Talked to Rex last week. He was in good spiritsand was doing everything right to take care of himself. He is looking forward to getting out to all the upcoming events. Thanks Harlow, you know yourself that he is probably our biggest ambassador for the preservation of the old days.
I tend to agree that 5 a year is too few. Congrats to our buddy Rex. He spends most of the year, and most of it without getting paid I may add, to help preserve the history of our sport. We could allname 50 who deserve to be in the Hall.Rex is the oldest livingNASCAR champion. Take a second to read his statistics. The man was amazing! I wish we could have a couple of dozen entries each year. I think we should honor these folks while they can still be with us and enjoy the fruits of all the sacrifices they have given. The Chief and Ray Hendrick definitely deserve to be in but also more fabricators and engine builders and the folks whose genius made the sport what it is. Even guys like T. Taylor Warren and David Chobatgave us many years of pleasure with their photography. Everyone has their favorites and there is not an easy answer for this. Include all of those who deserve the honor, but honor those who can still be with us to enjoy it.
The Mad Dog was based in Charlotte on Moorehead St. across from WBTV. It was owned by Bob Osiecki. The late Jim Burrell, a Gaston County neighbor and mentor of mine ,was one of the body creators who also was largely responsible for the STP turbine Indy car body anddid extensive hand forming of the body on Dean Jeffries Manta Ray. Jim came from the golden era in California and worked for Valley Custom and did projects for George Barris.He used to hand out photos of the Mad Dog and said Art Malone was the best of the best.Frank Spittle is a world of information about the Mad Dog and Art Malone and explains it well on the H.A.M.B. message board website. Charlie Craig
Thanks Mark, Hopefully we'll see him in a day or two. Tell him we all asked about him.
Let's all keep Ervin Carpenter in our thoughts. He is going through some difficult times with heart problems. He will be going to Chapel Hill on Monday to consult a stint specialist. Dub Simpson and I visited with him on Sunday and he was telling us what lay ahead to repair the problems he was having with a couple of leaks in his stints.
Our buddy Ervin is one of the toughest racers to ever sit in a car. Read his biography on "Ghosts of Southern Dirt Tracks". I had the pleasure of writing it and have known him for 50 years! He is one of the pioneers of our sport. His record is unbelievable. He loves to talk about the "old days" and he and his son Paul are both members here at Racers Reunion. He racedwith ALL the big guns and beat a lot of them! Keep Ervin andBrenda in your prayers.
Thanks,Charlie Craig
I honestly don't know. If I had to guess it was probably when the big paved tracks came along. I'm pretty sure they weighed them at Darlington when the front end settings and wheel balancing became such a critical part of setting up a car. On the old dirt tracks it was get them light and get them over the ruts type of deal. I have a couple of my buddies from that era that I'll run this by and try to get you an answer.
I have a great piece of trivia on this car. I had many conversations with Richard Riley over the years about the early days of racing. He drove relief for Elmo Langley in the first World 600 and was good friends with Fireball. One day he was talking about Fireball having a service station in Charlotte. He said they built their modified and sportsman cars there. They decided to build a new '51 Ford for Daytona. Richard said they all worked at trying to get the cars as light as possible for the races on the beach. He said there was a couple hundred pounds of undercoating and sealer in those cars. He said scraping it off was a losing battle. I wish I had recorded this conversation because Richard, in his southern drawl said "hell boy, we just sat that son of a #$%&* on fire and burned all that stuff off of it!" Richard never forgot any details of his life and he is in the record books. He said (and I'll clean it up a little), it looked like a burned garbage can till we got it painted" but it must have been 500 pounds lighter". He bent over laughing and said " you should have seen people looking at that burned out mess when we ran it up and down Mint St. where the football stadium is now."Painting it and making it look good was the last of our worries and we didn't paint it till last. I miss Richard Riley and sitting at S&R Wrecker Ser. hearing how people like himself and Fireball built the sport we love. Wouldn't it be great to hear someone this honest and candid again? By the way, I never did think to ask him what color they painted it...Charlie Craig
Saw some great races with him at Cherokee Speedway in the late seventies. I loved those old Camaros!
Dub Simpson
Harold Dunaway
Larry Wallace
Bryant Wallace
Ervin Carpenter
Preston Humphries
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.
