Friday, February 1, 2019

HMS NOTEBOOK: Woman sought clues about her racing dad


(NOTE: Appeared in the Hickory Daily Record in 2012. LINK)

 HMS NOTEBOOK: Woman seeks clues about her racing dad

 Tom Gillispie Aug 15, 2012 

 HICKORY, N.C. -- Tina Hedrick is looking for information on her father, Richard Spears, who raced Street Stocks and other divisions at Hickory Motor Speedway from 1977 to 1980.

 She’d love to show pictures of Spears to his grandchildren and tell them about his racing career.

 She says she’s contacted HMS promoter Kevin Piercy, who says he has heard of Spears but has no information about him. She talked to crew chief Tim Peters, but he has no photos of Spears.

 She found an article that says he drove a No. 44 car to victory in a March 1978 Street Stocks race, and another article said he won a demolition derby in a No. 40 Imperial.

 “I would love to show the boys (pictures) of him racing,” she said. “One of his grandsons is hooked on watching demolition (derby), and I can see my dad grinning now.”

 If you have information on Richard Berry Spears, who died six years ago, you can contact me at nc3022@yahoo.com or Hedrick at tshedrick@embarqmail.com.

 Your famous photos

 If you have photos of yourself and a well-known or local racecar driver (or team owner or crewman), you’re invited to email them to sports@hickoryrecord.com.

 You’ll need to identify everyone pictured, with first and last names, and must include your name and contact info, including a phone number where you can be reached.

 You may be contacted, and the photo might be featured in the newspaper or at www.hickoryrecord.com.

 Remember, the photos must be high resolution (200 DPI or higher). And please put NASCAR PHOTO in the subject line.

 Latest HMS results

 Jesse LeFevers, Hickory’s 2011 track champion, won the first Late Model race last Saturday, with Josh Wimbish, Trey Gibson and points leader Austin McDaniel filling out the top four.

 McDaniel won the second race (his sixth win of the year), followed by LeFevers, Wimbish and Pietro Fittipaldi.

 In a 19-car field, Monty Cox got his first Limited Late Model win since early in the season. Next were Landon Huffman, points leader Shane Lee and Chris Lewis.

 Charlie Neill won the 14-car Renegades race, followed by Carroll McKinney, Kenneth Roberts and Gregory Austin. Points leader Darby Crouch was fifth.

 In a seven-car field, points leader Kevin Eby got his seventh Street Stocks win of the season. Marshall Sutton was second, followed by Mike Newton and Mark Whitten.

 In a five-truck Super Trucks race, points leader Jeremy Birch won, followed by Jason Cochran, Trey Pitts, Whitney Lail and Chase Campbell.

 Trivia question

 Who won Grand National (now Sprint Cup) titles in 1962 and 1963?

 HMS points leaders

 Through Aug. 13, Hickory’s points leaders were:

 4-Cylinders: Todd Harrington by 26 points over Donnie Harmon.

 Hobby Stocks: Jason Byrd by 14 points over David Hasson.

 Late Models: McDaniel by 72 points over LeFevers.

 Limiteds: Lee by 60 points over Jeremy Pelfrey.

 Renegades: Crouch by eight points over Barney Arnette.

 Street Stocks: Eby by 56 points over Sutton.

 Super Trucks: Birch by four points over Cochran.

 Upcoming at HMS

 Saturday is Advance Auto Night, with Late Models, Limiteds, Street Stocks, 4-Cylinders and Sportsman Racing Classics running.

 The Bobby Isaac Memorial race (321 Lawnmower/Hickory Daily Record Night is Sept. 1. A 150-lap Late Model race is scheduled along with Limiteds, Street Stocks and Sportsmen Racing Classics.

 National leaders

 >>> Anthony Anders, a part-time racer at Hickory, was 12th in NASCAR’s national Division I/Asphalt standings through Aug. 14. McDaniel was 27th, while LeFevers was 50th.

 >>> Also through Aug. 14, McDaniel was 10th in North Carolina’s Division I/Asphalt standings, while LeFevers was 12th, Wimbish was 19th and Gibson was 20th.

 >>> Lee, in Limited Late Models, was 11th nationally in NASCAR’s national Division II/Asphalt standings through Aug. 14. Also in the standings were Pelfrey (28th), Zach Bruenger (32nd), Travis Byrd (36th) and Cox 66th.

 >>> Eby  was 59th in NASCAR’s national Division III/Asphalt standings.

 UARA-Stars at Tri-County

 Several full- and part-time Hickory Motor Speedway racers competed in last Friday night’s UARA-Stars race at Tri-County Motor Speedway.

