The RacersReunion Story
As creator of RacersReunion.com, Im living a dream. I only wish my father were alive to see and hear first-hand the conversations were having with the guys who were his heroesand consequently became mine. Many Sunday afternoons at our home in Northeast TN, Dad and I sat together in the backyard under a shade tree listening to the race on the AM radio station of our 1956 Buickor the 1961 Corvair. Occasionally, Uncle Sammy would join us and bring his 1959 Ford. Then Uncle Sammy bought a brand new 1962 Ford Galaxy 500with the good speakers. Man, that car was nice. Red with a white convertible top; had a 406-cubic inch beast of an engine with three, two-barrel carbs.I remember hearing the names of Fireball Roberts, Fred Lorenzen, Lee and Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, David Pearson and Ned Jarrett. I can still hear Dad commenting, during a Daytona race, after the radio announcer mentioned the name Paul Lewis, Thats Paul Lewis, from (nearby) Johnson City.As time went by throughout the 70s and 80s, my love for the sport grew. Dad and I watched as a new crop of drivers emerged with guys like Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin, Bill Elliot, and Darrell Waltrip making names for themselves. The sport was growing and changing every year.Moving forward to 1999 at the Kingsport Speedway, I made my Late Model Stock debut after finally making the move from dirt track racing. Kingsport Speedway had recently been concreted, and we were struggling. We had qualified dead last when I noticed a gentleman standing nearby, watching us attentively. My mechanic, the late Dickey Lee Whitehead, said Man, who is that guy? Hes watching us like a hawk. Eventually, the fellow came over and offered to help. He asked, What do you need? To which I replied, Knowledge. He said he had some, and if I wished, he could help. And did he ever. After asking many questions, he made recommendations for change, which we did. Then he walked me around the track, telling me how to enter and exit each corner. That night, I finished a very respectable 11th place after making my way up to 7th, then pitting due to a throttle-linkage problem. After the race, the gentleman handed me his business card and told me to contact him the next time we practiced. As I was walking back to the trailer reading his name, Paul Shull came up and asked, What was Paul Lewis doing in your pit? Then it all came back. I couldnt wait to tell Dad that one of his heroes had helped me at the track. Dad passed away about a month later, after a year-long battle with cancer.Paul Lewis stayed with me for the balance of that season, which was only a couple more races. He agreed to become my crew chief if I promised to try what ever he suggested. Well, I promised, and with his guidance and mentoring, the very next season we sat on 15 poles, won 13 of 22 races, set a track record for qualifying, and won a Championship. Do you think he helped? Paul can still be found around the short tracks of the southeast mentoring up-and-coming drivers and giving his time to help any of his fellow retired drivers in need.Pauls passion is to bring recognition to the veterans of stock car racing and the contributions they made to the sport. He holds an annual event in Northeast TN called, of all things, Racers Reunion. In January 2008, at Pauls suggestion, I went to the Legends-Helping-Legends Benefit for Sam Ard at the Memory Lane Museum in Mooresville, NC. Paul was one of more than 70 drivers there; all these drivers turned out to help a brother in need. I took my video camera and did some (rookie) interviews with several drivers. The turn-out of fans was incredible. Equally impressive: The fans were there not just to see the better-known drivers, but the lesser-known drivers as well. One fan said, Bobby (Allison) and some of those guys have web sites. We dont get to see much of these other guys. She was talking about Dink Widenhouse, Gene Hobby, Bill Hollar, Horace Long, Dick May, and many of the drivers who drove during the sports formative years.Driving home, I couldnt get off my mind the fact that drivers like Sam Ard need help, fans still actively seek out these veteran drivers, and that there is a brotherhood among all these drivers. I knew there was something I could do to make a contribution. And as Paul Harvey said, Now you know the rest of the story. I sat at my computer for the next several days assembling RacersReunion.com. I wanted a user-friendly site allowing interaction among its members. I chose a social network platform and launched the site. I sent the link in an email to about 15 of my friends including my son, Dustin. Since that day, weve only gotten positive feedback and continue growing daily as we introduce younger fans to stock car racings history and stroll down memory lane with veteran fans of NASCAR.So here I am in the middle of something I love dearly, working hand-in-hand with my son Dustin. We travel to events where the veterans congregate, capturing a piece of history. Sadly, each year we lose some of these guys, so its important to capture as much as we can, now.Recently we added RacersReunion Radio, giving us a platform