Got Ulcers? Go Stock Car Racing Said Sonny Hutchins

The late Richmond, Virginia NASCAR driver, Sonny Hutchins was well known for giving other drivers ulcers with a well timed tap to their rear bumper. Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt were prominent victims and each called Sonny the dirtiest driver they ever raced. Sonny once spun Dale on consecutive weeks at Richmond and Martinsville in Late Model Sportsman competition.

I never knew Sonny had ulcers himself, however. According to the story below in the February 25, 1968 Daytona Beach Morning Journal , Sonny returned to racing after an eight year hiatus from 1955 - 1962 to soothe his ulcers. I guess he transferred them to all the other drivers he spun and beat in his Junie Donlavey and Emanuel Zervakis rides after his return!

sounds like him and Earnhardt should have been best buds, lol

Bill, those anecdotes about Sonny were reprinted on his Legends of NASCAR page from his obituary story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch :

Ernest Lloyd "Sonny" Hutchins
Born: May 17, 1929 - Died November 22, 2005
Home: Richmond, VA

Ernest Lloyd "Sonny" Hutchins ,76, of Richmond and Urbanna, passed away November 21, 2005. He is survived by his loving wife of 36 years, Connie Tinsley Hutchins; their children, Richard Bradley Jr. and Cynthia Hall; a grandson, Anthony Hall and his wife, Mariah; a brother, Carl W. "Piggy" Hutchins and a sister-in-law, Lottie L. Hutchins; and numerous nieces, nephews, and friends. Sonny was well known in the Richmond area as a local restauranteur and up and down the east coast as a NASCAR driver. His family will receive friends Tuesday (today) at the Bliley Funeral Homes' Central Chapel, 3801 Augusta Ave. from 5 to 8 p.m., where funeral services will be held 2 p.m. Wednesday. Interment will follow in Greenwood Memorial Gardens. Memorial contributions may be made to Victory Junction Gang, 4500 Adam's Way, Randleman, N.C. 27317. Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on 11/22/2005.
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Local racing legend Sonny Hutchins dies
A champion on short tracks, driver competed with flair, success for more than 30 years
BY NATE RYAN AND RANDY HALLMAN -TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS - Nov 22, 2006

Ernest Lloyd "Sonny" Hutchins, one of the greatest drivers in Richmond history and a member of the famed "Strawberry Hill Mod Squad," died from heart failure Monday. He was 76.

A charismatic competitor with a lead foot and a clever tongue, Mr. Hutchins raced with great success for more than 30 years, competing in Late Models, Modifieds and Winston Cup.

Often driving for the city's two greatest car owners, Junie Donlavey and Emanual Zervakis, Mr. Hutchins won several track championships. Racing historian Joe Kelly estimated that Mr. Hutchins won more than 300 races despite a nine-year retirement in the prime of his career.

Though he made only 38 starts in NASCAR's premier series, he had many fierce battles with Cup champions such as Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.

In an interview last year, Mr. Hutchins re- called his favorite part of racing was "showing up at someone else's racetrack and beating them." He said with a devilish grin that Waltrip called him "the dirtiest driver he ever knew" after trumping the three-time champion at a Tennessee short track.

He also had a few run-ins in the mid-1970s with Earnhardt, infuriating "The Intimidator" by bumping him into the wall at back-to-back Late Model races at Richmond and Martinsville. The seven-time champion hadn't forgotten when they crossed paths again in 1990.

"I walked by and said, 'Who's the dirtiest driver you know now?'" Mr. Hutchins said, "Earnhardt said, 'Well, look at the teacher I had.'"

Mr. Hutchins, who made his Modified debut with a sixth-place finish at the old Fairgrounds track known as Strawberry Hill in 1950, also was a boyhood hero to Rick Hendrick, who has won six championships and more than 100 races as a Nextel Cup car owner.

"Guys like Sonny Hutchins and Ray Hendrick are the ones who put the bug in me to get into [racing]," said Hendrick, a Virginia native who watched Mr. Hutchins at South Boston Speedway and Southside Speedway. "Sonny was fearless. He wore glasses thicker than a Coke bottle, and I don't think he could see. But he was unbelievable. To watch him run those Modified cars with all that power and actually spin the tires all the way down the straightaway. He was quite a talent."

Mr. Hutchins was one of the "4-H Boys" along with Ray Hendrick, Runt Harris and Ted Hairfield. The foursome was a promoter's dream, drawing crowds wherever they entered together.

Mr. Hutchins built a large fan following in Virginia and was a four-time season champion at Southside Speedway, according to Kelly. In Mr. Hutchins' last full season in 1980, he won Late Model titles at Southside and South Boston.

"Everybody wanted to be near him," said Neil Culley, a member of Mr. Hutchins' crew when he drove for Zervakis from 1970 to 1980. "He made you feel that you were important. He made fans feel that way, whether he knew them or not."

Richmonder Tommy Ellis, a two-time Busch Series champion, said Hutchins went from mentor to fierce rival to friend during his career.

"He was the greatest driver I ever raced against in any series, at any level," Ellis said. "I had the utmost respect for him. He understood a car in a way that not many drivers do and that set him apart."

Mr. Hutchins spent many hours at Donlavey's Southside shop working on the No. 90 chassis he drove from 1965-70. With Donlavey, Mr. Hutchins finished seventh in the 1967 Daytona 500 and a career-best second twice in 1969 (Dover and Richmond).

"The thing that made Sonny so good was that he was always so good to get along with," Donlavey said. "He drove the car to the edge and never held anything back. But what really made him great was the way he made the team feel. If something went wrong, he didn't come out of the car complaining. He enjoyed the sport, and he made sure you enjoyed it, too."

