Colorful Characters - Dick Beaty's Nose

All forms of racing have had their share of colorful characters who could tell colorful stories. One of the best I (semi) remember used to be told by former Winston Cup director Dick Beaty in the presence of Buck Brigance, both now deceased. Dick had become comp director after being an inspector and working as the assistant mgr at the Charlotte airport. Never met a nicer or fairer man. When I met him, Buck was working at Charlotte's Radiator Specialty Co. and would be around the cars of Buddy Baker. Some of you may have known Buck's daughter, Darlene, who used to work for Bruton & Humpy in the CMS marketing department and was in charge of Speedway Club sales before starting a marketing agency. Dick and Buck had both raced some stock cars, but in their heyday, they both raced motorcycles. From what I read and heard, Buck was a real character and hard racer, as was Dick. According to Dick, the two of them had raced motorcycles at the old Richmond Atlantic Rural Exposition Strawberry Hill 1/2- dirt track, site of today's Richmond International Raceway. They were returning from Richmond on U.S. 1 Highwayand at the Route U.S. 58 at South Hill, VA intersection t-boned another vehicle driven by two nurses from Raleigh's Rex Hospital. Accounts say they were driving a woodie - maybe yes or no. Anyway, they were both thrown from the vehicle into a pile of kindling. The highlightof the story was always told by Dick. He'd say, Buck hollared, "Dick, help me find my glasses." Dick answered, "Buck, help me find my nose!" It had been sheared off. Accounts differ as to whether it was at Richmond's Medical College of Virginia or Raleigh's Rex Hospital that Dick Beaty's nose was re-attached. Anyway, Buck Brigance always told him it looked crooked to him!

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 05/19/21 09:57:45PM

Great memories, Jim. What a privilege it must have been for you to have known Dick Beatyall those years like you did. I remember the last few years when Dick's wife, Mae, would sit in a van in the garage and Dick would check on her every so often. It was very sad. When I did the PlastiKote Spray Paint deal I was able to get enough extra cases of dark green paint for Dick to paint all of the outdoor furniture at his mountain cabin. There were a lot of folks in the garage who were extremely nice to me during the years I was around. I especially liked Bill Gazaway - a lot of folks didn't. It may have been because I was working with Bud Moore that Gazaway was so nice, but he always was. Now his brother, Joe could be another case. One time in 1984 when I lived in Dallas, TX, I put on a big racing deal at the mall in Wilson, NC to promote the grand opening of my mother-in-law's new pet store. It was an off weekend after Talladegaand I had a bunch of track pace cars there, along with local racers and the big rigs of the Wood Brothers and Richard Childress. The highlight of the weekend, however, was the big NASCAR rig, with NASCAR starter Harold Kinder (who drove and kept the big rig - in Mint Hill, I guess) on hand to answer questions. Gazaway wouldn't even let me pay for fuel, just Harold's motel and meals. I always thought very highly of Gazaway after that. Speaking of your dad and Piedmont, one of Dale and Whitlock's neighbors was a Piedmont pilot named Lauren, whose last name I don't recall. He had a hat that had two bills/fronts - one Wrangler and one Piedmont that he wore to the races. One season we flew all year on little Piedmont charters out of Winston-Salem that Danny Culler would arrange, sometimes up to three planes.I always flew with Lauren.Usually we hadDale, BarneyHall, Tim Richmond, a Winston rep and Margret Claud, Miss Winston. I got cured of flying in small planes after Lauren tried 3 times to touch down at Pocono and we never saw the runway and diverted to Wilkes-Barre. Flying out of Talladega and Michigan in those little planesin thunderstorms was more than I could handle. I remember dropping Dale off a couple of times in Statesville. But, I grew to hate those little planes. Just before we would land everybody would always start talking about Dick Brooks flipping his plane at Dover when he hit a culvert. I haven't been in a little plane since 1983.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Our pilot and Dale Earnhardt's next door neighbor was Loren Edwards.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"