Billie Harvey
Earl Ma
Recently I was reading an article in the 12/86 edition of ICR on Randy
Lanier's arrest, which also discussed other drivers of the era getting
into similar legal trouble. One of the names that came up was Billie
Harvey, who drove in the 1980 Milwaukee CART race, made eight Winston Cup
starts from 1980-83, and set several ARCA speed records at Talladega.
Among the others charged was Gary Balough.
Can anyone fill me in on the details of this case, on the rest of Harvey's
racing background, and/or what Harvey and Balough are up to now?
Earl
John 'aka' Deliveryboy
Last I heard of Balough he was running a truck. May have been in 1996.
John
--
John 'aka' Deliveryboy
Chris Farley 1964-1997
Meet you in a van down by the river.
Another Herk Fan
Recently I was reading an article in the 12/86 edition of ICR on Randy
Lanier's arrest, which also discussed other drivers of the era getting
into similar legal trouble. One of the names that came up was Billie
Harvey, who drove in the 1980 Milwaukee CART race, made eight Winston Cup
starts from 1980-83, and set several ARCA speed records at Talladega.
Among the others charged was Gary Balough.
Can anyone fill me in on the details of this case, on the rest of Harvey's
racing background, and/or what Harvey and Balough are up to now?
Earl
Nothing really specific, but Harvey was entered at Indy in Grant King's
car, the one Norm Hall ended up buying, I think. Don't know if Harvey ever
turned a lap, but I do know that Roger Mears ended up in the car and did
have it up to qualifying speed (184, I believe) but missed the show.
Baluogh IS back in racing, late models I'm sure, , and I do believe trucks
as well. He's not listed as a starter in the 1997 NASCAR media guide for
96 and prior, so I think it was this year he finally got out and did some
running.
James David Reyome
--
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Mark D. Jilson
Yes Gary is running Late Models at least. I believe he ran this year's 'Snowball Derby' or
whatever the race is called.
Another Herk Fan wrote:
> In article <68hutq$c...@mochi.lava.net>, uni...@lava.net (Earl Ma) wrote:
>
> Among the others charged was Gary Balough.
>
> Can anyone fill me in on the details of this case, on the rest of Harvey's
> racing background, and/or what Harvey and Balough are up to now?
>
> Earl
>
> Baluogh IS back in racing, late models I'm sure, , and I do believe trucks
> as well. He's not listed as a starter in the 1997 NASCAR media guide for
> 96 and prior, so I think it was this year he finally got out and did some
> running.
--
Jilly - Working from Home in the Chemung River Valley - Waverly, NY
- ji...@clarityconnect.com - Brett Bodine fan
- m_ji...@csc32.enet.dec.com - since 1975 or so
- http://www.clarityconnect.com/webpages2/jilly -
A & D
I think Harvey is doing life.The centerfold he did for stock car racing
magazine in the late 70's
early 80's with all his racecars, ferrari's, trucks, boats, planes,
bimbo's, etc., did not help his case
when it became trial time. But I'm sure it was fun.Gary Balough is
probably the greatest wasted
talent in the history of auto racing. Winning 100's of late model races
throughout the south, and
an equal number of dirt modified races in ny, Balough, Harvey, and
Peewee Griffin formed a loosely
connected pot smuggling operation. The high water mark was reached in
1981 (I think) when
Balough won the Permatex 300 ( yes thetas the bush grand national race)
and the next day finished
6th in the Daytona 500. In order to win the gn race, Gary had to deal
with a guy named Dale
Earnhart, which he did by beating him into submission during the last 5
laps- they tried at least 20
times to wreck each other.This newsgroup would have hummed for months.
Afterwards, Earnhart cried about " rookie drivers are a dammed hazard
out there, to which Balough replied " I'll stop running into him when he
stops running into me" In the
500 he had Sanyo speakers on the side of the car, who were signed up for
the year.The next day,
as he got out of the truck in Ft Lauderdale, the DEA arrested him, Pee
Wee, and a whole lot more.
After years of delay's, trials, etc., during which, in 1985 he won the
All Pro championship, Balough
finally did 5 years. He got out , and proceeded to tear up the north
Florida late model circuit, in 95
he won 55 features in a car owned by Pee Wee Griffin. I think he got
popped again, on a small
coke charge. He has also had another falling out with his car owner, he
was driving a car owned
by Gene Leight at Volusia in 1997 during speedweeks.He basically was
run out of Winston cup
by NASCAR, apparently its ok if you're a convicted moonshiner(aka Jr.
Johnson), or a white
collar criminal-especially if your star driver bawls a lot and thanks
jesus for great pit stops and pistons. But- Pot smuggling???!!! Never!!
That particular story is for another time.He's tolerated
in the late models only because he threatened to take nascar to court,
where all the dirty laundry
would have been revealed.I'm not sure what Balough's plans are for 98,I
plan to be at some short
tracks during speedweeks-maby I'll see him. I'll say this. In his prime
NOBODY, could outwork,
outenginer, or outdrive Gary Balough.And I'll bet I'M not the only one
who thinks that.
Art D
"pickup trucks are for hauling race cars to the track"