Mr. Hutchins once said he "never made never a nickel in my life racing." During a 1954-63 absence from the sport, Mr. Hutchins became a restaurateur with his older brother and stayed in the family business when he returned to race cars. Mr. Hutchins retired in 2002 after closing the last of five restaurants he had owned.

"I gave the money back to the car owners and said give me a better car," Mr. Hutchins said last year. "I just loved automobiles. I spent my whole life in racing, and I don't know anything I'd trade for it."

Survivors include his wife of 36 years, Connie Tinsley Hutchins; son Richard Bradley Jr. of Richmond; daughter Cynthia Hall of Williamsburg; brother Carl W. "Piggy" Hutchins of Richmond and a grandson.

sounds like someone I would have liked to have known....thanks...

Found this excerpt from The Free Lance Star of Fredericksburg, Va. March 16, 1978 coverage of Sonny Hutchins' win in the day before's Dogwood 500 Late Model Sportsman race at Martinsville confirming that Sonny did indeed take out Earnhardt in consecutive Virginia Late Model Sportsman events! Sonny said he didn't see developing action at Martinsville soon enough to brake in time... an oft used Sonny line, usually given with a wink!

Ellis Hutchins Feud Heats Up by the great Roy Dunn - The Free Lance Star of Fredericksburg, Va. May 5, 1978

Damned, we had some great weekly racing in Virginia in the 60s-70s!

I sure wish someone would write a book about those days, racing 5-7 nights week there's bound to be some great stories.

June 4, 1980 Ellis, Hendrick Fight at South Boston -

Another good story - thanks. I was at Southside Speedway the very first night Tommy drove in Late Model Sportsman and he spun Ray Hendrick. The following Friday night, Ray put a move on Tommy coming out of turn two. It took two wreckers to lift Tommy's #4x back over that steel boiler plate wall on the backstretch!

I guess the one I remember most was when Al Grinnan was driving Coleman Mann's #00 and after beating Tommy in the feature, Ellis rear ended Al and started pushing him all over Southside's dirt infield while Al had the brakes locked on the orange #00. Good thing no vehicles parked in the Southside infield back in the day.

Saw a few Sonny and Tommy confrontations, but was not at Langley Field the night Tommy rear ended the winning car of Bill Dennis on pit road and was suspended from NASCAR competition for a while. Likewise, I was not at Franklin County the night they had to turn the lights off and have the Sheriff's deputies escort Terrible Tommy out under the cover of darkness.

I saw great dirt racing when I lived in Wilson, NC at Wilson, Wake County and Chantilly. I had the jobs of a lifetime allowing me to travel to all the Cup races and supporting LMS and baby grand shows all over the country between 1980 - 1999.

And, as much as I loved our Saturday night dirt racing at Wilson, nothing can ever compare to my Friday night trips to Southside in Richmond between 1964 - 1979. Having Ray Hendrick, Eddie Crouse, Runt Harris, Ted Hairfield, Sonny Hutchins, Bill Dennis, Paul Radford, Joe Henry Thurman, Bubba Tatum, Al Grinnan, Perk Brown, Hank Thomas, Red Foote, Gene Lovelace, Lennie Pond, Jimmy Hensley, Billy Hensley, Eddie Royster and so many other greats contesting a strip of 1/3rd-mile asphalt at the same time was breathtaking!

On several occasions I drove a group of Wilson dirt competitors up to Richmond on Friday night and even they couldn't believe what they were seeing as we sat in the old turn one grandstand with the cars coming straight at us.

Back in those days, our routine was always Southside on Friday night and often South Boston on Saturday night, with infrequent trips to Langley Field and only the really big races at Old Dominion.

I've worked with Dale Earnhardt and Davey Allison and other great Cup drivers, but never, ever do I expect to get the chills and thrills of a Friday night at Southside Speedway, especially when the Winston-Salem boys would venture up and get their tails whipped or when Pressley, Gant, Shepherd, Lowe and Waltrip would come around and receive the same treatment.

The only "outsider" who really had a handle on Southside when I saw races was Bobby Allison in his modified, although I did see Donnie win the Virginia 400 when so many modifieds caught fire in turns 3-4 and burned up. To my regret, I never saw Eddie Flemke at Southside.

I especially loved going to the huge Bill Bogley Gold Trophy races at Old Dominion. Red Farmer, Sam Sommers, Harry Gant and all the hot North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama late model boys would come up, but it was always Ray or Sonny holding the trophy at race end, just like it was at Martinsville twice yearly when the best of the best got together.

One year at Trenton, eight of the top-10 modifieds were Richmond drivers. It was unbelievable.

The weekly racing may be just as great for today's 16 year olds and it may just be the passage of time that makes me feel I watched the very best and it won't be duplicated. But, that's how I feel and how I remember it.

Wow Dave, what great stories,based on those memories alone I'd say you were lucky to have witnessed the best of the best in LMS racing.

June 15, 1978 Ellis Has New Image After Suspension - Roy Dunn covered this one!

I would really liked to have been at Langley Field on the nights when they honored Ray Hendrick and Sonny Hutchins.

By the time the Busch Series (Budweiser Late Model Sportsman) began in 1982, Tommy Ellis had really calmed down.

When the Winston Modified Tour made its first visit to Richmond International Raceway in April 1990, Tommy helped us make a video for the Tour drivers showing them the best lines and acceleration and braking points at the track. Once race weekend arrived, Tommy took all the visiting modified drivers for spins around the Richmond track in our pace car. It was quite a change from those days in the 70s.