It Was Glamorous - It Can't be Recaptured
General
Hodgdon was an oily piece of work. It makes fascinating reading to read the actual council meeting minutes and newspaper accounts in City of Industry, California to see how the local politicians there were in cahoots then got caught with their hands in the cookie jar when Hodgdon's National Engineering blew all to heck The accountant may have taken the fall, but there were plenty of guilty folks. Hodgdon also almost singlehandedly brought down Sports Marketing Enterprises at RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. when he got them involved without approval in a Washington, DC professional soccer franchise. A number of SME employyes quickly departed from the Winston operation, and either retired completely or soon resurfaced in jobs at various International Speedway Corporation tracks.
I have my own personal experiences involving Hodgdon. Junior Johnson wanted Dale Earnhardt in his cars in the worst kind of way. He kept coming to us at Wrangler and telling us that Darrell Waltrip had "had his bell rung" when he hit that inside concrete wall protecting the garage and GoodyearGarage Tower at Daytona. He wanted to replace Waltrip with Earnhardt for the 1984 season. We finally agreed to terms with Junior for Earnhardt to replace Waltrip in a very clandestine meeting in a musty poolside motel room at the Americana motel out by the Greensboro airport in late summer 1983. That would take Dale from Bud Moore to Junior's car after two seasons with Ford, who didn't want Earnhardt - Michael Kranefuss said he wasn't a championship caliber driver. Junior's operation was to be a strictly 1 car deal... Earnhardt and Wrangler didn't want any part of a two car team. We signed a written contract at Wrangler with Junior Johnson to sponsor Earnhardt in Junior's cars. Sometime late that summer of 1983 or maybe early fall I was in Richmond at the Fairgrounds track when I heard a radio announcement that said Junior had re-signed Darrell for 1984. Well, when we called Junior we started getting a bunch of lies from him about how Warner had gone behind his back and cut a deal with Budweiser that required two cars, etc. etc. Well, our corporate attorneys and accountants at Blue Bell, Inc. did a thorough investigation of Mr. Hodgdon and advised our Chairman of the Board that we wanted no association with Mr. Hodgdon. At that time, summer of 1983, that was no National Engineering incorporated in the state of California andno one could track where the money was coming from to fund Hodgdon's operations and extravagent expenditures, although our attorneys and accountants had strong suspicions. Mr. Ed Bauman, Chairman of the Board of Blue Bell, Inc. (Wrangler) called Junior Johnson to his office in downtown Greensboro. He proceeded to tear up the contract with Junior and advised Junior to never set foot again on Wrangler property.We then began negotions again with Richard Childress and took Dale and the Wrangler sponsorship back there for 1984. If you ever wondered why Junior hated the Wrangler car so much during Earnhardt's second Childress stint, you now know the story. But it didn't end there. Hodgdon' had bought a half-interest in the Richmond track and Paul Sawyer couldn't get along with him. Wrangler's management team soon after led by Bauman bought the company in a leveraged buyout from Blue Bellthen sold it to Vanity Fair (VF Corp) for a handsome profit. Bauman's wife, Vivian loved Earnhardt and used to "support" his Late Model / Busch Series efforts financially. Sawyer, whose races had been sponsored by Wrangler, approached the Baumans and they put together a group of investors, including former Wrangler executiveswho bought out Hodgdon's shares in the Richmond track. Sawyer later bought all of his stock back from this group and built and expanded the magnificient Richmond International Raceway track, which he lated sold to ISC for approximately $143 million.
It used to really upst us that we had to try so hard to enforce all the NASCAR safety rules about nobody under age 16 in the pits, nosleeveless tops, no shorts, no open toe shoes. Hodgdon's kids, who were way too young to be in the pits or garage, had little Wood Brothers uniforms and were in the middle of everything. NASCAR turned a blind eye. Eddie Wood can tell some wonderful behind the scenes Hodgdon family stories which I sall not repeat. I will say that Sharon Hodgdon always threw a nice dinner at Rockingham that always featured Beef Wellington.
