Did You Ever Score a Race? I'll Never Do It Again

Scoring races has really come a long ways with the electronic transponders, etc. When I came along the local tracks had just one or two folks scoring and the Grand National circuit had Morris Metcalfe, the Western Electric employee in Winston-Salem as chief of scoring and timing, having replacedJoe Epton. Morris was very single minded and until his retirement following the Daytona 500 in 2002 he resisted electronic timing, sticking to the system of two scorers for every car noting by hand on a scorecard the exact time on the scoring clock at the start/finish line or other designated line each time their driver passed. At my local weekly Southside Speedway track in Richmond, we were fortunate to have Tim & Marian Hudson as our scorers - they later became the scorers for the traveling Busch Series for NASCAR when the Late Model Sportsman division was eliminated. They are about the best in the business. Every year in the 60s, Southside held the VIRGINIA 400 , a late summer 400 lap race for NASCAR Modifieds, one of the most prestigious in the country, drawing every top modified car and having many go home not making the field. Morris Metcalfe was always brought in by Tim Hudson for this race and it was scored just like all the Grand National races - two scorers for every car who had to keep up with their car and their car only for 400 laps on a 1/3-mile track. As fate would have it, sometime around 1965 or so, Metcalfe needed additional scorers - every driver was supposed to furnish their own, but that rarely happened at a local venue for out of town drivers. The late Eddie Anderson announced over the P.A. that several volunteer scorers were neededwho would have their admission price refunded. My buddy Frank and I thought that was a deal and hurried to the scoring section at the top of the start/finish line under the press box where Metcalfe deemed we two teenaged boys acceptable. That was also the first time I met Tim & Marian Hudson who have given many years of service to NASCAR racing.We received very detailed instructions from Metcalfe and had to hold up our scorecards for an audit every 10 laps - 40 times in that 400 lap race. I don't remember which drivers Frank and I scored. I remember a huge fire in turns 3-4 involving a lot of cars including cousins Jimmy and Billy Hensley. Donnie Allison may have won that night, but I wouldn't stake my reputation on it. Both he and Bobby won Virginia 400 Modified races at Southside. I never dreamed how demanding it was to focus on just one car and one car only. I never saw anything that happened anywhere on the track for 400 laps (or for however long my car lasted). There is not enough money for me to ever watch a single car for 400 laps again anywhere, but especially on the 1/3-mile Southside layout. That was my first and last time to score but I have never forgotten it. In 1981 when my Wrangler program began sponsoring the September Richmond Winston Cup race, the first thing I did at the fairgrounds track was build a professional heated and air conditioned scoring building with air scrubbers to kill all cigarette smoke. Lynda Petty and the rest of those ladies treated us like kings for doing that. Most of the "regular" Cup drivers had a dedicated scorer they trusted implicitly to stand up for them against Morris Metcalfe if there was controversy or dispute. For Dale Earnhardt it was Dolly Madera. In many victory lane photos of Dale, you'll see Dolly clutching the scoring clipboard. Dolly and her husband Cal traveled to all the races in their motor home and Cal acted as a tire specialist in the pits for whateverteam Dale was driving for. A lot of the traveling scorers were very close. Dale used to throw a big private party for his friends every year in Kannapolis on Thursday night of Charlotte's World 600 week at the Sgt. Peppers Night Club. Dale always invited the scorers and a lot of them showed up. I always thought that was one of the really nice personal things Dale Earnhardt would do. Many racing folks didn't give the scorers the time of day, but Dale always included them at a party most folks would have killed to get an invitation for. I don't believe any folks in NASCAR racing have ever deserved more credit and gotten less than the scorers. I would never do it again. Have any of you ever scored? It's a thankless job.

The Late Morris Metcalfe Directing His Scorers

My wife scored for Jody Ridley for a cup race at Bristol one time. Jody was short a score keeper so they asked my wife if she would score for him. I was working on Terry Labonte's crew and my wife and I were close friends with Terry. Terry had a lap on the field when coming out of the 4th turn Harry Gant was trying to get back on the lead lap. Terry and Harry got together and Terry crashed right in front of the scorer's stand. My wife forgot all about Jody and missed several laps. Thank goodness the other scorer got those missed laps for Jody.

In the mid 90s Gary Dehart asked my wife if she would like to be the team scorer for the 5 car for the season. It took her about two seconds to decline the offer.

I did that for Late Models at Columbia Speedway a couple times and found out that is NOT the job for me. A couple years later, when they were running Motocross Motorcycle races there I did it once and I promised NEVER to get into scoring again. I cannot imagine scoring a cup race.

