30 Years Ago - Earnhardt & Childress - $10,000 a Race!
General
Great piece of history, Dave. Thanks very much for sharing. That's certainly a look we as fans never get to see.
Forum Activity for @jeff-gilder
General
Great piece of history, Dave. Thanks very much for sharing. That's certainly a look we as fans never get to see.
Vintage Racing at Carolina Speedway
Vintage Oval and Road Course Racing
Jimmy, I was trying to suck in my gut enough to get the belts on.
jimmy johnson said:
the photo that Jack Walker posted, made me wonder, were you saying a prayer for a win or a finish. or were you trying to be a Dale catching a few winks? glad everybody had a good time. I am in Pa making things work.
Vintage Racing at Carolina Speedway
Vintage Oval and Road Course Racing
Good point Bobby. Still think promoters need to manage that situation. It is a show...primarily for the fans. They had a good crowd and I hope they all come back. How many may decide to go elsewhere due to irritated family members....I had one with me who will most likely not return and I have heard from several others (that I invited) who said the same. Note to promoter...No use shootin urself in the foot just 'cause ya have an extra bullet. That's my point.
Bobby Williamson said:
Eight division are too many, but eight divisions are not the weekly format at the Carolina Speedway. The Bell & Bell vintage cars, for example, are an 'extra' one-a-month addition, as are the 'outlaw U-cars'. Resulting from the recent rain-outs, everything, all 80-something race cars, converged on the Carolina Speedway on Saturday night. A "perfect storm" scenario. On a positive note, too many race cars is a problem many promoters would love to have.
Vintage Racing at Carolina Speedway
Vintage Oval and Road Course Racing
Your recognition of the Gore family is spot on. That family has played a huge role in the advancement of motor racing in general. From being one of ...if not ..the first working "legal" drag strip east of the Mississippi to the great short track racing contributions over the years...great folks, too!
Dave Fulton said:
Jeff, Sounds like you folks had a wonderful time.
Regarding your Point Number 9 - too many divisions :
This has been my pet peeve with local tracks for years. Too many divisions equals too few cars per division and all night shows. I still maintain that any track running more than three classes is shooting themself in the foot. I actually think two very well promoted classes would be even better.
Right after the NASCAR Modifieds were dropped at all the Virginia tracks, the best local shows I ever saw were at Richmond's Southside Speedway in late 60s/early 70s. That'swhenmaster car builder, modified and Cup winner and later owner of Stock Car Products Emanuel Zervakis (the Golden Greek ) promoted the place on Friday nights. Running 3 divisions, NASCAR Late Model Sportsman, NASCAR Limited Sportsman and a Hobby Class, the racing action began promptly at 8:30 pm and was over at 10:30 pm. It was two solid hours of non-stop racing for $5. You could set your watch by it. Out at 10:30 every Friday night and the best late model drivers in the country. None of this all night time trial crap, either. It was all pure racing with no breaks in the on-track action. Two ten lap heats for each division and the feature race. No prolonged cautions or red flags. Get 'em off the track and keep racing. All three divisions had huge car counts, 25-30 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman cars with guys from western VA like Jimmy Hensley and Paul Radford and the Carolinas like Harry Gant and Morgan Shepherd (even DW from Tennessee)all coming in to run with our local Ray Hendrick, Sonny Hutchins, Al Grinnan, Tommy Ellis, Lennie Pondand crowd. And guess what - the grandstands were full every Friday night. When NASCAR killed the Late Model Sportsman division and created the Touring Series,the attendance rapidly declined, though. Thank goodness for the Gore family at Old Dominion Speedway in Mannassas, VA introducing the Late Model Stock Car class and convincing NASCAR to adopt it, though that hardly matches the old 60s style NASCAR fuel injected Modified action or later Late Model Sportsman action I grew up with. In the last two years I have attended a few weekly races at the dirt Lancaster, SC speedway and the paved Concord, NC track - both beautiful facilities that are fan friendly and a nice place to take kids. My grandsons went with me. HOWEVER - the races lasted all night and there were so many divisions at both tracks you needed a Philadelphia lawyer to figure it out. After having attended races for 47 years, I was completely lost at these two places trying to figure out what was going on. Some of the races only had 5 cars. It was ridiculous. My grandsons spent more time playing with matchbox cars and going to the concession stand than watching 5 cars spread out around a race track. That's not racing. Please, promoters and racers, kill all these extraneous divisions and put on a great 2-3 hour show where the fan is kept occupied with big fields in just three or so divisions. We're just letting racing get killed so many ways. It's not just at the Cup level.
