Buck Baker

Elzie Wylie Baker Sr. was born on the 4^th March 1919 in the heart of NASCAR racing country at Richburg, South Carolina.  Better known as “Buck” he started his career in 1939 when he entered a race in Greenville, South Carolina, unfortunately he didn’t finish the race due to one of his tyres blowing out.  This didn’t deter him because he went on to become one of the greatest and toughest drivers in NASCAR’s history.  His reputation was such that his competitors said that if they nudged him in the heat of the race they could expect a confrontation in the pits after the race making him known not only for his tremendous victories on the track but also for his victories in fights afterwards.  His son Buddy said some years later, “My dad won his share of races on the track but I don’t think he ever lost a battle in the pits”. An extremely versatile driver he was able to jump into any car and get the best out of it, giving him victories in eight different models such as Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, Hudson, Oldsmobile and Dodge.  During his racing career he drove for eight different teams including Fox, Babb, Smith, Kiekhaefer, B A Pless, T C Griffin, Ernest Woods and himself. In 1955 Kiekhaefer joined the NASCAR touring series and his team almost swept the board with victories, gaining twenty two out of thirty nine races and this was when Kiekhaefer noticed that Buck was giving his team a good run for their money in his own cars, Oldsmobiles and Buicks.  At the beginning of the 1956 Grand National season Kiekhaefer is reported to have said, “I saw that Buck was my top competition, there’s only one thing to do with a man like that – hire him”. During the 1956 season Buck won a total of fourteen races for Kiekhaefer, starting with the 150 mile race at the Phoenix dirt track and secured the Grand National title for himself.  He managed to finish in the top five in thirty of his forty eight starts.  When Kiekhaefer left NASCAR after this season Buck found himself driving for Babb in a Chevrolet and his winning streak continued.  This season saw him winning a further ten races including the 1957 Grand National Championship (giving him his second straight championship)  and finishing in the top ten in all but two of his forty starts.  In 1960 he had a spectacular victory at the Darlington Race Track, competing in the famous Southern 500.  He was substituting for Jack Smith, driving a Pontiac for the Smith team when he blew a tyre with two laps to go and victoriously finished on only three wheels amid a shower of sparks.  In total he won the Darlington three times.  Buck retired from full-time driving in the NASCAR Grand National series after 1968 season and joined the pony league Grand Touring Series, excelling once again, winning eight times over four seasons before retiring from this in 1973.  His final race was at Darlington on April 11^th in 1976, he finished sixth which was a great achievement for a veteran aged fifty seven years.  His achievements were NASCAR Speedway Division champion in 1952, Grand National Champion in 1956 and 1957, coming runner-up in 1955 and 1958.  He was awarded inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association’s Hall of Fame in 1982, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990, named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1998.  On retiring Buck opened the Buck Baker Racing School where he worked alongside his sons, Buddy and Randy and his daughter, Susie.  Buck died peacefully from natural causes on April 14^th 2002.

Incidentally, Buck’s car, the No 93 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, that he drove in the last four races is to be auctioned 2011 Russo and Steele Auctions in Scottsdale, Arizona in January 2011.  The car changed hands many times over the years and was found  in a North Carolina Body Shop by Doug Rudy and David Tom who purchased it and restored it back to the original blue with the number 93 on its  side.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Baker

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/drivers/buck-baker.htm

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1134394/

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20101110/COLLECTOR/101109854