for broadcasting to the world, 24/7, segments of our interviews with various drivers while promoting our network and its sponsors. We are preparing to launch a weekly radio talk show along with many more new and exciting developments.From time to time Im asked what is my vision is for RacersReunion.com. Its this: To be a central location for gathering and sharing information about the history of stock car racing; to keep the veterans of the sport in front of their fans; to help the young fans learn how the sport was born and know the contributions made by the early drivers. The drivers of today did not create their destiny. There would be no NASCAR without the sacrifices of the sports veterans. My ultimate vision for RacersReunion.com: Recognize the sports veterans and use the recognition we gain to help the guys who need it.We hope you enjoy your visit with us and come back often. If you have racing photos, videos, or stories of racings past, we hope you will share them with us. Please tell your friends and family about us.Thanks for stopping by,Jeff Gilder
jeff, one great story thanks
Jeff,What you are doing is fantastic.Really appreciate you story.As I keep saying it's so important that racing history be documented now because once it is lost it's lost forever. Keep up the great work.LAVERNE ZACHARYHISTORIC SPEEDWAY GROUP
I've said it before, but one day, all too soon, the fans of today will be having their own "remember when" moments. You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been, and Nascar has a rich history. Thru this site, you are preserving that history, and in a user-friendly, fun way as well. Keep up the good work!
Jeff, I really appreciate you starting this site. Really enjoyed that story about the creation of it. I guess there isnt a day that goes by that i'm not on here at 30 minutes out of a day. Its basically one of my favorite sites. I have already met alot of great people on this site. Basically my story is my dad as you know him as Frank got me into racing took me to my first race in South Boston, VA in 1979. I remember him telling me at that race I was complaining it was too loud and him thimking to himself oh know my son isnt going to like this very much. But when got home I made his day when I asked him "When are we going again". The one thing I will always remember in my life is how much fun I enjoyed going with my dad to the many races we went too. I bet it was over 200 races we went to. Went to see all divisions with him Winston Cup, Late Model Sportsman(BGN), Winston Modified Tour, Daytona Dash, Late Model Stock, Sprint Cars, and Drag Racing. My moment I will always remember me and him were at 1987 Winston and Dale Earnhardt's famous pass in the grass happened directly in front of me. man was it ever cool and that was my first Winston Cup event I went too. Was that ever a great start. Later me and my dad went into kart racing in 1989 and did it for 4 years. The fun and the stories I have during that time period are priceless. I never won any races but did have a pole position. We never had the equipment to keep up with "Big Dogs". But we didnt run in the back neither. There was a couple of instances we ran with those guys and boy was that a great feeling. And that in my mind is what racing is all about it is about being competitive, but the big thing its about the family aspect. And that is the great thing about this site and going to the get togethers and going to the races. Everybody is a great big family and thats the one thing our sport can say that no other sport in the world can say.Thanks so much and looking forward to many years being on the site,Thomas (Kyle)
Jeff, Thanks for all that you have done, recognizing the heroes, and introducing them to the present generation. Personally, I've always been more interested the stories that history almost missed. The ability to share and exchange such treasures is priceless, and it's what RacersReunion is all about. Thanks!Bobby Williamson
Jeff, What a great web site, I go to it several times a day everyday, but I guess that you know that. I thought at one time that I was the only person left that remembered the good old days of racing, but now I know that I was wrong about that after reading the many stories in the web site.I was so blessed to have a father who was a modified car owner and engine builder back in the 1950's and 1960's who allowed me and my brother to travel to so many race tracks when we were just kids.Sometimes we got to go to the races four times a week to race tracks within a hundred mile radius.On Friday nights we were at Brunswick Speedway in Lawrenceville, VA, a beautiful 1/4 mile red clay dirt track, one of the nicest race tracks in its day, Saturday night we went to Dinwiddie Speedway in Petersburg, VA I saw a lot of good races there, Sunday afternoon we would go to Chinese Corner Speedway in Norfolk, VA or Peanut City Speedway in Suffolk, VA, WE even ran on Tuesday nights in Elizabeth City, NC just to mention a few tracks like Wilson, NC, Richmond Fairgrounds Richmond, VA, Hillsborough, NC and many others.
This is a great site!!! I wish you the absolute best. I know ill be spending some time here for sure!!
