Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Does anyone remember a Gallo Wine racecar?

Stock Car Racing History

Found this little write-up of the 1978 race:

December 1978

Dreams Come True At Snowball Time

Dave Mader III's wildest dream became a reality in the 11th annual Snowball Derby Sunday at Five Flags Speedway. It was only Saturday night that the 23-year-old Homewood, Ala. driver was talking about how much it would mean to his career to win the Snowball Derby.

The talking was over Sunday as Mader went out and won the Snowball Derby, beating out Mark Martin, 21, or Batesville, Ark. three laps from the finish of the 250-lap race. "I can't believe it," said Mader, after it was all over. "This really is beyond my wildest dreams. It's fantastic". "Can you believe that we were running that hard even at the end of the race?" "All I can say is that I beat out one heckuva driver(Mark Martin)to win this thing. Man, this is just super. "

Actually, Mader took advantage of a Martin mistake to take the lead and claim the victory, worth more than 4,000 from the purse of $21,775. Martin had his No.2 orange-and-white camero a car length in front of Mader with five laps remaining in the race. Two laps latter, Martin's car slipped going into turn No.3 and Mader put his red camaro underneath Martin's car and into the lead for good. "I knew he (Mader) was running faster than me," said Martin."I knew there wasn't any way I could win it. It was just a matter of time before he passed me"."I hate to lose it that way. I just wish he would have gone ahead and passed me sooner." Martin proved to be a super sportsman about the entire ordeal.

As soon as both cars had come to a halt at the start-finish line, Martin was the first one to congradulate Mader on his victory. Wrecks and various car malfunctions wiped out the chances of brothers Bobby and Donnie Allison of Hueytown,Ala., Red Farmer of Hueytown, Dick Anderson of Fort Lauderdale, Billy McGinnis of Roswell,Ga., and Ronnie Sanders of Fayetteville,Ga..

The most serious of the mishaps occured on lap 188, involving Rat Land of Pensacola, Steve Burgess of Eau Claire,Wis., and Ronnie Pitts of Dade City. Pitts and Burgess were transported to West Florida Hospital, but neither was admitted. Both were treated for bruises and miner injuries and released.

Alton Jones of Birmingham, driving in place of Kasper Miles, finished third. He was the only other driver running at the finish in the samelap with Mader and Martin. Neil Bonnett of Hueytown, finished fourth, ahead of Junior Niedecken, both one lap behind the front trio. Ken Price, Jerry Lawley and Dickie Davis, all of Pensacola, were victoms of ill-handling cars.

-author unknown

Does anyone remember a Gallo Wine racecar?

Stock Car Racing History

Side note: Beer distributor and former Nascar Grand American driver CB Gwyn later owned Late Models and Busch Series cars for a couple of years driven by LD Ottinger before the team was sold to Ron Parker, owner of Detroit Gasket. When LD had various beer sponsors like Schlitz or even Gwyn Distributing, those were all cars owned by CB Gwyn, the Marion, VA beer distributor.

LD Ottinger with one of the beer distributor late models.

Does anyone remember a Gallo Wine racecar?

Stock Car Racing History

Funny, what the posts here make you think of. The winery reference and possible sponsorship of a car by a wine distributor made me remember C.B. Gwyn of Marion, Virginia who owned the local Marion, VA Anheuser-Busch distributorship and also ran 42 races as a driver between 1968-1971 in the NASCAR Grand American / GT division in Mercury Cougars. I am guessing Dennis Andrews will remember those Cougars. Curious if any of CB's Cougars hadany relationship to Dennis' dad's cars or Bud Moore Cougars? Found a pic (with no sponsorship on the car) of a CB Gwyn Cougar taken at Jackson, MS. In later years I used to pass the the CB Gwyn distributorship in Marion, VA going from Greensboro and Charlotte to Bristol on I-81. Used to stop in Marion and eat at a little diner.

Mercury Cougar of C.B. Gwyn, the Budweiser Distributor from Marion, VA

Does anyone remember a Gallo Wine racecar?

Stock Car Racing History

My guess is thta a local distributor would have funded such an effort.

Does anyone remember a Gallo Wine racecar?