Buddy Baker's 1969 Dodge - Wiki Commons

Elzie Wylie Baker, Jr., more famously know as “Buddy” Baker was born on 25^th January 1941 in Florence, South Carolina to two times Grand National Champion, “Buck” Baker and his wife, Susan.  It was inevitable that he should become a race car driver being brought up in the heart of racing country by a father who had an astonishing racing career.  Buddy’s NASCAR racing career started in 1959 when he drove in an untitled race at Columbia Speedway.  His first win was to come in 1967 at Charlotte Speedway, North Carolina when he won the National 500, later, in 1968,1972 and 1973,  he was to win a further three times on this track.  He was one of only eight drivers to have won all four of the NASCAR’s major races, this being the Daytona 500, Aaron’s 499, Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500 and, because he rarely ran a full schedule (only three seasons in his career) he is the only one of the eight not to have won a championship. His style of driving also earned him the nickname “lead foot” – he drove with the accelerator flat out and by driving with this approach he was able to set many records for speed.  On 24^th March, 1970, being clocked on a course test run Buddy became the first driver to exceed 200 mph, at 200.447 (322.588 kph) and this record was to remain his for thirteen years before being broken by the late Benny Parson.  He also set a record when he won NASCAR’s most prestigious race, the 1980 Daytona 500 by gaining victory with an average speed of 177.602 – this record still remains today.  It was at this race that he drove what was considered to be one of the fastest and formidable  car, “The Gray Ghost”, so named because of its paint job – the bonnet, top and the rear of the car was painted in grey that blended in with the speedway track and the sides being black didn’t help much either.  This caused some controversy when the other drivers complained that they could not see him in their rear view mirrors.  NASCAR officials ordered Buddy to put Day-Glo stickers on the front of his car so that he was visible when coming up behind the other drivers.  Buddy won a total of nineteen times during his thirty three year career, with 311 top ten and thirty eight pole positions and his last win was in 1983 at Daytona Speedway with the Firecracker 400.  His awards include inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and inductee into the Charlotte Motor Speedway Court of Legends (both 1995), inductee into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (1997) and named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers (1998).  Finally he retired in 1992 and became a commentator for The Nashville Network Television Company.  Now he can still be heard as a co-host on the Late Shift with Alex Hayden on Sirius Satellite Radio.  Buddy is still active in the racing world, running the Buck Baker Racing School with his brother, Randy, and his sister, Susie and driver coaching Penske Racing when required.  Buddy Baker is far from retired and is happy and contented with his lot. He says, “I’m in great health.  I get to be around a sport that I love.  I’m very content with life”.

References:

NASCAR – Where is Buddy Baker
NASCAR-Race-Legend—Buddy-Baker
Decades of Racing – Buddy Baker
Buddy Baker – Wikipedia

NASCAR car that won the 1962 Daytona 500 (Source:Wiki Commons)

He came into NASCAR racing bearing the nickname of “Fireball” and this had no bearing on his driving abilities.  Sadly, on 24^th May 1964 during the World 600 race at Charlotte  Glenn was caught up in a crash between Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson and whilst trying to avoid them crashed into a retaining wall when his car burst into flames.  Glenn was critically burned and survived for thirty seven days before succumbing to his injuries and pneumonia on 2^nd July 1964.  Fireball’s final resting place is in a mausoleum in the Daytona Memorial Park located closely behind the third turn at Daytona International Speedway.

Edward Glenn “Fireball” Roberts, Jr was born on the 20^th January 1929 in Tavares, Florida At the age of around fifteen he moved with his family to Apopka, Florida where his parents ran a motel.  This is where he picked up his nickname of “Fireball”.  Glenn was a keen amateur player of Jai Alai, pronounced hi-a-lie, a betting game often said to be “the fastest game on earth” and the speed and challenge of the game enthralled him.  Generally Glenn did not bet but preferred to play at a Fronton (open walled arena), spending many afternoons catching the ball (pelota) with his hand-made wicker basket (cesta).

At the age of sixteen he enlisted into the Army Air Corps but was discharged after basic training due to suffering from asthma.  He returned to the University of Florida, at Gainesville to study mechanical engineering in 1947 but did not graduate, leaving after four semesters to return to racing.

Rated as one of the best drivers he accumulated thirty three wins, one hundred and twenty two top ten positions and raced in 206 races over a fifteen year period.  At various tracks during his racing career he set an amazing 400 records, including leading in nearly 6000 laps and at the tough Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, the first NASCAR super speedway he led 1644 laps.  It was with the advent of these new,  exciting super speedways in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s that Glenn came into his own, winning the Rebel 500 in 1957 and 1959, the Southern 500 in 1958 and 1963 and the Dixie 500 in 1960 at Atlanta International Raceway. In 1962 he was the first to win, in  a single year,  the Daytona 500 and the July Firecracker 400 driving a black and gold 1962 Pontiac built by the legendary car builder, Smokey Yunick.

Glenn’s awards include Florida Sportswriters’ Award for the most outstanding athlete, 1958, voted NASCAR’s most popular driver, 1957, Daytona 500, 1962 Daytona Firecracker 1959-62-63, Rebel 500 at Darlington 1957 and 1959, the Atlanta Dixie 400, 1960, inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, 1990, inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, 1995 and named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.  As like many of the drivers in those days Glenn never ran a full season therefore was not  contender for a championship.

