Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

All this Talk about the Convertible Division, How about the Short Track Division?

Stock Car Racing History

What an amazing story, Randy. Thanks for finding and posting.

All this Talk about the Convertible Division, How about the Short Track Division?

Stock Car Racing History

What a terrific photo, Randy! Thanks.

All this Talk about the Convertible Division, How about the Short Track Division?

Stock Car Racing History

Here's a 2009 National Speed Sport News column by Gary London:

Jim Reed Once Won Five-Straight NASCAR New Car Titles
by Gary London

VALLEY STREAM, N.Y.
Another season is winding down and it looks like Jimmie Johnson is stinking up another Chase despite the overblown blather of TV commentators.

Much is being made over Johnson winning a fourth-straight Cup title. Actually someone else did win five-consectutive NASCAR new car titles. He was Jim Reed of Peekskill, N.Y. Reed was the kingpin of the NASCAR short-track division.

First, many of you need to be caught up in NASCAR history. Big Bill France started it in 1947. The first division was the modifieds. A sportsman class was added, but they raced with the modifieds and had a separate point tally. In 1949 came the Strickly Stock/grand national division later known as the Cup series.

It wasnt all easy. France found himself with competition. The AAA, which ran Indy-car racing, started a stock-car division. In fact, AAA had a better roster of drivers. Even Marshall Teague, who lived in Daytona Beach, Fla., went with AAA.

France countered with a speedway-car division, made up of old Indy cars with stock-block motors. It lasted a year. NASCAR ran midgets, too, for seven years. France started the short-track division to run more races at tracks the Grand National division didnt run. In 1956, a convertible division was added. These actually werent ragtops; the hard tops were cut off, but were often put back on.

There were also races when the cars with tops ran with those without them. With the short-track circuit, drivers were free to pick their spots.

Reed was a short-track demon. Whether dirt or asphalt, he was hard to beat. Not just a bull-ring expert, he followed a fourth- and a second-place finish in the Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway with a win in 1959. He was champion of the short tracks from 1953-57. Like other drivers of the day, Reed was a first-rate mechanic.

Driving Chevrolets most of his career, Reed was offered a ride from Pete DePaolo, Fords racing head. After the factory pulled out, he was back in a Bowtie.

An accident forced Reed to retire in 1963. At age 83, he operates a Mitsubishi truck agency near his lifelong home.

With an insipid Chase as part of another ho-hum season, NASCAR steadfastly refuses to change the dreaded CoT. I have a suggestion which some would say is over the top, but doing nothing isnt a good idea either.

Next year, designate a half dozen or so races at various track configurations and throw the rule book out. Aside from cubic inches and weight, let the NASCAR crew chiefs, many of whom are very creative, run what they want. Confiscate the cars and set up the new rules using settings from the cars that race the best, not necessarily the fastest.

NASCAR is still using the excuse that it wont alter the cars for the sake of the manufacturers. Face it: The cars teams run today all look alike and dont exist. Try to buy a two-door rear-wheel drive car with a V-8. Toyota never made a V-8 for consumer cars until it ran NASCAR. Have teams put the car makers name on the roof.
I dont expect NASCAR to take suggestions from me or anyone else. Therefore, you can expect the same show that has resulted in more empty seats and lower TV ratings than ever.

- The small town of Vallejo, Calif., is apparently a breeding ground for millionaire sports stars. Both Jeff Gordon and Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia were born there.

Doing PR for Balloon Boy at 25 Emerson Place, Valley Stream, N.Y. 11580. E-mail to Racewri771@AOL.com.

All this Talk about the Convertible Division, How about the Short Track Division?

Stock Car Racing History

Here's an excerpt about Jim Reed in a 2008 story in the Middletown, NY Times Herald-Record about him running the Montgomery Air Force Base Grand National race in 1960:

Reed was the Yankees of NASCAR's short-track circuit. On tracks of less than one-half mile, he won the championship every year from 1953 to 1957. A winning streak never duplicated. In 1960, he arrived at the airport having won three short-track races in less than a week, the last in Old Bridge, N.J., where he beat Lee Petty.

But Montgomery was a Grand National race, and at 2 miles, the airport track was one of the longer ones on the schedule.

