Forum Activity for @tmc-chase

Andy - you saved me a good bit of typing. I can pretty well agree with all you said except for a couple of things.

• I have no sentimentality towards Gordon and the 24. Of the 8 remaining, he is the LAST one I hope would win the Cup at Homestead.
• I'm not sure how much MORE attention this format has brought. Ratings continue to be down, and I don't think that many more casual/fringe followers have climbed aboard suddenly. I personally have paid more attention week to week about who may be in/out, and I'm glad the frequent mentions of points "as they run now" has died down a good bit.
• Help me understand what flipping Marty and Dega would do. Either way, Dega is going to be an elimination race, right? As long as it's part of the final 10, the pressure will be there to win and advance - or at least to avoid problems. If it switches places with Marty, all you've done is shift the pressure on the final 8 looking to become part of the final 4. It's just that the race would be the 1st of a 3-race segment vs. the 3rd of a 3-race segment. I think.

Thanks Andy for that reminder. That collection is so cool. For a while, I was crawling through a similar archive for the Henry Ford Arte House. But either they've pulled many of the photos or did something to their website. Either way, many of the pics I've found there before can't easily be searched now. But I think they moved most of the content to this Flickr gallery. Truly is a wonderful collection of photos.

Before Petty Blue moved INTO the Mooresville shop in 2008, Eel River rolled a car for Mike Bliss OUT of that shop sponsored by the Little Blue Pill - a year before Mark Martin got the sponsorship.

More history of the building from December 2002:

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2002/12/23/story8.html?page=all

Charlotte-based Robert Yates Racing Inc.will move both its Winston Cup teams into a newly purchased Mooresville headquarters next month, making southern Iredell County the home for all its operations.

Last month, Yates bought the former Eel River Racing building in Talbert Pointe Business Park for $4.2 million, and Yates Racing is in the process of moving its Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler teams into the facility.

Eel River Racing built the Talbert Pointe facility in late 2000 at an estimated cost of $5.5 million. Eel River, then based in Lakeside Business Park, moved a team into the building in early 2001, using the facility for the 2001 race season.

But the company subsequently had trouble finding sponsors, and it closed the Talbert Pointe shop earlier this year. Jack Birmingham, who also owns Steinway & Sons piano company, owned Eel River.

If I've read this 2000 article accurately...

http://www.motorsport.com/nascar-cup/news/eel-river-racing-aowner-turns-businesses-around/

Jack Birmingham of Eel River Racing built the Mooresville shop AFTER he acquired Bahari.

The construction of a 78,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility is an example of Birmingham's strategy of assembling the best foundation from which to build a program. Within the Mooresville, N.C., team headquarters will be a fabrication shop, a chassis dynamometer room, a machine shop, a paint booth, a parts department, garages large enough house two transporters and four motor coaches, and two finish assembly rooms that accommodate at least 14 race cars in each. In addition, the building will house at least 15 administrative offices. The team is slated to move into the building in December. Eel River Racing currently fields the No. 27 Pontiac for rookie driver Mike Bliss. The team is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C., located just 30 miles north of Charlotte.

If that's the case, then Bahari Racing never operated out of it - thus no Michael Waltrip on the shop or dance floor at 114 Byers Creek Rd.

Over the weekend, it was announced Richard Petty Motorsports would be moving yet again from its shops across the street from Roush Fenway Racing in Concord.

From Jim Utter
http://thatsracinluckydog.blogspot.com/2014/10/richard-petty-motorsports-needs-to-find.html

Richard Petty Motorsports needs to find a new home

Petty Motorsports is in the process of finding a new home for next season after the facility it currently uses in Concord, N.C., has been sold, a team spokesman confirmed.

RPM, which fields two fulltime Sprint Cup Series teams, is currently housed on Zephyr Place NW near the Concord Regional Airport. The organization moved to its current location from Statesville, N.C., in 2010.

The organization is in the process of looking at several different facilities, team officials confirmed.

The shop had been previously used by Robert Yates Racing. Interestingly, Yates' shop became available when he moved his ops to Charlotte to be closer to ... Roush.

At the time PE signed a 2 year lease to occupy the building. As it turned out, the team was only there for a year before moving to Statesville as part of the merger into Gillett Evernham Racing. Obviously, the team only stayed there 1 year. I have no idea if King or Gillett had to pay the building's owner the extra year of rent.

I looked up the property records Sunday to see if I could learn more about the property. Iridell County property tax records show the building is owned by Talbert Pointe LLC with Eel River Racing as the occupant.

I couldn't even remember a team called Eel River & had to Google them. A guy named Jack Birmingham bought the failing Bahari Racing in late 1999. Birmingham built the shop at 114 Byers Creek Rd, renamed Bahari to Eel River Racing, and ran the team in 2000-2001 before shutting it down.

Somewhere along the way, Yates apparently bought the building from Birmingham - or perhaps a sizeable stake in it.I searched Talbert Pointe LLC and found Robert Yates is listed as the owner/director. So I guess King & Co. are back to leasing from Yates.

http://www.northcarolinacorps.com/corp/144696.html

One aspect of this planned move that I haven't heard news about yet is that 114 Byers Creek Rd is apparently currently occupied by Turner Scott Motorsports. Where they'll be going is anyone's guess.

Think of all the moves PE-RPM hashad..

• from Level Cross to Mooresville in 2008 (after PE sold to Boston Ventures)
• from Mooresville to Statesville in 2009 (after merging into Gillett Evernham and rebranding as RPM)
• from Statesville to Concord in 2010 (after RPM acquired Robert Yates Racing)
• from Concord back to Mooresville in 2015

Perhaps they could rename the team to be symbolic of the Old Testament nomads wandering in the desert for 40 years: Tabernacle Motorsports.

