Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

First Virginia NASCAR Race

General

Quite frankly,I got sick and tired this weekend ofSpeed Channel and Fox crewssaying the first Richmond NASCAR race was in 1953. Many years I had to get the late Dick Thompson, Martinsville's superb and superniceguy PR chief, to retract a Martinsville press release claiming Martinsville held the first NASCAR race. He was startled to discover they were number 3 behind Richmond and Danville.

First Virginia NASCAR Race

General

Courtesy of the Virginia Historical Society, here's an aerial view of that beautiful 1/2-mile dirt track at Richmond on the grounds of the Atlantic Rural Exposition at Strawberry Hill that is the site of today's Richmond International Raceway. The front straight from that track approximates today's pit road.The first race of any kind at this site was a AAA Sprint Car race on October 12, 1946, won by Ted Horn of Paterson, NJ driving a 1939 Offenhauser powered car.

First Virginia NASCAR Race

General

NASCAR events have been held at the site of Richmond International Raceway longer than any other venue. On May 16, 1948 a NASCAR Modified race was held at the site of today's Richmond International Raceway - the first NASCAR race in Virginia. The second and third Virginia NASCAR races were soon to follow - at Danville and Martinsville, respectively. Appropriately, Red Byron won that first Virginia NASCAR race at Richmond. No othersite has staged NASCAR races as long as the Richmond track.

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

Denny Hamlin Short Track Showdown Unofficial Rundown

General

This was actually a pretty good show, once it finally got started.

NASCAR Hall Of Fame Biography - Ned Jarrett on Speed

Current NASCAR

Just saw the show and enjoyed the song. Good job!

ANOTHER NIGHT TO WALK THE CAT

Current NASCAR

I have never been a big DW fan, as you can probably tell, because of his mouthand thought it was quite appropriate when Cale hung the JAWS moniker on him. I grew up in Richmond, VA and was a big Lennie Pond supporter in 1973's Cup Rookie chase, claimed by Lennie over DW. I had previously watched DW get his tail whipped in the Late Model Sportsman ranks anytime he came to Virginia and tried to compete against Ray Hendrick and Sonny Hutchins. Later, Bud Moore and wife Betty became wonderful family friends and Bud, of course, voiced his opinion of ole DW from the seven races he drove for Bud before being fired. Then, while running the Wrangler Jeans program I sat in a back room at a seedy motel in Greensboro, NC with Junior Johnson, who wanted to replace DW with Dale, along with his Wrangler sponsorship. Junior claimed Darrell had his "bell rung" when he hit that inside concrete wall near the Goodyear tower at Daytona and would never again be competitive. When Junior later reneged on a deal we had to have Dale with him in a one car only operation, we voided our contract with Junior, called him what he was, and he continued with DW in one car and Neil Bonnett in a second. This all leads me to say, "HOWEVER"... HOWEVER, I witnessed Darrell do one of the nicest things I ever saw at a racetrack. In 1986 I was VP/GM of RABANCO racing out of Campobello, SC and we had taken Cup rookie, Derrike Copeto an open test at Charlotte to prepare to attempt to qualify for the World 600. It was Derrike's first time on a superspeedway and he was very uncomfortable getting into turn 3, especially not knowing how the car (a 1986 Ford T-Bird) should be acting getting in the corner. Darrell was parked near us and out of the clear blue, came over and told me how much he liked the way Derrike had come into the Cup series as a rookie and how much he respected the way Derrike was acting and asking questions. He then asked if I would like for him (DW) to get in Derrike's car and shake it down for a few laps? Of course, we said yes and DW (a GM factory driver at the time) took Derrike's independent T-bird out for us. When he came back after 5-6 laps, he said he didn't even know how Derrike had kept from spinning out - that he must be a pretty good driver. Then, DW went to his truck and came back with springs and shocks. He got under Derrike's car with our guys and suggested the setup we use. To make a long story short, Derrike made the Charlotte field because of DW's unsolicited and unselfish help and I have never forgotten that. Of course there were no tv cameras or reporters watching and Darrell was a totally different person than the one we watch on tv.. The funny thing is that it was the second time that season we'd been helped through a Junior Johnson connection. In April, at Martinsville, we had aan impact wrench malfunction during a pit stop and crew chief Tim Brewer in the pit next to us for Neil Bonnett grabbed his impact wrench, jumped into our pit and changed a rear tire for us. In the many years I was around it, I saw a lot of unselfish, unpublcized things done by racers to help other competitors. The really funny thing is that Derrike's funding dried up in July and the team shut down. My next job, ironically,was planning a press conference that November in Atlanta for DW, Rick Hendrick and Waddell Wilson for tha agency handling the Tide detergent account. We hade DW drive a Hendrick Tide car out of a huge box of Tide onstage to announce the "Dream Team", which soon acquired another name I shall not repeat here. Anyhow, it is a small world and sometimes the person you have bashed turns out to have another, very human side, as I found out unexpectedly.

ANOTHER NIGHT TO WALK THE CAT

Current NASCAR

How many of you remember Bud Moore firing DW in his rookie season? At Richmond, Jaws drove right into Baxter Price and started the worst fire I've ever seen at a racetrack. Bud told DW on the radio over and over to slow down - that a car was spun out blocking the track, but Darrell came around turn 3 and 4 and drove straigjht into the Price, destroying Bud's car and a bunch of others in the fire that resulted. That was enough for Bud. If you remember, the NASCAR rookie panel name Lennie Pond the Rookie of the year over DW that year - 1973.

Here is a direct quote from DW, confirming this event (DW's version, of course) that I witnessed and never forgot (especially after hearing Bud's personal description many years later!!) --

"I caused the biggest wreck in the history of NASCAR, bigger than the ones at Talladega, at Richmond driving for Bud Moore. Have you never noticed that Bud never mentions me. All of these drivers will get on stage and he'll talk about all the great drivers he's had and he never mentions my name and I drove seven races for him in 1973. But we were in Richmond and he was running a 351 against everybody else's, they said they were 427s but they were more like 494s -- whatever they were they were big motors. He thought he could win with a 351 and I'm a rookie so I believe he can too. Anyway, we're at Richmond on the old race track. I qualified on the outside pole, Bobby (Allison) was on the pole and I was on the outside pole. They dropped the green flag and a guy named Baxter Price started dead last. He didn't even try to qualify, they just started him at the back of the field. On the third lap we were lapping him. He spun coming off of turn four and, of course, that race track was real narrow. He spun coming off of turn four and I'm all over the back of Bobby and all of a sudden Bobby dives down pit lane. Well, I wondered why and it didn't take very long for me to find out because Baxter Price was sitting sideways on the race track. I hit him right in the fuel cell and when I did it exploded. I mean, it was full of fuel and it just exploded. Of course, the track is blocked and everybody was just piling in -- there must have been probably 20 cars. Well, the gas is running all down underneath of them and everything is catching on fire. I'm sitting there and, of course, every driver is scared to death of fire and the last thing I heard is, 'Get that radio. Cut that radio off that roll bar and bring that radio in. Don't let that radio burn up.' The car burned up, but he didn't want that radio to burn up."

2-Man Bobsled Racing

General

And here's a Tom Higgins piece worth repeating:

Davey Allison put his stamp firmly on Sawyer's new track

TOM HIGGINS SCUFFS By Tom Higgins - ThatsRacin.com Contributor Saturday, Sep. 11, 2010

