Dennis,
I was at that race also. If my memory serves me correctly, and I cant swear to this but it seems that it was Bobby Mausgrovers car that was the donor......They cut the right side door bars out and put them in Benny's car..If my memory does not serve me correctly then I also would like toknow who'scar it was. I do remember a very young Phil Parsons in the pits that day also.
Great articles Dave, very informative...They describe Ivan as the same as I viewed him, the best chassis guy I ever met bar none...I really think had Ivan been here on the East Coast for his entire racing career we might would be talking HOF for this guy also...I HONESTLY BELEIVE THAT DAVE..Anyone who ever drove one of his cars after driving someone else's would be inclined to agree to that.
We met him by chance in a round about way through another West Coaster, Duke Southard..
We knew after that initial chat that he was the man with the plan, and by God he did have one..
We took that West Coast car that no one elseknew from where it came, ran it here on the right coast with a rookie driver and started WINNING immediately...Driver was as raw as a carrot and was still able to win the majority of our divisional races....
We would call Ivan with feedback (which he lived for), he would say do this, do this, and then do this and call me next week...Of course the car would get better and better...Was well worth the expense and the long trip to acquire it...This was one more colorful character to which all the guys from this side of the country would have enjoyed...He reminded me of Jake Elder right off the bat and from day one when I spoke to him I would always see Jake FOR SOME STRANGE REASON. I knew that he had started doing Elliott's stuff when he did and was not in the least surprised to see Bill get a whole lot more productive on the short tracks...I expected it would turn out that way..No, I KNEW IT WOULD TURN OUT THAT WAY....
Again, I consider Ivan Baldwin to be the most rock solid and best chassis guy to whom I have ever had the pleasure of working with, taking to, running up on, reading about, or just plain hearing of period...
Thanks again Dave for the articles, It made me feel a little better today to reminisce about this fine racing pioneer and I could go on an on for awhile about this one...I will leave the Modesto Mexican restaurant story alone, but I will say that Ivan put a whole new spin on Guacamole...He could be a riot.
Great clip Dave, thanks! Good to see Ivan Baldwin again also...In 1977 my racing ''partner'' at the time and myself had ''Ivan the Terrible'' build us a Nova short track car...We traveled from Wilmington, N.C. to Ceres, Ca. (just outside of Modesto)_ to pick the car up...We traveled in a 1965 Chevrolet 1/2 ton pickup and a homemade trailer...Left on a Friday night around midnight and was back in Wilmington 7 days later with the car (young and dumb and did not know it couldn't be done at that time)...IWILL NEVER FORGET THAT ''GOD AWFUL'' RIDE,AS IT WAS A ROUGH ONE!
Thing is, even as memorable as that ride was, meeting and spending a little time with Ivan Baldwin was a whole different adventure in itself...That guy was WFO and what I saw at at time as just a ''little left of center'''..He was fun I must admit, but he could be abrasive as 80 grit sandpaper if you crossed him just a smidgeon...Baldwin was HARDCORE and was probably the most self confident person that I personally ever met this side of Dale Sr...I have met some confident people but none to match these two...I loved them both. Thanks again Dave, you are great!
This is terrible news...I saddens me to hear. I keep a close eye on the Bell and Bell group as they are my favorites these days and I was looking forward to the new carsand seeing Ricky run his this year....
I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to the family, friends,andall the Bell and Bell group.
Thank you Patsy for your workon keeping us up to date on this great group of guys.
Hoss was fined 5,000 for that infraction...I was personally involved with the fabrication / installation of that particular cooler on that car,,,... It was in front of the radiator in the duct work and was found going through inspection for qualifying...An aluminum fitting that was painted flat black and was nearly invisible all of a sudden became a glowing white object that stood out like a sore thumb when the dry ice was put in the system. When the duct work was inspected it was found and Tim reached down and put his hand on it, his finger stuck and he of course wanted to know ''what the hell is that''? He called Runt over and asked that very question, to which Runt looked down at the offending part and replied ''damned if I know'' and walked off rolling his toothpick around in his mouth and shaking his head..We were Wrong and we were BUSTED! The car was disqualified from first day qualifying and had to go on the second day...Fastest qualifier of the whole weekend (pole speed) without the cooler and had to start 21st...Served us right I guess...Hoss did not even know it was on the car until it was discovered by Tim Black and Dick Beatty...When they hit him with the fine his reply was another classic Ellington one-liner, ''Hell I don't ever want to see another Ice cube, not even in my mixed drinks''! I do not ever remember another word ever being spoken about the fine or fiasco after that weekend...B.T.W. Sterling finished second and almost pulled off the win with Tim Richmond beating him on a late race caution restart...To remember it now it seemed even in that moment not to be a great big deal other than we were caught and some others had not been yet...The next week I think I remember Travis Carter's Skoal bunch getting caught with their illegal dump cans.
You are so right Bill, Dave did open a can of swarming bees with those V-6's..Inline 6's for me only and then only on short dirt tracks...Those v-6 Fischer engines from that time would really grate on you after a short while..Like 1 lap!
Dave, I do remember seeing those early stickers though I never had one...I would surely have been proud to have one in that time...My how that has changed...
Bobby, I will be seeing you over at Lakeview where they still throw down every lap and no one bides their time.
