Track Owner Tricks

By Bob Barry

Bob Barry's Monza was an instant success in 1976. Photo by John Farr

Track owners playing their tricks. Interesting subject. My big run-in was with Ed Eaton, who ran National Speedway on Long Island, NY. They used to run an eight car Funny Car show there in the mid ‘70s (1976 to be exact) during the week in the summer. The top eight were paid in and the others had to qualify to run and earn money. It was a Tuesday or Wednesday evening event if memory serves me. I got a call the day before the race and was asked if I would run. They were short one car because someone couldn’t make it. Eaton said he’d pay me $1500.00 for one qualifying run and then pay me for each round I won. The round money was pretty good, so I went for it, figuring I could go a few rounds based on who would be racing there that evening.

Now, mind you, I was pretty much the new kid on the block. With the exception of the Summernationals at Englishtown, I had been running Buster Couch’s division down south since I had put together my new car. Eaton didn’t know me from a hole in the wall. Well, the usual cast of characters was there: Broadway Freddy, Ron Leaf, Jimmy King, Jungle, Tom Prock, I think Jim Wemett, and some others I don’t remember. At any rate, after our one round qualifier, I wound up #1 that night, much to the disappointment of Mr. Eaton. This meant he might have to pay me some more money.

One thing I learned from racing with Buster was that at these paid in races (which were really just match races) you tuned the car to go just fast enough to try to beat your competition, put on a good show, and save your parts. Nobody was into blowing up all their crap for a paid in deal, and the fans still got a good show. Eat up parts and you eat up your profits that you needed to run the WCS and national events.

Well, first round I get Broadway Freddy. Now if anyone here knew Broadway Freddy like I did (I have a scar on my chin from the ring on his right hand when he took a shot at me at a New York Coliseum car show for saying I could beat his car if I lined up on the starting line with my parachutes facing the finish line) you’d know this was a gift from God, an easy round to win, and I did. Well, it turns out that was not what Ed Eaton wanted me to do or planned for me to do, and therefore he was not a very happy camper. In his infinite way, he then set the wheels in motion to make sure I was gone by the end of the next round.

Second round, I had Jimmy King in the King & Marshall car. Now Jimmy and the boys were having some problems this evening, which Jimmy and I spoke about. The car just wasn’t running as well as it usually did and they didn’t know why. I had a good three tenths on them from the previous round, and so thought I would probably be able to go one more round before meeting up with Tom Prock in the Custom Body car. Now Prock’s car really hauled ass. These guys were touring pros and knew how to run hard. I knew with my green around the ears, three big months running my new car, I couldn’t beat these guys no matter what I did. But fortunately for me, I wouldn’t meet up with them until the final round if all went well. If anything, it would be an honor to run next to them.

Jimmy and I are the first pair in the second round. I fire my car up first as I usually do because I like doing long burnouts and staging first. I do my burnout and as I’m backing up, I catch a glimpse of something go by me in the smoke that didn’t have the same colors as Jimmy’s car. As the smoke cleared, there in all its glory was Prock and the Custom Body car backing up. I’d been had. Eaton had stopped Jimmy from firing his car and had Tom fire up his car, drive around, and do his burnout. Needless to say, I lost that round, and the money I might have had. Tom, if you’re out there, I still haven’t forgotten that, but will still buy pistons from you because you make the best.

The real fun started when I went to get paid. Seems he was willing to give me my $1500.00 bucks but didn’t want to pay me the round money. I, on the other hand, was well convinced I had earned my round money and wanted it. Unfortunately, God built my ass a little closer to the ground than Mr. Eaton’s, and therefore I felt physically handicapped in my ability to coax him into paying me my due. Fortunately though, my close friend Ed Akam was with me at the race. Ed had had his own problems with Mr. Eaton on previous occasions, and he was graced with size, stature, and a real bad attitude. After a half hour of close negotiations, Ed pushed aside Mr. Eaton and the security guard, and was able to secure payment for services rendered.

It was three months before I was asked to come back to that track again, and this time we had new rules. The rule was that Ed Akam was not allowed to come collect my pay with me, ever!

Bob Barry

barry722@sbcglobal.net