It Was Glamorous - It Can't be Recaptured

Forty years ago, the first week of December 1981, I attended the first ever NASCAR Winston Cup Awards Banquet held in New York City and all the associated activities connected with it.

Actually, those of us who were around the circuit really attended two Winston Cup Awards banquets in 1981. The first was held in the smelly, musty, basement "ballroom" of a decrepid oceanfront property on Daytona Beach during 1981 Speedweeks. We crowned our Wrangler Jeans driver, Dale Earnhardt, as the 1980 Champion - the firstand onlydriver to win Rookie of the Year (1979) and follow it in his sophomore season (1980) with the Championship. Our car owner, Rod Osterlund, didn't show for the banquet. That made Earnhardt nervous( with good reason )and us( Wrangler ) mad. By July, Osterlund quit showing altogether. He sold the team out from under us. But that is another story.

Before season's end, Bill France, Jr. announced we'd hold the banquet to celebrate the 1981 champ at year's end in New York. At the time, it was a brilliant move by France. New York was the advertising capital and CEO capital of the world. No CEO could resist taking his wife to a banquet at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

For the first New York banquet in December 1981 we flew one of the little Wrangler "Rice Rocket" Mitsubishi turboprops from Greensboro, NC to the Teterboro, NJ airport, where we were met by a limo for the ride to the Waldorf in Manhattan. Dale Earnhardt announced he was riding "shotgun" and the limo driver explained there would be no front seat passengers. Guess who won?! When we actually got on the streets of New York, our "One Tough Customer" Earnhardt (who would later be called "The Intimidator "), riding shotgun, after having viewed some of New York's " street people " asked the driver to lock the doors. We all burst out laughing and Dale was chafed!

That first year 1981 we had a beautiful gathering sponsored by Gillette at the now gone Central Park restaurant Tavern on the Green, everything lit with twinkling lights and NASCAR race cars on display. There was a lot to take in, but it was beautiful to stroll by the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and watch the ice skaters. No offense to Las Vegas, but I don't like the place and I was never a proponent of making the special banquet night an open to the public affair. In fact, I thought the banquet started sliding downhill when it began to be televised. The original New York banquets were hosted by the wonderful Barney Hall, but when ESPN came along and parts were televised it was determined that ole Barney wasn't telegenic enough and we started having hosts like Bob Jenkins, but then a rapid downfall to comedians and singers who knew nothing of NASCAR.

That first New York banquet in 1981 at the Waldorf was held at the Starlight Room, but it quickly became apparent that future banquets would have to be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf to accommodate the crowds. New York Banquet #1 was NOT blacktie as subsequent banquets would be after moving to the Grand Ballroom. Our new car owner for 1982, Bud Moore and wife Betty joined us at our table for the banquet. All of the men in our group, including Earnhardt, were attired in beige Wrangler western cut jackets and brown Wrangler jeans and Wrangler western boots. That was quite a sight in the fancy Waldorf! Poor Tim Richmond, attired in a stunning tux, with ruffled shirt and red bow tie, had no place to sit so Earnhardt asked if he could sit with us. Somewhere in my archives I have a treasured photo taken by the late Dozier Mobley of that table that night. Earnhardt, Richmond, Bud Moore.... what a group.

My wife, Joyce & I with Glen & Bernece Wood at the 1985 New York Banquet.

That photo and many other memories of New York banquets make me remember how many of my racing friends and associates are no longer with us. I have other wonderful photos of my wife, Joyce and I seated with a very distinquished Glen Wood and his wife Bernece. I have poignant New York memories of various breakfasts and dinners at the Waldorf when my track, Richmond International Raceway received the Myers Brothers Award and my employer and great friend, the late Paul Sawyer received the Buddy Shuman Award .I remember Bill France, Jr. standing on the stage of the Grand Ballroom andannouncing NASCAR had created a new award to celebrate a "competitor who had pulled himself up by his own bootstraps" and calling Richard Childress on stage to accept the inaugural award.

There were just so many memories on the New York stage. I remembertwo very quiet and reserved men - owner Billy Hagan and his champion driver Terry Labonte walking onstage in 1984, a tremendously popular championship with other teams. I remember Teresa Earnhardt the first time she stood on the stage at the Waldorf as Dale Earnhard's wife. So many wonderful memories that can never be recaptured.

One year when we flew in from Dallas the computers went down at the Waldorf. We couldn't check in. So the staff walked through the lobby with trays of champagne. My wife clinked glasses with movie star Jack Lemon. What a story she had to tell.

