After watching this video the other day I asked my friend, former NASCAR driver David Reutimann about this race. He was 10 years old and remembers it well. His Dad, Buzzie Reutimann, was one of the drivers that thrashed on their car to make it competitive. Buzzie finished 2nd in this race. Buzzie is 81 years old and still winning dirt modified races in Florida, he's the 2022 champion at Volusia Speedway Park.
I know Gary through being a motorsports writer for about 10 years... To be totally fair to them, that car fit every rule in the rule book, because that book was vague at best to that point... so he innovated. The car was banned the second the checkered flew and they re-wrote the rule book. It's basically Jeff Gordon's T-Rex car in the NASCAR All Star Race. But this was for big money and points lol. And now if you look at a big block modified, every car since oh, 1989 ish, has had the big inner wing aero effect on it. This car paved the way (no pun intended) for the DIRTcar Big Block Modified we know today...
The truth be told, I'd never heard of this older gentleman before now, but if what you say is true, that he's 81yrs old and STILL racing, he's a Champion in my book and certainly worth a mention at a "Hall of Fame" somewhere. Surely their could be writing campaign organised to that end? And these days with the internet and such, it should be no trouble to start applying the pressure to the "powers that be" that this Man deserves a greater level of recognition for what would, I guess a decades long career behind the wheel, and just plain promotion of the sport we all love, DIRT RACING!! Get that Man a 🍺 on me!! He deserves it!! 🍺 And hello to all the older, more discerning crowd of dirt track racing fans, from Australia to all of you, wherever you are!! 🍺
@@frenzalrhomb6919 Buzzie is in many Halls of Fame. He's one of the old guard and the people who know of him, love him dearly. Buzzie was still racing last year and yes. he's 80+ yrs old.
@@frenzalrhomb6919 Buzzie is a LEGEND in the North East Modified ranks! I believe he may have won this race 2x's previously. He is currently still racing a form of Modifieds in Florida and at a very high level. I believe he is defending track champion at Volusia County Speedway.
@@FloridaManRacer Mate, this older Gentleman deserves every mention he gets in all of those "Hall's of Fame!!" Geez, I'm an Australian, and I'M proud of him!!
I agree with you-designing a car that exploits a loophole in the rules is fine. But most race fans don't like it when someone comes in and stinks up the show.
From a historical note, this is really good stuff. Ironically about this same time, the Wedge cars were starting to emerge in the dirt Super Late Model world which down here in the southern US we saw a lot of. I guess there was just something in the drinking water of the time and it showed up on the race track. Being from the south and only time we'd see the modifieds were mostly on TV like this ESPN broadcast, looking at it through present day eyes I can see the historical DNA from which the present day Big Block Modifieds came from. Thanks for posting so we could appreciate the history.
What it really was, was a flat out lack of knowledge. The rule books were about 2 pages long back then on how to build your car to the sanction's "Spec"... Left a LOT of grey area in the rules and guys figured out how to take advantage of that. That's why the rule book is now the size of War and Peace in comparison these days lol.
Gary followed the rules. Great job to his whole team. Innovation is everything. He did have an advantage, but an unfair advantage, I think not. Simple had a team that understood the rules and built a true race car. GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!
This is exactly what made the earlier years of racing great, innovative engineering. Gary with this Batmobile. The turbine at indy, the rear engine at indy, rear engine top fuel cars, winged sprint cars, just about everything in the first 40 years of Nascar. BTW, Gary funded this racing operation with drug running money. Another great story
Loved the tow rig that drove by as he was explaining the differences in the cars! An old pick up truck pulling a home built open trailer! That was so much cooler than the boxes everybody hauls race cars in today! When people saw a race car being trailered to the speedway on Saturday afternoon, they wanted to go there! Now nobody even knows there’s a racer being moved! Let’s face it, Balough and the bat mobile stuck a knife in the heart of traditional northeastern dirt modified racing, and it wasn’t a welcomed change! Within just a couple years, both the traditional modified and the open trailer became increasingly rare.RIP good old days!
Gary,Kenny, Pete Hamilton and the rest of the crew created the modern big block modified. If it wasn't for those guys I don't think we'd be where we're at right now... great video man thanks for posting ...God I miss Syracuse. Oswego just doesn't cut it
This car is the standard today... so it's an innovation that has been fully embraced by the community. My thing is that it took so long to take hold. But, again, it's not quite as effective on the short tracks that run today. Syracuse is a mile long and the longer tracks have more speed and more chances to make use of the air foil.
actually that's not totally true. If you've seen winged vs non-winged sprints on the same race track before, non-winged is about two seconds slower. Modifieds today run in two configurations. standard "C-pillar" panels or what's called a sail panel. which increases the side force on the car in the turns. that simple change with about 40 inches worth of extra sheet metal on the car, yeilds a 2 second difference in lap time. If today's cars still used the normal bodies that ran against Gary's car in this race, they would've been about 2 seconds slower per lap vs today's average car that has the aero foil effect built into it... I covered Big Block Modified racing in NY for over a decade as media and worked on these cars. I do have a working knowledge of this.
I was born in 89, and I grew up in New York, watching big block modifieds at canandaigua, so is this the origin story of why big block modifieds look the way they do today???
@@carlhartman9358 yes. the reason they have such large 'tunnels' on either side of the driver's central seating position is because of this car. The rule said no external wing elements. so they built the wing right into the interior...
A little while after this race Balough admitted the reason he won was partly due to the body, but mostly to the creative air intake this car had. He said they designed the body so radically that no one would be looking at the air intake and how they created a ram induction system.
Gary Balough was the shoe ONLY. & The 'ugly' Gremlins were brought in2 NE modified racing circuit by the SAME mind that built the Batmobile, Kenny Weld.
@@debraweld1188 somehow I get the feeling you have some skin in this game. Gremlins were always ugly cars though from day one. Probably cost AMC their company sales were so bad. That's nice to know about Kenny Weld. Those times were fun in autoracing because so many things were being discovered about aerodynamics, tires, suspensions, car construction. It was inevitable that it eventually came to modified dirt cars and I know how hard change can be having lived through the rear engine revolution.
Just to clarify things, it's not building a wing that creates the ground effect, that's a popular misconception. In fact that misconception lead a lot of F1 teams down the wrong path when they tries to copy the Lotus model. A venturi is what is actually built to created the downforce. See Bernoulli's principle.
100% correct. it's not just the air over the internally built wing, it's the underside of the car and how it flows the air underneath in a venturi effect... that's why it had the super low side skirts. to control the air flow that leaked out from the sides. the more that gets tunneled to the back of the car and out in as quick a rush as possible, the more suck to the ground that creates...
I had forgotten that Geoff Bodine was in that race. It was good to see Larry and Bob again, having lost both of them. Is there a copy of that race available for purchase for those fans like me that never got to see how it all played out.
@@bradsanders407 untrue. It ONLY raced 1 race. They rewrote the rules, so it was no longer legal. What would make U think, '...it played out Xactly how they thought ...'?!?! 🤦♀️
Andy Fusco died in 2015, Bob Jenkins passed this year 2021. Larry Nuber passed in 2000 and Geoff Bodine is still around, complaining about whatever gets under his bonnet. Best I can find, the Schaefer 200 is now called Super DIRT Week. (please correct me if that's wrong)
And it's run every year now at Oswego Speedway. Former Governor Cuomo and his gang decided that the land that the Moody Mile sat on could be of better use as a parking lot or something other than a track.
I'd never heard of Geoff Bodine until he came to Oxford Maine in the summer of 1980 and won the 250 in a legendary duel with Butch Lindley. Gives me goose bumps knowing this was just three months after that.
Thanks for posting this!! I remember this happening. Considering it was 1980 and at the end of the racing season word of the Batmobile spread like wildfire!! Gary, Kenny, etc found an opening in the rules and got paid. Next year,,,, that car was illegal.
Debra weld I understand that it was mainly your dad’s design and discovery of the loop hole but you have to give Gary some credit he was part of the team which means he had to be in the know on things and agree to go along with it and also drive the car as good as he did to be able to win the race so the car would get the recognition it deserved
Debra weld I understand that it was mainly your dad’s design and discovery of the loop hole but you have to give Gary some credit he was part of the team which means he had to be in the know on things and agree to go along with it and also drive the car as good as he did to be able to win the race so the car would get the recognition it deserved
Motor racing has always been, and still is, about getting the best performance with the machinery allow by the rules. Someone finds an advantage, the others must follow. Why do you think front engined cars disappeared from Indy? Because the rear engined European cars out performed them.
That's what constructors championships are for. You're completely missing the biggest aspect and that is to be the fastest DRIVER. Otherwise, Formula E would be all self-driving cars. There are far more "equal ground" series than not. That's why a lot of series have rules that let you claim someone else's engine, to ensure teams are spending insane amounts of cash when others wouldn't be able to front that
@@myphone7568 if you want only see a strict driver competition, then you should only ways spec series with no setups allows. Ted is correct here. Motor racing has *always* been about getting your vehicle in the fastest possible state under a given ruleset. If you're not maximizing the ruleset, you're leaving time on the table. it's literally as simple as that. Racing has always existed at the intersection of engineering and human spirit.
Who knows what Weld and Ballou could have done if not for the vacations they had to take, Kenny died way too young and the CNC porting on heads he came up with is something he never got the real credit for today.
For many years we camped in the second turn of the fairgrounds for this race and people were completely stunned by what we were seeing transpire before us. We'd go look at the car and joke about how there is no way it looked like a Continental, but Kenny/Gary stated it was a Continental roof. The rules were too loose and should have stated that the car entered had to be the actual car raced at your qualifying track during the season.
@@jimbob8969 point taken well Jim, sometime I rave on with BS , just my Dyslexic Brocken Australian English I sad that you where part of those important times . Important because I’m a car guy and I was full of. Nostalgia and other stuff that starts with your name sake
That just looks like a modern dirt modified. Was this the point where dirt and asphalt late models started to look different? Like sprint cars and Indy cars have a common ancestor in the original Indy cars?
The attraction to dirt track & midget racing was the blue collar simplicity. This techno wizardry is exactly what turns people off from Formula 1 etc. Keep it simple, cheap hot dogs and cold beer beats a 5 million car car every time.