 Ronnie Bassett Jr., who won last year’s Dwight Huffman Memorial race at Hickory, finished second to Garrett Campbell.

 Other HMS drivers included Sean Rayhall (third), Dillon Bassett (sixth), Ben Rhodes (10th), Cory Joyce (14th), Tyler Church (16th), Roger Powell (18th), Kyle Moon (19th), Chandler LeVan (22nd), David Garbo Jr. (24th), Dillon Houser (25th), Super Trucks driver Thomas Beane (27th), Grant Wimbish (30th) and Jeremy Burns (31st).

 Happy birthday

 Newton native Jerry Punch, an ESPN commentator, will be 59 on Monday and Winston Kelley, the director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, will be 45 on Tuesday.

 Worth quoting

 Sprint Cup driver Marcos Ambrose (on SiriusXM NASCAR radio), after winning Sunday’s Watkins Glen race: “Richard Petty has 200 wins… I’ve got two. So I’m catching him.”

 Trivia answer

 Joe Weatherly won titles in 1962 and 1963, but died in 1964 during a race at Riverside, Calif., as he was pursuing a third straight championship.

 Tom Gillispie, the author of “Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.”, writes about racing at Hickory Motor Speedway for HDR Sports. You can reach him at nc3022@yahoo.com or search Facebook for the HDR / The Inside Line page.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Pressley recalling Pressley



(NOTE: This appeared in the Hickory Daily Record somewhere around 2012.)
PRESSLEY RECALLING PRESSLEY

By Tom Gillispie

Robert Pressley was around for all of Bob Pressley’s career; he just wasn’t aware of some of it.

“I was a year old when he started,” said Robert Pressley, a former Nationwide and Cup driver and now the promoter at Kingsport (Tenn.) Speedway. “I was probably 10 years old before I understood what it was about. I thought everybody's daddy made a living racing.”

The Pressley family raced regularly at Hickory Motor Speedway and Asheville Speedway, and they’d visit Morganton, Metrolina (Charlotte), Savannah and Augusta.

“We’d go every night if we could race,” said Robert, whose dad died in 2004. “Daddy's home race tracks were Hickory and Asheville.”

In 1962 Bob Pressley raced the Hobby division and soon moved up to Late Model.

“He had a knack for it,” Robert said. “He was one of the most competitive people I’ve seen in racing.”

And Robert Pressley has seen some competitive drivers. Bob Pressley raced from 1962 to 1999, while Robert started in 1982 and finished in 2005.

“(Bob) never did Grand National or Winston Cup, although he did Late Model Sportsman,” Robert said, talking about the series that’s now NASCAR’s Nationwide series. “He raced against (Dale) Earnhardt in the early days, Ralph Earnhardt when (Bob) first started. Harry (Gant), Morgan (Shepherd), Butch Lindley, Tommy Houston.”

Actually, Bob Pressley did run six races in what is now the Nationwide Series. In 1982, the first year of the NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series, Bob ran five races, then he ran another in 1986, when it was called the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series. He won a total of $1,100.

He ran three of those races at Hickory, and finished 21st and 23rd, respectively, in 1982 and 19th in ’86.

Bob Pressley reportedly won a bunch of Late Model Sportsman races, but records weren’t well-kept for that series.

When Robert starts clicking off Bob Pressley’s track championships, including seven at Ashville Speedway, it’s hard to keep up. Bob won at Hickory, Tri-County and other tracks, with his Hickory titles coming in 1972 and ’74. Bob Pressley was in good company, as Jack Ingram won the Hickory track championship in ’71. Harry Gant won in ’73, and Tommy Houston, another hall of famer, won it in ’75.

Robert is in the middle of three brothers and sisters, and, naturally, they joined Bob at the races.

“My oldest brother (Charlie) was a crew chief when he was 13; he turned wrenches then. He worked on the car, him and dad. My brother started racing when he was 21 or 22, and my dad tried to talk him out of it. He knew how expensive it was. Then my other brother started racing.

“(Bob) never helped us, never influenced us to do it. I was the last of the brothers to race. I just took a liking to it.”

Finally, Bob Pressley saw the boys’ interest and commitment to racing, and he began to help his sons with their careers.

Bob and Robert Pressley raced against each other from 1982 to ’88.

“If I didn't outrun him, he wanted to know why,” Robert said. “He’d say, ‘You need to be more aggressive.’ If I beat him, he’d say, ‘Don't do that again; calm down.'

“He made me what am; he made me competitive.”

How good was Bob Pressley as a short-track driver?

“You can ask Jack Ingram, Tommy Houston and Harry Gant,” Robert said. “I raced with them in the '80s. They’ll all say that he was the best when he got behind the wheel of a Late Model on a short track. He was the best in my eyes.”