Going to dinner at the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria in New York was like attending a Grand Theater opening. When you first arrived in New York, you had to visit the NASCAR suite at the Waldorf and pick up packages of invitations to various events. The more success you had had, or the more money you had spent with NASCAR or were likely to spend, determined the size of those invitation packets. There were tickets to Broadway shows, there were invites to various breakfast, dinner and cocktail functions. We were sometimes invited off premises to cozy little French and Italian restaurants. But, the big show was the awards banquet in the Grand Ballroom on Friday night.Believe me, you didn't get near it without invite in hand. There were about a million bronze doors leading into the Grand Ballroom and they were all thrown open silmultaneously. Winston must have flown every pretty girl in Winston-Salem to New York, because they had one in a red Winston dress manning every door and checking invitations... this was after you got past the separate table checkin on the mezzanine to the Grand Ballroom.

I want you to picture hundred of wives who never saw their husbands during the racing season because they were on the road or at the shop late at night. Picture all of those wives in the very finest ball gowns all decked out to the max waiting to enter the Grand Ballroom of the most famous hotel in the country. They were beautiful and there was an unmistakable air of excitement that swept over everyone. There were tables with Ford execs and GM execs. There was so much high dollar energy in that one room that it wafted about. When dinner was served, hundreds of waiters magically appeared, dressed like little penquins and scurried about to the tables, always serving on the left just so correctly.

The Grand Ballroom was surrounded by balconies where many crew and media members were seated. For all of the dignity displayed during those early New York banquets, it gave you goosebumps to watch a number of balcony tables stand as one and cheer and catcall when one of their drivers, crew, owners or sponsors was honored. Afterwards, the winning car makers and sponsors had huge hospitality suites opened until dawn to celebrate.

Our wives loved the New York trip and the shopping and dressing up. I guess we did, too, but didn't realize it at the time. My wife went shopping with some others one afternoon at Saks, as well as Lord & Taylor and some other high dollar establishments, taking my Amercan Express card. Early that evening, before dinner, I hosted a number of media at The Peacock Lounge, one of the Waldorf's famously overpriced bars. When I attempted to pay the bill, the waiter came back and told me they had been instructed to confiscate my AmEx card because it had been used that day by an unauthorized user (my wife). Fortunately, I had a couple of other cards to max out, but my wife spent the next day at a couple of NY banks getting cash to pay for the rest of our New York stay.

We had numerous funny ( now ) adventures in New York cabs. Some years when we flew commercial into LaGuardia, we had to be very careful to be sure the driver used the Triborough Bridge and right roads to get us into Manhattan and the Waldorfquickly and for the least possibe mileage. One night, Joyce and I had dinner reservations at the restaurant overlooking Central Park at the top of the Gulf & Western Building. It was snowing and our turbanned cab driver put us out several blocks away, past the Plaza Hotel and Horse Carriages because he didn't want to drive in the congestion. It was a long walk in the snow.

Another year, the late journalist Jack Flowers, Richmond trackoperator Paul Sawyer's son Bill, Larry Starling of Piedmont Airlines and I decided to take a cab to some of the City's seamier attractions - the Pink Elephant Lounge in particular, featuring "exotic" dancers. Larry had lost a leg in VietNam, which I didn't know until that night when he announced he was becoming scared of the wisecracks Flowers was making to the bartender. That was when Larry told us he was getting out of there and taking a cab back to the Waldorf because he didn't think he could run fast enough with a wooden leg to avoid thetrouble that was soon to be headed our way!

Now I know I have rambled .Most of you who never had the opportunity to attend one of those early New York Winston Cup Awards banquets at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Grand Ballroom could care less and it is very difficult to put into words what special times those were for a sport that was starting to break out big. In retrospect it was glamorous and we enjoyed it and it was a different day.

I don't think the NASCAR Awards Banquet can ever again recapture the special feeling of those first few years in New York.

Dave, thank you! I read this twice just because your desciptions are so vivid it is like being there and I did want the feeling of once again experiencing the magic of what was Winston Cup Racing. I never went to the banquet, of course, but I feel like I have experienced some of that now. Really awesome!

One other thing. The Burning Busch Brothers ought to be glad Moses (BZF) moved the banquet to Vegas. Quite frankly, from my observations, neither of them has hand signals or a vocabulary to compete with New York City cab drivers and doormen!

Dave,

Just wondering if you know many of the specifics of why Rod Osterlund got out in 1981. I know Greg Fielden said in "Forty Years Of Stock Car Racing" that it had to do with feeling the pinch of interest rates and that he was heavily involved with real estate. Granted I was only 5 years old when all of that happened, so I really wouldn't know...but it strikes me funny that his car wins the championship (Wrangler was on the car at Ontario in 1980 when he won the title), lands the Wrangler deal, and within 6 months he's denying rumors that he's selling the team. Earnhardt runs 2nd, 2nd, and 6th the next 3 weeks, then he sells to JD Stacy.

