Saturday, May 17, 2014

The most notorious one race wonders



Gary Balough's "Batmobile"

The big DIRT race at Syracuse every Fall had become almost the Daytona 500 of dirt modified racing. Each year, the best of the New York, New Jersey, Vermont, and Pennsylvania dirt mod scene would convene at the New York State fairgrounds in Syracuse for a huge race on the mile track.

 Around 1980, Gary Balough and Kenny Weld showed up at the event with the damnedest – looking rig ever seen – a Lincoln Continental roof over the most high-tech car that would ever grace the dirt mile in central New York.

Modifieds couldn't use sprint-car like top wings for downforce, so Weld and Balough put the flat Lincoln roof from a 60's continental on their car and angled it forward exactly like a wing.

 Its wide flat roof was canted to be a huge, controllable wing for the wide-bodied car. There were wind tunnels along both sides, the entry slats to which could be controlled by Balough while at speed.

Even the wheels were different. Weld, who had connections within the Indy car world, had installed Indy car knock-offs on the car, in contrast to everyone elses’ regular lug nuts. The driver sat in a contained compartment, with a curved cowl similar to a sprint car. By the time the race was lining up to begin, it was clear to all in attendance that Balough would win – the only question was either by how much or, if not, what broke on the car to stop him.

From what I have gathered, he was lapping the field of the best dirt modified racing had to offer before halfway. Nothing failed, and Balough was a big winner. I guess the pair of Weld and Balough were told never to show up at another DIRT race with the thing. It survived a strange chain of events thereafter and ended up on display at museums such as the Saratoga Automobile Museum.
http://www.catamountstadium.com/63rd_column_3troublesomecars.htm

More to come, definitely one of Smokey's cars... I just have to figure out if it's going to be the Chevelle or the Camaro, or the Mustang

7 comments:

  1. ..cpl things 2 fix right off the bat: That would B GARY Balough & KENNY Weld. ...Nothing on that car came off a street car, no! & I'm sure Kenny's 'connection' for wheels would B his brother, Greg's company, Weld Wheels....& they weren't told 2 'never come back'. Kenny found a loop hole in the rules. The officials RE-wrote the rule book & the car, as it was, was no longer legal.

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    1. Well, I work with what the source says, and you're correct that I was wrong on Balough's first name. But the source I worked from has Weld as having the first name of Greg. See for yourself.

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    2. also, I have Balough named twice in the article, 1st and 3rd paragraphs, and was right on one, but yeah, I made a mistake on the other

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    3. damn, you are back in the archives! Are you going through them, or did you pop right into this article?

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  2. It was Kenny Weld

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  3. It IS KENNY Weld. Jesse, your sources R wrong.

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  4. Jesse, your source is wrong. It's KENNY Weld.

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