Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Bodine Loses Lawsuit - Sounds Kinda Stupid

General

Maybe it's just me... but gimme a break. When ya got these home owner associations like I do you don't just go build. 7 years ago I added a new downstairs master suite and you better believe we dotted every "i" and crossed every "t", unlikeTodd Bodine.

Todd Bodine loses battle with HOA

NASCAR driver tearing down his pool house; association says he didn't get OK to build.

By Stuart Watson - WCNC-TV Tuesday, Jun. 28, 2011

Todd Bodine is accustomed to the sound of winning. The NASCAR driver has won the sport's truck series twice, most recently last year. But earlier this month, if you were to pass by a well-kept home in the Harris Village neighborhood of Mooresville, you would have heard the sound of Todd Bodine losing. In particular, it was the sound of Bodine and his helpers tearing down his prize pool house and tiki hut, the result of a four-year battle with his homeowners association. More than half of the state's owner-occupied homes are governed by so-called HOAs. But few of those homeowners sue their HOA and appeal all the way to the state Supreme Court, only to lose and have to tear down a structure - plus pay opposing attorneys' fees and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Bodines did. "I think I've been done wrong," Bodine said, sitting in shorts by his pool, remnants of his poolside bar covered with a tarp. "And it's incredible how unjust it is." The disagreement started in July 2007 when the HOA board president - who the Bodines say they had entertained over beers as they built their pool - abruptly told them the pool house was not approved. "The president never said, 'It's OK for you to start building,' " said Keith Black, the Greensboro attorney who represented the Harris Village HOA. Todd Bodine insists the HOA president had told him verbally to go ahead and build. "Everything was always, 'Fine, OK, looks good,' " Bodine said. The issue came to a head at an emergency HOA meeting in the Bodines' driveway. Bodine said he was upset. "It was on then. I got in his face," he said. He and his wife, Janet, went inside their home while the board members talked things over. The board members signed a "Request for Architectural Approval" and checked "approved" pending the approval of the Town of Mooresville Codes Department, which the Bodines quickly secured. But the dispute continued. The board's attorney contends that the document was conditional on the Bodines submitting final drawings with dimensions and that the board never realized how large the structure would be. "They ignored the phone calls, the email and built the thing," Black said. When the Bodines returned home after several weeks on the NASCAR circuit, they faced threatening letters and the prospect of fines from the HOA. The Bodines filed suit. Bodine insists the HOA targeted him, knowing he could afford the fines. "I was gouged pretty hard because of who I am," Bodine said. But Black, the HOA's attorney, says the lawsuit had nothing to do with Bodine's status, adding that the HOA tried to settle. "They said, 'No. We're not gonna do it. You're wrong. Kiss our rear end. We'll see you in court,' " he said. The Bodines lost at every level, culminating with the state Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case. In the whole four years, no one said the Bodines' pool house hurt Harris Village. "Hell, it was nice looking," Black said. "That wasn't the issue. Nobody said 'It's ugly and you have to take it down.' " Instead, the HOA said if it let the Bodines build a pool house without HOA permission, what next? "They open the door for anybody and everybody else to say, 'Well, I want to paint my house purple and have pink toilet seats all over the front yard,' " Black said. The Bodines were left with their own attorney's fees, the HOA's attorney fees and almost $40,000 in fines. The HOA put a lien on their home for the unpaid fines. Bodine was fed up. "I told 'em, 'Take it. Take the house,' " he said. Having exhausted their appeals, the Bodines would like the state legislature to rein in the powers of HOAs, a group of almost 18,000 neighborhood governments in North Carolina run by neighbors. "A lot of time their power is just way too strong," Bodine said. Read more: http://www.thatsracin.com/2011/06/28/67790/bodine-loses-battle-with-hoa.html#ixzz1QgUMUiIz

updated by @dave-fulton: 03/06/17 11:50:54PM

RPM's - Aint they got high?

General

Back in 1972, Jimmy Scott from Amelia, Virginia won the 1972 NASCAR Virginia State Hobby Championship. Two things about his car stand out. First, it was a 1958 Chevy - the only one I ever remember seeing in weekly track action. Painted bright orange, the car carried the number "3va" and had a bumblebee painted on it. Second, I've never heard another car at a weekly track sound like that one. When it backed off to go in turn 1 at Southside Speedway you could hear it over the field. The fans called it the bumblebee car and went nuts when it ran... and won. When the good Lord passed out mechanical knowledge, he left me out and I haven't the faintest idea what made that unusual high pitched soiund. I'm sure some of the board members here like Butch Zervakis and Bubba Tatum's son or maybe Worth McMillion's son remember that car and Ray Lamm may have some photos of it.

RPM's - Aint they got high?

General

I remember Junior J running some headers for awhile that made the car sound like it was absolutely screaming when the driver got off the gas. Don't think I ever heard anything quite like that before or since. In Smokey's case, who in the world knows what he may have really had or been turning. Can you imagine having to be a NASCAR inspector when anything Smokey built came through tech?

Dennis Andrews said:

I can't say for sure but Smokey's Chevelle sure sounded like it turned more than 7 grand at Charlotte in'67.

RPM's - Aint they got high?

General

I have no idea why, but a minute ago I was thinking about Frank Warren and Ed Negre being sponsored by 10,000 RPM Speed Equipment back in the day (as was Dale, Sr. once in the Negre car) and remembering how we used to think that was an absolute impossible RPM number to even dream of a stock car motor turning. That was in the day of such racing movies as "Red Line 7000." Things sure have changed, haven't they?
updated by @dave-fulton: 03/14/17 05:00:45AM

Where's Fox

General

Even though she didn't post such great finishes, I remember standing on pit road at Michigan for both 1982 Cup races and watching Robin McCall wheel that Jim Stacy #5 (see photo), thinking she was doing a pretty good job getting that car off turn 4. To my knowledge those were the only two starts she ever made and later when she married Wally Dallenbach, I kinda thought she was probably the better driver of the two. I can tell you definitively she wore the pants in the family based on a letter she once sent me at Richmond demanding that the Dallenbachs be removed from the RIR News Release mail list. It was downright NASTY. It was years before I stopped turning off the MRN radio broadcasts during race telecasts. I must say, over the years, I thought the absolute worst telecasts were those produced by Fred Rheinstein and Ken Squier for World Sports Enterprises and anchored by Ken. To be as knowledgeable as he is (and to have done such a fine job years years ago for MRN and CBS), Ken went into those TBS telecasts totally unprepared and made mistake after mistake on the air during a number of Charlotte and Richmond telecasts. The only saving grace was having Neil in the booth for color.

PattyKay Lilley said:

Actually, Wally and Kyle aren't so bad.

30 Years Ago - Earnhardt & Childress - $10,000 a Race!

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Jim, I had forgotten Otis. That dog could shake lake water all over you.

30 Years Ago - Earnhardt & Childress - $10,000 a Race!

General

And it was Whitlock who shaved a year off Earnhardt's age, changing his birthdate around 1982 or so in all press materials and keeping Dale 31 for two consecutive years. Whitlock was one of the best writers around and a terrific story teller. He was a USC grad and at one time ran the Columbia, SC AP bureau as well as managing the campaign for Fritz Hollings.

Dave Fulton said:

Yes, Jim, the late Joe Whitlock certainly had a lot to do with all of this in Dale's early career, before they later parted ways. As a matter of fact, Joe was on the Osterlund payroll as the PR guy and the late Judy Tucker worked with him there. Joe was married to the former Snow White at the time who later married the Atlanta writer, Ed Hinton. When Osterlund folded, we set Joe up in business as ProSports, Inc., paying him an annual retainer, buying them a copier and office equipment and leasing space for him as his first client. Judy, who had worked with Richard Howard and for Humpy became Joe's employee, before later moving to the Raymond Beadle/Rusty Wallace Blue Max deal. Joe later moved the operation to his home and got the Goodwrench account when they became an associate with Childress.

30 Years Ago - Earnhardt & Childress - $10,000 a Race!

General

Yes, Jim, the late Joe Whitlock certainly had a lot to do with all of this in Dale's early career, before they later parted ways. As a matter of fact, Joe was on the Osterlund payroll as the PR guy and the late Judy Tucker worked with him there. Joe was married to the former Snow White at the time who later married the Atlanta writer, Ed Hinton. When Osterlund folded, we set Joe up in business as ProSports, Inc., paying him an annual retainer, buying them a copier and office equipment and leasing space for him as his first client. Judy, who had worked with Richard Howard and for Humpy became Joe's employee, before later moving to the Raymond Beadle/Rusty Wallace Blue Max deal. Joe later moved the operation to his home and got the Goodwrench account when they became an associate with Childress.