I could not imagine scoring a cup race either. After scoring Jody, Patsy decided it was not for her either. Watching one car and a clock for 500 laps at Bristol with all the noise and action going on had to be tough.

I scored several Late Model Sportsman and a couple of GNE races for Dad. Having to concentrate on one car was not much of a change for me because that is what I always did, scoring or not. As stated, every 10 laps you had to hold up the scorecard so Morris Metalfe could see the number written on the back. Had to hold it up until you knew it was recognized. I had to wave mine at them several times to ensure it was seen, you would start getting anxious when your car was coming back around and you had not been acknowledged. Maybe it was just me but it seemed that the scorers with the numbers of the super stars got recognized a lot quicker. I also remember that the tracks that had scorers stands separate from the grandstand made the job easier.

Something I forgot to mention about Morris Metcalfe, the Morristown, Tennessee native. When he passed in 2007 NASCAR credited him with forming the first NASCAR driver fan club - for Lee Petty in 1955.

http://cgi.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/08/31/mmetcalfe.scorer.passes/index.html

I always figured scoring was one of the toughest jobs in racing before the advent of electronic timing and reading all these stories confirms that.

Interesting stories. Absolutely true that the scorer gets no credit. I've been a fan of the sport for all but 7 years of my life, and I don't think the scorers have ever been mentioned in any offical capacity other than when there is a controversy over the scoring.

After reading this, if I ever should get that offer, I'm not sure I'd be willing to take it!

At the old Richmond fairgrounds track, the scorers for the GN/Cup races sat in folding chairs almost next to the front straight on a concrete pad near the starters stand. One Sunday afternoon (I was not there), Bobby Allison somehow cleared the rail and fench (or tore it down) and just about landed on his wife, Judy. After that the scorers were moved to an old flat bed trailer in the infield until I built a real scorer's stand in the infield in 1981. The new Richmond track hasgorgeous V.I.P. suite style scorer's quarters high above the main stretch V.I.P. suites, next to NASCAR control. I wouldn't be surprised if Ray Lamm doesn't have a photo of where Bobby's car almost landed on top of Judy.

Morris Metcalfe was one of the finest gentlemen I ever met. This reminds me of a race down in Atlanta at the Lakewood Speedway I think. We wrecked on the first lap and the entire track was blocked and traffice rerouted around it. My wife was scoring me and it was her first time scoring. Seems like every other scorer kept scoring the cars there with me and put me three laps down to the same guys (one was non other than Richard Childress). The simply scored their car as if it were still making the laps. LOL

That is so true Dennis. But I can say to his credit, Morris Metcalfe was as good as anyone could have been in that position. My wife hated keeping scorecards. I had a volunteer down at Jacksonville, Fla. She did a heck of as job. We finished second to Tiny Lund that night. I loved those dirt track races.

Joe, Welcome to Racers Reunion. I have fond memories of watching you at Chantilly & Wilson.

Robbie, you mentioned another of our good Richmond bred drivers in your post - Curtis Markham . A lot of folks never knew that Curtis, who now spots for Denny Hamlin, had vision in only one eye

Here'sa little 2011 NASCAR.com piece on Curtis:

Around Richmond, Markham more than a spotter
By David Caraviello, NASCAR.COM
April 30, 2011 8:54 AM, EDT

RICHMOND, Va. -- Curtis Markham hasn't raced regularly in years, but when he shows up to compete at a short track in central Virginia, people still take notice. That much was evident after Markham's qualifying lap for Denny Hamlin's late model charity event at Richmond International Raceway, when a fan approached him with a stack of autograph cards bearing images of the driver alongside some of his old cars.

There he was with the No. 7 Skoal Bandit Pontiac, which Markham drove for owner Quint Boisvert. There he was with the No. 63 Lysol car, which he wheeled for owner Hubert Hensley. They were vehicles Markham competed in on the then-Busch Series in the early- to mid-1990s, NASCAR entries long ago obscured by time. But here in central Virginia, where Markham was a local hero who used his short-track success as a springboard into the sport's national levels, they still remember.

I'm real happy with the way things went for me. I only have one eye , so a lot of people were scared to give me a chance. I understand that. Having the success I've had in racing, I'm just tickled."

"I've had a lot of people say they remember me from back when I raced," said Markham, who shook more than his share of hands on pit road prior to Thursday's event benefiting Hamlin's foundation. "We're having a good time."

