Further elaborating on Gene Granger vs. Buck Baker, please check this 1972 Gene Granger story link:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19720526&id=...
This is worthy of a Bobby Williamson Tuesday night tale... involving short track racing, a blackjack, a pistol, Buck Baker and H.B. Bailey. And if Jack Walker is sitting next to Bopper, the incident took place in West (by gawd) Virginia!
We obviously can't blame Gene's Rossi to Andretti typo on "Spellcheck" - although Gene later had numerous computers in his wonderful Spartanburg basement office in the early 80s when nobody else had one at home. Can't justify the year Petty switched to Plymouth either. As Chase said, Gene had a really bad day.
Funny/ironic that Gene's name would pop up today. I was just looking at Gene's 2005 obituary over the weekend.
I was big fan of Gene's and spent uncounted hours on the telephone with him as well as in that wonderful office he maintained in the basement of his Spartanburg, SC home. Gene was an unbelievable pre-internet researcher and could also be a mighty pest. Just ask my wife how many times our dinner was interupted by a call from Gene!
Near the end of his career, Gene became paranoid that NASCAR had bugged his office. He had a treadle switch under his desk that activated a tape recorder that he used to record all conversations, unknown to most callers.
Gene's office held, in addition to multiple computers in the 80s, a beautiful barber's chair, a magnificent Wurlitzer jukebox and a traffic signal. Down the walll from the copiers and around the corner was a beer keg in a refrigerator given him by Falstaff. Gene's wonderful wife, Anne made trips to pick up a new keg whenever the one in the keg cooler got low.
I've never been around a writer who wanted to get it correct any more than Gene did. That makes the article above very unusual.
Back when the SMPA/NMPA first proposed Buck Baker for its Hall of Fame at Darlington, it was Gene who discovered that Buck had come back and run a race making him ineligible for a period of several more years. During one of that year's Charlotte races, Gene got a knock on his door at the old Ramada Inn off I-85 behind a now defunct steakhouse popular with the racers.
When Gene opened the motel door, Buck delivered a knockout punch to Gene's nose, breaking it. Gene was definitely a battle tested writer.
Gene was also a smart writer.
He befriended the wives and girlfriends of drivers and car owners and got their private home telephone numbers. When he needed info, he called the wives and girlfriends when the owners and drivers were out of town. I have sat across the desk from him when he called Harry Ranier's wife to get info nobody else could unearth. That's how he operated.
To say that Gene Granger would make the short list of most memorable characters I met in racing would be an understatement. I was honored in December 1981 when his annual year end awards column in Grand National Scene newspaper named me as the individual contributing the most to NASCAR Grand National Stock Car Racing for 1981 with my management of the Wrangler Jeans racing program.
Gene was a wonderful guy for taking deserving newcomers under his wing. He did that for me. He did that for a young Deb Williams, one of the most talented writers I've known. Here's what Deb wrote as a memorial statement tribute for Gene at his funeral home's tribute page:
While a young reporter with United Press International, I possessed a strong desire to become a full-time motorsports writer. In fact, it was this desire that led me into journalism. When I was sent to cover a race at North Wilkesboro [N.C.] Speedway, I met Gene and he saw my passion for the sport. He took me under his wing that day and for the next 20 years he guided and coached me along the way, often providing me with tips on stories that helped me emerge as a top reporter in the business. For the Gene Granger I knew to make both of those monumental errors in the same story, it was definitely a bad day. I sure do miss Gene and other "old school" writers like him who knew their racing and were unswayed by PR folks. I am sad to report though, Chase, that Gene's office was full of David Pearson / Purolator memorabilia! |
William Thomas Gurley, Jr. DAVIDSON - William Thomas Gurley Jr., 62, of Davidson, N.C., died Saturday, January 25, 2014, at the Serenity House in Mooresville, N.C. He was born on November 20, 1951 in Iredell County and was the son of the late William Thomas Gurley, Sr. and Dorothy Gibson Gurley. He was a 1970 graduate of North Mecklenburg High School, caretaker at Memory Lane Museum in Mooresville and a member at Hopewell Baptist Church in Davidson. Survivors include his wife, Patti Campbell Hamrick of Huntersville; William "Billy" T. Gurley, III of Davidson; a brother, James "Jimmy" Gurley and wife Sherri of Mooresville; sisters, Janet Harwell and husband Eddie of Cleveland, N.C, and Linda Gurley of Davidson. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 2:00 PM, at Hopewell Baptist Church with Sammy Pierce officiating. Burial will follow in church cemetery. The family received friends on Monday, January 27, 2014 at James Funeral Home. Memorials can be made to Hopewell Baptist Church, 18841 Davidson-Concord Road, Davidson, N.C. 28036 and / or Carolina Comfort Coalition, C/O Serenity House, 110 Centre Church Road, Mooresville, N.C. 28117. James Funeral Home of Huntersville is serving the family of Mr. Gurley Jr. and online condolences can be made to jamesfuneralhomelkn.com .- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/charlotte/obituary.aspx?n=william-gurley&pid=169372220&fhid=13225#sthash.xxbjNdkP.dpuf
Saddened to hear of the loss of your dear friend. Thoughts and prayers to all of Tommy's family and friends.