Vintage Racing at Carolina Speedway
Vintage Oval and Road Course Racing
We had a little bit of every "normal" part of Saturday night dirt track racing last night at Carolina speedway. The Bell & Bell Vintage Modifieds managed to get in the race....NO RAIN!!
I had a DNF, but still got to experience all this:
1. Went out of the track driving too deep into turn 3. Sherman Garris, Bobby williamson, and Pete Corey Jr. all told me this is what I would do if I drove in too deep, but I'm stubborn that way....had to see for myself. Turns out they were 100% right. I think we actually have that on video.
2. While sitting in line for practice got to see a Saturday-night-dirt-track brawl...right out side my window. Had a front row seat. Nope wasn't our group, we're all too old and mellow for that, it was a bunch of guys in the late model division.
3. Saw Billy Biscoe on the race track in full race mode...well maybe not full, but he was out there with us having a good time. Only problem was getting his helmet off between rounds. Seems he had a bad case of "perma-grin".
4. Once again Karen Biscoe stole the show with a smorgasbord of chicken, biscuits, cookies, etc. The lady knows how to go racin!
5. For the first time ever...I was the youngest driver in the class.
6. Got to make changes to the car and actually feel the difference. Still have some brakes, steering, and some fuel delivery issues to work out, but I think there is hope for the #46.
7. Exposed Kay to all the above including getting home at 1:30 am. All of this was a first for her. I can only imagine what she is thinking...lol. For her this was truly a "cultural" experience.
8. I have never been to a race track where they worked on the cars on the front stretch during cautions. While I'm extremely grateful to the fine folks at Carlolina Speedway for having us, you might speed up the show by requiring folks to "PIT" when they need repairs.
9. Eight divisions of racing on a Saturday night is just too much. We left the track at 12:15AM and there were still two features left. Again...very grateful for them allowing the Vintage Cars to run.....but...I'm just sayin.
10. I am very grateful to Bruce James Racing for allowing me to drive their car. They prepared it, pulled it to the track, and worked on it at the track. While we have a bit of work to do to make it competitive, Bruce is committed to having winning cars. I like that!
updated by @jeff-gilder: 12/05/16 04:07:53PM
is this one for real or not???
Stock Car Racing History
Mr Reep.
Seems to me this post started off with the question "Is this one real or not?" If yo missed that then please read from the beginning before posting. Can you not post your opinion...or facts/hearsay...whatever the case without degrading insinuations? If not, then please take your crude remarks elsewhere. That sir, WOULD make a difference here.
Jim Reep Jr said:
this car came out of Wendell Scott's "back of the shop junkyard." Who knows where it came from after Haynes had a hold of it . . Pearson bought it @ a car show & sold it . It wound up in the California Vintage Car Club . Its a replica. Dr. Craft could tell you the history, but no one on here cares about that, so long as it looks like it was real once. Stats on this car would be an entire world away from the real thoroughbred. I wonder if Gilder ran into Haynes @ Carolina last night? No matter, what difference would the truth make on here ?
Utsman Brothers
Local and Regional Short Track Racing
I was a small child, but I remember races at Sportsman. Wayne, could you post that pic?
Utsman Brothers
Local and Regional Short Track Racing
hey Laura, what year was that Sherman Utsman Eddie France experience. Sportsman is where I saw my very first race at the age of 5.
by the way, Paul Lewis is a member here...and may have some of those pics in his collection...not sure. Another member who has some Sportsman stuff in his collection is bill Morton's son Tony Morton. Larry Utsman is also a member...but not very active.
You can find all of them by clicking on members and putting their name in the search bar. then leave a message on their wall on their page.
Jeff
WASCAR Headlines
Stock Car Racing History
Thought it was the "appropriate" time to bring this back to the top...a post I wrote in 2011. We may see this long before 2053.