30 Years Ago - Earnhardt & Childress - $10,000 a Race!

General

OK, here's one I have never talked about, but it's been 30 years since 1981 so I guess it's fair game. A lot of folks probably don't realize all the behind the scenes dealings that had to take place almost overnight to keep Dale Earnhardt competing in our blue & yellow Wrangler colors in 1981 and convince Richard Childress to give up driving. The background story is that California car owner Rod Osterlund had befriended the penniless and deep in debt Earnhardt and put him in a ride that had been wheeled by Dave Marcis. Osterlund had brought a whole bunch of youngsters east from San Jose, California where they had worked weekly races with him and Roland Wylodyka (called "Roland from Poland" by Osterlund). The group included just many nice young guys like Doug Richert, Bob Burcham and former driver, Marv Acton. I wished I could remember them all. Wrangler was shopping in mid 1980 for a situation to go fulltime racing in 1981 with a program to match our "One Tough Customer" ad campaign and NASCAR led us to the Osterlund/Earnhardt tandem. It didn't takeany rocket scientists to see that Earnhardt was our "One Tough Customer" in the flesh. Osterlund had become a father figure to Dale. We went on the car the last race of 1980 at Ontario when Dale barely clinched the 1980 championship over Cale. Unbeknowst to us (Wrangler) or Dale, Osterlund had encountered some serious real estate reversals in California and was about to shop his team to the highest bidder. He had Dale and he had Pontiac factory sponsorship and he had a major sponsor on board. The real coup was hiring away the disgruntled Dale Inman from Petty to become the new crew chief for the Earnhardt/Wrangler deal. When Richard won his final Daytona 500 in February 1981, few knew the real reason for Dale Inman's tears in victory lane. It had not yet been announced he'd be joining our deal as Earnhardt's new crew chief in time for Atlanta. Annyhow, early one summer morning we got a call that Osterlund had sold the team to Jim Stacy and it would be headed up by "Booby" Harrington. We weren't happy campers and Dale was both furious and dejected over Osterlund selling him down the river. We met with Stacy and he told us he didn't care whether he had a sponsor or not. By the Talladega August race, Dale had had all he could take of Stacy and told us he wouldn't drive the car again. At meetings in Talladegaa consortium of Wrangler, NASCAR, Winston and Junior Johnson convinced Childress this was his big chance. He agreed to get out of the driver's seat and put Dale Earnhardt in it. Richard had a small shop in Welcome, NC with a very few dedicated employees and a lot of at-track volunteers like "Doc" andRichard's brother, Ronnie.

Wrangler was having to spend a ton of money reprinting ad materials changing the car number from #2 to #3. And I had recently had Dale sign one of the first "driver personal services contracts" in the spring at the old Darryl's Restaurant on Church Street in Greensboro for $100,000/year, so our money was spread pretty thin.

Here's the amazing deal Richard agreed to:Wrangler would pay him $10,000 per race for the remaining events in 1981 - IF Dale Earnhardt made the starting field in 1st Round qualifying. If not, we'd pay nothing. Remember, back then there were often 3 rounds or so of qualifying. Each week for the rest of the 1981 season, I took a $10,000 check with me and had it in the right rear pocket of my Wrangler Jeans standing beside Richard Childress on pit road during 1st round qualifying. Richard sweat bullets and I didn't want to think of having to not pay. Anyhow, Dale made every race for Richard during 1st round qualifying. But, Richard had taken a huge gamble that would pay million dollar rewards down the way. We did some other things for Richard like put Doug Richert on the Wrangler corporate payroll and paid Robert Gee directly to fabricate some cars and financed the purchase of some shop equipment. I've never told this story before, but for a "possible" $10,000 per race, Richard Childress gave up driving. You got to admire the gamble he and Judy took. As for Dale Inman, he eventually hooked up with Billy Hagan, but he got shafted by Osterlund.

updated by @dave-fulton: 04/15/18 09:22:40AM

Vintage Racing at Carolina Speedway

Vintage Oval and Road Course Racing

Jeff, here is a specific example of what I was talking about with the Gore family at Old Dominion Speedway. This 1971 National Speed Sport News story documents 65 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman cars on hand for the 1971 Bill Bogley Race (I was fortunate to watch it). Just look at the names in the race report, including National Champ, Red Farmer, who had a bad night. There was even a 20-lap consi... anyway, again, if promoters ran fewer divisions...

Jeff Gilder said:

Your recognition of the Gore family is spot on. That family has played a huge role in the advancement of motor racing in general. From being one of ...if not ..the first working "legal" drag strip east of the Mississippi to the great short track racing contributions over the years...great folks, too!