Those who watched the late Gene Lovelace of Newport News, Virginia race both NASCAR Modifieds and NASCAR Late Model Sportsman cars on dirt and asphalt in later years compared him to Tim Richmond, as much for his partying as for his driving style.
Lovelace had a heart attack at Richmond, Virginia's Southside Speedway on July 3, 1970 following a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman heat race. Lennie Pond drove the feature at Gene's request, unaware that Gene had expired in an ambulance enroute to the hospital.
Gene Lovelace's #31 NASCAR LMS asphalt car in Southside Speedway pits 1970.
Photo by RR member, Dennis Garrett
Gene Lovelace in a dirt NASCAR Modified at Langley Field Speedway in Hampton.
Photo by our late RR member, Jack Carter
Gene Lovelace head stone
Gene was a regular at Hampton, Virginia's Langley Field Speedway and a crowd favorite there. Following Gene's death, it was only appropriate that Langley yearly staged a huge NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Gene Lovelace Memorial race in his honor.
That tradition continued in 1982, the first year of NASCAR's new touring Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series, which became the Busch Series and is this year's Nationwide Series. On August 7, 1982, Langley Field Speedway staged the GENE LOVELACE MEMORIAL 200 NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series race.
Richmonder, Tommy Ellis had won the NASCAR LMS Championship in 1981, the final year of the old Late Model Sportsman Series and "Terrible Tommy" would win 12 poles and 8 races in the first two years of the new touring series. The 1982 Gene Lovelace Memorial, over a stellar field, was one of those wins for Ellis.
Ellis would start on the pole with a qualifying lap of 85.9 mph.
I don't have a writeup for the race, only the rundown from Ultimate Racing History showing the finish order. Ellis beat out Jack Ingram , Sam Ard and Tommy Houston for the win. Ingram and Ard were the only two cars finishing on the lead lap with Ellis. After several years competing in Cup, Ellis returned to the Busch Series with John Jackson's J&J team and again won the NASCAR Busch Series National Championship in 1988.
I'm sure there was some serious rubbing, bumping and framming going on at Langley Field on August 7, 1982.
Note: * 8th place finisher, Charlie Luck of Richmond is Richard Petty's son-in-law.
* 13th place finisher Bud Elliott of Emporia, Va. was Elliott & Hermie Sadler's uncle.
Tommy Ellis was a multi-time winner of the Gene Lovelace Memorial 200 . Here is a writeup from the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star of his win 4 years earlier of the same event in 1978:
--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM