December 16 - Dick Beaty

Long-time NASCAR inspector and a NASCAR driver and motorcycle racer, Dick Beaty, was born on December 16, 1923.

Beaty in his motorcycle racing days.

Beaty started 38 Grand National and 18 convertible races from 1955 through 1958. His best GN finish was a 5th at Asheville-Weaverville on March 31, 1957. His best convertible finish was a 3rd at Martinsville in 1957 behind winner Bill Amick and Jimmy Massey. From Spartanburg Herald .

Photo from Greg Moore / Perry Allen Wood book "Bud Moore's Right Hand Man" (available on Amazon.com I might add).

Dave Fulton has posted about Dick Beaty a couple of times that I could find:

June 2011:

http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/general/7304/colorful-characters-dick-beatys-nose

April 2013 here:

http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/22726/we-could-use-a-man-like-nascars-dick-beaty-again

Here is a really good 1991 article from the LA Times about Beaty:

http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-14/sports/sp-3402_1_dick-beaty

Dick was a fine fellow to work with.

Love the guy he would stand up to anybody even Harry Hide

At some point, maybe I'll upload a Dick Beatty story or two from my Stock Car Legends Reunion video. Nascar truly misses people like him and Bill Gazaway and Harold Kinder.

Good call. I have that DVD series & remembered he was on it. But I couldn't recall which disc might have a story by him in the time I had to make this post. Such a great series - I need to watch it all over again.

Beaty Bump