helped to get the track surface uncovered. Rumors are circulating down there that somebody (I don’t know who) wants to re-open the track. I hope the rumors are true because it’s a nice track and could be turned into a very nice venue since the bulk of the old track seating and infield was lost to time.
The first famous face I ran into was Francis Flock, the widow of racing great Tim Flock. She was there with the Old Timers Racing Club group. I asked her how things were going and where the autographs were being done since she’s normally doing a few of those herself. I got my better half to get a seat in the big tent so she was out of the sun and hiked over to the autograph tent. Fans were packed inside it and overflowing to the outside. The wait time was about an hour. I was getting ready to take a picture of Buddy Baker when somebody stepped in front of the shot. It was my good friend Rex White. Rex and his niece, Kay, Slick Owens (Rex’s former crew chief) and his wife were heading out to get some lunch, so I lead them over to the big tent. Kay and I caught up on our thyroids and Rex and I had a talk about my recent joining the ranks of the diabetics. For those who don’t know, Rex is also a diabetic. So I have something else in common with my good friend. Rex’s one piece of advice about the diabetic diet was, “If it taste good, spit it out because its probably not good for you”. We both had a good chuckle about that. If you’ve never tasted strawberry jam for the diabetic crowd, you’re not missing much. It’s red, it has the consistency of jam, but has no taste to it. I miss my PB&J’s that have real taste to them.
When we were half-way there, Slick had to stop and use one of the porta-johns. Right after he came out, my neighbor from Dugspur, Peanut Turman, ducked in to take care of some business. Once he was inside, I said in a loud voice, “OK, Peanut’s in there. Let’s tip it over”. Slick played along with it and started to pound on the back of the porta-john. Peanut said “Oh no, I’m in trouble now” laughing the whole time. Needless to say we all had a good laugh, including Peanut. Once we got to the tent, we found my better half, dropped off our “baggage” and went to get some food. Once we settled in, we all got caught up on what had been going on since we had last seen each other, talked about the current state of affairs with racing, and talked about family. A couple of Rex’s friends stopped by and joined us and we got into a discussion once again on diabetes. Luckily I don’t have to do the injections which one of Rex’s friends does. When they took off, a couple of race fans stopped by to get Rex to autograph a copy of his book “Gold Thunder”. Slick was looking at a book about the great Holman-Moody team and was talking about one of the engines they had used which was made in Australia and not in the Ford factory here in the USA. Peanut had told me about that a while back and there it was in black and white. So foreign engine blocks and engines are nothing new.
Once we were finished with our food, Kay mysteriously produced a pie. It seems that a friend of Rex’s had dropped it off. I’m not sure what all was in it but there was pineapple in there, which is something I enjoy. I sneaked a bite from my wife knowing it was off my diet. Or so I thought. Kay later explained to me it was made with Splenda, so I committed no “sin“. Once we were all finished we headed back over towards the autograph tent, which was empty as they had a 2 hour break. Fans were roaming around the immediate area waiting for the next autograph session to begin. I stopped by the Augusta International Raceway Preservation Society (AIRPS) tent and talked with Harvey Tollison of the AIRPS group. Harvey’s nephew was ill and couldn’t make the trip. He was one very disappointed young man. But we discussed last year’s AIRPS event and the upcoming one in September. This year they’re having the NHRA as a part of the Vintage Nationals as they use to race on the drag way that was part of the Augusta raceway complex. I hope Big Daddy Don Garlits will be there. He was “the man” back in the day. Yeah, I use to follow drag racing as well as stock car racing when I was a young motorhead and even helped out one of my high school buddies with the car that he raced on Saturday nights at the defunct Hollywood (Fla.) Sportatorium complex.
