Tom Higgins' Scuffs

The Ballad Of Willy T. Ribbs

   The phone call came very early in the morning and I immediately sensed urgency.
   On the other end of the line in the spring of 1978 was the secretary of Humpy Wheeler, president and general manager of the race track then known as Charlotte Motor Speedway.
   "Tom," she said, "we're having a press conference at 10 a.m. at Charlotte/Douglas Airport.  I know this is short notice, but Humpy says you absolutely have to be there."
   The public relations department at the track, now called Lowe's Motor Speedway, was notorious for scheduling press conferences for the flimsiest of reasons, just to get space in the newspapers and airtime on television in advance of its 600-mile NASCAR race on Memorial Day weekend.
   "I'll be there," I said.  "But this better had not be another P.R. stunt."
   "It isn't," she reassured.

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Mayhem In May At Talladega

   Even now, 35 years later, Buddy Baker still gets the shivers in recollecting the 1973 Winston 500 at what was then known as Alabama International Motor Speedway.
   The NASCAR Winston Cup Series race, being run for only the fourth time on the 2.66-mile track now named Talladega Superspeedway, was marred by a 21-car crash, among the largest ever to that time.  Nineteen of the machines involved were eliminated from the event won by David Pearson, who scored his fifth straight victory in the Wood Brothers Mercury.
   Some drivers who experienced the colossal crash, like Baker, maintain that the accident remains by far the circuit's most violent overall in magnitude.  Even though it resulted in no fatalities it left Wendell Scott, Earl Brooks, Joe Frasson and Slick Gardner with injuries ranging from minor to serious.
   Scott, the only African-American ever to win at NASCAR's top level, now called the Sprint Cup Series, was hurt the worst.  The pioneering competitor,  who died of cancer in 1990, suffered a cracked pelvis, three broken ribs and a lacerated arm.  The loss of his race car also left him almost ruined financially and his career--in effect--was over.

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Dale Talked Turkey

   The spring wild turkey season now is open in both Carolinas, and with it returns a warm memory of Dale Earnhardt.
   If Dale was alive, I know where he'd be, especially with an open date this weekend on NASCAR's big-time schedule.
   He'd be in the woods, camouflaged from head to toe, trying to trick a big ol' tom gobbler to within shooting range.
   From boyhood, when he hunted with his father, Ralph, himself a stock car racing champion, Dale was an ardent outdoorsman.  His favorite game were deer and quail.
   And then Dale Earnhardt discovered wild turkey hunting.

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A Special Day For Special K

   It was 20 years ago this coming fall that NASCAR rolled its big-time tour, then known as The Winston Cup Series, into Phoenix International Raceway for the first time.
  The teams competing on what's now called The Sprint Cup Series return to the track in the desert of Arizona  this upcoming weekend for the Subway 500, the first of two races they will run on the 1-mile speedway this season.
   Excitement abounded in 1988 as the likes of Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker, Rusty Wallace, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott and Bobby and Davey Allison visited The Valley Of The Sun  to run the Checker 500.
   Such a large crowd was expected to overflow the grandstands that track officials, led by President Buddy Jobe,  even cleared off the side of a rattlesnake-infested hill behind Turns 3 and 4 to accomodate those willing to sit on the rocky terrain and watch.
   Anticipation accelerated when Geoff Bodine won the pole at 123.203 mph, much faster than expected.

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In Fine Voice To Crow.

   There's good news for fans of Fox Sports racing analyst Darrell Waltrip.
   The three-time NASCAR driving champion has regained his voice and will be part of the television team airing the Goody's Cool Orange 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.
   Two weeks ago Waltrip was suffering from inflamed vocal chords and it was painful to listen to the  rasping as he tried to fulfill his duties during the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
    Now, Waltrip has recovered sufficiently  to even crow, if he wishes, about the most controversial of the 11 victories he scored at the Martinsville short track, second only to Richard Petty's record 15 triumphs.
   I hope Waltrip will touch on that win in the  Goody's 500 on Sept. 27, 1987, because it remains among the most memorable incidents at the .526-mile layout that dates to 1949.  To get the checkered flag, Waltrip essentially wrecked both Dale Earnhardt and Terry Labonte and passed them in the race's last quarter-mile.
   "I shot into Terry, Terry shot into Dale and I shot into the lead!" a grinning, gleeful Waltrip said in Victory Lane.

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An Australian Adventure, Part V

 

PROLOGUE: In late February of 1988 NASCAR sanctioned what amounted to an exhibition race in Australia at a sparkling new speedway near Melbourne, The Thunderdome.  It held the potential of being a great adventure for those lucky enough to be going, including me.  The trip proved more than equal to the promise, including a dramatic victory by Neil Bonnett.  This is the final installment of a five-part series.

   My motorsports journalist pal, Steve Waid, and I were driving to The Thunderdome on  race morning of the Goodyear 500K in a fog.
   Not a meterological  mist, but one of the personal variety.
   We had lingerered too long--into the very wee hours--at the Old Melbourne Hotel's piano bar.  Friendly Australian racing fans, excited in the extreme to have NASCAR in their country, insisted on buying Steve and I, plus all the other Americans present, round-after-round of drinks.
   Additionally, the music was great.
   The pianist was a sleepy-eyed lookalike of Bobby Rahal, an Indy Car driver at the time who now fields cars for Danica Patrick.  In fact, we called him "Bobby."
   Steve and I arrived at the bar early--the first customers there, in fact--determined to stump the piano player.  That was something we'd been trying to do all week without success.  The man knew every song we suggested.
   "I think I've finally got him," I told Steve.
   "Hey, 'Bobby,' how about playin' the ol' San Antonio Rose!"

