Bill and Roger Baldwin, Sportsman and Modified Team, Belmont, NC

In Belmont, Gaston County, NC, we had a local Sportsman racing team in the late fifties through the early seventies owned by Bill and Roger Baldwin. Bill worked for Duke Power Co. and Roger went to work for Holman-Moody in the late sixties. Pictures and informationare almost non-existent.

My questions are: 1) Does anyone have pictures or documentationof the cars (56 Ford, 61 Ford Fairlane, or the 61 Ford Starliner) that they built; 2)Does anyone have pictures or documentation about the drivers: Roger Baldwin, Carl Burris, Don Bumgarder, and possibly others; 3)What happenened to the cars, 56 Ford, 61 Ford Fairlane, and 61 Ford Starliner when Bill Baldwin sold the cars and parts in the seventies? Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks,

John

Glad you called me and I could help with a couple of your questions. I grew up in Belmont and New Hope and Roger's shop was a frequent stop of mine. Keep me posted on anything especially pictures you come up with about the Baldwins. Charlie Craig

Thanks, Charles,

I'll let you know if I find anything on Bill and Roger.

John

A good source for that era and cars is RacersReunion member Jack Walker's Carolina Raceplace at http://raceplace.zoomshare.com . Especially if those drivers ever ventured down to Rambi Raceway...good chance Jack may have some info. This is one of Jack's pics from his site.

I remember the Baldwin's at Rambi, seems like they were sponsored by "Belmont Body Shop"

Thanks for the info.

John

Let me get up with Jimmy and Tony Austin. I worked for them at Austins Body Shop in the seventies and remember Tony talking about Roger's shop way back then. I remember Precision Electronic Balancing and Dixon Ford as sponsers too. Lewis Stowe did and still does run the balancing shop and his brother Rick was married to Bill's daughter at the time. I went to high school with Roger's daughter Delores but haven't heard from her in YEARS.

Great! Didn't he have a daughter named Dot also?

John, The cars you describe sound like Nascar race cars but I have a picture of Roger Baldwin in a '56 Ford Crown Vic late model sportsman at the old Rockingham Speedway in 1962. Check out the photos on my page. Roger ran at the old dirt track from when when it opened in 1956 thru 1962. Found his name in several news clippings from those years. Ran across Don Bumgarder's name a few times too.

Thanks, Dennis, I'll check out the photos.

The Grand National class ran current year and two years prior, so in 1964 the 1961 Starliner and Fairlane would have fallen down into the Sportsman class. The way I remember it, they built the 61 Ford Fairlane (still a full-sized sedan) with some help from Holman Moody to run in the Sportsman class. I think they ran some tests for H-M in some Modified-Sportsman races. They wanted to run the Permatex Modified-Sportsman race at Daytona, so they swapped the "good stuff" off the Fairlane and built up a Starliner because it was better aerodynamically. The results of that Feb 1966 race show Carl Burris of Leaksville, NC finished 49th in a 61Ford number 9. I remember a picture in Hot Rod Magazine's Roundy-Round Corner several months later showing the back of their car on the hood of another car. A rear window had blown out and wrapped around their front end putting them out. I think they went back to the Fairlane after that. Do you know how long or how many races Don Bumgardner drove for them? or what happened to the cars when they were sold?

Dot was Bill Baldwin's daughter and was married to Rick Stowe at the time. His brother Lewis was the owner of Precision Electronic Balancing in Belmont and Rick was on the crew.My wife's uncle lives on WoodrowAve. in Bemont and is named Eddie Bolen Sr. If I am not mistaken, he bought someof the Baldwin's equipment and they continued to run at Columbia. Eddie was severely injured in a pit road accident at Columbia and can probably fill in some of the blanks for us.

Got another connection there for you in reference to Don Bumgardner. My mother was friends with him and his wife as they came to eat at Lineberger's Fish Fry and Mom waited on them every week and she used to keep me posted on Don's recovery after his near fatal wreck at Concord. He passed away a few years back but I work for his first cousin Laura Bumgardner at the County Police here in Gaston.

I also have a photo I tookof the first Camaro dirt car I ever saw.It was owned by Robert Yates and driven by Don Bumgardner. UNBELIEVABLE races between him, Ralph Earnhardt, and Billy Scott, especially at the old Concord track.

Dennis Andrews has now started a club for Roger Baldwin at this link below:

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/group/roger-baldwin