As with any event like this, you get fans discussing all sorts of race tracks from days gone by. I spotted one fan wearing a t-shirt from the last race at North Wilkesboro, a place very near and dear to my heart. We discussed the state of affairs of what was going on, the rumors we’d both heard, and we’re both hoping the old gal would return to some form of racing because it was too good of a track to just rot away. We also talked about our visits to the track in the days since it was closed in 1996 and were both saddened by its current state. More on North Wilkesboro later.
Fans were also discussing the current state of affairs with NA$CAR, under the leadership (or lack thereof) of His Royal Highness, the Emperor of All Things NA$CAR, Faux King Brian. Some of the nicer things that were said about His Majesty were that he needed to be fired and replaced by somebody who actually cared about racing. Some of the other things that were said can’t be printed as you don‘t say those sort of things in mixed company. Kyle Busch was a topic of discussion. One fan wished Joe Weatherly was still around so he could take Kyle out behind the woodshed and teach him a thing or two. Talladega was brought up and a lively discussion about restrictor plate racing. The general consensus was, in the words of Iron Head, “not real racing”. Most of the fans agreed that the sport was going to hell in a hand basket. They don’t consider the COT to be a real car because it has no resemblance to any street car and has no corporate identity to its body lines like the cars from the old days. I know, the template racer was the same way, but it looked more like a car than what’s currently being raced.
Another topic of discussion was the empty seats at races this year. Last year, when gas prices were sky high, folks could see why there were empty seats. The bottom line of the discussions were that the races were boring and ticket prices at a lot of tracks were too high and that’s why most tracks will continue to see empty seats. The only races currently being run by NA$CAR that were worth a hoot were the Truck races and the lower level East and West Series races. There was real action happening in those series. Not to mention local track racing. I didn’t have to prompt anyone for an opinion or steer the talks in any direction. These were straight, honest, from the gut opinions from the fans that have been abandoned by the Daytona Palm Tree Hunter. Maybe if Faux King Brian got off his bar stool at the Chart House (after unfastening his seat belt) and attended a few events like this he could find out what was really wrong with the sport and get the views of the fans he’s made so irate with his “knowing what’s best for the sport”.
My better half decided she’d heard enough race talk and pulled me away to look at the cars and trucks that were on display around the track. One car that was on display was the new Camaro. It still doesn’t look a whole heck of a lot like the 1967-1968 Camaro it’s supposed to be based on. There’s a vague resemblance there and that’s about it. One gal, who’s hubby had a ‘67 Camaro on display at the track, was complaining about the new car and how the engine resembled that of the current model Corvette. I got a few pictures of it and moved on around the track. I spotted Rex getting his picture taken by a photographer who was there with Rex holding a picture of himself from his racing days. We waved at each other and Rex went back “to work” getting his pictures taken, this time holding a copy of his book, God Thunder. BTW, for you fans hoping for another book from Rex, he’s said he’s out of the book writing business, so enjoy the two books he’s co-authored.
As we walked along checking out the cars and trucks that were on display, we were talking about how one of our nephews would like certain vehicles that were there. He has a thing for old cars and trucks and there were a few there he’d have fallen in love with. There was an old International truck on display that had real wood used to make the back of the truck. There was another old truck that had been souped up and had a cartoon on the door from the famous old “Keep on Truckin’” days with some minor changes to reflect a sponsor. There were some really beautiful cars on display which you could tell had a lot of time, money and care invested in them. A couple brought back some memories of families cars my wife’s family had when she was growing up and some of them brought back high school memories for me. We walked a little further and got to the race cars that were on display which were set up like a starting grid and discussed those. Brownie King’s car was on display and for those not familiar with it, he ran it in the very first Daytona 500 and it’s still in one piece. There was an old Mercury on display. One of The King's Plymouths were there along with a couple of cars from the Memory Lane Museum in Mooresville. One female fan was complaining about the Memory Lane signs which were posted around the track. She seemed not to know Memory Lane was one of the event sponsors and also had a couple of their cars in the “racing line-up“.
Once again, the autograph tent was opened for business so my wife took a seat in the shade while I sweated in line. Once again, more discussions about tracks and racing were going on amongst the fans who were waiting to get an autograph. The gent behind me had attended a track in NC called Wilson Speedway as a kid. He told me about how they’d go there clean and come back with the only part of them not covered in dirt was where they had worn their glasses. A “young” fan ahead of me was talking to his grandson about how he’d been at Columbia Speedway when he was his grandson’s age. A couple of other fans were discussing the empty seats and how Darlington was the only track not having a problem (Hurray!). I picked up a copy of the event program and took a quick look through it. First up at the autograph table was my neighbor from down the road, Peanut Turman. We had a good chuckle when he acted surprised to see me there. I got a second card of him with his car, #1-½, which I’ll be framing for my nephew who’s the old vehicle fan. He’s been to Peanut’s house with me and has met him a couple of times. Going through the line, some of the drivers noticed my Save the Speedway t-shirt and we got discussing North Wilkesboro and Bruton the Bald. One of the nicer comments was when Bruton died, Turtle Wax would lose a lot of money because Bruton wouldn’t be polishing his head anymore which got a good chuckle of those within earshot. Another one said they be screwing Bruton into the ground as fast as possible after he passed away. Dave Marcis, Mr. Wingtips himself, was there and overheard some of the conversations going and said, “I loved racing there (North Wilkesboro). It was a great track to race at”. I backed up a little to see if Dave had on his famous wingtip shoes and he stuck them out for me and said “Yep, I’m wearing them”. That gave both of us a laugh. Dave wouldn’t be Dave without his wingtips. He’s still living in Ashville NC and still tinkering around with his hot rods.
Dink Widenhouse had a couple of pictures of himself with Ned Jarrett. These weren’t your typical pictures. One picture was when they were both dark haired and had a few less wrinkles. The other was as they are today. Ned has always been one of my favorites, whether he was racing or commentating. DW could take a few lessons from Ned on being a professional in the broadcast booth. As I was thumbing through the program I had bought, there were shots of some of the racing greats from my youth and the most pictures I’d ever seen of Ralph Earnhardt in one place. Billy Scott had a couple of good pictures in the program. One of him with a 16 year old Dale Earnhardt (before he became Sr.) and one at Scott’s house after Dale became famous.
Reading through the program was like taking a step back in time for me when seeing the names of so many drivers who I had grown up listening about on the radio and seeing on Wide World of Sports. Most of the greats of stock car racing from back then raced at Columbia Speedway at one time or another. The Petty’s, Rex White, Fireball Roberts, Ned Jarrett, Buck Baker, Junior Johnson, Marvin Panch, Cale Yarborough and the list goes on and on. Even a few names like Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, and Sam Ard who newer fans might recognize raced there. It’s a shame that NASCAR dropped Columbia Speedway off the schedule because it was a great short track like some others (North Wilkesboro and the Nashville Fairgrounds come to mind) that got dropped off the schedule over the years as NASCAR moved on and started moving closer to being what it is today. NA$CAR.
Seeing the great fan turn out really makes me
feel good that so many folks turned out for this
event. I’m hoping that they’ll do it again next
year so that the folks who missed out on it this
year can attend and hopefully some more of the
drivers who raced there will show up. I know
some of them are getting on in years but if they
could’ve seen the appreciation these fans had
for the drivers who showed up and the memories
they shared, they’d know it would be worth the
trip. For those who were there, thank you. For
those who I had the chance to talk with and
your opinions and stories you shared or whose
stories I overheard, thank you also. It’s the fans
and drivers from days gone by who made stock
car racing a great sport.
The economy is affecting a lot of folks, including Laidback Racing. We don’t make much money
off of the t-shirts and stuff. So if you want to help us out and keep Laidback Racing going, please
click on the Google Ads. You don’t have to buy anything from these web sites. Just go there. Every little bit helps.
Motherhood, Apple Pie, and John Wayne
Mad Mikie
Curmudgeon at Large
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