Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Hey Bill Brodrick aka Bill Broderick, "The Hat Man", are you still riding the motor scooter or the Union 76 Travco motor home??

Stock Car Racing History

May 28, 1972 - Buddy Baker wins his 2nd World 600

Stock Car Racing History

I was there, Chase and you're correct.... Baker's #11 Petty Enterprises STP ride was indeed a retina-burner, especially for those of us still seething over Pete Hamilton's departure and Baker's arrival at the Level Cross operation.

Racing History Minute, May 28, 1955

Stock Car Racing History

Racing History Minute, May 28, 1955

Stock Car Racing History

Marker flags NASCAR landmark

Published: October 21, 2010

Raleigh News & Observer

By STAFF WRITER MATT EHLERS

RALEIGH Gov. Bev Perdue helped unveil a marker Wednesday at the N.C. State Fairgrounds commemorating the old dirt race track where NASCAR's first legends helped build the sport.

WRAL Television

Perdue was joined by Junior Johnson, who in 1955 held the lead in the first NASCAR-sanctioned race at the speedway, before the race was called for rain. The half-mile oval track had opened in 1928, the year the fair moved to its current location.

WRAL Television

Richard Petty won the track's last NASCAR race in 1970. The final race of any kind at the track took place in the early 1990s, when the fair held a harnessracing exhibition.

Today the space in front of the fair grandstands is used for tractor pulls, stunt shows and demolition derbies. Six years ago, the track's far straightaway was turned into an area for parking and midway rides.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/21/752718/marker-flags-nascar-landmark.html#storylink=cpy

At some point enough is too much

Current NASCAR

I very occassionally went to The Attache on West Broad near Libbie, almost across from Bill's BBQ. Sonny's brother, Piggy held court there and even had a big punching bag downstairs and the after hours place upstairs.

When Piggy died in 2006, Style Weekly did a piece that included the names of many of the famous Richmond bars operated by Sonny:

Remembrance: Carl Woodrow "Piggy" Hutchins
1924-2006

As a champion boxer, Hutchins taught young fellas to fight. As a wry club owner, he coaxed couples to dance. And as a beloved "daddy," he showed his blithe daughters how to stand on their own two feet.

Hutchins grew up in Richmond in the post-Depression era, when almost everybody was poor. Fighting with gloves was free. It's how Hutchins made a name for himself as the "most popular boxer" in a 1940 Golden Gloves tourney in Richmond, a win that was followed by a 32-bout winning streak. But coming of age for a good ol' boy meant the marriage of dropping out and signing up. Hutchins joined the U.S. Navy, but he kept on boxing.

He returned to Richmond with wins under his belt and a new kind of confidence. He fancied life as a prizefighter. His class: flyweight. In 1946, he took his chances, training hard in New York City with Chris Dundee, a big-time fight promoter. A broken hand brought Hutchins home. His career of pro and amateur fights boasted 79 wins and just five losses.

"You never get the whole package," Hutchins was fond of saying, as if shrugging off regret, good-humoredly, were the only way to truly live. When he could no longer fight, he began teaching local boys, opening the West End Athletic Club at Second and Broad streets.

Out of the ring, he was anything but regular. He got a hair transplant to mask his baldness, then took great joy in shocking people when it turned out horribly. He played pranks on the unwitting. He had an imaginary friend, Links McFadden, whom he jokingly invoked until his death.

Spanning five decades, Hutchins and his brothers owned and ran some of the most legendary restaurants and clubs in town. First, there was Piggy's at Mulberry and Cary streets. Then there were ventures with his brother Ernest Lloyd "Sonny" Hutchins, a former race-car driver. They included Dino's, The Tiki and The Hut. Most famous, perhaps, and most recent was Piggy's Attache, a restaurant and after-hours club on West Broad Street near Libbie, where Hutchins relished greeting customers in his barbershop-style chair. Piggy's, which started as a tavern in 1968, remained in business until 2002.

"He was just a hell of a boxer and a hell of a guy," says John "Siggy" Chapman, 68. Hutchins taught Chapman how to fight. Throughout his life, people of all sorts gravitated to Hutchins, Chapman says.

