The Ageless Wonder ~ Red Farmer 7/11/2014 |
I bid
you welcome gentle readers, and our usual warm and
cordial welcome to our assigned reader of all things NASCAR, somewhere within
that glass wonder known as the Fan and Media Espionage Center in Charlotte,
North Carolina. Last year, when my birthday rolled around, we commemorated not
my birth, but the 20th anniversary of the
death of young Davey Allison
in a helicopter crash at the Talladega Superspeedway in 1993. The crash came on
July 12, marking it as a day impossible for me to forget, and Davey was
pronounced dead the following morning.
But,
dear readers, there was another man in that crash... a man that lived to tell
about it, yet remains only a name to too many folks that call themselves race
fans. That man is Charles Lawrence "Red" Farmer, and in truth, Red
was not a young man in 1993 when the crash occurred. He was somewhere between
60 and 64 then, just as he is somewhere between 81 and 85 as I type.
Red was
born, according to him, (and who would know better?) in Nashville, Tennessee,
though I've seen erroneous stats saying he was born in Florida.
"When" he was born gets a bit trickier, since for reasons not
disclosed, Red refuses to confirm his real date of birth. It was October 15,
without a doubt, but was it 1928? 1932? Any year in-between?
He was
once asked during an interview done with stockcarracing.com: "You've been
coy about your age over the years. I've read that you were born in 1928, 1929,
or maybe even 1930 or 1931. What year was it?" Red answered, "Hey, I ain't sure. When I was born I
was too young to read the birth certificate." The interviewer followed
up with "We'll just go with 1928, how's that?" Farmer replied "There is so many that I can't even figure it out. I ain't even sure myself
anymore."
At any
rate, suffice it to say that Red Farmer is no longer a young man, and he is,
I'm happy to report, one of the few that are actually older than your scribe,
who turns 76 on this July 12. Red, you make me feel like a kid again, 'cause no
matter how old or young you are, you're still older than I am... except that
you're still racing. Wow! How do you do that?
Yes
gentle readers, what reminded me that this piece had never been done from this
keyboard was seeing a friend post that " 81 year old Red Farmer is
scheduled to compete on July 5 at Clearfield, Pennsylvania's Americas Motorsports
Park in a Late Model race!"
So who
is this ageless wonder that continues to go racing into his 80s? As noted, Red
was born in Nashville, and by his own account, moved to Florida when he was
"14 or 15 years old."
On when
he first tried racing, Red told an interviewer from Stock Car Racing in 2006, " I had a buddy
of mine that I ran around with and his dad had an old '34 Ford that he was
running at Opa-locka, Florida. He had trouble with his driver and the son, Earl
David, asked me if I wanted to drive his dad's car the next weekend. I didn't
know nothing about it until I went out there and drove an old flathead '34
Coupe at Opa-locka Speedway in the latter part of 1948. Opa-locka Speedway was
just outside of Miami."
Well
gentle readers, I guess he liked it, since he's still doing it 66 years later. It's
hard to catalog all of Red's wins and achievements over so many years, as much
of his racing was done in that Late Model Sportsman division that preceded the
Busch Series, now Nationwide. As we've discussed before, there simply are no
records for that series, as someone at the sanctioning body thought them
worthless and discarded them.
While
racing in Florida, Red became friends with Bobby Allison, and when Allison
decided to leave Florida for Alabama, where his parents lived, Red came along
and they, along with Bobby's brother Donnie and Neil Bonnett,
would form the original "Alabama Gang."
"We moved up here in the
latter part of 1958 and ran some during the winter up here. During the summer I
would come up here and run a few races, then I would
go back to Miami and work as an electrician during the winter. Bobby came up
here originally and found a place and came back and told me about it. So then I
came back up here with them the next year and we ran some during the summer and
started that deal in '59. Then in '62 I moved my family up here."
Red's
family consisted of his wife Joan, whom he married circa 1953, and three
children, Cindy, Bonnie and Michael. That has since increased by two more
generations and still growing.
Red's
wins in all divisions are guesstimated to be between 700 and 900. He won the
NASCAR Modified championship in 1956, and then claimed three Late Model
Sportsman (now Busch/Nationwide Series) titles in 1967-70-71. Four times he was
voted NASCAR’S Most Popular Driver. He’s been inducted into the
Talladega/Texaco Walk of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and the Dirt
Track Hall of Fame. Farmer was the 1999 recipient of the Alabama Governor’s
Award, annually given to an individual or organization for their contribution
to auto racing.
If
that's not enough, in 1998, Red was voted one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers,
and in 2004, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega waived
their "5 years of retirement" rule to induct Red Farmer into their
midst, figuring that the man would never retire and wanting to recognize him
for his many accomplishments while he was still living. (Are you listening
NASCAR?)