All this Talk about the Convertible Division, How about the Short Track Division?

Stock Car Racing History

I, too, meant to thank Jim for his post and didn't in my haste to try to find some more information about it. I was not familiar with the NASCAR Short Track Division until I read Jim's post above.

Itonically, RR member, TooMuchCountry (Chase) had asked me the very same day about a specific race at Norfolk, Virginia's Princess Anne Speedway, operated by Joe Weatherly and Paul Sawyer during this time period. He'd seen a newspaper article but couldn't locate the event in any data base.

Now I'm wondering if the race Chase read about was in Big Bill's Short Tarck series. Thanks again, Mr. Streeter.

All this Talk about the Convertible Division, How about the Short Track Division?

Stock Car Racing History

Curtis Turner Event Reminder! This Weekend!

General

The Roanoke Times & World News EDITOR'S PICK Event!

Grit and Guts: Dirt Racing in Virginia

A Racing History Minute - April 10, 1971

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks Tim and the other contributors. Always like to see credit given where it is due.

Thrown Under the Bus? That's Mark Martin, Ivan Baldwin, Bob Fox, Derrike Cope, Ron Eaton and More - "Ivan the Terrible" Made Bill Elliott a Short Track Winner

Stock Car Racing History

and here's a good 1987 article about Ivan & Bill Elliott by the late Shav Glick in the Los Angeles Times:

Elliott May Have Edge in the Short Run With Addition of Baldwin

February 12, 1987|SHAV GLICK

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. When Bill Elliott collected a $1-million bonus in 1985 for winning superspeedway races at Daytona, Talladega and Darlington, he said, "Even if I win six million, I'll still do all the chassis work on my cars myself."

Last Nov. 15, he drove a Grand American car at Riverside that had been built and prepared by Ivan Baldwin of Modesto.

Less than a month later, Elliott hired Baldwin to do the chassis work on the Ford Thunderbirds he will drive on the Winston Cup circuit.

Last Monday, Elliott won the pole for Sunday's Daytona 500 with a remarkable qualifying speed of 210.364 m.p.h. It was more than 5 m.p.h. faster than his own track record.

Today, he is expected to dominate his heat in the twin 125-mile races that will establish the 42-car starting grid for Sunday's race.

For all this, Elliott gives much of the credit to Baldwin, 40, once the scourge of Southern California short tracks.

"What makes this year special is that we have much better organization," Elliott said. "Having Ivan watching over the chassis work frees me for administration duties and working with our sponsors."

Baldwin, who has been a race car builder in Modesto for most of the last 11 years, has moved his family to Dawsonville, Ga., about 75 miles north of Atlanta.

Baldwin and his wife, Arlene, were raised in the San Bernardino area, and lived in Highland when Ivan was known as Pigpen and was winning races at Speedway 605 in Irwindale and the Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino.

"We love it in Dawsonville," Baldwin said. "The first day we arrived we saw a house we liked and bought it the next day. The people, all 600 of them, are really friendly."

In Dawsonville, he will direct a crew of 12 on the six or so Thunderbirds that Elliott has ready for superspeedway, short track and road races.

"It's funny, how it happened," Baldwin said. "My wife and I were looking for something different to do. I was about fed up with building cars for guys who weren't taking racing seriously and I wanted to get out of that. Maybe out of racing altogether."

About that time, Butch Stevens, the jack man on Elliott's crew, called to ask if Elliott could rent Baldwin's Grand American Thunderbird to drive at Riverside the day before the Winston Western 500.

Stevens had worked for Baldwin a few years earlier in Modesto.

"I flew to Nashville and we put the deal together," Baldwin said. "It was the first time I'd really met Elliott."

In the race, Elliott appeared to have it won until the fuel pump broke.

"That was the best handling car I've ever been in," Elliott said after climbing out of the Thunderbird.

Shortly after that, Elliott called to ask Baldwin if he'd like to go to work for him.

"It took us four days to decide," Baldwin said. "I wouldn't have done it with any other team, but the Elliotts have the same professional approach to racing that I have.

"Most of the guys on the West Coast that I'd been working for treat racing as a hobby. I couldn't get any feedback from them, so every now and then I'd have to make a comeback and race myself to see how the new things were working."