Hello Jeff,Thank you for what you have created here at Racers Reunion because it is very, very, very special. Ive been a member for a few years now and truly feel that Racers Reunion is the most important creative force that has happened to Nascar in the last ten years!There is nothing else which even compares with this site!I just read your comment about Dick May giving you the idea for Racers Reunion and I think that is fantastic because Dick May represents completely to me the kind of free spirited American independent that along with others like him truly helped make Nascar into the global phenomenon which it is today.Racers Reunion is so much more than just a stats and records site; its the lifeblood of the past, come alive. A true fraternity, a racing family, just as it is at the track on race day. Hosting the best collection of Stock Car, F1, Dragster Indy/Cart images anywhere on the whole World Wide Web by incredible photographers like Ray Lamm, excellent comments which constantly inform and teach. Excellent radio show which celebrates the personalities and creative geniuses of the motorsport fraternity, listening to them share with us their memories of those wonderful individuals who helped to build the Nascar empire. Here; they, we, everyone is remembered and celebrated on your magnificent site. There are so many who have given so much to make Nascar what it is and Racers Reunion does justice to those who paid the ultimate price for this American passion which we love. It is very important that we remember them, to preserve their integrity and originality for future generations to admire and emulate.Racers Reunion has brought us all together, everyone and anyone who was there when it may have happened. From the cleaners, to the concession workers, the sports journalists and photographers, fans, officials, safety workers, crew members, the drivers and their families, each has a memory which when patched together through the comments or photographs or interviews create a new and exciting image of a time in the not to distant past and still very much alive.Racers Reunion has helped keep the embers of this truly American racing phenomena burning bright, just as Nascar seems to be trying to extinguish those same fires of history in order to replace it with some unknown brave new racing world order. Maybe Nascar needs to run a couple races on dirt again and give all the money to charity?Nascar pays lip service to the most famous names of the recent past but Racers Reunion remembers everyone and it is right that Racers Reunion does this. We should remember them and not just the drivers but everyone who makes up the racing family both then and now. Maybe Curtis Turner should have been allowed to create a drivers union. With widow and child benefits, insurance plans, scholarship funds, competitor protections, etc., then maybe the heroes of yesterday would not be as disposable as the heroes of today seem to become.It seems to me that Nascar only concerns itself with the future but then again maybe it should only think of the future?Maybe yesterdays racers are relics of a forgotten past, buried in the attic, not even able to get into the tracks anymore because Nascar will not renew their licenses. Yet, I feel that those who came before, those who gave all, those who have sacrificed everything to run with the Pettys, Allisons, Johnsons, Bakers, Waltrips and others should also be remembered. Those who came home after a race with a torn up car, home to a house with no electricity or gas or food because everything was put into the car with the hope of a finish in the money, everything for the dream. Earnhardt was the last of that breed of driver, maybe thats why he was the best, he never forgot his roots.Most independents just barely got their cars ready in time to compete and never had much of a chance of winning against the factory teams but they belonged to a fraternity of brothers and that is greater than all the cup championships put together and at least they were still out there. They were there when Petty won his 200th or when Fireball swept Daytona or when a black man won a cup event, or when cars first ventured onto superspeedways for that matter. The days when the innovators and eccentrics helped shape a new sport, a new American Sport. If Nascar keeps going the way it is , it may become like F1, which is a great series but which is also a very closed nit group that is extremely hard to break in to and where a working man cannot even afford to attend much less compete.Thank you for Racers Reunion because the images, the comments, the radio show interviews reminds us of what it is was all about, a time when anyone with the guts and the want-to could give it their best shot. And while they may not have made it to the pinnacle, you offer them a forum where we can read their comments or hear them tell us about their journey because after all so much in life is about the journey, not the destination.Thanks Jeff for helping keep the dream alive for all the young girls and boys who dream of being a driver or a member of a professional racing team, I hope that they will have the opportunity because that is what the future is really about and Racers Reunion provides them with the history to make their dreams become a reality. Because without a history whats the point of a future?A Proud member of Racers Reunion,James Trout
JEFF JUST REMEMBER THAT YOUR DAD IS VERY PROUD OF YOU FOR MAKING THIS IF WASN'T FOR HIM WE ALL COULDN'T BE REALLY GOOD FRIENDS AND BE ABLE TO HEAR FROM ARE TRUE HEROES .THANKS FOR CREATING RACERS REUNION THE GREATEST SITE THERE IS GOD BLESS YOU YOUR FRIEND FOR EVER J.C.