I don’t understand why Andy Fusco claimed that he didn’t expect Gary Balough’s car at the track. A DIRT tech inspector had visited Kenny Weld’s shop prior to the race, and pre-approved the car for competition in the race. Was Andy Fusco never informed about the pre-approval?
@@raymondbarcik2593 I just thought it was strange that a DIRT series employee had pre-approved the car, yet Andy Fusco claimed that wasn’t expecting the car to show up.
@@veggieoilerfan2940 The pre-approval process in DIRTcar still happens today. The idea being if someone has a question about the rule book and how they've implemented something, they can call on the officials to check their work basically... consider it a form of disclosure and transparency... As long as the official isn't biased of course... 🧐
In 1997 the world of outlaws sprint cars came back to the Springfield mile and several drivers had aero packages on them. I think Andy Hillenburg hit 168 mph in qualifying down the front stretch!
@@briantherion5464 his brother Tony was a brawler back in the day - at least that's the legend - those dudes were Cool- I always rooted for them "after my fellow horseman and friend AJ Foyt, of course"
This was pretty much the birth of the modern northeastern dirt modified. The overall look of the "body" hasn't changed much since the 90s whether it's a teo, troyer, bicknell, pmc, whatever...but this design that caused controversy pretty much totally changed the industry and it became standardized by the modified community. Leave it to old Hot Shoe to cause controversy, a real legend.
Manufactured "controversy" considering that the design basically became STANDARD shortly after the race. It wasn't "controversy", it was "innovation that the rest of the field followed".
Thanks for posting this! I was at Syracuse a few years later and by then "normal" modified is all you could find. Too bad they got rid of this Moody Mile track. Do you have any other content and/or the full race?
the full race was available for a long time here, but it has been removed, you can still see it at the dirtvision website in their vault. I believe just making a free account gets you vault access...
@@FloridaManRacer Didn't even need an account, it's available here without logging in www.dirtvision.tv/super-dirtcar-series/season:1980/videos/1980-schaefer-200
I miss these two great broadcasters, Larry Nuber and Bob Jenkins. Icons of the racing world. I would much rather watch the World of Outlaws (Steve Kinser) compared to todays NASCAR tbh.
The day that when the NE Dirt Modified world came to a halt and a new era was born. Weld and Brown build an excellent piece and Balough drove it to perfection. ....never used more than 3/4 throttle. :D
Ricky Weld told me the real secret was dry ice on the intake and that the body was just a distraction. It's hard to tell if he was truthful or not but that's what he said.
@@debraweld1188 And so I've been told. I grew up around Olympic Stadium and watched your whole family race there. I idolized them then, still do today, and miss them all.
Thats stock car racing you always bend the rules . if there is no rule then you cant break it. No other sport is like it .its the history of stock car racing. The old saying is it aint cheating until you get caught
Late '70s /early '80s, Indy, F1 and even these guys all discovered ground effects. It worked great but I believe they were quickly banned. If you lost suction under the car for whatever reason, you went straight. 💥
There was nothing wrong with Bodine's attitude in that interview. He acknowledged that a lot of guys were caught off guard by the car Balough brought, but he ultimately took responsibility as a competitor to try to bring something better to the track rather than trying to get the other guy banned.
@@nathanstroud2223 Exactly. One team worked harder than the rest, so Bodine accepted it and worked harder himself. Imagine that. A kidder writing something silly…
@Joshuah Simons86ny yes it could be an amazing event to watch. From a driver's stand point it's sucks. Especially when you're a small team as I was. The track tears your car up even without wrecking. The sooty track surface sandblasts every inch of your car and the drivers gear. I had the paint worn right off my helmet before. But I do miss the track. It was the atmosphere of the event that made it all worth it
I was there and I hated that car. Its 43 years later and I still hate it. It did NOT make the sport better, it created sheet metal wars unnecessary if DIRT would have just disqualified a car that was NOT a modified. Proof? When rules called for it to be re-bodied, it was uncompetitive and brutally UGLY. DIRT screwed the weekend racers and it shows today with low car counts partly caused by the extra expenses and need for paying skilled body manufacturers indtead of home mechanics. I will always hate that 112.
Those who said he followed the rules doesn’t know what they are talking about. I knew Gary very well and new Kenny Weld. Both went to jail for drug trafficking. Drug money built that car and drug money paid the officials. If you’re ok with that, then fine.
Showing up to a modified race with a fucking ground effects car...now that's just not right. I don't even think Jimmy Spencer knows how to say "ground effects." :D :D
That should be illegal, the front of the widebody cars is opened enough to have a substantial advantage - It's like if someone enlarged a F1 car's bodywork and tried to race in the FIA WEC (Le Mans 24h and such)
Geoff that is bullshit. The Batmobile was 100 percent legal. They flew a tech official to Missouri who measured that car for a couple days. Kenny Weld and crew built a better car. They out smarted every single one of you. They worked hard and smart. They just flat whipped all y'all's ass. Today's modified are all a direct defendant of that Kenny Weld masterpiece. I grew up watching Gary race in south Florida, all his cars were built with a lot of thought and preparation. And he won and won. Read his book. It's awesome, and so is Gary.