References:
http://www.fireballroberts.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireball_Roberts
http://nascarfans.wetpaint.com/page/Fireball+Roberts
http://www.fireballroberts.com/Pam_Roberts_Trivette.htm

Davey Allison posing with a fan at Pocono, Pennsylvania

When Davey was growing up he played many sports including baseball, basketball and, his preference, mostly football but as so many sons of race car drivers he joined his father’s Winston Cup team after graduating from high school.  Born on the 25^th February 1961 David Carl Allison was the eldest of four children born to NASCAR series champion, Bobby Allison and his wife Judy.  He was born in Hollywood, Florida but the family later moved to Hueytown, Alabama, well know as the “biggest little racing town in the land”. From the age of twelve he was working, part time, at Bobby Allison Racing whilst still attending high school.  His father insisted that he complete his education with a diploma and that a General Educational Development certificate (GED) would not be acceptable.  It seems that Davey attended summer school to complete his education so that he could leave high school early to start working with his father.  His father, Bobby, was determined to make sure that Davey had values and insisted that he worked hard for the things that he wanted.  Consequently, Davey was only allowed to work on his own car, a Chevy Nova, after finishing a regular working day with his father.  Not to be put off by this Davey and his friends, known as the ”Peach Fuzz Gang” made the best of what was available, spending hours reconditioning second hand parts to be used for his car.  On the 22^nd of April 1979 Bobby accompanied Davey,  together with his friends to his first race at Birmingham International Raceway when he finished 20^th and after six starts at Birmingham Davey won his first race on the 5^th May 1979.  This was not only Davey’s first year of racing but the first time father and son was to race against each other.  This was a good year for a youngster who had built his own car from second hand parts and he had thirty four starts, five wins, twenty top fives and twenty nine top ten positions.  Davey went from strength to strength, progressing from Limited Sportsman events, NASCAR Grand American, Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), and Busch Grand National through to the Winston Cup.  In 1983 he earned his first Superspeedway pole and first Superspeedway victory at Talladega.  1984 saw him as the ARCA “Rookie of the Year” and the first winner of the Bill France Triple Crown award.  Continuing with ARCA saw him by the end of 1985 ARCA’s all time leader on Superspeedways.  During his racing career with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Davey drove in 191 races over a nine year period, he had nineteen wins, ninety two top ten and fourteen pole positions and with the NASCAR Nationwide Series he raced in eighty six races over a ten year period with no wins, thirty one top ten and two pole positions.  Although his career was relatively short his credits were impressive.  His achievements were Rookie of the year, 1987, Sprint All Star race V11 and V111 winner, 1987, Daytona 500 winner, 1992, IROC champion (posthumously), 1993 and named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers, 1998. Sadly, on 12^th July 1993 Davey was going to Talladega Superspeedway to watch a friend and his son, David, test a car for David’s Busch Series debut when he boarded his newly bought Hughes 369HS helicopter.  On arrival at the track Davey was seriously injured whilst trying to land his helicopter, he died from head injuries the next day, 13^th July, at the Carraway Methodist Medical Centre and was buried near to his brother, Clifford, at Bessemer’s Highland Memorial Garden.

References:

Davey Allison – Wikipedia
Davey Allison Website
Davey Allison (1961 – 1993) – Find A Grave Memorial

Curtis Turner

Known as “The Blond Blizzard of Virginia” Curtis’ story is very familiar, born in Floyd on 12^th April 1924, in a remote area of the Bent Mountain, Virginia and  his love of driving started at a very early age, long before he was old enough to have a driver licence.  As with many of the mountain folk Curtis’ father, Morton, ran a productive still, making illicit moonshine to help provide for his family and it is rumoured that Curtis was the ‘delivery boy’, rumoured only because there is no proof as he was never caught by the local police or the Federal agents always using his phenomenal driving skills to out-run them.  His amazing skills at driving were honed whilst exporting moonshine and there was a time when he was demonstrating these skills in a Cadillac by completing a 180 degree sliding turn between several bottles of liquor without knocking over a single bottle, this became know as the “Bootlegger Turn”.