Hutchins is survived by his wife, Lottie Loftis Hutchins, and his daughters, Vicki Turner and Toni McCracken, a senior account representative at Style.

Grown men cried at his funeral last week. Friend Hazel Childress smiled. Childress, 80, remembers their last kiss. It was a few weeks ago at the nursing home where she had visited Hutchins twice a week since he'd been ill, she says. Leaving, she bent to kiss him on the cheek, but he stopped her. Childress recalls: "He told me, 'Kiss me on the mouth because I'm telling you goodbye.'"

At some point enough is too much

Current NASCAR

Both DW & Dale called Sonny the dirtiest driver they ever raced, lol, and Jimmy Spencer said he taught him all of his moves! Sonny spun Dale back to back LMS races at Richmond and Martinsville! You knew when Sonny was around you'd get a good story and a good laugh.

At some point enough is too much

Current NASCAR

Yes, she really did say that... about Mikey and his comments at las Vegas

At some point enough is too much

Current NASCAR

DW just couldn't "Get No Respect" from Richmond's Ray Hendrick. This incident between Ray & DW also occurred in 1974 when DW in that same #84 RC Alexander Ford tried to pass Ray in the Tant/Mitchell "Flyin #11" at Nashville in the Permatex 200! I don't recall hearing DW talk about this one either. Matter of fact, DW also came to Southside Speedway in Richmond several times and each time got his lunch handed to him. But, he never talks about it. The last party ever given for Ray before he died of cancer in 1990 was staged by his biggest rival, Sonny Hutchins. Of great note to me is the attendance of Richard Petty at that event. Tells me a great deal about both Ray and Richard.

Photographer unknown as posted on Nashville Fairgrounds Remembered @ Comcast.net.

At some point enough is too much

Current NASCAR

Speaking of RC Alexander, Chase... it was the RC Alexander #84 Ford Joe Carver brought to Langley Field Speedway in Hampton, Virginia for DW to drive in the 3-car match race with Ray Hendrick and Sonny Hutchins in 1974. I have never once heard DW discuss the outcome of that match race!

A Crowd-pleasing Race To Remember
January 30, 2000

By AL PEARCE Daily Press

Many local race fans still fondly recall the Saturday night in July of 1974 when Langley Speedway promoter Joe Carver posted $1,000 for a winner-take- all match race featuring local favorites Sonny Hutchins and Ray Hendrick against soon-to-be Winston Cup star Darrell Waltrip.

Oh, what a night!

Hutchins and Hendrick were enormously popular short-track legends. They were familiar faces at Langley, where they had raced their Modified and Late Model Sportsman cars during the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s.

Hendrick drove the No. 11 Chevrolet owned and prepared by Clayton Mitchell and Jack Tant. Hutchins drove the No. 01 Chevrolet owned by Emanuel Zervakis. Waltrip brought his No. 84 Ford owned by R.C. Alexander and sponsored by Harpeth Ford in their hometown of Owensboro, Ky.

The race was the first of what would be several Langley Speedway appearances by Waltrip. He flew in from Tennessee as a special favor to Carver, with whom he'd established a strong professional relationship during the late 1960s and early 1970s at Nashville Speedway.

Carver displayed the $1,000 in a briefcase handcuffed to a security guard's wrist. The 15-lap race featured a rolling start after each driver drew for his starting position.

Hendrick drew the pole and Hutchins drew the outside of Row 1. The fact that Waltrip was relegated to the second row was just fine with the huge crowd that was definitely pro- Hendrick/Hutchins.

It was over almost as quickly as it started. Hendrick took the lead into Turn 1 and gently pulled away from Hutchins. Waltrip fell back on the start and slowed on the 10th lap, his engine cooked by a broken timing chain on the start.

Hendrick won easily and proudly took possession of his $1,000 payoff. Months later, word circulated that Hendrick, Hutchins and Waltrip had decided ahead of time to split the money evenly regardless of who won.

"Maybe Ray and Darrell split it 50/50,'' Hutchins said when told what people were saying. "I sure didn't get my cut. Maybe I'd better drop by Ray's place and see what's up.''

At some point enough is too much

Current NASCAR

Sarah Palin pretty well summed up the feelings of many over the Waltrip brothers antics in the broadcast booth with her tweet following the Las Vegas March race: