Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Ghost Track Directory from 1957 - Bopper, Got Your Ears On?

General

By the way, Chantilly Speedway's Joe Huss of Roanoke Rapids, NC is the JOE DEAN HUSS who competed in the NASCAR Grand American Series and was great friends with Tiny Lund. Looks like Joe joined our RR site in June and I missed it. This is the link to his page:

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/profile/JOEDEANHUSS?xg_source=profiles_memberList

You'll note his conversations with Dennis Andrews asking about his dad, as well as his conversations with David Boggs against whom Joe raced. Small world. I ought to have checked our members list. Maybe Bopper could get Joe on his Chantilly Speedway ghost track segment.

Ghost Track Directory from 1957 - Bopper, Got Your Ears On?

General

Thank you, PK. The magnifying glass worked great for me. Lotta interesting tracks on that 1957 list. IO was hoping "you know who" would see the Owensboro ad!

Ghost Track Directory from 1957 - Bopper, Got Your Ears On?

General

Bobby, thanks for the offer. I am doing both dinner and babysitting duty tonight. Though I hope to tune in and participate in chat, I'm reluctant to get on the phone with the 5 year old here. You're welcome to repeat anything I have said previously, though. During the time (early 70s) we were racing our '55 Chevy in the Sportsman Division (equivalent NASCAR division = Limited Sportsman) at our "outlaw" Wilson County Speedway, Joe Huss was a BIG star at the "outlaw" Chantilly Speedway running a hemi powered Plymouth (a real rariety in a Chevy short track world) on that high banked 1/4-mile dirt layout outside of Weldon, NC down the road from Roanoke Rapids. That was just south of the Virginia state line. If memory serves correctly, the soft spoken Huss was a high school English teacher. There was some real ROUGH driving and fueds on that little track. It looked completely different from the 1/4-mile Wake County Speedway in Raleigh - a red clay track -where we raced on Friday nights. We ran Chantilly a couple of times during a Saturday rain out in Wilson, even though they had no comparable division and we had to run with the Late Models. They always had a big Labor Day Monday night show and we (driver Danny Lee, his cousin Bill Lee and AC Hendrick) took our Sportsman car up I-95 in 1973 for that show. I also took my girlfriend Joyce. It was to be her very first race of many. We broke an axle during practice and out of the clear blue sky, Joe Huss appeared with a replacement for us. He was a really super nice guy. For some reason our little 302 cu. in. Chevy (the hot engine was the 301 at Wilson in Limited Sportsman) with the right gear in our Frankland quick change rear was well suited to the Chantilly track andDanny qualified our #11 on the second row. We were so happy and couldn't believe it. Before the race, Joe Huss, who'd qualified on the pole, sought out Danny and explained he'd been having problems with the outside front row qualifier (I don't remember who) and Joe was planning to "take him out" on the first lap and just wanted to be sure Danny didn't get caught up.True to his word, Joe hooked the guy going into turn 1 after the green and spun him. Danny missed the spin. Can't remember whether a fight broke out or not. Our car broke, but I always had a vast amount of respect for Joe Huss after that for helping us who he didn't even know and for telling Danny in advance what he was going to do. Chantilly Speedway was a tough old place that really put the battle scars on its cars. Danny later totaled our '55 Chevy there when he went out of the place. By the way, in the wee hours of the morning following that Labor Daynight at Chantilly Speedway and our help from Joe Huss, still covered in Chantilly Speedway dirt and tire rubber, I proposed to Joyce when we got back to Wilson and we were married in November. That was a really fun 1973 night for me at Chantilly Speedway.

Ghost Track Directory from 1957 - Bopper, Got Your Ears On?

General

AND, speaking of Cockade City Speedway, the book "Hard Driving, The Wendell Scott Story" has an excerpt from the Petersburg (VA) Progress Index recapping how on June 24, 1954, Wendell in his Ford powered SPORTSMAN outran the MODIFIEDS of Banjo Matthews, Runt Harris, Eddie Crouse, Cotton Owens and Emanuel ( The Golden Greek ) Zervakis , finishing second to only one driver - MR. MODIFIED - "Rapid Ray" Hendrick of Richmond. From that date on, the Cockade City Speedway promoter advertised Wendell Scott (colored) as one of the track's star drivers.