Curtis began his racing career in 1946 on a small track in the Mount Airy area in North Carolina, he lost the race, coming 18^th in an 18 car race but not deterred he went on to win his next race and this was the start of an incredible over 350 wins at various racetracks that ended upon his death on 4^th October 1970.  Curtis was killed in a plane crash when his plane went into a mountainside near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

At the time of writing he is the only NASCAR driver to win two Grand National races in a row.  He led every lap from the pole position at Rochester, New York and Charlotte North Carolina in1952.  He is the only driver to win twenty five major NASCAR races in one season whilst driving the same car, the #26, twenty two in the convertible division and three with a top welded on.  This included the Southern 500.  He is the only driver to win a major NASCAR race that was red-flagged because all of the other cars were rendered out of action.  He won by default, this was at Asheville-Weaverville, North Carolina in 1956.  He was the first driver to climb Pike’s Peak in under fifteen minutes in a 1962 Ralph Moody Ford.  Again he was the first to win the American 500 at Rockingham, North Carolina and the first to qualify for a NASCAR Grand National race at a speed of more than 180 mph; this was the Daytona 500 in 1967.

Not only was he a very talented race car driver, he was also an excellent business man who became a self-made millionaire dealing in buying and selling timberlands.  He made and lost many fortunes during his short life and in 1960 he had the idea to build his own Speedway track at Charlotte.  With barely enough money to buy the property he bought it anyway but was to be edged out by other investors shortly after the track opened, losing everything.  Earlier he has been banned by NASCAR for trying to organise the drivers into a union but he was later allowed to return to the NASCAR racing.  He came out of retirement only to race when the money was right and had planned to race in the National 500 at Charlotte in 1970 but unfortunately he was killed.

His awards are:- named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992 and inducted in to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2006.

Curtis was a colourful personality, combining “hard living, hard driving and hard partying”.  He never won a championship ( he never ran a full season) but he never lost a party, sometimes going directly from a party to race and returning to the party when the race was over!

References:
Curtis Turner : Wikipedia
Fireball Roberts Website
Ezines

Tim Flock

Julius Timothy Flock, later to be known as Tim, was born on the 11^th of May 1924 in Fort Payne, Alabama.  He was the youngest son of Lee, a mechanic and a taxi driver and Maudie.  When Tim’s father died when he was one years old his mother looked to her older children to help make ends meet so the family became involved in the “Bootlegging” business under the watchful eye of Uncle Peachtree Williams who was said to be “the biggest bootlegger ever lived in Atlanta”.  Tim’s eldest brother Carl, took over the business when Uncle Peachtree died and he decided to move the family to Atlanta and Tim’s other brothers, Bob and Fonty, joined Carl in the family business.  As was common in those days the bootleg drivers took great pride in their driving skills, outrunning the local police and Federal Agents and soon started to race against each other in unorganised races that were held in cow pastures, often attracting between two to three hundred spectators.  Bob and Fonty joined in the races but tried to discourage Tim, urging him to stay in school.  At the age of sixteen Tim dropped out of school and started to work.  At eighteen he was into the Army but was discharged due to an ulcerated stomach. This same year, despite his brothers’ attempts to dissuade him from racing, Tim entered a Modified race at North Wilkesboro after persuading car owner, Bruce Thompson to let him drive his car.  He said, “I seemed liked everyone bumped into me and I was glad when the rear end finally froze up and I had to quit the race”. Recognising that their young brother was determined to become a race car driver Bob and Fonty felt that they should teach Tim the skills involved in the art of survival on the race track.  “They took me out to the old Lakewood track in Atlanta and showed me all the tricks.  They would knock me through the fence – just to demonstrate how it was gonna be and that I’d just have to deal with it.  I learned quite a bit in a short period of time”, he remarked.  Racing was in the Flock blood, Tim’s father was a bicycle racer and had the first car in his home town, his brothers had racing careers and his sister, Ethel drove in over one hundred races, finishing 11^th in her only Grand National race.