People forget Balough won a ton of big races before he ever saw this car. If not for his legal issues would have gone into the racing history books as an all time great like Trickle, Kinser, Bloomquist caliber legendary.
The France family would have never let this happen in NASCAR. A failed inspection due to "Not within the spirit of the rules" and a list of well paid lawyers and adios Gary Balough. DIRT was caught unprepared and had no choice but to let him run...Lol
Gary Balough’s team actually had a DIRT tech inspector visit Kenny Weld’s shop prior to the race to make sure that the car would be approved for competition.
There was a loophole in DIRT rules @ that time. If the France family had loopholes in NASCAR rules & their tech inspector said it passed, they'd have no choice but let it race.
That car was done in a wind tunnel.. using corrugated metal roofing in that area and the depth of it.. I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually was.. anyone with half a brain knows slowing down the air going over the top of car gonna stick better and be more affective..
the Geoff Bodine interview looks like a Super Dave Osborne episode 🤣
After watching this video the other day I asked my friend, former NASCAR driver David Reutimann about this race. He was 10 years old and remembers it well. His Dad, Buzzie Reutimann, was one of the drivers that thrashed on their car to make it competitive. Buzzie finished 2nd in this race. Buzzie is 81 years old and still winning dirt modified races in Florida, he's the 2022 champion at Volusia Speedway Park.
I know Gary through being a motorsports writer for about 10 years... To be totally fair to them, that car fit every rule in the rule book, because that book was vague at best to that point... so he innovated. The car was banned the second the checkered flew and they re-wrote the rule book. It's basically Jeff Gordon's T-Rex car in the NASCAR All Star Race. But this was for big money and points lol. And now if you look at a big block modified, every car since oh, 1989 ish, has had the big inner wing aero effect on it. This car paved the way (no pun intended) for the DIRTcar Big Block Modified we know today...
The truth be told, I'd never heard of this older gentleman before now, but if what you say is true, that he's 81yrs old and STILL racing, he's a Champion in my book and certainly worth a mention at a "Hall of Fame" somewhere. Surely their could be writing campaign organised to that end? And these days with the internet and such, it should be no trouble to start applying the pressure to the "powers that be" that this Man deserves a greater level of recognition for what would, I guess a decades long career behind the wheel, and just plain promotion of the sport we all love, DIRT RACING!!
Get that Man a 🍺 on me!! He deserves it!! 🍺
And hello to all the older, more discerning crowd of dirt track racing fans, from Australia to all of you, wherever you are!! 🍺
@@frenzalrhomb6919 Buzzie is in many Halls of Fame. He's one of the old guard and the people who know of him, love him dearly. Buzzie was still racing last year and yes. he's 80+ yrs old.
@@frenzalrhomb6919 Buzzie is a LEGEND in the North East Modified ranks! I believe he may have won this race 2x's previously. He is currently still racing a form of Modifieds in Florida and at a very high level. I believe he is defending track champion at Volusia County Speedway.
@@FloridaManRacer Mate, this older Gentleman deserves every mention he gets in all of those "Hall's of Fame!!"
Geez, I'm an Australian, and I'M proud of him!!
As far as I’m concerned they didn’t cheat they looked at legal ways they could avoid them. It’s not cheating if there isn’t a rule in place
I agree with you-designing a car that exploits a loophole in the rules is fine. But most race fans don't like it when someone comes in and stinks up the show.
Loved those days! Now everything is bought and bolted on………..
If you don't have a rule specifically written to outlaw a gray area your team exploited legally you aren't trying hard enough.
@@robd3747 Somewhere in heaven, Smokey Yunick just smiled.
Brian France was fond of saying "its legal today but it won't be tomorrow".
From a historical note, this is really good stuff. Ironically about this same time, the Wedge cars were starting to emerge in the dirt Super Late Model world which down here in the southern US we saw a lot of. I guess there was just something in the drinking water of the time and it showed up on the race track. Being from the south and only time we'd see the modifieds were mostly on TV like this ESPN broadcast, looking at it through present day eyes I can see the historical DNA from which the present day Big Block Modifieds came from. Thanks for posting so we could appreciate the history.
What it really was, was a flat out lack of knowledge. The rule books were about 2 pages long back then on how to build your car to the sanction's "Spec"... Left a LOT of grey area in the rules and guys figured out how to take advantage of that. That's why the rule book is now the size of War and Peace in comparison these days lol.
All Thank's to Ol' Gary B!! 😏👍
Gary followed the rules. Great job to his whole team. Innovation is everything. He did have an advantage, but an unfair advantage, I think not. Simple had a team that understood the rules and built a true race car. GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!!
More explanation of rules and stuff in 1980 than they give you today. Awesome reporting back then.
Schaefer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one🎶♩🎵
RIP Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber
This is exactly what made the earlier years of racing great, innovative engineering. Gary with this Batmobile. The turbine at indy, the rear engine at indy, rear engine top fuel cars, winged sprint cars, just about everything in the first 40 years of Nascar. BTW, Gary funded this racing operation with drug running money. Another great story
Gary had nothing 2 do w innovative engineering of the Batmobile, he was the driver. That was all Dad.