Stock Car Racing History

Member Robert Turner might be a good source.

This is from his profile:

I worked on latemodel dirt cars in the middle sixties. I was later the track photographer at Dixie, Rome and West Atlanta dirt tracks. I moved to Georgia International Speedway where I was their photographer and then race director. I have photographed for Racing News, Super Chevy, Stock Car Racing, and several other racing papers.

Here is his member page link:

http://racersreunion.ning.com/profile/RobertTurner?xg_source=profiles_memberList

Racing's Feel Good Story of the Year - Car Owner & Promoter to the Rescue

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Billy, a good question and I don't know the answer. Have to ask my buddy Frank in Pa.

Racing's Feel Good Story of the Year - Car Owner & Promoter to the Rescue

General

My old buddy, Frank in Pennsylvania made me aware this week of what recently transpired at the venerable Hagerstown, MD dirt track on its last weekend of the season, the big rescheduled Oktoberfest Weekend (in November). It gets my vote for the Feel Good Story of the Year in auto racing. What a lucky bunch of fans and racers to have such an understanding car owner (with deep pockets)and race promoter in their midst. This story should be required reading for Rick Hendrick, Jack Roush, Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress. It should be required reading for Bruton Smith and all execs and promoters within ISC. It should be required reading for all NASCAR drivers. It should be required reading of everyone who receives a NASCAR paycheck. If this doesn't just give you goosebumps, something's wrong. Hats off to this Hagerstown car owner and the track promoter. We need you in NASCAR. How about you RR members? What do you think of these kinda racing folks?

Car owner comes to rescue at Hagerstown show
By BRYAN HOUSHOLDER

The York Dispatch
11/13/2011

The local dirt-track season ended last weekend with Susquehanna's Final Showdown and Hagerstown's rescheduled Octoberfest.

The November weather couldn't have been much better for those events.

Susquehanna did very well with its Saturday afternoon program, but Hagerstown's rescheduled event turned into a sticky situation.

Not enough fans came back to Hagerstown for the rescheduled event. While the crowd would have been fine for a regular racing program, with four top-class divisions on hand for big-money races, there just wasn't enough support.

The event was scheduled to pay $10,000 to the winners in the sprints, late models and big-block modifieds. The small-block modifieds also were set for a $10,000 winner's share, if 50 cars entered the event. There were not 50 entries, so the set purse was $5,000 to win.

When the promoters realized they didn't have enough fans to cover the large purse, they held a meeting with the drivers, offering to cut the distance of the races for a smaller purse. The new purse was to be $7,500 to win in the three divisions that were going to get $10,000, and still $5,000 in the other.

After those plans were made, and the first event was getting ready to start, Ernie Davis, a former driver who now owns the late model driven on occasion by Outlaw late-model standout Josh Richards, offered to put up the extra money to put the payoff back to its original amount.

It was a great gesture.

Since the distances had already been cut, the racers ran less laps for the original purse, with the sprints, late models and big-block modifieds getting $10,000 to win, and the small-block modifieds getting $5,000 to win.

While some fans felt cheated out of extra laps, I personally felt the new distances of 50 laps in the modified and late-model classes, and 30 laps in the sprint cars made for better racing, and no fuel stops.

The small-block modifieds actually opened the show with a non-stop 50-lap event, and all the other events went off very well. The late models and big-block modifieds each had a pass for the lead, and the top four sprint cars crossed the finish line under a blanket.

Fans couldn't have asked for much better racing on a daytime surface.

updated by @dave-fulton: 08/07/18 01:23:54AM

Neil Bonnett's Lost Recording

Stock Car Racing History

I believe George must have been following you on the Goat Rodeo chat Tuesday night. I see he has posted on his page a song titled,

"PUPPY DOGS AND COUNTRYGIRLS DON'T BELONG ON CITY STREETS" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pretty good stuff and I immediately thought of you trying to giveaway the puppy last night!

Neil Bonnett's Lost Recording

Stock Car Racing History

Just read George's blog post on Nashville Music Pros about recording the song in 1977. Very funny. Thanks for posting the song. I had never heard it.

stewart on dirt

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