   
      

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An Australian Adventure, Part IV

   PROLOGUE: In late February of 1988 NASCAR sanctioned what amounted to an exhibition rce in Australia at a sparkling new speedway near Melbourne, The Thunderdome.  It held the potential of being a great adventure for those lucky enough to be going, including me.  The trip proved more than equal to the promise.  Over the next few day, "Scuffs" will recount some of the stories from two decades ago, including a dramatic victory by Neil Bonnett.

    Our days Down Under were drawing rapidly to a close, yet there remained  a lot that my pals and I wanted to do.
   Highest on our list was getting out into the countryside in the hope of seeing wild kangaroos and koalas.
   With only a couple days remaining before the running of the Goodyear 500K at The Thunderdome, buddies Steve Waid, Bob Kelly and I decided it was now or never.
   We made the plans.  We'd awaken early and go to the track at Calder Park .  Steve and I would quickly file stories for our publications, Winston Cup Scene and The Charlotte Observer, respectively.  Bob would fulfill his duties as a public relations representative for Winston, and we'd be off.
   Then, we decided to modify the schedule.
   At a dinner party the night before we'd met   a charming Aussie chap named Nick le Souef.  He could have been the inspiration for the popular movie character Crocodile Dundee.
   Nick owned a fancy opal shop in downtown Melbourne called Lightning Ridge and he enthusiastically invited us to drop by and see his place, the beautiful gems and the other things of interest that he kept there--critters.   Some very dangerous critters.

   

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An Australian Adventure, Part III

  Prologue: In late February of 1988 NASCAR sanctioned what amounted to an exhibition race in Australia at a sparkling new speedway near Melbourne, The Thunderdome.  It held the potential of being a great  adventure for those lucky enough to be going, including me.  The trip proved more than equal to the promise.  Over the next few days "Scuffs" will recount some of the stories from two decades ago, including a heart-warming triumph by the late Neil Bonnett.
   
   The welcome afforded by the Australian people to the visiting American motorsports party  was genuinely warm and wonderful.
   We were treated, really, like royalty.
   And then, on our third day Down Under, came a stunner in the Melbourne Herald.  Turns out not everyone was charmed to have us in the country.
   Gerard Wright, a columnist for the conservative afternoon newspaper, ripped the Goodyear 500K that loomed at Bob Jane's spectacular Thunderdome race track on Sunday.  Wright also had ugly shots for the U.S. drivers and singled out one individual for special sarcasm, UNOCAL's colorful representative, Bill Broderick.
   Someone in the  infield press center handed me a copy of the Herald with the page turned to Wright's ranting.

 

 

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An Australian Adventure, Part II

  Prologue: In late February of 1988 NASCAR sanctioned what amounted to an exhibition race in Australia at a sparkling new speedway near Melbourne, The Thunderdome.  It held the potential of being a great  adventure for those lucky enough to be going, including me.  The trip proved more than equal to the promise.  Over the next few days "Scuffs" will recount some of the stories from two decades ago, including a heart-warming triumph by the late Neil Bonnett. 

   Sixteen hours after arriving in Australia and then getting a bit of rest, my pal and fellow journalist Steve Waid and I headed to the track for a first look.
   We were anxious to see the facility built by Aussie Bob Jane, a wealthy Goodyear tire distributor who had visited Charlotte Motor Speedway many times to get ideas for creating his own major auto racing layout Down Under.
   "Boy," I said to Steve, "this must be something like the press guys felt back in 1950 when they went to Darlington Raceway in South Carolina for the first time.  No one knew what to expect."
   Flags were flying and an aura of excitement abounded as we arrived at Calder Park, scene of the speedway a few miles from Melbourne.

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An Australian Adventure, Part I

   Prologue: In late February of 1988 NASCAR sanctioned what amounted to an exhibition race in Australia at a sparkling new speedway near Melbourne, The Thunderdome.  It held the potential of being a great  adventure for those lucky enough to be going, including me.  The trip proved more than equal to the promise.  Over the next few days "Scuffs" will recount some of the stories from two decades ago, including a heart-warming triumph by the late Neil Bonnett.

    For one of the few times in NASCAR's  so-called modern era, which dates to 1972, the winner of a major race wasn't going to hold a post-race press conference.
    Never mind that Neil Bonnett had just scored a deeply dramatic victory on  Feb. 21, 1988, taking the  Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway in Virginia just four months after almost losing his right leg in a crash during the Oakwood Homes 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
   Like the lyric in an old country song by Jerry Reed, Bonnett, still limping badly from his injury, "had a long way to go and a short time to get there."
   The popular Alabamian was among a group of NASCAR drivers from various divisions heading halfway around the globe to Australia to compete in a race the following Sunday.    After an abbreviated Victory Lane ceremony, Bonnett had to leave the Richmond track immediately with his peers to catch flights that eventually would take them Down Under.
   Chauffeurs charged with getting the group to the Richmond airport faced a nerve-fraying challenge in fighting post-race traffic.  They drove down medians, along sidewalks and even through the yards of homes.  Still, some didn't make it before their plane heading to the West Coast and a connecting flight to Australia left the gate.  An agent had the pilot taxi back, open the door and let the drivers on board.
   Behind him, Bonnett left a brouhaha of major proportions at the Richmond raceway.
   Several rivals vociferously were contending that Bonnett hadn't won the race.  Ricky Rudd even  filed an official protest with NASCAR.

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