Once we got inside, we were given a couple of tickets for the door prizes they had. T-shirts, hats, die-casts, and other assorted things. Sitting right by the door was my good friend Peanut Turman. Peanut was as chipper as ever and really enjoying himself. I was very surprised to see Living Legend members Paul Lewis and Brownie King there. Paul I knew from his appearances at the Old Timers Racing Club fundraisers at the Memory Lane Museum. I had met Brownie at the Racers Reunion gathering at the old Columbia Speedway earlier this year. I spotted my good friends Rex White and Slick Owens a little further down the signing line sitting next to Earl Brooks. Earl was looking rather frail physically, but you could see in his eyes that what his body may have been lacking, his mind made up for. Sitting a couple chairs down from Slick was Harold Smith busily signing autographs and a copy of his book that a fan had bought.
Once things had slowed down a bit in the signing line, I sat down with Rex and we caught up on a lot of what had happened since we’d last seen each other. We talked a bit about what was happening with racing and the high cost, even at the lower levels. Rex said that the mandated parts being used at the lower levels of the sport were killing the sport due to the cost. Mandated clutches, mandated gears and rear ends, and even the safety gear the drivers were wearing was pricing the little guy out of even considering getting into racing at the local levels. And Rex gave me an example of the high prices. Earlier this year at Darlington, they had a pretty good sized get together. One gentleman had a replica of one of Rex’s cars there. It was a car Rex had driven several times on the beaches of Daytona at several of the Living Legends gatherings. Rex was asked if he’d take the car around the track at Darlington and of course Rex was willing to take it for a spin. Then he was told he would have to wear a helmet, HANS device, gloves, fire suit, and racing boots. A cheap helmet and HANS device is about $2400. Then add in the cost of the fire suit and everything else and you’re looking at what it cost Rex to put together a race car back when he was racing. After finding out about everything he had to wear and the cost, he said they were out of their damn minds. Why did he need to wear all that safety gear to drive around the track at 40-50 mph on what was basically little more than parade laps? That is the first time since I’ve known Rex that he’s every used the word “damn“, so that told me a lot. If Rex is saying “damn“, then you know he was upset about the situation. I think back to several years ago at Atlanta when Rex drove a replica of one of his cars around the speedway there just prior to the race. No helmet, no gloves, no fire suit, no HANS device and he was leading the 43 car field and the pace car around the track on the parade laps.
It was at this point that Harlow stopped by and thanked me for mentioning his event in one of my rants. I told Harlow I was glad to help out and any time he was having another gathering to drop me an e-mail. Harlow told me he was planning to have another event like this one next year about the same time and in the same location. So for all you folks who have next year’s calendar, go ahead and circle the last weekend of November as a tentative date for another Harlow Hullabaloo. Next year, Harlow is hoping to have a full blown car show along with the autograph session.
With the recent announcement of the re-opening of North Wilkesboro, a track where Rex had raced a number of times and won at, I asked him what he thought about it. Rex said, “I’m glad it’s opening again but with this economy it’s going to be tough. The biggest problem I’ve seen this season is the car count. 6 or 7 cars doesn’t make a race. What they’re doing at Bowman-Gray is pretty good and they’re getting bigger. They need to run what they’re running at Bowman-Gray“.
I had to "get rid" of the coffee I had drunk earlier and I excused myself and found the Men’s Room. Race talk was still going on in there. One gent made fun of the fact that there was a line to use the facilities saying it was almost as bad as the line for getting a race car inspected. Several of us chuckled about that.
When I got back out, Rex was busy autographing and chatting with the daughters of some former drivers, so I went and asked Peanut Turman what he thought about North Wilkesboro re-opening. Peanut’s son Hank Jr. had raced there in a late model back in the late 80’s, early 90’s and Peanut himself had been there many times as a crewmember of David Pearson when he was with the Wood Brothers. Peanut said, “I’m glad to hear North Wilkesboro is open again. It’s a good little track”.
Word came from some of the fans that David Pearson was outside checking out the cars that were on display outside. Needless to say, that got the talk inside the Moose Lodge going a little louder and folks started getting a little more antsy awaiting his arrival.
