The Hugger Orange 54
Mike Head's famous Hugger Orange #54 at Atlanta's Lakewood Speedway in the late 1970s.
Two things that are associated with Mike Head and his career are orange cars and the number 54. Where did they come from?
“The first car I had was number 4 but when we went to the race track, there were several cars there with the same number,” Mike said. “So we put another 4 on it. Then I went by a shop in West End (south west Atlanta) that belonged to Jimmy Merck. At the time Bill Hogan was working for Jimmy. Bill began working on mine while I was running the Cadet class. So I used their number, and we called ourselves ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ from the TV show. And the orange is Hugger Orange from the 1969 Camaros. Chevrolet brought those cars out with that color and it just stuck with me.”
As the years went by Mike Head and his team of friends climbed the ladder since the old Hobby and Cadet days.
“I’ve won several $10,000-to-win races later in my career,” Head said. “Even won a $15,000-to-win race but we never got paid all the money. I guess this was around 1992 at Thunder Valley Speedway in Leesville, SC. The promoter told us drivers right before the race the best he could do was $7,000 to win. That was a hard pill to swallow. I went on and won the race, went to the payoff window, and he only gave me $5000. That did it. I went inside and told Lee I didn’t come here to be a $10,000 loser. I wanted my money or I was going to throw him through the window, and I wasn’t kidding. He had just paid off Stan Massey for second place, so he ran out the door, took the envelope out of Stan’s hand and grabbed a $1,000 and told him he made a mistake, came back in and handed it to me.
Mike Head behind the wheel at Rome Speedway.
“I raced against some real race drivers out there – Leon Sells, Charlie Mincey, Doug Kennimer, Dub Meeler. These guys were my heroes. I kinda patterned myself after ole Sells. He was one of those guys that could get the job done. I raced here and there – was wild as a buck Indian but was winning races. Real aggressive driving! You bend my quarter panel and I would knock your wheel off. That was my mentality. If you wanted to fight afterwards, we would. But if I had had some guidance I could have raced Winston Cup. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
“I am more politically correct now than I’ve ever been. But if you wanted someone that could talk good or somebody that’s pretty, I’m not your man. But if you want someone, who can drive your hot rod on Saturday night, stop by and get me because I can do that. I can always drive a race car. I’ve been everywhere racing. I started out on dirt but we did run at the Peach Bowl and in Byron at the Middle Georgia Raceway. I never did get into that pavement deal. I even ran the Snowball Derby in Pensacola but dirt is where I race. Wherever there was dirt and if I could get there, I would race. Leon Sells told me one time that I have calluses on my butt because I have traveled so much. I use to travel a lot more than I do now. I consciously work it so that I don’t race on Sundays. And when I am out of town racing, I try to get to a church there on Sunday.
“My wife Carol tells me ‘you are the busiest man I know to never to have any money.’ We met one night in the sixties when her car had a flat on Moreland Avenue. We drove by and one of the guys I was with dated one of the girls with Carol. So we turned around and went back and changed her tire. This was before I even started racing. We have three wonderful daughters and we had a son. The girls range from the oldest, which is Tammy then came Kim then Michael and Jamie. Tammy has 3 children named Paul, Nicholas and Jacklyn and Kim has Autumn and Austin. Michael had a daughter Kayla before his death. And my youngest, Jamie, had Joshua on Christmas Day.”