By Connie Winningham
In 1949, William Myers, a young, 18-year-old boy was stationed and in training at the Army Chemical Center in Maryland. "Nearly every day", he said, " a 1937 Ford with no fenders came racing up and down the road near my barracks". "One day, I saw the car at a local gas station, and I was so intrigued by the car and the speed, I couldn't resist pulling in and finding the man who owned it." The man turned out to be Mr. Bob Wallace.
They talked about the car and racing for a long time that day. Bob asked Bill if he wanted to go to the races with him on Saturday night. Of course he wanted to go, and that's when Bill fell in love with racing. He and Mr. Wallace soon became great friends. "I was eager and hungry to learn all I could about building a racecar", Bill said. "We went to the races every Saturday night for the next two years."
Bill would spend every minute of his off time helping Bob with his car. In 1951, Bill was shipped out to Korea. When he returned in 1952, he went down to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida looking for the nearest racetrack and for anyone who would let him help. He said, "I thought I knew everything there was to know about racing", but found out he had so much to learn. He built a 1937 Ford Coupe sportsman and teamed up with a man who drove the sportsman for him for about six months.
But Bill ended up buying out his part and soon had himself another partner, Herb Madray. Herb owned a salvage yard. "Boy that made for a great pair of racing friends," he said. "We made a great team". Bill added, "Back then, if there wasn't a fight after the races, then it wasn't a good night of racing. Well, Herb got into one of the frays and ended up cutting his hand on some guy's teeth. The wound got infected and it got so bad that Herb couldn't drive the next week." That was the first night I ever raced", he said, "and I fell in love with it".
I asked him to tell me about his first night. He said, "Well, they always put the new guys up front because they couldn't do anything". With a big smile, Bill told me that night he won the heat race and the feature. From there he had RACING FEVER. Soon, he and Herb built a 1939 Hudson Coupe with a 308 Hornet motor. "Back then the motor was way back through the firewall", he recalled. "I stayed in the driver's seat from then on out". They raced at Broward Speedway, Hollywood, and Medley in Hialeah, Hialeah Speedway, Key West at Stock Island, Ft. Pierce, Melbourne, Vero Beach and Golden Gate. I asked him to tell me about one of his most memorable nights in racing. He paused for a few minutes and with a look of regret he told me that the one night of racing that has stayed with him the most is the night his leg got "bummed up". It was a night in 1961 he was racing at Hialeah. He had 21 feature wins in a row between Medley and Hialeah. He was racing in a big 50-lap race when his car just quit. He pulled down into the infield and got out of his car to try and figure what could be wrong. Two cars got tangled up on the track and skidded off the track sandwiching him between them and his car. He spent 11 weeks in traction, 13 months in a body cast, had at least five operations and wore a brace for many, many years.
At 70, 'Grouch', as he has been nicknamed since, sat back with his coffee cup and the look on his face told me how dear these memories are to him. He got his nickname from Herb. The two of them had gone out for a few beers one night and to play some pool. Bill went home early because he needed to get up and go to his mechanics job the next morning. At around 2:00 in the morning, Herb called, waking Bill up asking him if he had made it home Okay. Bill replied, "Yep" and hung up. The next morning, Herb came to the shop and told Bill, "You sure sounded like a grouch on the phone", and from then on, that's what everyone has called him, "Grouch". "As a matter of fact", Grouch declared, "I had a big 8-ball painted on the side of my car - that was my number 8-ball". "I loved to play pool too".
At that time in his career, he had met and was very close with Bobbie Allison and Donnie Allison. "While I was laid up, he said, "The two of them took turns racing my car. Any money that they won, they brought to the hospital and gave to me to help pay the hospital bills". At that time, Grouch said, "Davie was running around in diapers". The grin on his face told me that those are fond memories. "After the first night that Donnie drove the car", Grouch said, "He came to me in the hospital and told me, Grouch, I thought you were a damned good driver, but after driving your car tonight, I believe in that car anyone could win". With pride he said, "That 289 turned 8500 to 8700 RPMs".
