Reading about the festival in Dawsonville, GAthis weekend and it being Talladega weekend, I was thinking about Harry Melling and how quickly he seems to have been forgotten. Harry was a quiet man around the garage and not big on self promotion like a lot of car owners and sponsors - remember, he was both. If not for Harry Melling, most of us probably might never have heard of Bill Elliott or Dawsonville. If not for Harry Melling, some other car would hold the record at Talladega. It's been 12 years now since he died early of a heart attack in 1999.
I fould this little clip written by veteran motorsports writer Al Pearce that appeared in the Newport News, VA Daily Press on the weekend of Harry's death 12 years ago.Let's not forget this man and his contributions to NASCAR stock car racing.
Melling Was Hooked On Racing Instantly
Motorsports Notebook
June 01, 1999
By AL PEARCE Daily Press
The unexpected death Saturday morning of NASCAR team owner Harry Melling brought to mind the story of how he became involved in racing.
Mr. Melling wanted to use the 1980 Gabriel 400 near his home in Jackson, Mich., to promote a new automotive product. The speedway suggested owner M.C. Anderson, who agreed to take Melling Tool as a one-race associate on the No. 27 Chevrolet of Benny Parsons.
When Parsons won the race, Mr. Melling was hooked. Late the next year, even as he sponsored the Bud Moore/Parsons team, Mr. Melling gave an unknown named Bill Elliott $500 for the fall races at Charlotte and Atlanta.
The Elliotts and Mellings got along so well that Mr. Melling bought Elliott's team in 1982. Thus began a 10-year association that produced 40 poles, 34 victories, the 1985 Winston Million, the 1988 Winston Cup and the first of Elliott's 13 Most Popular Driver awards.
"Where would I be without Harry?'' Elliott mused over the weekend. "It's impossible to say. I do know this: He didn't do a little for Bill Elliott, he did a lot. Mostly, he believed in us and stuck with us as we went from getting better to running good to winning races.''
The Late Harry Melling
Above: The 1987 Harry Melling Owned Thunderbird Driven by Bill Elliott That STILL Holds the Fastest Lap Recorded by a Stock Car - Talladega, AL - 212.809 MPH
Above: A Bill Elliott Driven Harry Melling T-Bird / The team was late to switch to the 1983 football shaped aero T-bird, running the "shoebox" at Daytona
Above: Model of Melling sponsored, Benny Parsons driven M.C. Anderson Car
Above:Melling sponsored, Benny Parsons driven Bud Moore Ford
A lot of folks didn't realize that Harry Melling was thought of just as highly in Golf circles as in Stock Car Racing Circles, as noted in this farewell in the publication Michigan Golfer :
By Terry Moore
Harry Melling, owner of Treetops Sylvan Resort in Gaylord, suffered and died from a heart attack on May 29 in Gaylord. Along with Everett Kircher of Boyne and Paul Nine, formerly of Grand Traverse Resort, Melling must be partially credited with jump-starting the northern Michigan golf boom. President of Melling Tool Company and Melling Racing in Jackson, Melling purchased Sylvan Ski Resort in Gaylord in 1983. Soon after he revitalized the sleepy ski resort by convincing legendary course architect Robert Trent Jones to design a championship golf course there. Opened in 1987, it was aptly named Treetops due to the stunning vista offered golfers on the course's downhill par-three sixth hole. Treetops quickly became one of the most popular golf destinations in the state while also providing a tremendous boost to Gaylord tourism and its fledgling golf marketing efforts. With the help of Rick Smith, Treetops energetic and talented Director of Golf with a penchant for not-taking-no-for-an-answer, Melling later hired famed course golf architect Tom Fazio to design a second course at Treetops. "It took us 15 months to get Fazio here," Melling said in an interview, "but once he saw the land, he said there was no problem." At the Fazio Grand Opening dinner in 1992, the taciturn Melling, with his trademark cigar in hand, made an impromptu remark saying his dream was "to have a course at Treetops for every day of the week." His untimely death caused Melling to fall two courses short of his dream, as the Jones and Fazio courses were later joined by two 18-hole courses (Signature and The Tradition) and a nine hole par-3 (Threetops) course, all designed by Smith.
A graduate of Ferris State, Melling succeeded his father Benjamin as President of Melling Tool, a maker of automotive products, in 1975. In 1979, Melling first became involved in NASCAR Winston Cup Racing as a primary sponsor for driver Benny Parsons. In 1988, Melling Racing won top honors in NASCAR competition--the Winston Cup points championship with driver Bill Elliott. In 1997, Winston Cup Scene, an industry NASCAR magazine, named Melling one of the "40 most important people in NASCAR history."
In golf as in racing, Harry Melling knew his way around the track every day of the week .
--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