@Debra Weld yes ma'am. I knew that . Your Dad was one of the greatest innovative minds ever
Kenny Wells built one fast car. Balough driving was the icing on the cake.
Kenny Weld
"Kenny Wells." Now, we know who the recipient was, of Balough's Drugs.
@@ihavefallenandicantreachmy2113 lol Gary didn't share with me.
Loved the tow rig that drove by as he was explaining the differences in the cars! An old pick up truck pulling a home built open trailer! That was so much cooler than the boxes everybody hauls race cars in today! When people saw a race car being trailered to the speedway on Saturday afternoon, they wanted to go there! Now nobody even knows there’s a racer being moved! Let’s face it, Balough and the bat mobile stuck a knife in the heart of traditional northeastern dirt modified racing, and it wasn’t a welcomed change! Within just a couple years, both the traditional modified and the open trailer became increasingly rare.RIP good old days!
Kinda makes ya wonder why a guy with stuff going on behind the scenes like Balough. Would want to draw attention to themselves on national TV?
Casey Minks in El Paso Texas did something similar with an interior of a station wagon stock car. It was awesome.
Gary,Kenny, Pete Hamilton and the rest of the crew created the modern big block modified. If it wasn't for those guys I don't think we'd be where we're at right now... great video man thanks for posting ...God I miss Syracuse. Oswego just doesn't cut it
i agree i wish someone would build a 1 mile track in CNY THEN WE can go back ti the mile racing!
@@healthyone100 Go buy Vernon Downs. That shit hole is barely hanging on...
Maynard Troyer Mud Bus had a lot to say about modern dirt cars.....
This car is the standard today... so it's an innovation that has been fully embraced by the community. My thing is that it took so long to take hold. But, again, it's not quite as effective on the short tracks that run today. Syracuse is a mile long and the longer tracks have more speed and more chances to make use of the air foil.
actually that's not totally true. If you've seen winged vs non-winged sprints on the same race track before, non-winged is about two seconds slower. Modifieds today run in two configurations. standard "C-pillar" panels or what's called a sail panel. which increases the side force on the car in the turns. that simple change with about 40 inches worth of extra sheet metal on the car, yeilds a 2 second difference in lap time. If today's cars still used the normal bodies that ran against Gary's car in this race, they would've been about 2 seconds slower per lap vs today's average car that has the aero foil effect built into it... I covered Big Block Modified racing in NY for over a decade as media and worked on these cars. I do have a working knowledge of this.
I was born in 89, and I grew up in New York, watching big block modifieds at canandaigua, so is this the origin story of why big block modifieds look the way they do today???
@@carlhartman9358 yes. the reason they have such large 'tunnels' on either side of the driver's central seating position is because of this car. The rule said no external wing elements. so they built the wing right into the interior...
Not a controversy, when you stay within the rules. They’re just pissed off, that someone was smart enuf to build a car that can win every race
if a guy is at a race and does not have a chance to wi,.just load up and go home. come back another day with better stuff
A little while after this race Balough admitted the reason he won was partly due to the body, but mostly to the creative air intake this car had. He said they designed the body so radically that no one would be looking at the air intake and how they created a ram induction system.
Finally hearing a correct answer!
A Hotrod Lincoln against a bunch of ugly Gremlins. Gary Ballou, the savior of modified racing. Now they all are wide and aerodynamic
The Ballough car looks an awful like what is raced in the Modified division in 2021 … guy was ahead of his time.
Gary Balough was the shoe ONLY. & The 'ugly' Gremlins were brought in2 NE modified racing circuit by the SAME mind that built the Batmobile, Kenny Weld.
@@debraweld1188 somehow I get the feeling you have some skin in this game. Gremlins were always ugly cars though from day one. Probably cost AMC their company sales were so bad.
That's nice to know about Kenny Weld. Those times were fun in autoracing because so many things were being discovered about aerodynamics, tires, suspensions, car construction. It was inevitable that it eventually came to modified dirt cars and I know how hard change can be having lived through the rear engine revolution.
Just to clarify things, it's not building a wing that creates the ground effect, that's a popular misconception. In fact that misconception lead a lot of F1 teams down the wrong path when they tries to copy the Lotus model. A venturi is what is actually built to created the downforce. See Bernoulli's principle.
100% correct. it's not just the air over the internally built wing, it's the underside of the car and how it flows the air underneath in a venturi effect... that's why it had the super low side skirts. to control the air flow that leaked out from the sides. the more that gets tunneled to the back of the car and out in as quick a rush as possible, the more suck to the ground that creates...
@@FloridaManRacer Remember the side wings on the March F1 monstrosity.
I had forgotten that Geoff Bodine was in that race. It was good to see Larry and Bob again, having lost both of them. Is there a copy of that race available for purchase for those fans like me that never got to see how it all played out.
th-cam.com/video/faoYjTkXKrg/w-d-xo.html
@@safn1949 thank you.
It seemed like it played out exactly how they thought it was going to play out. Some guy invented the modern modifieds
Andy Fusco passed away in 2015 as well. He worked with DIRT for years as well as racing promoter and broadcasting.
@@bradsanders407 untrue. It ONLY raced 1 race. They rewrote the rules, so it was no longer legal. What would make U think, '...it played out Xactly how they thought ...'?!?! 🤦♀️
Sammy Beavers. I remember watching him, and Les Farley race at Flemington, N.J. back in the 70's.