In December 1947 Bill France formed NASCAR and all three brothers, known as the “Flying Flocks, were interested in this new type of race. 1949 brought the inaugural race season of the Strictly Stock Division and all three brothers finished, Bob was third, Fonty was fifth and Tim finished in eighth place in the overall points system.  Tim returned to racing in 1951 after spending the 1950 season recovering from a four car pile up at Charlotte.  He had seven victories this season followed by eight race victories plus four poles in 1952, giving him enough points to earn his first Grand National Championship.  1955 saw Tim achieving a record setting nineteen poles and eighteen victories in forty five races.  The record of eighteen wins in one season stood for twelve years until Richard Petty broke the record in 1967.  The record for nineteen poles still stands as the highest in any NASCAR season.  In 1953 he won only one race while accompanied by his unusual co-driver – Tim’s pet Rhesus monkey, “Jocko Flocko”, who is the only monkey ever to win the Grand National.  This was at Hickory Motor Speedway.  Overall Tim won forty races, had 129 top tens positions and thirty eight poles.  He gained two Grand National Championships -1952 and 1955.  His many awards include National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame and State of Georgia Hall of Fame in 1972, inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1991), Charlotte Motor Speedway Court of Legends (1994), named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers, inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of Americas (1999) and inducted in the Alabama Sport Hall of Fame.

Tim died on 31^st March 1998 at the age of seventy three after being diagnosed with lung and liver cancer in January of that year.  This was the year of NASCAR’s fiftieth anniversary.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Flock

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/drivers/tim-flock.htm

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1265762/bio

Matt Kenseth at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2007 (Wiki Commons - Kim Phillips)

Matthew Roy Kenseth, (widely known as Matt) was born the 10^th of March 1972 in Cambridge, Wisconsin.  His father, Roy, bought a car to race in 1985 when Matt was just 13 years old.  They agreed that Matt would work on the car and Roy would race it a Madison International Speedway until Matt was old enough to race himself.  Neither had much experience or knowledge and it was a sharp but pleasant learning curve.

Matt started to race stock cars on several short tracks in Wisconsin in 1988 when he was 16 years old.  His first car was a 1981 Camaro, previously driven by Todd Kropf at Columbus 151 and Madison Speedway championships.  The first night out he won a heat race and his father said “on the third night he won the feature by holding off two of the best drivers at the rack, Pete Moore and Dave Phillips, for 20 laps.  Matt was smooth, I knew he was going to be a racer.”  On Saturday nights in 1989 Matt ran for the points title at Wisconsin Dells, finishing in second place in points and won eight features while on Friday nights he ran races at Golden Sands Speedway and Columbus 151 Speedway.

Twelve years on Matt has impressive NASCAR career statistics with 18 wins, 99 top 5 and 181 top 10 positions from a total of 377 races.

Today Matt is currently driving #17 Crown Royal Black Ford, driving for the Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Spring Cup Series.  Todd Parrott is the crew chief after replacing Drew Blickenderfer who was released from his duties in February 2010.

Matt married his wife, Katie Martin who is also from his hometown of Cambridge, in 2000 and now has a daughter named Kaylin Nicola who was born on the 6^th July 2006.  Matt also has a son from a previous relationship who is called Ross.  Ross appears to have inherited his fathers love of racing and when he was 14 years old he was taking part in limited late model racing in Wisconsin for a year before, at 16 years old, he won the 2009 championship for the Big 8 Series which is a late model touring series in Wisconsin and Illinois and he qualified as the second fastest in December 2009 for the Snowball Derby.  The family have four cats that have been featured in the pet calendars sold by NASCAR to help to raise money and awareness for the Humane Society and other various animal charities.  Matt has also been involved with the American Library Association, promoting literacy through posters of himself and others in the READ campaign.

Kelley Maruszewski, Matt’s sister, runs his official Fan Club and also manages his racing museum and retail store stocked with#17 gear in Cambridge, Wisconsin.    The museum contains cars, fire suits, helmets, trophies and other memorabilia from both his professional and amateur career.

References:

http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/mkenseth00/cup/

http://www.mattkenseth.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Kenseth