Jay,

Osterlund ( unbeknownst to any of us ) had gotten in trouble in California with real estate developments. He worked very hard under the table to make the team attractive to a purchaser. Earnhardt as driver, Wrangler on board as sponsor fulltime starting with last race of 1980, and the secret hiring of Dale Inman from Petty Enterprises to be crew chief starting at Atlanta in March 1981. That completed the package and he sold the whole deal to JD Stacy leaving Earnhardt devastated. Funny thing is I worked again with Osterlund in a short lived return when he set up his old team manager, Roland Wlodyka again to field a team for Hut Stricklin. I was doing press releases for Heinz Ketchup - we'd done a brief test program with Morgan Shepherd in a Robert Gee, Jr. built car. Rod's return to NASCAR was underfunded and things had changed a lot since his success with Earnhardt.. This was around 1988-1989. The deal didn't last long, but Hut finished 2nd to Dick Trickle in the Osterlund car #57 for Rookie of the Year in 1989.

Hut Stricklin in the Rod Osterlund / Roland Wlodyka Heinz Pontiac - 1989

Thanks Dave! That was a nice story.

Fantastic write-up, Dave. Like Tim said, it painted a perfect picture in our minds of what it was like. I agree that bringing non-racing related hosts was the start of a bad idea. Who can forget when Kevin Costner called Earnhardt 'The Terminator'? I didn't know whether to laugh or frown.

The story with Warner Hodgdon was that he had an accountant that embezzled literally millions of dollars out of his company. At the time, Warner owned or had major interest in several tracks- Bristol, Nashville, Rockingham are the three that I immediately think of. Not to mention he sponsored the Wood Brothersin '82, RahMoc in '83, and co-owned the 11 and 12 cars with Junior Johnson in 1984. As a matter of fact, about the time his City Of Industries and National Engineering companies got sued, he was also looking at being sued by Rockingham for not paying the sponsorship fees he owed in 1984 as title sponsor of the 1984 American 500. Then he owed Junior Johnson money, andcorrect me if I am wrong, but Junior Johnson had to do his own legal shuffling to keep the 11 and 12 teams out of foreclosure.

Let this be a shameless plug if you don't already own it to buy a copy of Forty Years Of Stock Car Racing- Vol. 3, The Modern Era. It goes into some detail about the likes of MC Anderson, JD Stacy, Rod Osterlund, and Warner Hodgdon. Of the four, I feel the worst for MC, because he wanted to do it the right way, but couldn't convince Cale Yarborough to drive full time in 1983 for right at $1 million (unheard of $$$ at the time.) Considering how good that 27 car was at the time (Tim Brewer, Harold Elliott were on that crew) I think it's VERY possible had Cale went for it, Bobby Allison may have never won the 1983 championship.

Writing that reminded me of JD Stacy's self-described business policy:

"Coal mine, moonshine, or move on down the line." I think that says a LOT about one Jim Stacy.

Stacy told us (Wrangler) he could care less whether he had a sponsor or not. That's when we started looking for a place to put Dale. Surprisingly, Stacy could be a kind of pleasant fellow to be around, as long as you weren't downwind of his big cigar. But he had poor Boobie Harrington barking out orders and then not backing him up. I felt kind of sorry for Harrington.

How many teams/people did Stacy not pay his second time in the sport???

I know Terry Labonte was leading the points in '82 when Stacy "pulled his sponsorship" because "he had a Texas Jeans logo on his drivers uniform." Then he ditched Dave Marcis for pushing an out of gas Bobby Allison to the pits at Pocono (Allison came back and won the race...and beat another Stacy-owned car for the win.) Then I know he stiffed Jack Beebe and the 47 car with Ron Bouchard...I think by the time the year was over, the only car he still had his name on (beside Tim Richmond's) was Junie Donlavey's #90.

Stacy had sort of an itchy trigger finger too. Joe Ruttman ran great at Daytona in 1982, would've won Richmond except that he had a freak mechanical failure RIGHT before the last caution for rain came out, and I'm pretty sure he was out of the 2 car just after that. His replacement- Tim Richmond- saw the light I believe and bailed at the end of '82.

Then he didn't seem to have any kind of direction with the #5 team that year. Jim Sauter had a good run in the Daytona 500 until he had a mechanical failure towards the end. He put Robin McCall in the car at Michigan (Robin McCall went on to become Mrs. Wally Dallenbach Jr.) Don't get me wrong- Stacy had something there- but he managed to mismanage everything that he had going. Another example was hiring Mark Martin as Tim Richmond's replacement. Mark didn't start off well- but he took third at Darlington in the Transouth 500, then suddenly pulled him out of the car. That was almost the end of Mark Martin, as he had JUST sold his entire team's inventory at auction because he took the Stacy ride. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure I have the Grand National Scene issue where the auction is listed. I'll see if I can find it and will post it.

Hodgdon was an oily piece of work. It makes fascinating reading to read the actual council meeting minutes and newspaper accounts in City of Industry, California to see how the local politicians there were in cahoots then got caught with their hands in the cookie jar when Hodgdon's National Engineering blew all to heck The accountant may have taken the fall, but there were plenty of guilty folks. Hodgdon also almost singlehandedly brought down Sports Marketing Enterprises at RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. when he got them involved without approval in a Washington, DC professional soccer franchise. A number of SME employyes quickly departed from the Winston operation, and either retired completely or soon resurfaced in jobs at various International Speedway Corporation tracks.

I have my own personal experiences involving Hodgdon. Junior Johnson wanted Dale Earnhardt in his cars in the worst kind of way. He kept coming to us at Wrangler and telling us that Darrell Waltrip had "had his bell rung" when he hit that inside concrete wall protecting the garage and GoodyearGarage Tower at Daytona. He wanted to replace Waltrip with Earnhardt for the 1984 season. We finally agreed to terms with Junior for Earnhardt to replace Waltrip in a very clandestine meeting in a musty poolside motel room at the Americana motel out by the Greensboro airport in late summer 1983. That would take Dale from Bud Moore to Junior's car after two seasons with Ford, who didn't want Earnhardt - Michael Kranefuss said he wasn't a championship caliber driver. Junior's operation was to be a strictly 1 car deal... Earnhardt and Wrangler didn't want any part of a two car team. We signed a written contract at Wrangler with Junior Johnson to sponsor Earnhardt in Junior's cars. Sometime late that summer of 1983 or maybe early fall I was in Richmond at the Fairgrounds track when I heard a radio announcement that said Junior had re-signed Darrell for 1984. Well, when we called Junior we started getting a bunch of lies from him about how Warner had gone behind his back and cut a deal with Budweiser that required two cars, etc. etc. Well, our corporate attorneys and accountants at Blue Bell, Inc. did a thorough investigation of Mr. Hodgdon and advised our Chairman of the Board that we wanted no association with Mr. Hodgdon. At that time, summer of 1983, that was no National Engineering incorporated in the state of California andno one could track where the money was coming from to fund Hodgdon's operations and extravagent expenditures, although our attorneys and accountants had strong suspicions. Mr. Ed Bauman, Chairman of the Board of Blue Bell, Inc. (Wrangler) called Junior Johnson to his office in downtown Greensboro. He proceeded to tear up the contract with Junior and advised Junior to never set foot again on Wrangler property.We then began negotions again with Richard Childress and took Dale and the Wrangler sponsorship back there for 1984. If you ever wondered why Junior hated the Wrangler car so much during Earnhardt's second Childress stint, you now know the story. But it didn't end there. Hodgdon' had bought a half-interest in the Richmond track and Paul Sawyer couldn't get along with him. Wrangler's management team soon after led by Bauman bought the company in a leveraged buyout from Blue Bellthen sold it to Vanity Fair (VF Corp) for a handsome profit. Bauman's wife, Vivian loved Earnhardt and used to "support" his Late Model / Busch Series efforts financially. Sawyer, whose races had been sponsored by Wrangler, approached the Baumans and they put together a group of investors, including former Wrangler executiveswho bought out Hodgdon's shares in the Richmond track. Sawyer later bought all of his stock back from this group and built and expanded the magnificient Richmond International Raceway track, which he lated sold to ISC for approximately $143 million.

It used to really upst us that we had to try so hard to enforce all the NASCAR safety rules about nobody under age 16 in the pits, nosleeveless tops, no shorts, no open toe shoes. Hodgdon's kids, who were way too young to be in the pits or garage, had little Wood Brothers uniforms and were in the middle of everything. NASCAR turned a blind eye. Eddie Wood can tell some wonderful behind the scenes Hodgdon family stories which I sall not repeat. I will say that Sharon Hodgdon always threw a nice dinner at Rockingham that always featured Beef Wellington.

I took Stacy a $10,000 check at Michigan in August 1981 to "pay" to have the blue & yellow striped chevron on the hood of the #2 car changed to a solid yellow stripe so it would no longer look just like the Dale Earnhardt #3 Childress Wrangler car. I think Stacy had put one of his ficticious companies on the car... maybe StacyPak, a suppossed vitamin. And, yes, there were a lot of people very afraid of that bomb deal, Jim. Stacy bilked the Dutch government out of a ton of money with his coal excavating machine scam. And whatever happened to Ronnie Childers, the "Coal Miner" - Black Diamond Coal / L.D. Ottinger?

Here is the Stacy #2 car at Michigan in first photo below and the Osterlund Wrangler #2 in the second photo:

Dave, I have gone back and read this account of the 1981 Banquet several times. Its one of your best my friend...Great stuff.. I have a pristine brochure of the 1981 Awards Banquet of Friday December 4th, 1981. Very fancy paper.