It was a deeply touching triumph for Davey Allison 22 years ago at the new Richmond International Raceway. The young driver won the Miller 400 after receiving a surprise, inspirational phone call from his famous father, Bobby. That call in 1988 came just prior to the race on Sept. 11, a date destined to gain everlasting infamy 13 years later. The elder Allison, who very nearly lost his life in a crash on June 19 at Pocono Raceway, contacted his son from a hospital bed in Alabama, where the family lived. It was a secret this was going to happen, a delighted Davey, then 27, said of the call from his dad, whose brilliant racing career was ended by the Pennsylvania crash. Its neat. It means a lot. I miss him, and I think everyone else in the sport does, too. Hearing him gave me goose bumps all over. I had chills. The father-son Allison duo had opened the 88 Cup Series season by finishing 1-2 in one of the greatest Daytona 500s in history. Davey, then 27, was dominant at the three-fourth-mile Virginia track, leading 262 of the 400 laps, including the final 53. Driving a Ford fielded by Robert Yates Racing of Charlotte, the youthful-looking Allison beat the Chevrolet of runner-up Dale Earnhardt to the checkered flag by 3.25 seconds at the speedway. It wasnt as easy as it appeared, said Davey, who had started from the pole position after qualifying at 122.850 mph. This is a tough race track. I dont think anyone can come here and just go fast. However, Earnhardt conceded that Allison, the 1987 rookie of the year, was in control. We couldnt run with Davey, said Earnhardt, who led 77 laps. He just kept trucking on. Said Davey: As a driver, you want to be first in all the good statistics, so to win the inaugural race on this track is really special. Me and Robert and the guys on our team wanted it a lot. The D-shaped layout with wide, sweeping turns replaced the outdated Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway. The latter, a tight, guardrail-lined layout measuring .542-miles, had torn up tons of race cars and frayed a lot of tempers since 1953. At one time it was known as Strawberry Hill Speedway. Honest. The facility had become decrepit over the decades, to say the least. Immediately following the Pontiac 400 there on Feb. 14, 1988, razing of the place began so a new track could be constructed on the same site. Richard Petty, a 13-time winner on the old track, got out of his race car and onto a bulldozer to symbolically start the demolition. It became known as the night they tore old Richmond down. The Fairgrounds finale, incidentally, was won by Neil Bonnett, a close friend of the Allisons and fellow member of the storied Alabama Gang. With only seven months between Richmonds two Cup dates in 88, skeptics said a new racing layout and grandstands couldnt be completed on time. The doubters didnt know Paul Sawyer, a colorful, earthy, tough character and a veteran promoter who controlled the Virginia track. Sawyer willed that the work would be done. And, mostly, it was finished. Oh, a few things were left to be finished during race weekend. For example, I sat on a air-conditioner crate in the press box to file my stories for The Charlotte Observer leading up to race day. The chairs hadnt been delivered. But just as Paul Sawyer promised, the show got the green flag on schedule. Ive dreamed of this day, giving our great Virginia fans a track like this, said a delighted Sawyer. Theyre the best. Other promoters, like Charlottes Humpy Wheeler, agreed. Without fans from the Old Dominion, Humpy at the time, some tracks in the south might have to shut down. Spectators who came to Sawyers speedway obviously liked what they experienced. The sight lines proved exceptional and the action on the track was often side-to-side, offering plenty of room for passing. I cant build grandstands fast enough, Sawyer said as he added seating through the 1990s, eventually creating a stadium with capacity of 100,000 before selling his beloved track to International Speedway Corp. in 2003. Both Davey Allison and Paul Sawyer are gone now. Davey lost his life on July 13, 1993, in the crash of a helicopter he was attempting to land at Talladega Superspeedway. He had scored 19 Cup Series victories. Sawyer died on Feb. 27, 2005, at age 88. Somewhere, perhaps the two are sharing smiles and stories this weekend with racing rolling again at the Richmond track where they created great memories all those years ago.

2-Man Bobsled Racing

General

Amen to that! Paul Sawyer knew what he wanted and he built it. RIR has had the best racing on the circuit since the day it opened in Sept. 1988. 2 & 3 cars wide and nose to tail all the way around - and it a'int drafting! A driver's track.

Bumpertag said:

Now on to the best track on the circuit, RICHMOND!!! Lets go racing.

Bumpertag

2-Man Bobsled Racing

General

I actually switched over to a PBS broadcast during the Talladega race, something I have never done. And if Jimmie-boy didn't drop below the yellow line to advance his position, then my bifocals are worse than I thought. Then again, that yellow line rule is stupid.