Either way, RPM getting away from the Roush campus? That's a win for me.

In 2011, I blogged about Richard Petty's win at South Boston Speedway on October 20, 1963 as part of my year-long 200 Wins series. At the time, I didn't have much to use. I included a "just the facts ma'am" paragraph or two about the win plus an article. Then a couple of weeks ago, Dave Fulton hit a treasure trove of info when he found some scanned archives of the South Boston Gazette-Virginian newspaper. Sure enough, the available issues included the time period for some of the King's successes at South Boston. I edited my original post to include a lot of clippings from the old paper. Here is the link to my blog post, and I'll post the content here as well:

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-20-this-day-in-petty-history.html

Richard Petty collects his 27th career victory by winning the caution-free South Boston 400 at South Boston Speedway in car #41. Teammate Bob Welborn finishes 4th in a #42 Petty Enterprises Plymouth.

Jack Smith of Spartanburg, SC won the pole in his self-owned Plymouth. G.C. Spencer from Owensboro, KY and later Jonesboro, TN qualified second in a second Plymouth owned by Smith. Race favorite Junior Johnson lined up third in Ray Fox's Chevrolet, and he was flanked in fourth by Petty. - Gazette Virginian, October 22, 1963

At the drop of the green, a broken oil line ruined Smith's day before it really even began. The field accelerated, but Smith's car simply wouldn't go - even with a push from 3rd place starter Johnson. Petty spun in Smith's oil and recovered, but no caution was thrown. - Gazette Virginian, October 22, 1963

G.C. led the first 8 laps before surrendering the lead to Billy Wade in Cotton Owens' Dodge. Wade held serve for 4 laps before Johnson got around him and settled into a long stretch on point. Meanwhile, Petty resumed his pursuit of the leaders after his spin and half-lap deficit. By lap 30, the blue 43 had made it all the way back to second.

On lap 113, Petty eased under Johnson's Chevy to take the lead - a lead he wouldn't surrender the rest of the day. - Gazette Virginian, October 24, 1963

As he built a comfortable one-lap lead on second place running Johnson, the Petty Engineering crew then had to do their job well to ensure Richard stayed up front. The 41 pitted once during the race, and the crew nailed the stop. - Gazette Virginian, October 22, 1963

About half-way through the 400-lap race, Johnson hit the pits for what was thought to be a routine stop. Instead, his crew realized he was absolutely spent and could not continue. The team parked the car, and Johnson was done for the day. At many tracks, other drivers were often called upon to relieve a fatigued driver. Apparently none were available that day at South Boston.

With his most formidable challenger sidelined from exhaustion, Petty cruised unchallenged the second half of the race. He took the checkers three laps ahead of second place finisher David Pearson. Joe Weatherly, who was battling Petty for the 1963 GN championship, finished 3rd. Petty's teammate Welborn earned the team double chicken-money with his fourth place finish. - Gazette Virginian, October 24, 1963

Race report shared by Jerry Bushmire.

Linking to Dennis Andrews' post about the Henry County 100.

http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/37501/henry-county-100-october-17-1970

Originally blogged by me here back in 2011 - and updated this morning.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-18-this-day-in-petty-history.html

Richard Petty dominates the 1970 Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville. He led 480 laps, put a lap on the field, won the race and earned his 118th career Grand National win. To put in perspective the King's dominance at Martinsville in this era:

• The 1970 Old Dominion 500 win was his 9th overall at Martinsville
• The win was his 6th in the last 8 races at that time.
• Petty won four of the last five races at Martinsville.
• The win was his 4th consecutive Old Dominion 500 victory.

The race was originally slotted for Sunday, September 27th. Qualifying was completed as scheduled on Friday, but rain on race day forced the postponement of the race until October 18th. - Motor Racing Programme Covers

Bobby Allison won the pole in his Coca-Cola Dodge, and another Bobby - Bobby Isaac - joined him on the front row in his K&K Insurance, Harry Hyde-prepared Dodge. Cale Yarborough qualified 3rd in the Wood Brothers Mercury, and King flanked him in the 4th starting spot. - Ray Lamm

The cars to see in 1969-1970 were the winged Dodge Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds. The cars must have been a sight to see on NASCAR's superspeedways, The Grand National division's schedule in those years, however, were still comprised of many short track traces. Aerodynamics were less of an issue, and durability for frammin and bammin was required. On those tracks, the Mopar teams opted to race Dodge Chargers and Plymouth Road Runners rather than the Daytonas and Superbirds with the rear wing and specially-designed pointed nose clip.

At Martinsville, however, independent driver Dave Marcis chose to run his light-blue with yellow trim winged Daytona anyway. He qualified 5th in the original qualifying session; however, the following photo seems to indicate he actually started the race farther back in the field - perhaps because of a change to the car between September 27th and October 18th. - Getty

At the drop of the green, Allison's #22 Coke Machine grabbed the inside line along Martinsville's curbing and led the first 17 laps. From there though, Petty took over and led the rest of the race except for 3 token laps led by Isaac and Donnie Allison. - Getty

The leaders had a pretty clean track on which to race because of a high attrition rate.Many of the independent drivers were mad about the minimal purse offered by Martinsville for drivers finishing deep in the field. Adding to their anger was qualifying bonus money offered by the track - which of course was snagged by the factory-supported teams who laid down the quickest laps. Despite advice from track promoter Clay Earles and NASCAR officials, about a dozen drivers dropped out of the race. One by one, drivers including Marcis simply pulled off the track and put their cars on their trailers. Most ran no more than 5 laps.

With open track in front of him, the Petty Blue 43 Plymouth was untouchable. He cruised to a fairly easy win yet again on Martinsville's paper clip.

Race report courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

With a triad of tribute schemes on Terry's car, his 32 team is flirting awfully close to the James Hylton classic of 1982.