Hollywood NEED'S to get off their ass & make a major movie about Gary & his amazing life, you listening Opie?? 😉
Andy Fusco died in 2015, Bob Jenkins passed this year 2021. Larry Nuber passed in 2000 and Geoff Bodine is still around, complaining about whatever gets under his bonnet. Best I can find, the Schaefer 200 is now called Super DIRT Week. (please correct me if that's wrong)
And it's run every year now at Oswego Speedway. Former Governor Cuomo and his gang decided that the land that the Moody Mile sat on could be of better use as a parking lot or something other than a track.
Excellent video 📹 👏 👍
You should do an on depth video about Billy Pauch's record settings ZEMCO #1 🏁🏁
Pauch's record has been broken by Paul McMahan at Rolling Wheels at 145+mph!
The batmobile funded by drug money. Not saying anything bad about Gary, we need characters like him around today.
There was more of that going on than ever got exposed. A whole series in the Northeast laundered dirty money.
You are absolutely correct. Racing needs bad guys. Roddy Piper and Iron Sheikh packed the stands for wrestling promoters.
Fans should be thrilled when someone advances their sport!
I'd never heard of Geoff Bodine until he came to Oxford Maine in the summer of 1980 and won the 250 in a legendary duel with Butch Lindley.
Gives me goose bumps knowing this was just three months after that.
Those cars violated one rule. They have to resemble a production automobile. AMC Ambassador? May as well have put VW Bug.
Thanks for posting this!!
I remember this happening. Considering it was 1980 and at the end of the racing season word of the Batmobile spread like wildfire!! Gary, Kenny, etc found an opening in the rules and got paid.
Next year,,,, that car was illegal.
Kenny Weld (not Gary) found a loop hole in the rules & got paid. Gary drove the car.
Debra weld I understand that it was mainly your dad’s design and discovery of the loop hole but you have to give Gary some credit he was part of the team which means he had to be in the know on things and agree to go along with it and also drive the car as good as he did to be able to win the race so the car would get the recognition it deserved
Debra weld I understand that it was mainly your dad’s design and discovery of the loop hole but you have to give Gary some credit he was part of the team which means he had to be in the know on things and agree to go along with it and also drive the car as good as he did to be able to win the race so the car would get the recognition it deserved
Motor racing has always been, and still is, about getting the best performance with the machinery allow by the rules. Someone finds an advantage, the others must follow. Why do you think front engined cars disappeared from Indy? Because the rear engined European cars out performed them.
That's what constructors championships are for. You're completely missing the biggest aspect and that is to be the fastest DRIVER. Otherwise, Formula E would be all self-driving cars. There are far more "equal ground" series than not. That's why a lot of series have rules that let you claim someone else's engine, to ensure teams are spending insane amounts of cash when others wouldn't be able to front that
*aren't spending
@@myphone7568 if you want only see a strict driver competition, then you should only ways spec series with no setups allows. Ted is correct here. Motor racing has *always* been about getting your vehicle in the fastest possible state under a given ruleset. If you're not maximizing the ruleset, you're leaving time on the table. it's literally as simple as that. Racing has always existed at the intersection of engineering and human spirit.
Who knows what Weld and Ballou could have done if not for the vacations they had to take, Kenny died way too young and the CNC porting on heads he came up with is something he never got the real credit for today.
For many years we camped in the second turn of the fairgrounds for this race and people were completely stunned by what we were seeing transpire before us. We'd go look at the car and joke about how there is no way it looked like a Continental, but Kenny/Gary stated it was a Continental roof. The rules were too loose and should have stated that the car entered had to be the actual car raced at your qualifying track during the season.
We are not all Forrest Gump but you had your time in history. Age has a advantage. Good luck to you and your folks , from Australia
@@lauriedooker1031 What are you going on about?
@@jimbob8969 point taken well Jim, sometime I rave on with BS , just my Dyslexic Brocken Australian English I sad that you where part of those important times . Important because I’m a car guy and I was full of. Nostalgia and other stuff that starts with your name sake
That just looks like a modern dirt modified. Was this the point where dirt and asphalt late models started to look different? Like sprint cars and Indy cars have a common ancestor in the original Indy cars?
The attraction to dirt track & midget racing was the blue collar simplicity. This techno wizardry is exactly what turns people off from Formula 1 etc. Keep it simple, cheap hot dogs and cold beer beats a 5 million car car every time.
"Do you have an unfair advantage?"
"Yeah we have an advantage..." well then
I don’t understand why Andy Fusco claimed that he didn’t expect Gary Balough’s car at the track. A DIRT tech inspector had visited Kenny Weld’s shop prior to the race, and pre-approved the car for competition in the race. Was Andy Fusco never informed about the pre-approval?
No tech inspector should be visiting a garage and Pre-approving a car other that the race track.
@@raymondbarcik2593 I just thought it was strange that a DIRT series employee had pre-approved the car, yet Andy Fusco claimed that wasn’t expecting the car to show up.