In his
racing career, Red Farmer also laid claim to numerous Track Championships. The
one thing missing seems to be a win at the Cup level, but that is not too
surprising in light of the fact that he only raced 36 races in his life (so
far) in that division. His best finish in the elite series was 4th, and he did
that twice... once at Talladega and once at Middle Georgia Raceway. It says
here that's in Macon, but I have it on good authority that it's actually in
Byron Georgia.
Red says
he's always believed that a champion or veteran should help out younger drivers
on their way up. In that capacity, Red served as Davey Allison’s crew chief in the Busch Series and has
helped mentor such drivers as Derrike
Cope, Steve Grissom, and his grandson Lee Burdett, along with countless
others.
If one
were to ask a racer this good at his trade who was the best he ever raced
against... in his entire life... what do you suppose his answer would be? Well
gentle readers, I can tell you what his answer was, because OneDirt
Magazine asked Red that very question, and he
replied...
"Well, I've raced against
some of the best that's ever been around. I've raced against Fireball Roberts
and Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Ralph Moody, Tim Flock and Fonty
[Flock]. I raced against all those guys in the fifties and sixties. Curtis
Turner, Joe Weatherly... all those guys were big time drivers in their time.
But, I would say that the two best drivers, in my opinion as a driver, were
A.J. Foyt and Tony Stewart. I told Tony the last time I was talking to him, I
told him 'Tony, I think you are the only driver, in my opinion, that should be
honored enough to be able to drive the number 14. That's A. J. Foyt's number. You're the only one that I think is deserving enough to drive that car.'"
As
recently as 2005, Red Farmer showed up at Eldora to run in Tony Stewart’s
Prelude to the Dream. Racing against current NASCAR Sprint Cup stars, Farmer
won his heat race and placed 8th in the feature. How's that for a
"70-something?"
Front
Row Kneeling ~ Far Left ~ Red Farmer
Eldora
2005 ~ Final order
1) Kenny Wallace
2) Tony Stewart
3) Danny Lasoski
4) Ken Schrader
5) Bill Elliott
6) Dave Blaney
7) Bobby Labonte
8) Red Farmer
9) Ron Capps
10) Matt
Kenseth
11) Jeff
Green
12) Kevin
Harvick
13) Kyle
Petty
14) Mike
Wallace
Because
this was still a work in progress over the Fourth of July weekend, Red did make
the trip to Pennsylvania and he did run in that Late Model race mentioned
earlier. The results weren't stellar, but it was through no fault of Red's.
Here's a paragraph from the rundown of the race at Americas Motorsports Park along with the finishing order
of the race.
Derek Rodkey and Duane Stiner led the
Late Models to the green flag with Rodkey taking the
lead. As the field exited the fourth turn on lap two, Todd Sallack
got out of shape and got into the rear of NASCAR Legend Red Farmer, which sent
Farmer across the front stretch and into the wall head-on. Farmer’s F15 bounced
off the wall and went back into traffic, but luckily no one hit him. Emergency
personnel were on the scene quickly and Farmer was uninjured.
Randy Sterling
Trucking Late Models: 1. Duane Stiner, Houtzdale; 2.
Luke Hoffner, 3. Derek Rodkey,
4. John Brady, 5. Dan Gill, 6. Scott Alvetro, 7. Todd
Sallack, 8. Tom Merryman,
Jr., 9. Red Farmer, 10. Steven Scaife, 11. Travis
Brady.
Thank
God he wasn't hurt, but I know that for all of that, he had a great time doing
it. After all, it was a race and he is Red Farmer... a name I'll wager many of
you had never heard until today, or only heard in passing. Your scribe is
coming to grips better with the idea that many of you don't automatically know
all the "stuff" that I do, probably due to the fact that you weren't
even born yet when so much of it happened. You tell me you enjoy reading the
stories of days gone by, and so I write them. After reading this one, aren't
you glad that Red Farmer survived that helicopter crash? It will always be sad
that we lost Davey Allison, but one good thing did come from that crash. Red
Farmer lived...
Now gentle
readers, it's time for our Classic Country Closeout and this week I presented
myself with a problem. I decided that I'd play something for you by Gentleman
Jim Reeves and soon discovered how many songs I know and love by this one
extremely talented man. This one wasn't chosen because it was his first, his
best or whatever. It was the one on which the dart landed after being tossed
over my right shoulder. It's a beautiful song with lovely sentiment and one
I've always loved. Here then, for your listening pleasure, is Jim Reeves'
version of "In the Misty
Moonlight." Please enjoy...
Then,
having gotten into a Jim Reeves frame of mind, I recalled a beautiful tribute
done for Jim after his untimely death by his friend, Faron
Young. I have this one in my collection, and have loved it from the very first
time I heard it. Here then is Faron Young doing the
opening intro from his Album, "A
Tribute to Jim Reeves" and a lovely rewrite of Jim's "Adios Amigo" entitled simply,
"Gentleman Jim."
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay