Gauld: Diamond Earrings and Rusty Camaros

By Graham Gauld

There are times when I sit back and wonder what motor racing is all about. Is it really multi million pound deals and diamond ear-rings? To me, motor racing is basically a bunch of like-minded lads racing against each other with their cars. What level you choose to race in really doesn’t matter; it is the fun and spirit of taking part and challenging each other that matters.

By pure chance I was filing some negatives from the early 1980s and came across some that I took at one of the most unlikely and fascinating race meetings I have ever attended.

Howard Carnes’ maroon Camaro on its trailer waiting to get into the paddock.

Let me give you the background. I had flown to Daytona prior to the Daytona 500, probably the pinnacle of stock car racing. However, in Daytona Beach nearly a week before the race I was introduced to Victor Powell, a great enthusiast who owned Volusia County Speedway at Barberville, Florida, just a few miles along Route 40 inland from Ormond Beach. Victor was wiry, wore a plaid shirt and clearly was a hard-working man. He explained that he and his wife Robin ran “Powell Fernieries” and Fine Foliage” at nearby Pierson, Florida which grew and supplied ornamental ferns to flower markets as far away as Holland. It was big business and helped him run his Volusia Speedway for unsanctioned stock car racing; the opposite of the glitzy stuff at Daytona.

The head office of one of the Camaro’s not exactly up to NASCAR standard.

He had a race meeting taking place the following evening so I drove over there and entered a completely new world. Here was true grass roots motor racing on a circuit that boasted a red dirt surface that was watered and graded before the meeting.

Victor was particularly proud of his own car that he entered for Paul George, a local driver who was a bit of a star with 16 race wins behind him. Like all enthusiasts at this level he dreamed that one day he would graduate to NASCAR. As far as I am aware he never did but his sheer enthusiasm and that of his fellow competitors was infectious.

I arrived early and already some of the competitors were lined up waiting for the doors to open. The entrants were an odd mixture mainly of Chevrolets and Fords that had been modified to Victor’s rules. I still have a copy of his two page A4 typewritten sheet that included such items as “…..the engine must be located so that the center of #1 spark plug is within 1 ½ inches of the upper ball joint”…or “…doors must be secured by welding”.

The Formula 1 car of the group, Victor Powell's low-line Chevy complete with plexiglass rear wing.

Of all the cars in the Paddock Victor’s Chevy was perhaps typical of the Formula 1 end of the paddock. The roof line had been lowered to such a degree that driver Paul George had to wiggle like a limbo dancer to get out and in the car. What struck me most was the remarkable array of rear wings some of them with tilting mechanism that could be operated by the driver.
As darkness fell the overhead lights came on and the crowd numbered over a thousand. What followed was two hours of noise, flying dirt and really competitive racing.

How about this for adjustable rear wing mechanism operated from the drivers seat?

To many people this form of racing may be below them but, mark my words, it was real racing by enthusiasts using what they brung to the circuit. The discrepancies in the amount of money put into some cars compared to others was exactly the same as you would find in small circuit club racing in Europe. The fact that a little winglet on a Red Bull formula 1 car could flex a little and so put two front running cars to the back of the grid in Abu Dhabi looked stupid compared to this free for all open and friendly form of racing.

Another rear wing shape. The owner clearly liked to thank his sponsor!

I was reminded of a conversation I had with Jim Clark shortly after his first ever visit to race in the USA. He remarked “….you know the Americans don’t need us to come over from Europe as they have a complete motor racing system of their own from small club meetings to the premier events”. Motor racing, and in particular the grass roots forms of motor racing, exist all over the world. At the end of the day when the Formula 1 financial honey pot runs dry there will always be racing as we just like to race cars and if we occasionally step down from the clouds we can see the true attraction of our sport. I certainly did at Volusia.