First On Race Day
Charlie with one of the Fairlane Fords he built and raced. Note the sponsor is Chester Barron Used Cars. Chester was called the Cornelia Comet when he raced in the fifties. Photo courtesy Charlie Barrett
All this racing was with Charlie’s signature 1956 Ford 2-door hardtops. But as the Chevy guys switched to the Chevelle as their brand of racecar, Charlie switched to the Ford Fairlane.
“I built my own chassis on the Fairlane,” he said. “I went up to Holman & Moody and I guess they thought they saw an ole’ Georgia Cracker. I told them I wanted a 351 Boss engine. They wanted to sell me their shocks and springs and sway bars. I was planning on lapping the second place car I was spending so much money. Now I did have the horsepower like a 427. When you were coming off the corner, it would lunge and then it would start spinning and you couldn’t get traction – it would just run sideways. But I had a real problem with cracking a cylinder. I would sleeve it and it still would crack.
“The guy that built Sugar Creek (Jeff Waldrip) asked us to come over there. But I just couldn’t run there. I would drive in over my head every time. I never wrecked but I would spin out. I ran there about six times but I told Bill Kuykendall I wasn’t going to run there anymore. Looking back I know what I was doing wrong. It had real sharp corners and I was over driving it for the corners.”
The worst wreck Charlie had – the one that hurt the most – was at Dixie Speedway with his Fairlane. I just happened to be there and remember it well. Coming down for the green flag at the start of the feature, Leon Sells drove Charlie into the front stretch wall, which was dirt at the time.
“With a wooden wall, there is some give when you hit but with a dirt wall it does not give! I wasn’t able to turn my head for several weeks after that,” he said.
“I was about ready to quit when the tracks went to a 101 inch wheelbase. This was about 1971. I called Ernie Elliott and told him that I wanted him to build a Boss 302 and don’t cut any corners. I took my frame and cut it down and wasn’t real particular about it. I put a Pinto body on it. I just cut so much out of it and welded it back together. Jabez Jones and C. L. (Pritchett) and all of them shortened the wheelbase but left it wide. Complete tires would be sticking out from under it. I figured if you got one shorter you needed to get narrower. And I had a go-kart. Whatever you wanted to do with it – it would do it. I won 32 or 33 races that year on dirt.” There is an article in Charlie’s scrapbook from Anderson Speedway where they talk about Charlie not winning in the past year but with the new Pinto racecar his fortunes changed.
Charlie remembers it all very well. It was his time in the spotlight.