@@veggieoilerfan2940 The pre-approval process in DIRTcar still happens today. The idea being if someone has a question about the rule book and how they've implemented something, they can call on the officials to check their work basically... consider it a form of disclosure and transparency... As long as the official isn't biased of course... 🧐
Thr supermods at oswego back in the day were a radical departure from sanity. These are wild also.
Being a syracuse,N.Y. Native,I was surprised to find this.
Gotta love that turtleneck/jacket combo
In 1997 the world of outlaws sprint cars came back to the Springfield mile and several drivers had aero packages on them. I think Andy Hillenburg hit 168 mph in qualifying down the front stretch!
what is Gary B doing these days...
@@davidrice3337 I think Gary Bettenhausen passed away in 2014
@@briantherion5464 his brother Tony was a brawler back in the day - at least that's the legend - those dudes were Cool- I always rooted for them
"after my fellow horseman and friend AJ Foyt, of course"
@@briantherion5464 balough I think he meant
@@davidrice3337 Balough works with Stewart Friesen a lot and goes to different events for signings etc.. he's still around.
This kinda reminds me of all the guys in NHRA Top Fuel during the 80s who tried different styles and designs to their cars
I love at the end where it says fans were not happy..read any social media page. Fans are never happy!! 🤣
This was pretty much the birth of the modern northeastern dirt modified. The overall look of the "body" hasn't changed much since the 90s whether it's a teo, troyer, bicknell, pmc, whatever...but this design that caused controversy pretty much totally changed the industry and it became standardized by the modified community. Leave it to old Hot Shoe to cause controversy, a real legend.
The innovative part was all Kenny Weld, NOT Gary. He drove the car.
So is the Lakeside Speedway on the right rear quarter panel, one in Florida. Or the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas?
Lakeside Speedway in Kansas is where the Weld Family (as in Kenny, Jerry and Greg along with Pappy) cut their eye teeth in racing.
KCKS & Booth's Towing, from KCMO, was the other 'sponsor' painted on.
@@debraweld1188 are you Kenny's sister?
@@jamiecrawford8133 No, Kenny was my Dad.
Manufactured "controversy" considering that the design basically became STANDARD shortly after the race. It wasn't "controversy", it was "innovation that the rest of the field followed".
Dang look at Bobs hair and Larry bought stock in Aqua Net😅
ive been to the syracuse mile many times. what an awesome place. the ground round nationals.
When did Andy Kaufman (Bodine) race cars????
how great is Bob Jenkins
Thanks for posting this! I was at Syracuse a few years later and by then "normal" modified is all you could find. Too bad they got rid of this Moody Mile track. Do you have any other content and/or the full race?
the full race was available for a long time here, but it has been removed, you can still see it at the dirtvision website in their vault. I believe just making a free account gets you vault access...
@@FloridaManRacer Didn't even need an account, it's available here without logging in www.dirtvision.tv/super-dirtcar-series/season:1980/videos/1980-schaefer-200
@@rockinggator969 Enjoy it!
@@rockinggator969 Thanks for posting the link. I watched almost all of it. Best part was watching 112 come back through after the stop.
@@michaeln2386 Indeed, good run up there. Kinda miss the old "golden era" of dirt racing
I miss these two great broadcasters, Larry Nuber and Bob Jenkins. Icons of the racing world. I would much rather watch the World of Outlaws (Steve Kinser) compared to todays NASCAR tbh.
This shit is the reason why the nascar rule book is a mile thick now.
Andy Fusco lookin like a Die Hard villian
The day that when the NE Dirt Modified world came to a halt and a new era was born. Weld and Brown build an excellent piece and Balough drove it to perfection. ....never used more than 3/4 throttle. :D
and he finished on only 7 cylinders
Ricky Weld told me the real secret was dry ice on the intake and that the body was just a distraction. It's hard to tell if he was truthful or not but that's what he said.
@@numbzinger350 ...as much as I love Uncle Ricky, truth was not his forte 🤷♀️
@@debraweld1188 And so I've been told. I grew up around Olympic Stadium and watched your whole family race there. I idolized them then, still do today, and miss them all.
Pardon the pun but Balough looks like he's on a sunday drive i was there, huge crowds back then the glory days of modified racing!
I like how they completely get the concept of ground effect wrong
uh. how?
Larry's moustache is a living thing.
Whys this a controversy? Whats wrong impoving things? This is why too many bureaucrats with power is destruction of progress
You misspelled Schaefer.
Changed dirt modifieds for ever!!!!
Am I the only one who thought the dude in the thumbnail was Jeffrey dahmer 😂😂😂😂😂
Fascinating story. Never knew about this!
R.I.P. Bob Jenkins.
Back when ESPN reported on sports and did a good job of doing so.
Thats stock car racing you always bend the rules . if there is no rule then you cant break it. No other sport is like it .its the history of stock car racing. The old saying is it aint cheating until you get caught
Funny... it was legit and legal..
I say hire that guy..
Late '70s /early '80s, Indy, F1 and even these guys all discovered ground effects. It worked great but I believe they were quickly banned. If you lost suction under the car for whatever reason, you went straight. 💥
and now Balough is much loved and seen as a great pioneer of the sport!
And today they're all built like Bodies! Gary was the man any The GOAT!
