Racing Association (CAMRA) races - a testing ground for drivers trying to make the jump to the USAC/PPG IndyCar series. Sagmoen also helped form the Interior Open Wheel Association (IOWA), which had its heyday in the '80s and '90s at PGARA.
"We brought (CAMRA) up and we used to pay huge money (to the winners) - it was the best-paying track in western North America," Sagmoen told Citizen sportswriter Jason Peters. "You couldn't get a seat on a Saturday night. You had to buy your tickets on Wednesdays. It would only hold - well, they said 2,500, but we used to put 4,000 in there all the time."
Sagmoen served as president of PGARA from 1968-73 and in that time he watched some of the world's best drivers turn laps at Prince George, including Tom Sneva of Spokane, Wash., who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1973 and was second in that race three times. According to Sagmoen, Sneva called PGARA of the 1960s "the best-run race track he had ever seen."
Cliff Hucul raced three consecutive years in the Indianapolis 500, from 1977-79, and he brought Sagmoen along for the ride. Knowing how attentive Sagmoen was for details, Hucul gave him the job of running the sign board to relay instructions from the pit crew while Sagmoen was standing along the front straightaway. Hucul remembers Sagmoen was blown away by the sound of 100,000 spectators cheering the start of the race over the deafening sounds of the racing engines.
"Gene was full of life, that's for sure," said Hucul. "I spent a ton of time with him through those years in the early times of PGARA and it was the best of racing in those days and he was around it all the time.
"He was a good guy and PGARA meant so much to him. Everything was racing with him and I liked talking to him because he was always full-race all the time.
"He read the track quite well and he knew what was going on out there and there's not very many guys you can say that about when it comes to flagging. He was a performer. I've seen lots of flagmen and at different places and he was one of the better ones around. He was a character."
Steve Arronge knew Sagmoen was not a big fan of stock cars, which Arronge raced. In the days before track officials were linked by closed-circuit radios Sagmoen kept a tight rein on what went on around the track and wasn't afraid to speak his mind.
"He was a racetrack flagman that everybody hated," laughed Arronge, from his home in Mexico.
"He was fairly opinionated about how we should race for a guy who had never stepped into a race car. But he was fair, so everybody knew what they could and couldn't do, so you just do anything wrong. Everything was up to him, he had the ultimate say on what's going to go on at the racetrack.
"There were a few people who were rowdy drivers and he didn't like that much. He was opinionated about blocking and a few other things that are OK on other racetracks and you just had to know it. There were a few guys at the drivers' meetings who would rather punch him in the head than listen to him."
Sagmoen was born in Mission and came north in 1950 with his grandfather to help build Prince George Regional Hospital. He went to the Okanagan and Vancouver for several years after that but eventually settled in Prince George in the late '50s.
In his work, Sagmoen was a truck driver and sold cars, recreational vehicles and manufactured homes. He was never without work but changed jobs often. He always drove around town in a big car, usually a Lincoln.
Sagmoen's daughter Tracey James grew up at old PGARA with the other "track rats" and remembers the odd time when drivers hit the wall and popped right off the high-banked oval and tore through the fence toward the adjacent driving range. She has fond memories of driving back from Williams Lake as a kid, sitting behind the wheel of a super-modified race car perched on a flatbed truck driven by her dad, travelling at highway speed back to Prince George.
"He was more involved in the open-wheeled winged classes and he did go and travel around and was asked to flag at other tracks when he was with CAMRA in the U.S.," James said. "Some of his proudest moments were when he was able to go and flag some of those events. He went to Indy with Cliff and he was also quite a promoter and I think he helped Cliff get the Wendy's sponsorship at Indy.
"He was pretty tough on the flagstand and very theatrical. When he was really mad at somebody there would be heated words in the pits but his philosophy was once you had your say, it's over. He was fairly well-respected because he did see a lot."
A celebration of Sagmoen's life happens today from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Northwood Motor Inn, 2280 Hart Highway.