I saw Slick Owens having a cold one and joined him although I can‘t enjoy a cold brew any more. I’ve known Slick about as long as I’ve known Rex. And for those that aren’t familiar with Slick, he was Rex’s crew chief back when Rex was racing in the Grand National Series, the predecessor of today’s Cup Series. Slick stayed involved in racing for many years. He worked with Cale Yarborough when Cale was a car owner and eventually sold his business to Cale before Slick retired. One of the drivers who drove for Cale was Jeremy Mayfield. And based on the accusations that have been made about Mayfield and the time frame regarding the alleged drug use, I asked Slick about Jeremy. Slick said, “Jeremy’s a good kid. He drove for us (Cale’s team) and it’s a shame what NA$CAR is doing to him. I hope he can race again”. Slick and I talked about a few things off the record. But to put it in a nutshell, as long as he’s known Mayfield and as many times as he’s stopped by unannounced to see Jeremy Mayfield over the years, he’s never seen anything out of the ordinary or seen Mayfield act out of character.
Things had slacked off again at the signing line, so I joined Rex again and we resumed talking about the high price of racing. Rex said, “Even the cost of the cars they run at Bowman-Gray has gotten ridiculous because of NA$CAR.”
With NA$CAR sanctioning the local tracks, the tracks have to abide by NA$CAR’s rules for just about everything except for the Ms Terry DeBris cautions. In doing so, this has driven up the cost of racing at the local level because of local guys having to meet NA$CAR’s safety standards and using the mandated parts, which in a lot of cases means using sole source parts. In other words, even if a manufacturer makes a part that’s as good or better than what NA$CAR has mandated and cost less money, the teams can’t use it. They are effectively killing off the local tracks and drivers the same way their killing off the Cup, Busch, and Truck Series.
One thing Rex and I also talked about was the days of taking a car off the showroom floor and racing them. I filled Rex in one what it was currently costing the teams to field one of the Uni-Cars and what it was costing them to get that abomination to the track. Rex feels that with the way the street cars are built today and with what NA$CAR mandates as far as safety standards and parts, the teams wouldn’t be able to save much money if they went back to running the cars from the showroom. Rex feels that the days of running “real stock cars” is dead and it’s because of the high cost of the parts involved.
It was about this time that David Pearson made his way in and folks were lining up at the signing table and all the way out the door of the Moose Lodge. Harlow was talking with him and introduced his grandkids to David Pearson and Harlow’s sister got a picture of the kids with Harlow and David Pearson together. Then Pearson got down to business and he must’ve gotten one heck of a case of writer’s cramp. Some folks only had one item to get signed and others must’ve raided E-Bay for anything and everything Pearson. When things finally slowed down, I had brought a book with me that had the famous wrecked front end on it from when he beat Richard Petty at Daytona. So I had him autograph for me and wished him a Merry Christmas. I could see a little smile on his face but he didn’t say anything. Somehow I get the feeling that although he’s got the tough guy image still after all these years, maybe David Pearson is something of a softie when it comes to the holidays.
They were taking down the signing line and getting ready for the dinner and bands, so that was my cue for my wife and I to depart. We bid our farewells to Rex, Slick, and Peanut and headed out the door to start the long journey back to Floyd. Needless to say, there were a lot of happy race fans and my wife and I were able to catch up with Rex and everything else we normally did at Augusta. So we went home happy.
I’ve got to thank Harlow Reynolds for putting
together one heck of a hullabaloo and thank all
the drivers, crew chiefs, mechanics, and race
fans who made this a memorable event. Next
year, it should be even bigger and better so be
sure to attend.
And to the Korean War and Vietnam vets who
were in attendance, and I’m sorry I didn’t get
your names, my thanks to you for your service
to our country.
For you folks who want to help make the
Christmas season a little bit brighter, you can
help out by going to http://www.treesfortroops.org/ and find out where you can purchase a tree which will be donated to military families around the USA. Also, Dollar Tree is partnering with Operation Homefront to launch their 2009 Holiday Toy Drive, running November 15th through December 15th. Simply purchase a toy or care item and drop it off in a “Toy Platoon” collection box located in any of the 3,700 Dollar Tree stores nationwide. Operation Homefront will collect and distribute these items to military families in your area.
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