Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks, Cody. I'm afraid I'm repeating myself too many times, though.

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

Here is a photo of one of those noisy turbo prop Wrangler "Studebaker" Mitsubishi MU2 "Rice Rockets" taken in Greensboro at Blue Bell Aviation by Laverne Zachary. Thanks for the photo, Laverne. Many old memories. Dale Earnhardt flew with us on one of these to the first New York Winston Cup Awards Banquet in 1981. We'd fly in and out of Teterboro, NJ airport.

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

yes to all of the above, Robert... thanks for the memories

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks again, Robert. This photo is from the Spring 1981 Atlanta race. I blew up the photo and I "think" that is me driving/steering that car race day morning.

This was the only race at Atlanta for a #2 Osterlund / Wrangler / Earnhardt car. In the Fall 1981 race, Dale was in the RCR Childress #3 with Wrangler sponsorship.

Note of importance - the Spring 1981 Atlanta race was the first for Dale Inman as crew chief at Osterlund for Earnhardt after leaving Petty Enterprises.

I remember being out in the groves of pine trees (long gone) outside the turns that morning stringing Wrangler banners with Bob Jannelle. They showed great on television!

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks, Robert. Do you remember the awful storm that blew up before victory lane finished? Sky turned black and all heck broke loose.

I had been in the Wrangler Suite outside turn 1 and I got Dale's mother, Martha in a Sheriff's Dept. car, but we didn't make to victory lane before the storm, even with the motorcycle officers trying to lead the Sheriff's car back inside the track.

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

My math is bad. Thanksgiving 2012 will be 29, not 39 years since Ricky & his dad crashed their trail bikes. Seems like yesterday. When we were living in Dallas, Ricky's mom secured Cabbage Patch dolls in Raleigh and had them shipped to Texas for our girls for Christmas 1984. They were a wonderful family. His mom & dad operated a garbage collection business.

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

Link to Laverne Zachary Wrangler Aviation and Dale Earnhardt photos posted here at RR on his home page:

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=31kfr13pd7yhn&xgi=&test-locale=&exposeKeys=&xg_pw=&xgsi=&groupId=&groupUrl=&xg_disable_customizations=&page=3

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

The plane NEVER hauled the race car / show car. Sorry for not answering your original question, Dennis.

That awful looking orange bordered shot of Dale and the car was shot by the late Dozier Mobley at a hurry-up session from the photo tower on pit road at Daytona in January 1982 and used in 1982 as our Wrangler fan pass out cards. Dale HATED that card.

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

At Wrangler (Blue Bell, Inc.) we had two of those Canadair CL-44 cargo planes with the swing out tail headquartered at the Greensboro airport. They were used primarily to take 1,000 yard rolls of denim from Greensboro's Cone Mills and Burlington Industries' Erwin Mills to our Lady Wrangler division headquarters in Puerto Rico and bring back finished goods.

One plane had been purchased from Flying Tiger Airlines. I don't know the history of the other. They were also occasionally used to fly to Africa's Ivory Coast to our plants there, also. Later they were licensed for full cargo hauling and began to haul a lot of electronics back to the mainland from Puerto Rico on what would have been "dead head" empty return trips. One of the planes crashed at Boston's Logan Airport in the 90s when the landing gear wouldn't deploy.

Member Laverne Zachary who did business with Blue Bell/Wrangler Aviation has many Wrangler plane and Earnhardt photos in his collection.

My first show car driver, Ricky Parham (a good friend of Winston Racing Team's Wes Beroth) staged the #2 Osterlund show car that day. That is Ricky's Suburban you see in the photos you posted, Dennis. When we went to Bud Moore in 1982, the Suburban was exchanged for a Ford van.

Ricky was from Oxford, NC. On Thanksgiving Day 1983 - now 39 years ago - Ricky and his dad were killed when their trail bikes collided head on in the woods on the family's Oxford farm following Thanksgiving dinner. Mrs. Parham made the decision to remove Ricky from his ventilator at Duke University hospital the same day she buried his dad. Ricky was well loved on the race circuit. Racers from everywhere came to the funeral. The little country church outside Oxford had to put speakers in the parking lot so the overflow crowd could hear the service.

I hired former NASCAR flagman and official Chip Warren to replace Ricky. It was a sad time.

Is That Bud Moore / Earnhardt Car a Ford or a Pontiac? Are You Sure?

Stock Car Racing History

Here is a #15 Wrangler Pontiac that won the very first race of what is today's Nationwide Series. Dale Earnhardt drove this Robert Gee built car to victory in the 1982 Goodys 300 NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series opener at Daytona in February 1982. Russell Photo

And, the Robert Gee #3 superspeedway Wrangler / Earnhardt Pontiac Late Model Sportsman car in late 1981: