I am sorry that I missed former member, Rick Campbell's post about the 1977 movie Stockcar and the historic Richmond photos that he posted.
I worked with Rick's father, the late Kenneth Campbell, for ten years at the Richmond track and had a relationship going back to 1981. At one time, Rick's dad and Paul Sawyer were 50/50 partners in the Richmond track, until Kenneth sold his stock to a consortium of ten Richmond investors including Richard Petty's close friend, Hugh Hawthorne.
Kenneth often lamented having been involved with the film. They tried to make a realistic racing documentary featuring the stars of the day, but were really bamboozled by the distributor.
Rick Campbell's father had many promotional talents outside of racing. He was the east coast booking agent for both Roller Derby and Lawrence Welk. He also was the major booking agent for The Statler Brothers and the Royal Lippazan Stallions, which were housed in horse barns at the Atlantic Rural Exposition fairgrounds site next door to the Richmond track when not on tour. That's also where the huge, portable Roller Derby track was kept between east coast engagements.
When I bought my first race ticket to a NASCAR Cup race in 1964 ($5), it was at the office of Kenneth Campbell - The Campbell Co. - on Belt Boulevard in South Richmond. A desk and a briefcase in that little brick office near Southside Plaza shopping center served as home base, also, for "Paul Sawyer Promotions."
Rick Campbell's dad also organized the famous "Race Trains" that ran from Washington, DC to both Darlington and Rockingham in the 60s & 70s. He also drove the pace car for NASCAR at many events and served as the first spotter for the initial live CBS telecast from Daytona. Campbell managed to get live shots of practice at Richmond races in the early 60s telecast by television station WRVA (across from Junie Donlavey's shop) and was instrumental in the first national broadcast of a Virginia stock car race in March 1965 when he got ABC's Wide World of Sports to telecast the Richmond 250 as one of its segments.
Rick Campbell's father, Kenneth also formed one of the early stock car racing radio networks in conjunction with partners Ned Jarrett and Sammy Bland.
The media center at the Richmond track is today named in honor of Rick Campbell's father, Kenneth.
I regret that the post and photos have been removed. Perhaps one day they'll be re-posted. Personally, I am grateful when someone corrects a historic error I have made or asks an interesting question. I only met Rick a couple of times when he came out to see his dad. Back in the 90s he had an outstanding collection of historic carousel miniatures he had built by hand. They were absolutely stunning. Let's hope he'll reappear and post the historic stuff again.
Kenneth was also a Marine aviator in the South Pacific during WWII. He refused to be rented a foreign make of auto at the rental car counter - ever.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
