Thank you, as always, Tim, for a wonderful look back. And thanks to you, too, Chase, for giving us the "at the moment" perspective from the news clippings.
That race at Langley marked the only career Grand National (Cup) start for one of the finest local Virginia weekly dirt track drivers to ever come down the pike and a driver we lost way too early. Although his name is misspelled in the Greg Fielden rundown, it is spelled correctly in the newspaper clippings.
The driver I refer to was the 11th place finisher, the great Gene Lovelace. Born in Greensboro, NC, Lovelace lived most of his life in Newport News, Virginia and was a weekly regular at Langley and other Virginia and North Carolina tracks in the 50s-60s driving modifieds and Late Model Sportsman.
Gene's reputation was similar to two other famous Virginia drivers - Joe Weatherly and Curtis Turner. Not only did Gene put on a great show on the dirt, he was noted for his partying lifestyle.
Recognizing Gene as a great crowd draw for local fans, the Hampton promoter arranged for Gene to drive a second Curtis Crider car, the #01 Mercury, for his only Grand National start. Gene qualified the Curtis Crider backup Merc a very respectable 6th at his home track, but exited half-way through the race with a "ball joint" issue. As a comparison, Crider qualified his primary #02 Merc in 12th place, six positions behind Lovelace in Crider's rent-a-ride Merc.
Gene didn't race too often at my local paved Southside Speedway in Richmond until Langley was paved and Virginia tracks began running Late Model Sportsman cars. Gene had a beautiful #31 Yellow & Gold Chevelle. His final ride in that gorgeous machine came in a heat race at Southside Speedway on July 3, 1970.
Gene wasn't feeling well after the heat race and another local star, Lennie Pond drove the car in the night's feature race. Lennie was in the car when Gene suffered a massive heart attack and was pronounced dead at age 36 at Medical College of Virginia Hospital in Richmond.
For many years, local tracks all around Virginia ran a "Gene Lovelace Memorial" race. In 1982, the very first year of the Busch Series, the second Busch race of the year at Langley Field in Hapmpton was the "Gene Lovelace 200."
13 years ago in 2000, on the occassion of the 30th anniversary of Gene Lovelace's death, award winning motorsports writer, Al Pearce of the Newport News Daily Press wrote this article about remembering Gene:
Friends, Family To Honor Memory Of Former Driver
June 30, 2000
By AL PEARCE Daily Press
Talk to enough people and two truths emerge about the late Gene Lovelace:
* He could drive a Modified and Late Model about as well as anyone on this planet, and;
* Most of the great Gene Lovelace stories are best left to the memory of those lucky enough to have lived them.
As for racing, there's no question he was something special.
"He was as much like (the late) Tim Richmond as anybody I've ever seen,'' longtime track announcer Eddie Anderson says. "He'd drive the wheels off a car, then have a ball afterward. Nothing bad or mean; just a good time wherever he was.''
Jack Massie has been flagging races for 30-plus years. He remembers Lovelace as one of the best Modified drivers of the 1950s and 1960s, a teddy bear of a man who didn't take any guff.
"Back then, there might be some scrapping after a race, but nothing serious,'' he says. "Ol' Gene would hang the back of that Modified waaay out and go right on. He was as good as they came. And tough, too, if he had to be.''
Hampton native Joe Hendricks raced from the early 1960s into the early 1970s. He doesn't remember Lovelace ever inadvertently or otherwise bumping him during a race.
"He was smoother and had more car control than any dirt-track racer I ever saw,'' Hendrick says. "He went deeper into the turns than anybody. He and Ray Hendrick were the best short-track racers I ever saw.''
Monday is the 30th anniversary of Lovelace's death at age 36. The North Carolina native and longtime Newport News resident had a heart attack following a Late Model heat race at Southside in Richmond.
On Saturday night, Langley Speedway in Hampton will honor his memory and celebrate his career. His wife, Mary Beth Lucas, four of their five children and assorted friends and relatives will be on hand. There will be handshakes and tears, and tall tales about an era when racing was more fun than work.
Records are inexact, so it's hard to say how many races Lovelace won. Certainly, dozens upon dozens. More than a hundred, maybe. Langley , South Boston , Chestnut Avenue , Southside , Wilson , Lawrenceville , Dinwiddie , Moyock , Chinese Corner , the Richmond Fairgrounds . Some tracks still around, most long gone.
He briefly quit Langley when owner Henry Klich posted a bounty. Lovelace didn't mind being a marked man, but he resented that Klich wouldn't give him the bounty if he won. "So Gene stopped going out there,'' Lucas says. "He didn't think it was right for others to get extra for beating him, but he didn't get it if he won.''
Lennie Pond, 1973 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year and 1978 Talladega 500 winner, was in Lovelace's No. 31 Chevrolet the night his friend died.
"My Late Model wasn't there, but I was at Southside just hanging around,'' he recalls. "One of Gene's crewmen came over after the heat and asked if I'd run the feature. He said Gene didn't feel good, and wanted me in the car.
"You know, I didn't think much about it. I got my suit and helmet, and ran the race. Afterward, his people loaded the car and left the track. I didn't know until later that night that he had died going to the hospital.
"Oh, he was such a good driver and a fine fellow," Pond added. "We always had fun. We'd race hard and maybe be mad for a while, but not for long. We'd end up going out to eat together, Gene and his wife and me and mine. We had a good time.''
Modified team-owner Junie Donlavey of Richmond knew it was almost futile to bring a car to Langley on Saturday nights. "Gene was a master, almost unbeatable down there,'' he says. "I'd bring Sonny Hutchins or Runt Harris or Bill Dennis, but it didn't matter. Gene was going to beat anybody I had. That's just how good he was.''
Ray Lamm or Jack Carter may have some photos of Gene and his modifieds or Late Model Sportsman car.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