Robert says that his dad was “the closest thing to Dale Earnhardt” on a racetrack, although Bob Pressley was established when they raced each other. Earnhardt’s greatness showed through later when he was in Winston Cup.

“Earnhardt was aggressive. People talk people about Earnhardt, and I hear a lot of the same things about my dad. In the late '60s, he probably won more Late Model races than anybody ever.”

Robert admits that he fared pretty well racing against his dad.

“I ain’t saying I outdrove him,” Robert said. “I had better equipment in those days, and I probably beat him more than he beat me.”

So who was the better driver between Bob and Robert Pressley?

“Oh, him, by far,” Robert said. “He could do more with less than anybody else I’ve seen.”
EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

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Monday, December 17, 2018

LANDON HUFFMAN feature from 2012


(NOTE: This article appeared in the Hickory Daily Record on May 20, 2012.)


Landon Huffman is taking a shot at Limited Late Models at Hickory Motor Speedway

Sophomore at Bunker Hill follows in dad's tiretracks
Tom Gillispie, Special To The Record May 20, 2012

CLAREMONT, N.C. -- Landon Huffman’s memories of his father’s racing career are pretty sketchy.

“I remember going to Dash races when I was younger,” said Landon, 16, whose dad, Robert, was a five-time NASCAR Dash Series champion. “I don't remember a lot. I remember a yellow car.

“I have more vivid memories of when he ran trucks. I remember us staying in a motor home and making road trips to Texas and other places.”

Robert Huffman, 44, had a big-time racing career and is now looking after his son, who races Limited Late Models at Hickory Motor Speedway.

The elder Huffman, a Claremont native, says he started racing Street Stocks (“Like Limited is now”) in 1986, then moved up to Late Models the next year.

Robert Huffman won track titles in 1988 and 1989 and drove a NASCAR Dash car at Hickory in 1989. He was rookie of the year and champion in Dash in 1990, and he also won Dash titles in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2003. In 2003, he gave Toyota its first NASCAR championship.

During his career, Robert Huffman won 42 races in the Dash series, and his five championships tie him with Dean Combs for the Dash record. He also ran 11 NASCAR Busch (now Nationwide) Series races and 40 NASCAR Truck Series races.

On whether he misses racing, Robert Huffman said “Not really.”

His last truck race was in August 2005.

“I’ve gotten into a car a time or two, but I don’t have itch that I got to do it," Robert Huffman said. "I enjoy working on the cars, Landon running up front and having the chance to see him win.”

And now it’s Landon Huffman’s turn to race, with his dad helping.

Landon, a sophomore at Bunker Hill High, says he was 4 when his dad got him a dirt go-kart. He raced go-karts all across North Carolina until he was 12.

When he turned 15, he and his dad bought an old car, took it apart and rebuilt it, and headed to HMS.

Landon Huffman beat out Limited Late Model regulars Matt Piercy and Tyler Church and won his second career Limited race on the night of the 2011 Bobby Isaac Memorial race.

He had a solid start this season, taking seventh in Limited Late Model points on May 7, but disaster struck last Saturday.

“It will be several weeks before I run again,” he said. “I was running third, battling for the lead with (Shane) Lee and (Jason) Cochran with five (laps) to go, and the 55 car (Zachary Bruenger) turned me in turns three and four, tore up the right front some.”

To compound matters, Robert Huffman says they have no racing budget.

“Our budget is to spend as little as possible,” he said with a laugh. “We have no set budget, as long as we don’t tear up the car.

“We figure it takes $350 a week to go to the racetrack. Sponsors help with a portion of it, and we take what we won last week to race this week.”

Robert Huffman says he sometimes sees people he knows at race nights at HMS.

Years ago, he raced against Shane Lee’s dad, Mike, and now he sees the Lees regularly. He also sees Greg Marlowe, once a terrific Late Model driver and now a chassis builder. He also sees Dexter Canipe Sr., the 1997 national short-track champion and Robert’s cousin. Canipe works some with Marlowe, and he helps his son, Dexter Jr.

Landon Huffman says he feels no pressure as the racing son of an accomplished racer.

“I definitely benefit from someone like my dad helping me, with the knowledge he has and as smart as he is with cars,” said Huffman, who is looking for sponsorship so he can move up to Late Model next year, but calls it a “longshot.”

Landon Huffman will graduate high school in 2014. He said he might try a motorsports program at a college, perhaps at Charlotte.  

“I’ve talked to Dad about that,” he said.

No surprise there.

Tom Gillispie, the author of “Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.,” writes about Hickory Motor Speedway and racing each week for HDR Sports.

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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com   BLUESKY: PROFILE

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(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
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