Gary pissed off the fans
To bad you couldn’t do offset chassis with same design
ESPN in 1980, barely a year old.
Imagine that, a Bodine crying about another competitor having an advantage...lmao!!!
There was nothing wrong with Bodine's attitude in that interview. He acknowledged that a lot of guys were caught off guard by the car Balough brought, but he ultimately took responsibility as a competitor to try to bring something better to the track rather than trying to get the other guy banned.
@@nathanstroud2223 we call that crying...lmfao
@@nathanstroud2223 Exactly. One team worked harder than the rest, so Bodine accepted it and worked harder himself.
Imagine that. A kidder writing something silly…
The good ol days. She's all torn down now.
I live near syracuse and am not happy. I raced that track myself a few times and hated it but itv was the atmosphere that made it such a great event
@@billmegnin9288 me and my dad watched 2008 and 2009 200 from the plumbers building in 3 and 4 it was amazing
@Joshuah Simons86ny yes it could be an amazing event to watch. From a driver's stand point it's sucks. Especially when you're a small team as I was. The track tears your car up even without wrecking. The sooty track surface sandblasts every inch of your car and the drivers gear. I had the paint worn right off my helmet before. But I do miss the track. It was the atmosphere of the event that made it all worth it
I was there and I hated that car. Its 43 years later and I still hate it. It did NOT make the sport better, it created sheet metal wars unnecessary if DIRT would have just disqualified a car that was NOT a modified. Proof? When rules called for it to be re-bodied, it was uncompetitive and brutally UGLY. DIRT screwed the weekend racers and it shows today with low car counts partly caused by the extra expenses and need for paying skilled body manufacturers indtead of home mechanics. I will always hate that 112.
3:00 in before I asked myself why tf am I watching this.
was this race at the fairgrounds?
Hot Shoe Gary Balough
If you aint cheatin you aint trying.
No cheating. Superior thinking does not break any rules.
Those who said he followed the rules doesn’t know what they are talking about. I knew Gary very well and new Kenny Weld. Both went to jail for drug trafficking. Drug money built that car and drug money paid the officials. If you’re ok with that, then fine.
This director has the same issue as today's NASCAR. They don't want what the avid fan wants.
I like how the cheating guy said they worked long and hard to get there. You still cheated!😅
Showing up to a modified race with a fucking ground effects car...now that's just not right. I don't even think Jimmy Spencer knows how to say "ground effects." :D :D
Gary made the modified turn into supermods
*Kenny Weld made the modified ...
I remember this well I was at this race and the race after this and I'll tell you they just build a better mousetrap that's all I can tell you
The grey areas of the rulebook and Gary took advantage of it.
*KENNY WELD took advantage ...
god, memories
That should be illegal, the front of the widebody cars is opened enough to have a substantial advantage - It's like if someone enlarged a F1 car's bodywork and tried to race in the FIA WEC (Le Mans 24h and such)
neat
It was a simpler time.
Geoff that is bullshit. The Batmobile was 100 percent legal. They flew a tech official to Missouri who measured that car for a couple days. Kenny Weld and crew built a better car. They out smarted every single one of you. They worked hard and smart. They just flat whipped all y'all's ass. Today's modified are all a direct defendant of that Kenny Weld masterpiece. I grew up watching Gary race in south Florida, all his cars were built with a lot of thought and preparation. And he won and won. Read his book. It's awesome, and so is Gary.
YAWN..........................................
Thats what use to make racing awesome... Now Cookie Cutter Bodies, and restrictions to keep the smartest people down. So the lazy people don't quit.
Bigup rudbwoy Gary
Gary balough was a smart guy!, and a good driver!.
He wound up in prison for dealing drugs a few years later. Not too smart.
And most likely murdered Mario Rossi
Gary Balough was only the shoe. The car came from the mind of Kenny Weld.
People forget Balough won a ton of big races before he ever saw this car. If not for his legal issues would have gone into the racing history books as an all time great like Trickle, Kinser, Bloomquist caliber legendary.
Aerodynamics is UNAMERICAN!!! A ladder chassis and a BIG V8 were good for my daddie so that’s it for me. Anything else is communism.
$125k in 1980😂
HAHA Awesome!
Lincoln Continental 😂
The France family would have never let this happen in NASCAR. A failed inspection due to "Not within the spirit of the rules" and a list of well paid lawyers and adios Gary Balough. DIRT was caught unprepared and had no choice but to let him run...Lol
Yeah. Big Bill or Jr wouldn’t have stood for it. And if something like Jeff Gordon’s T-Rex car came about, it was illegal the next day.
Gary Balough’s team actually had a DIRT tech inspector visit Kenny Weld’s shop prior to the race to make sure that the car would be approved for competition.
There was a loophole in DIRT rules @ that time. If the France family had loopholes in NASCAR rules & their tech inspector said it passed, they'd have no choice but let it race.
That car was done in a wind tunnel.. using corrugated metal roofing in that area and the depth of it.. I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually was.. anyone with half a brain knows slowing down the air going over the top of car gonna stick better and be more affective..
Was NOT done in a wind tunnel. & DIDN'T use corrugated metal in the roof. ... I mean, ANY1 w half a brain would KNOW that! 🤭🥰🥴