Collins was born in Sibley, Iowa in 1904 before moving to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1907.[3] Collins started working as a mechanic when he was 9 years old.[3] Collins played ice hockey. He played on the Regina Pats[4] and on the Canadian National Team in the Olympics.[3]
Collins started racing when he was 17 years old in 1921.[3] Collins' first win came in a Model TatSemans, Saskatchewan.[5] He took a Chevrolet "big" car to victory lane at Winnepeg on the following year.[5] J. Alex Sloan, promoter of IMCA, took Collins to the United States to play on a Chicago professional hockey team and determined that Collins should drive race cars instead.[3]
Collins and Gus Schrader frequently raced against each other in the 1930s and were the class of the field.[3] Schrader won the 1933 to 1937 IMCA national championships. Collins won the 1938 IMCA national sprint car championship at the final race.[3] Schrader won the 1939 and 1940 championships and won the 1941 championship before his death.[3] All racing activities halted in the United States from 1942 until 1945 because of World War II.[3]
Collins returned to racing after the war and won the 1946, 1947, and 1948 IMCA Sprint car championships.[3] He had several wins in 1950 including Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Lethbridge, Alberta.[5] Collins stopped racing in 1951 and he retired from racing at Le Mars.[3]
He was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame (United States) in 1991.[1] Collins was inducted in the Kossuth County Racing Hall of Fame in 2011.[5] Collins was a member of the inaugural 2018 class at the Iowa Hall of Fame and Racing Museum.[6]