After he got back on his feet and back to racing, Grouch and a man named Randy Tissotts went to Alabama and lived with Bobby Allison in Hueytown for about a month until he found his own place. They raced in Birmingham, Montgomery, Chattanooga, Nashville, Huntsville, Ashville, and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, about 1,000 miles to run that circuit each week. By this time that is how Grouch made his living. "Back then, you could win $200 in a night and that was GOOD money. You didn't need to have a daytime job making $150.00 a week." He explained Bill Myers had the opportunity to also race with Jackie Evans, Jerry Lawtey, Freddy Fryer, Red Farmer as well as Bobbie and Donnie Allison. They all raced in the same class and they all were the best of friends. They raced 5 or 6 nights a week and loved it.
I asked Grouch if he felt like he was a rich man. He gave me a meek grin and said, "I felt good about myself, but more than that, I more so enjoyed my friends and the sport". "It was never about the money", he added solemnly.
He recalled a night in Hollywood when he raced with Ned Jarrett. He said it was the funniest thing. Ned came driving into the pit in his Cadillac with his car on a tow bar, his extra tires and parts in the back seat of that Caddy. Ned was racing for the NASCAR points championship at that time.
He told me about a race in Opelika, a 50-lapper that he would never forget. He was in the lead, he saw the flag come out and after that lap went into the pits his crew came running to the car wanting to know what happened, he said "nothing, that was the last lap right?" they told him that the flag had been the white flag. That was a night he beat himself and came in last. In 1976 in Bronson, his boys Buddy and Ronnie wanted to build a car and race. Ed Harris was building a track here, now known as The Bronson Motor Speedway. They wanted to race badly. Grouch decided to let them try racing and they built a 1956 Ford 302 Late model. The track opened and off to the races they went. Grouch said he went out and tested the car and made some adjustments. "When it came time for the heat race the two boys were arguing about who was going to drive" he said grinning, "not about who wanted to drive, but each one wanted the other one to drive. The heat was called and someone had to go on the track, so I got in and as I got ready to go out, I told them, 'You better make up your minds and be ready for the feature'. When I came in after the heat", he said, "The boys were nowhere to be found". Laughingly he continued, "So I went out and got second in the feature".
At that time, he recalled racing with Louie Quinn, Rodney Brown, Keith Philman, Cecil Lewis, and Donnie Lewis in Bronson. Joe Nemechek, Jimmy Cope, Leroy Porter, Dickie and Wayne Anderson are among the drivers he raced against in Bronson also. He remembered when Eddie King came out with a 6-cylinder thunderbird and won against their V8's. "Boy, we were upset about that" he said.
Grouch has long since hung up his helmet, but he still has his hands in racing in some way or another almost every day. Kevin Durden was a young boy of about 5 or 6 when Grouch first met him. He said that when he got up old enough to race he helped him build a car for Bronson. "Kevin Durden is a driver, to this day, who is hard to beat", he recalled. "That first night he kept getting closer and closer to the wall and I just knew any minute he was going to hit it. Sure enough he did and he bent the A-frame, but Kevin learned from that and has come a long way."
I talked to the #46 Super stock driver, Brody Giddens, who said I'll tell you one thing about Grouch, he can sit in the grand stands, listen to a car when it goes by, and tell a driver just about what he needs to do to make the car run better". "He has done it for me lots of times. "Grouch has forgotten more about racing than many of us will ever know".
Every Saturday night, you will see Grouch on his 4-wheeler driving around talking to drivers and helping the Bronson Motor Speedway Tech man, Rodney Brown, one of the men he used to drive against at Bronson. He sits back and enjoys the sport of racing quietly these days. There isn't much he doesn't know about a racecar and he wants to help anyone who asks him. He is friendly and always has time to talk to anyone. Grouch said that his biggest supporters were his father, the late Vernon Myers and his brother-in-law, Tom Fleming. "If I ever needed anything, tires to someone to help work on the engine, they were there for me". They helped him enjoy a sport that he loved. I believe that is why he is so ready to help anyone at anytime, because he still loves racing so much and without supporters, it is a hard road to race.
It was such a pleasure to write this story. Bill 'Grouch' Myers was so quick to smile when I asked him questions and he remembered parts of his life that seemed so long ago. It was a joy to listen to this part of his story. There is so much that he can tell us about racing. As I drove away, I felt as though I had been actually talking to one of racings few "Silent Legends".
-Connie Winningham
AKA 'Missy'
Have an opinion on this story? Post a message on our Message Board!
or send a letter to the editor!
|
