Throwback Thursday

Those were the glory days of racing for sure

Two more for this week: two members of the "Purple Gang," Barney Campbell and Kurt Thorpe.

Helped Kurt hang a body on one of his limited late models once. Had a blast with that.

Whoa! I hadn't seen that KT car in a long time. Awesome. All I remember is Kurt not wanting us little kids in the garage. haha.

The thread on Bill's about the site dying made me think of all the old interviews we did 10 years ago.

In honor of Barton tying the all time late model win record, here is his "10 Questions" from 2005.

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1. Dick, you will go down in history as being the first person to answer 10 Questions from Bill’s DLM. Obviously this is the highlight of your career. How does it feel? I feel like a guinea pig! Seriously, I’m glad to be able to help Bill Keener and Steve Courson with this new idea for Bill’s Board.

2. The guys that started with you back in the Race Team 14 days are still with you many moons later. What is it about the team that has enabled you to work together year after year with continued success? The reason so many guys from the 14B days are still with me today is because we still have fun racing together. Our relationships with each other are nearly family-like in character.

3. Give us a memory from those sportsman days. Some of us remember the winged #14 in the early 80s. (When we were really young) My memories from the sportsman days revolve mostly around my uncle, Rod Barton. He taught me the things I needed to know to start my stock car career. I also remember working in garages so small I had to climb through the car to get to the other side.

4. Recently RacewayJay posted a photo on the message board of what looks like a Mustang II or Vega bodied modified (#44) at Daytona in 1975. What is the story behind that photo? In 1974, Uncle Rod and I went to Daytona to watch the modified race. We decided to take a car the following year. Our local dirt car was hopelessly out-classed against the asphalt mods that were specially built for the Daytona race. We started near the rear of the field and eventually blew-up the transmission. Regardless of the result, it was still a neat experience. Sometime after that, I accumulated a few too many speeding tickets and had to go to a safe driving class. The instructor began the session by asking each of us how fast we had ever driven a car. When I told him 160 mph, he about fell over!

5. What are your three best and your three worst memories in a race car? My three best memories in racing: (a) the STARS win at Stateline in 1991. Our team was flat broke and the $10,000 first place money kept us in business. (b) the MACS Fallfest win at Challenger in 2002. We have 15 thousand reasons why that one is special! (c) the Budweiser 100 at Stateline on July 4, 1988. I smashed the car all to heck in the heat race. My crew had to virtually rebuild the car in the pits. I started at the rear and managed to drive to the win for $4000.

My three worst memories: (a) In 1988, I was t-boned on the driver’s door at Sharon and suffered an ankle injury. One of my car owners, Del Seekings, fell while running to the crash site and separated his shoulder. Both of us were taken to the hospital. (b) the 1993 Pittsburgher. I had just passed Scott Bloomquist to take the lead shortly after half-way. A red flag came out and while I was stopped on the track, the magneto in the car quit. (c) the 2003 UDTRA race at Raceway 7. I had passed Bloomquist and Steve Francis to take the lead and was driving away when the left rear birdcage broke.

6. Word association – We’ll mention something and you give us the first thing that comes to your mind:

Raceway 7: Nielson
GRT: Joe Garrison
Ron Nielson: Ford
Pennsboro: one-lane, locked-down
John Lamb: the glue that holds us together
Rod Barton: my mentor
Jim Seely: extremely smart

7. You just won the Powerball to the tune of $100 mil and have decided to purchase an area dirt track. What would you do to attract area racers and fans while keeping the costs affordable and actually make a profit at the end of the night? I think the three keys to a successful track are promotion, promotion, and promotion. In my opinion, the late Don Martin was the best promoter I have seen. He would show up at tracks other than his own to talk to fans and racers about coming to Lernerville. The first time I ever met him he had added a $100 to the purse at a race at Marion Center. He often put our team up in motel rooms in Butler when we raced regularly at Lernerville. He gave my crew Lernerville jackets because he knew we’d wear them at other tracks. One time he even loaned me the Lernerville pace car to get back home and told me to drive it around for a week. (Before I got the chance to return the car, my wife has a fender-bender with it. I was sweating bullets about having to tell Don, but he just laughed about it!) So the absolute first thing I would do at my track would be to hire a full-time promoter. Secondly, I would lay down a clay surface and grade the track to insure side-by-side racing. Third, I would have just three classes of cars: a street/hobby class, an e-mod division, and, of course, late models. My show would start promptly at 7 pm and we would be done before 11 pm. My late models would have crate engines and track tires. Fourth, my bathroom facilities and concessions would be top-notch, like Raceway 7. Fifth, I would work cooperatively with various sanctioning bodies and other area track owners to promote the overall growth of dirt track racing in this area. And lastly, I would have my head examined for spending my Powerball winnings on a racetrack instead of ocean-front property in Aruba.

8. What is the biggest win of Dick Barton’s career? The biggest win in my career will be my next one. In this game, you’re only as good as your next race. In terms of prestige and money, the MACS Fallfest win at Challenger was my biggest win so far.

9. Who have been the best guys to race against over the course of your career? The best guys to race against in my career have been those that have shown respect for other drivers by racing as cleanly as possible and conducting themselves in a professional manner both on the track and in the pits.

10. And finally, finish the following sentence. Ten years from now, Dick Barton will be... Ten years from now, when I’m 61, I hope to be able to continue working out at the Y and preparing for another racing season.

Excellent! A special thanks to Dick for humoring us and taking a few moments out of his life that he'll never get back to answer a few questions. For three decades Dick has been a class act on and off the track and it's very encouraging to see that in 10 years he'll still be beating up the competition. Also thanks to Randy Anderson for setting it up!