Here's the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=uN-JqrDKB_4C&pg=PT56&lpg=PT56&dq=cockade+city+speedway&source=bl&ots=6azNnrjF6-&sig=xMj5PXXGONgnzcULoFple-9LhNQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SxvtTrD0A-KHsAK03LSrCQ&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=cockade%20city%20speedway&f=false

Ghost Track Directory from 1957 - Bopper, Got Your Ears On?

General

I was triyng to get information on Cockade City Speedway near Petersburg, Va. where Wendell Scott, Ray Hendrick and Sonny Hutchins often raced. One of the links directed me to a an archived 1957 Billboard magazine listing of U.S. outdoor amusement venues, including racetracks,in which Cockade City Speedway is listed. These pdf type deals always stump me, though as far as blowing them up to make them readable or reproducing. Some of you knowledgeable folks, like our resident Ghost Track expert Bobby Williamson may be able to find some jewels in this list. I can't really read it, but here's the link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=JyAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=Cockade+city+Speedway&source=bl&ots=IStJkyCY9k&sig=NpP04e3GMEBsxW5ZbhC1ESTsDmk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=rwLtTvzFI5SEtgeYkfyxCg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Cockade%20city%20Speedway&f=false

AND, for the Legend's enjoyment, the same page has a big ad for a circus opening in Owensboro, Kentucky!

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

SET UP OF A CAR for D I R T old school style

Stock Car Racing History

Billy, what I know about making a race car handle would fit on your small fingernail. What interests me in your post is the reference to the tire varieties/brands. When I first started watching NASCAR modifieds at Richmond's Southside Speedway asphalt in 1964 everybody ran M&H Racemasters. In the early 70s at the Wilson County Speedway dirt layout, everybody was still on M&H Racemasters. I recall we were paying $90 each for the M&Hs we were using on our '55 Chevy Sportsman in 1973. $360 for 4 tires and 1st place purse was $300 ($600 for Late Models). The first time I saw any tire other than M&H at the local track was when Southside began running Late Model Sportsman and some Goodyears showed up. Later, the track promoter and owner of the Sonny Hutchins #01 LMS, Emanuel Zervakis (The Golden Greek) became the area Firestone distributor and there was a fierce battle between Firestone & Goodyear in NASCAR LMS on the Virginia NASCAR tracks. The worst experience I remember with tires was in 1985 or 1986 when Dave Fuge brought a 7-Eleven sponsored T-bird from Washington State to Florida for Derrike Cope to drive at New Smyrnain the "World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing" during February Speedweeks. Dave had a contract with McCreary and I think every other car at New Smyrna was on Hoosiers. It was so cold we kept all the 55 gallon drums in the infield blazing to try to stay warm that week. The car looked beautiful and won an award for best looking Late Model. Unfortunately the McCreary tires had absolutely no grip at night when it was 35 degrees and that car looked just awful on the track against those Hoosiers. I realize that M&H had a drag racing origin, but whenever I hear M&H, my mind pictures a pack of fuel injected NASCAR Modifieds in the 60s. Seems like Earnhardt may have been on Towel City tires when he smoked the field at Wilson in 1977 in Robert Gee's Camaro in the Southern Late Model 200.

What Make & Model Automobile would you have liked to have seen more in Cup Racing?

General

What Make & Model Automobile would you have liked to have seen more in Cup Racing?

General

Bud kept a yellow King Cobra under a car cover right in the main area of his shop. He always unveiled it for any first time visitor to Bud Moore Engineering. He always told me only 3 were built.

What Make & Model Automobile would you have liked to have seen more in Cup Racing?

General

Some pretty interesting Ralph & Dale Earnhardt stuff in this Chuck Piazza interview:

What Make & Model Automobile would you have liked to have seen more in Cup Racing?

General

Jim, I remember Chuck running one night at Wilson in the 70sand looking very good for his first trip there. Have no memory of what he was driving, though.