Rex White

Rex White might have been the shortest man to win the NASCAR Grand National championship, now the Winston Cup (1960) but he was considered a giant in the Stock Car Racing fraternity.  Born on 17^th August 1929 in the small town of Taylorsville at the foot of the Brushy Mountains in North Carolina, he was born during the Great Depression of the nineteen twenties, the youngest of five children, to parents Arlie and Wade M. White.  The family lived on their farm and life was very hard for all of them, each child had their own particular chores to do to earn their keep.  The family were self sufficient, Asking for no help from outside of the family they survived by planting the crops, feeding and caring for the livestock and chopping wood from the nearby countryside.  His mother worked hard all day, from morning to night, cooking, cleaning, sewing and tending the crops and chickens, his father was also hardworking and had a favourite saying “Workin’ is can to can’t, from mornin’ when you can ‘til dark when you can’t”, he said, “Hard work ain’t  never killed nobody.  You make your own luck”. His firm upbringing and the skills that he learned during this time were to prove invaluable later in his life, giving him perseverance, determination, self reliance, resourcefulness and fearless.  At the age of ten he contracted polio, he was taken on two occasions to the nearby  hospital at Gastonia where he was treated but unfortunately the illness left him with a withered right leg and from that time he had to wear a  special brace and shoe but he was determined to overcome it.  At the age of fifteen he stole a few of his mothers chickens to sell and made his way to Washington where he slept for a while on a park bench and after lying about his age he became a cook.  Later, after he had married, he saw a sign for car racing coming to the area and when the day of the race arrived he and his wife, Edith, went to see their first proper race (he had seen cars being raced all of the time whilst he was growing up but this was generally the locals with their moonshine trying to out-drive the police) and he was smitten.  He got near the pits through some loose boards in the fence and after volunteering to help eventually he wound up with a job.  Although he became a driver nobody took him seriously because of his size and his problems with his foot but through persistence and determination eventually he was allowed to drive.  At first he drove without a sponsor, the crew shared their money, slept in the cars and washed in the stream.  Finally a sponsor came in the form of Chevrolet and using his modifications and driving skills he obtained the highest level of performance with the car.  Rex became one of the most successful winners in history, even today, nearly forty years on he still ranks 21^st on the NASCAR all-time circuit.  Rex raced for only eight plus years (1956 – 1964) but during that time and driving in 233 races he achieved 28 wins, 163 top ten positions and 36 pole positions.  1960 brought him the Grand National Championship, a further six wins, The Most Popular Driver Award and the Driver of the Year Award. 1961 saw him win a further seven races, finishing 2^nd in points and 1962 a further, career best of eight wins but he maintains that his best win was in 1962 at Atlanta Speedway when he won over Marvin Panch in the Dixie 400, his last fuel stop was out of sequence and he knew they would not make it if they didn’t refuel so “I hung on to Marvin and just drafted.  He ran out of gas with two laps to go, and I went all the way to the bank”. He is considered by NASCAR to be one of its top 50 drivers and a winner of the Living Legends of Auto Racing Pioneers award and the Smokey Yunick Pioneer award.  He is also a member of the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame at Darlington and the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame.

Rex is still active giving appearance and interviews on television, radio and national racing magazines whilst living in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

“I admired Rex as a race driver because he was a little guy. I started out small, graduating from high school at 5’ 4” and 100 pounds.  Seeing him winning encouraged me to chase my dream”. Bobby Allison (1983 Winston Cup Champion)

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_White

Book:Gold Thunder

http://www.legendsofnascar.com/nascar_50.htm

Bobby Allison (Wiki Commons)

Robert Arthur Allison, known as Bobby, was born on 3^rd December 1937 in Miami, Florida. During his career as a race car driver his fans loved his warm and effervescent attitude and unstoppable spirit.  He is still, to this day, considered to be one of the greatest race car drivers.  While still in high school at Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School he entered his first race.  When he finished high school he persuaded his older brother, Donnie (who also became a race car diver) and some friends to head out with him in the hope of finding better racing than that which was available in South Florida.  On arriving in Montgomery, Alabama Bobby heard that there would be a race that very night in Midfield.  He won the race, together with two other races that week – he was hooked!  In 1959 Bobby, Donnie and friend, Red Farmer moved to Hueytown, Alabama – the three were later to be nicknamed the Alabama Gang.  Bobby worked as a mechanic and an engine tester while still racing and eventually became a driver in 1962 winning the national championship in the modified special division.

In 1965 he moved to the Grand National Circuit and had his first victory on 12^th July 1966 at the Oxford Plains Speedway.  In total he won 84 races in his NASCAR top division career, levelling with Darrell Waltrip for third place in all-time victories. In 1980 he won the International Race of Champions award, was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of fame of America in 1992, also inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993 and was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.  His greatest wish was to win the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National championship but this eluded him on many occasions.  In 1970 he came second to Bobby Isaac; again in 1972 he finished a close second to Richard Petty.  Three other years Bobby was to finish second place, in 1978, 1981 and 1982.  He was bitterly disappointed.  Bobby said at the time, “I’ve come so close so many times maybe I’m never going to win a Winston Cup championship.”  In 1983 Bobby found himself once again to be a major contender while driving Buicks for the Charlotte-based DiGard Racing Team, he was on top of the standings.  Darrell Waltrip, once again as he had in 1981 and 1982, started his late-season charge and closed the points but this time Bobby was up for it, he had three consecutive victories at Darlington, Richmond and Dover and a glitch at Rockingham allowed Darrell Waltrip to get close.  In the final two events of 1983 Bobby came third and ninth to wrap up the title.  After securing the championship Bobby said, “I’ve worked hard for a long, long time.  My wife, Judy has worked with me and so many people have supported me over the years.  This is something I have wanted my entire career and today I’m going to celebrate it.  I just thank God for it.” In 1988 he won the Daytona 500 for the third time, this was to be his final victory with his son Davey taking second place, making this the first father/son, first/second victory in the history of the Daytona 500.

Later in 1988 Bobby was to suffer horrendous head injuries after a crash on 19^th June at Pocono Raceway that he survived but was forced to retire from driving in NASCAR.  Further devastation was to come when in 1992 his youngest son, Clifford was fatally injured in a practice crash at Michigan International Speedway and within a year his other son, Davey, died in a helicopter accident at Talladega Superspeedway.

He is married to Judy and has two surviving children, Carrie and Bonnie and he has been actively involved in promoting rail safety for the CSX “Keep on Living” campaign, making appearances at Talladega and Daytona.

References:
Bobby Allison Biography
Bobby Allison – Wikipedia
Davey Allison – Related Biography: Race Car Driver Bobby Allison

Ryan Newman in 2007 at Bristol Motor Speedway (courtesy of Wiki Commons)

Ryan Joseph Newman was the first born child of Greg and Diane Newman.  He was born on 8^th December 1977 in their home town of South Bend, Indiana.  He has a younger sister called Jamie.  Ryan attended Purdue University whilst pursuing a full time career in motor racing and graduated in 2001 with a B.Sc. in vehicle structure engineering making him the only active member of NASCAR to have a degree.   With his engineering background Ryan understands what a car is designed to do, particularly on the racetrack. The combination of being a first class driver and his engineering background is what makes him a respected and successful driver in modern motor sports.

Ryan’s love of the sport started when he was just four years old when he was given his first racing machine, a go-cart.  From this age he went from strength to strength, winning 75 races and two championships in various Quarter Midget classes by the age of ten.  At eleven years of age Ryan won the US Quarter-Midget National Championship and the All-American Midget Series championship at fifteen.  In 1999 he was “Rookie of the Year” after winning the USAC Coors Light Silver Bullet championship, made his sprint debut in 2000and ran the Arca, Busch Cup programme and achieved his first career Sprint Cup pole.

Ryan and his wife, Krissie, operate the Ryan Newman Foundation.  This foundation a has three line mission, firstly to educate and encourage people to spay/neuter their animals and to adopt their dogs and cats from animal shelters, the second line is to educate children and adults about the importance of conservation so the beauty of the great outdoors can be appreciated by future generations and thirdly to provide college scholarship funding through the Rich Vogler Scholarship programme to students interested in auto racing careers. Ryan, himself, received this funding.  The Foundation published a charity book – Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets – which included more than forty faces of NASCAR drivers and their pets together with first person stories. 100% of the net proceeds of sales were given to humane efforts.  In March of 2010 a second book was published – Pit Road Pets: NASCAR Stars and Their Pets, The Second Lap.  The Newman family have five dogs that they have rescued and care for.  Ryan helped with funding the North Carolina Humane Society shelter in Catawba County, the county where he once lived.

Ryan is an avid car enthusiast with a collection of fourteen cars, his favourite being a 1948 Buick Roadmaster convertible bought for him by his wife as a birthday present.  He loves to work on and to drive vintage cars especially 1950’s Chryslers.

Ryan has raced in an incredible 266 races since making his debut in 2000, winning 13 with 44 poles, 68 top five and121 top ten to his credit.  In 2003 he finished the season with a series-high of eight wins and eleven poles and because of the high number of poles he gained in this series he became known as “Rocket Man”.

References:

http://www.nascar.com/drivers/dps/rnewman00/cup/

http://en.wikepedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Newman

http://www.ryannewman.org