This has been a good series, Tim. Thanks.
No comment........
Jan 23, 3:05 PM EST
NASCAR reinstates suspended MWR executive Norris
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- NASCAR reinstated Michael Waltrip Racing executive Ty Norris on Thursday, though he remains on indefinite probation.
Norris was suspended indefinitely in September after the race team was caught trying to manipulate the finish of a Sprint Cup race at Richmond International Raceway. Norris was heard on radio ordering driver Brian Vickers to pit to help teammate Martin Truex Jr.'s finishing position.
The fallout from the scandal: Truex lost his spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, MWR was fined $300,000 and sponsor NAPA left the organization. The team also was forced to lay off 15 percent of its workforce, and Norris was demoted from general manager to executive director for business development.
Norris no longer spots in a NASCAR national series. Also, MWR downsized from three full-time teams to two, and Truex left for Furniture Row Racing.
"I appreciate NASCAR's action today and respect their position," Norris said in a statement. "I am focused forward and dedicated to the success of Michael Waltrip Racing and the continued growth of a sport that has been my home for the past 24 years."
Tim... this is one of those deals where only time will tell. The old adage usually runs true, though, about blood being thicker than water and racing is no exception.
I'll tell a different story here... about Richard and the Dillon boys' mother, Tina, who married driver, Mike Dillon when she grew up.
When we cut the Wrangler deal at Talladega to have Richard Childress get out of his car in August 1981 and be replaced by Dale Earnhardt, there were certain expectations.... such as promoting our product, Wrangler Jeans and always portraying the product in a positive light.
On Monday morning following our deal with Childress, we happened to have our Wrangler show car booked for an appearance at the Wrangler Ranch store inside Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem, just up Highway 52 from Childress' tiny race shop.
Before lunch, I got a call from the store manager that he was having a problem with our show car driver flirting with his female store personnel and female customers. I immediately drove from Greensboro to Winston-Salem and sent the show car driver on an all afternoon break and manned the exhibit myself.
Around mid-afternoon, I looked across the aisle from our Wrangler store at the entrance to the Levis jeans store. Walking out of that store was Childress and his young daughter, Tina - clutching Levis bags. On the very first day of our Wrangler sponsorship with him, Childress had taken his daughter ( the mother of the future Dillon boys) shopping in public for merchandise from our #1 competitor in his hometown. I was livid, but did not want to make a scene in public with his child present. However, I did walk over and call out his name and say hello at which point he turned 7 shades of red.
When I got back to my home in Greensboro that night I was ranting and raving and so upset by what Childress had done. My feeling was that I couldn't trust him. My wife calmed me down. She reminded me that my two daughters also preferred Levis to Wranglers at the time and that Richard was only trying to please his daughter. At Michigan the following week, I cautioned RC not to be seen in public with merchandise from our competitor and never mentioned it again.
I still have a feeling of betrayal 33 years later over that flaunting of our competitor's merchandise in public by RC and my wife stiill tells me I was wrontg... that there are just some things you have to do for your children.
I hope the grandsons are not spoiled brats. Again, only time will how tell how this "Silver Spoons" episode turns out.
By the way, the kid in the television show was Ricky Schroder, who later went on to play on one of those gritty NBC cop shows. I watched exactly one episode of "Silver Spoons" and about puked.
However, I have on VHS tape a 1980 made for TV movie with Schroder in the lead role playing "Little Lord Faunleroy" oppite the great actor Alec Guiness. Evey few Christmasses, we pull out that tape and watch it as a family. He gave a good performance, but how could you not opposite the guy who won the Oscar for " Bridge on the River Kwai" and played Obi in the "Star Wars" movies?!
Thank you, Tim, for the great series of Riverside race recaps you have authored for us.
For those trying to picture the Riverside layout and terrain, here is a 1982 aerial photo by a gentleman named Todd as posted at the site www.tamsoldracecarsite.net :
