By the way, here's the obituary story on Bud Wamsley in the Richmond Times Dispatch when he passed in 2009. Bud's name is prominently mentioned in the 1951 Crazy Joe Maphis song, "Racing at Royall Speedway" that I (with PattyKay's assistance) posted on these pages a few weeks back, courtesy of Joe Kelly.
Christopher N. Wamsley Sr., former race driver, dies at 77
By: Ellen Robertson | Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: January 11, 2009
Christopher Neil "Bud" Wamsley Sr. took a wrecked car and with the help of his father and brother built himself a hot rod shortly after graduating from Petersburg High School.
He started racing cars in 1949, driving some of the Richmond area's first roadsters. But roadsters didn't catch on locally, and he jumped on the stock-car bandwagon.
When a newly formed Richmond Stock Car Racing Association initiated weekly racing at Royall Speedway, later Southside Speedway, in 1950, Bud Wamsley often cruised down victory lane.
During a four-year hitch in the Air Force, he worked on airplanes and raced on the side, often coming to a prepped car on a weekend and taking off for a track, said his wife, Gail Page Wamsley.
"Bud was the first NASCAR track champion in the state of Virginia," said local racing historian Joe Kelly, a radio host of "Let's Talk Racing." Mr. Wamsley won the track championship at NASCAR's newly sanctioned Southside Speedway in 1952.
Mr. Wamsley, who had raced at Daytona Beach, Fla., when the "track" was on the beach, died of heart failure Friday at his Colonial Heights home. He was 77.
"He was a darn good driver. He was a no-holds-barred driver," Kelly said. "He was the Dale Earnhardt Sr. before there was Dale Earnhardt Sr. If there was a six-inch hole, he made it big enough to get a car through."
When Mr. Wamsley became a family man about 1954, he continued working for his father's H.E. Wamsley Trucking Co. and raced as time permitted, effectively retiring as a driver. He and his brother, Howard E. Wamsley Jr. of Colonial Heights, bought the business from their father during the early 1970s and then retired in the early 1980s.
In addition to racing, Mr. Wamsley owned racing cars. His was the first car that driver Lennie Pond raced. Pond would go on to race at NASCAR's top level and become the 1973 Rookie of the Year.
"Bud was instrumental in a lot of things with Lennie Pond. Lennie stayed with him 10 years at least running cars for Bud," Kelly said.
The family-owned Wamsley Trucking owned a car that Eddie Crouse drove when he won national championships in 1962 and 1963 in NASCAR's Modified Division.
Mr. Wamsley emerged out of retirement as a driver in 1970. He drove his own car at South Boston and Southside speedways.
In addition to his wife and brother, survivors include a son, C. Neil Wamsley Jr. of Colonial Heights; a stepson, Steven Ashburn of Richmond; two daughters, Joy Moore of Colonial Heights and Kathy Rogers of Acworth, Ga.; his mother, Alma Perkinson Wamsley of Ettrick; a sister, Nancy Chadwick of Colonial Heights; and nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
A funeral will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at the Petersburg Chapel of J.T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home & Cremation Service, 103 S. Adams St. Burial will be in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
