End of the Old Coupe Era
Burcham in victory lane in Bob White's '35 Chevy. Burcham raced the modified in the 1963 NASCAR "Modified-Special" division.
In 1962 and 1963 Bob ran the NASCAR “Modified Special” division. Bobby Allison won the points titles both years, with Burcham close behind. Racing historian Walt Wimer reasoned as to the division’s short existence.
“The Modified Special class only existed two years, 1962 and 1963,” Wimer said. “NASCAR first started sanctioning the weekly races in the Alabama-Tennessee area in 1960, but in 1960-61, the points went to the regular NASCAR modified class. The cars were the same, there just wasn’t a separate class for them. The Alabama and Tennessee tracks allowed the older 1932-34 bodied cars to race, where such were not allowed under ‘regular’ NASCAR specs. Those cars had to have a full factory steel roof, which made the guys in the Carolinas-Virginia and the north complain about the Alabama-Tennessee guys getting national points with cars that were only legal in those two states.
“Regardless, 1963 was the end of the coupes and coaches in NASCAR racing for those two states too. A lot of drivers didn’t make the switch, electing to run ‘outlaw’ tracks or just quit (like modified star Bob Reuther).”
Winning modified and crew. Pictured, left to right, Dave Wright, Dave Wright Jr., Bob Burcham and his ace mechanic Bob Wright.
“Being an old coupe lover, I was very unhappy about the change at the time,” Walt added. NASCAR likened the chance to “parts were getting harder to obtain for the older type cars, and a newer more modern image, cars from the mid to late fifties that looked more similar to the cars the fans drove.”
Nevertheless, by the early sixties Bob Burcham had become a well rooted winner in the south, and a name to be reckoned with in the future, regardless of any rule or class change.
Bob’s family had moved to Rossville in about 1960. His father created Burcham Motors across the line in Chattanooga. Bob worked there for his father in sales. At first they dealt in used cars, but Burcham Motors then became a foreign car dealer with mostly British Leyland cars (Triumph and MG and later Mercedes and Jaguar).
Bob Wright and Burcham went in together on this 1955 Chevy. "We ran it at Daytona a couple of times and at Bristol once around 1964. We just raced it three times and really never did any good with it," Bob told us.
“In the early days when we raced what was called straight drives, we would check my car by running up and down Rossville Boulevard there at Burcham Motors,” Burcham said. “Once when I passed the law, he just waved at us when we went by. I was still learning and racing up and down the street wasn’t very wise of me.”
Bob had learned well though by the early sixties, and had good days in Alabama. Some very good days. While running the Bob White owned 1934 Chevrolet, he won one Friday at Huntsville, came from the rear of the field to win at Montgomery the next night and then beat the field at the Fairgrounds at Birmingham on Sunday afternoon after setting a new track record.