Last year, after helping 58-year-old Hershel McGriff win the Winston West stock car championship, Baldwin went racing in the same T-Bird that Elliott drove at Riverside. In five races, he set fast time at all five, and won the Orange Show Stadium main event.

Jerry Baxter, who had worked with Baldwin the last six years, bought the car building business in Modesto and will also work with McGriff in defense of his championship.

"What helps me (in setting up chassis) is that I've driven so much, I can feel what the driver feels in the car," Baldwin said.

Before Baldwin moved to Modesto in 1975 to drive for Jack McCoy in the Winston West series, he had won the track championship at 605 for four straight years, and at the Orange Show Speedway once.

Baldwin's experience with setting up cars for short track races is expected to be a bonus for Elliott. Though one of the finest superspeedway and road course drivers on the NASCAR circuit, he has had his problems on short tracks. He has never won, for instance, at Bristol, Martinsville, North Wilkesboro or Richmond.

It was Elliott's inability to run well on the bullrings that allowed Darrell Waltrip to edge out of the 1985 Winston Cup championship, even though Elliott won a record 11 races and Waltrip won only 3.

"Ivan's experience on the short tracks out in California should make a big difference in our preparation," Elliott said.

Thrown Under the Bus? That's Mark Martin, Ivan Baldwin, Bob Fox, Derrike Cope, Ron Eaton and More - "Ivan the Terrible" Made Bill Elliott a Short Track Winner

Stock Car Racing History

I wonder how many of our members - like Georgia racing historian, Cody Dinsmore, realize it was Ivan Baldwin who is given credit for making Bill Elliott a short track winner and making "coil over" a suspension of choice?

Here's a YouTube tribute to Ivan, who passed in 1996, (posted by draginjim) as well as a synopsis of his career by the poster following the video.

IVAN BALDWIN CAREER SYNOPSIS / POSTHUMOUS TRIBUTE

Ivan Baldwin, started his racing career in 1966 with little fanfare, other than being suspended for the '67 season after a dispute with an official.

In '68 he was back, winning for the first time on September 29th at Orange Show Speedway. By the early 70's he'd won many Southern California races, and points championships five times at three tracks in '73 and '74, driving cars that he had built. You see, not only could Ivan Baldwin drive a race car ,he was a master mechanic as well.

By the end of '74 Ivan and his friend and confidant, Gary Nelson, had caught the eye of Winston West regular Jack McCoy and soon joined the growing McCoy Racing Products team, operating the West car and others. In 1976 Ivan won 28 of 44 races entered, including two Riverside races and the International Driver's Championship in the Pacific Northwest.

Ivan, along with Carrera shock maker Dick Anderson, pioneered the coil-over suspension design and, with Gary Nelson's vital role in development, produced what would become the standard for late model cars of the future.

In late'76 , after receiving offers to join the new DiGard team for whom Darrell Waltrip was driving, Nelson decided to head South. Gary won with Ivan for the last time at Riverside in January of '77, and left for Daytona.

This split became a turning point for Ivan as well. He left the successful McCoy operation and opened his own shop with his friend Arley Cook.

He worked with Kenny Boyd in 1980, and they won 22 feature events together. Then in '82 and '83 he worked with Tim Gillett, and in '84 they won the Stockton Speedway Championship.

Ivan won a Winston West championship as crew chief with the legendary Hershel McGriff in 1986, and then built a Thunderbird for Tony Oddo, and it ran well, winning a Winston West race at Stockton the first time out.

Shortly after that, when Bill Elliott needed a car for Riverside, a deal was struck, and Bill drove that T-Bird. Bill hot-lapped the car and was so impressed that a car, built by this obscure car builder that he had never heard of before, could run so well.

The following year, Baldwin sold his shop and moved east, joining Elliott. The story goes that he taught Elliott how to win on short tracks.

"Ivan the Terrible" as he was known to friends and adversaries alike, grew up on the short tracks of Southern California, but he is renowned thoughout the stock car racing world as one of the best chassis men of all time.

Let's welcome his long time friend Gary Nelson to present this well-deserved Award to Ivan's daughter Tammy .