Hamlin's late model charity event was studded with star drivers, from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Joey Logano to Bill Elliott, Michael Waltrip, Travis Pastrana and Tony Stewart. But in this part of the world, few current or former drivers have accomplished more than Markham, who these days is best known as Hamlin's spotter on the Sprint Cup tour. But before that he was a dominant driver on Virginia short tracks, winning four track championships and countless late model features at facilities like Southside, South Boston and Old Dominion.

Now 51, Markham doesn't race regularly anymore. His appearance in Hamlin's annual charity event, which moved from Southside to the big speedway this season, is his one stint behind the wheel each year. But he still gets recognized, even if he was wearing the firesuit of Hamlin's Sprint Cup mechanic Rick Bray, the last name on the back blotted out by a strip of black tape.

"I'm enjoying myself," said Markham, who was born in Richmond and now calls Fredericksburg, Va., his home. "I haven't been on this race track since 1999. It was a Busch race, a Nationwide race now. It just feels different. I've gotten used to watching it from the spotter's stand, but it's a whole different perspective you have actually driving. Now, to come out here and drive again -- I've got new things to holler at Denny about."

Markham's second career as a spotter began shortly after Gibbs started his Nationwide program, when the former short-track ace was brought on board as a driving coach. His prized student was unearthed on a cold day at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway in late 2003, when Markham was Gibbs' point man at a test of some equipment the organization had purchased for the diversity program it ran with late NFL great Reggie White. The cars came from the stable of renowned Virginia late model owner Jim Dean, who sent along one of his drivers to shake them down.

Markham had heard about Hamlin, a late model star in the Old Dominion State who would win 25 times in one year, but until that point he had never seen him turn a lap in person. Hamlin, who had won at the same facility earlier in the year, turned times that rivaled the track record. Suddenly, the Gibbs team had found something else besides equipment for a diversity program. "I saw him drive that car and I called [team president] J.D. Gibbs and was like, 'We ought to look at this guy. He's got a lot of talent,'" Markham remembered. "And the rest was history."

Later that night Hamlin and J.D. Gibbs met for dinner, within a month Hamlin was signed, and the next summer he was racing a truck backed by the Gibbs organization - the first, small steps in a career that came within a few points of netting a championship last year on NASCAR's premier series. It was all fostered by vision on the part of a spotter and former driver whose vision, ironically, was once in question. Markham lost use of one eye as a child because of an episode unrelated to racing, a fact that did not prevent him from becoming a king of Virginia short tracks in the 1980s.

But to some owners in NASCAR's national levels, it might have been an issue, perhaps explaining why Markham never made the big breakthrough so many expected he would. Markham made 89 career starts on what's now the Nationwide tour, including the full seasons in that Lysol car in 1995 and' 96. But despite some promising showings, the Cup offers never came, and he made just four starts on the sport's premier level, the most recent in 1994.

Still, Markham has no regrets. "I'm real happy with the way things went for me," he said. "I only have one eye, so a lot of people were scared to give me a chance. I understand that. Having the success I've had in racing, I'm just tickled."

No one questions Markham's vision as a spotter, where he's established a reputation as one of the best in the business. He and Hamlin have been together ever since that first day at Hickory, and the driver of the No. 11 car has playfully referred to his spotter as his "one-eyed bandit." The bandit can still drive a little bit, too -- he qualified 26th for Hamlin's charity race on Thursday night, and evaded two big crashes to finish 13th out of the 36 drivers who competed. Does he miss his days behind the wheel?

"Sometimes I do," Markham conceded. "But most times, I'm happy doing what I'm doing. Next to driving, spotting is the closest thing you can do. So I'm happy with what I'm doing."

And this weekend at Richmond, the locals were certainly happy to see him. Markham shook more hands and posed for some photos before the start of Hamlin's charity event. But no one summed up the feelings so many race fans in central Virginia have for Markham more than the man waiting after qualifying with the autograph cards. "An honor to finally meet you," he said. Curtis Markham may be a spotter now, but around Richmond, the locals still know him better for something else.

CURTIS MARKHAM

Curtis Markham in 1984 in his #55 Late Model Stock Car and in 1992 driving his #7 Busch North Skoal car.

i equate scoring with jury duty. i've done both and neither one bothered me. i tried to look at both from a point of view that it was something i usually didn't do and may never do again.

Just to prove again that race scoring can be dangerous, coverage of Richard Petty's October 20, 1963 win at South Boston included this clip about Morris Metcalfe in the Gazette-Virginian:

Here's a shot of the late NASCAR chief scorer Morris Metcalfe in the booth at North Wilkesboro in the 1980s.