In Their Own Words - Buck Guilfoy

Born July 26, 1933 in Baltimore, Maryland, Buck Guilfoy's racing career started in 1949 at the young age of 15 and continued through 1974. His racing career included everything from midgets, to modifieds and late models, including participating in the early days of NASCAR Modifieds and Grand Nationals.

Anybody who is lucky enough to know "Bucky" will tell you this guy is one class act. He is truly a gentleman and a fine example of a genuine racer and a genuine human being. - DZ

TVR: Do you remember when and where you saw your first race?
Buck: Yeah... it was in Delaware and I was about 10 years old. It was a midget race... 10, 12 years old. That would have been... I was 15 when I started, so, it would have been '47? Something like that.

TVR: At what point did you know you wanted to become involved in racing and how did you accomplish that?
Buck: Immediately! <laughs> We played around with midgets for a while... for the first year. There was a guy named Norm Powell in Reisterstown, MD. It was #7-UP and I drove that for a few races. Then this guy, Tommy Merrikan, had one and I drove that for him a few races. Then umm... Lou Roschen, he had a four-cylinder Willys midget and I ran that for him, for the rest of the season.

Then I decided I wanted to build a stock car. That's when I built the #17, wire wheels and all. We went to Westport and ran it. I ran that the whole year. After that, I figured I had to learn how to build a race car, so that's when we started building the '37's and 38's and all. We built them and I started competing at Westport, Dorsey, Ritchie, Hagerstown, Marlboro and all these different tracks. Then about a year or so after that, I started going south, running down there. Down in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and all. We just ran all over the place down there... from one end to the other. Then we came back up here (MD & PA) and run a few races. Then we'd go back down there and run, you know, Virginia, Carolina and all.

Later on in my career, we went to Canada, to the Metrodome and we ran up there. That was about 1971, something like that. I was driving for a guy named Barney Hatchell. He had a Grand National. That was the same car that I ran at Bowling Green, the last race they ran up there. But, we campaigned that car for a couple years. Finally, he wanted me to go 100% racing with him and I didn't want to do it. It was getting too late, you know, I was starting to get to where I didn't want to go to that many races. So, he sold everything and I went back to my own car again. We started driving the #30A's, the '57 (Chevy's) and we ran them for, I don't know... 3, 4 years, 5 years. The maroon car that I got now, that's the one we finished up with at Lincoln and all with. That was about it.

TVR: Before you started racing, who were your favorite drivers?
Buck: Oh boy! I don't know. I really didn't have any favorites then, because the only thing I was worried about was getting in racing. <laughs>

TVR: Who were your biggest influences early in your career?
Buck: Well, Ray Kable, Bob Wallace, George Heffner... He owned the #88's over on Putty Hill Speed Shop and he give me a lot of help. Bob Wallace taught me a hell of a lot, believe me... about engines, about life and everything. He was a good teacher all the way around. Other than that, just what I picked up at the race track from other drivers.

TVR: Who were some of the guys you worked with during your career?
Buck: I use to go over and help Bobby Abel sometimes. Ray Cable, umm... There was a sprint car driver named Stew Stinchcomb that I use to fool around with sometimes. Later on, we got involved with the Goodies cars, you know, the race cars. Steve Barnes... I worked on his car with him. I helped Dick trickle a couple of times, umm... Patty Moise, who drove for Michael Waltrip, worked on her car a couple of times. Just different, whoever we could pick up with.

TVR: Who were some of the more talented car builders/mechanics of your during those days?
Buck: Boy, I'll tell you... with the bunch that I hung with, Bob Wallace was the best engine builder in the country. He was the best. Car builders? Well, Ray Cable... those guys taught me a a lot about racing and stuff. Frankie Schneider, the whole bunch of them. If I had a problem with my car, I'd go talk to them about it and they'd help me to get it straightened out. Different ones would tell you different things to try, you know, but some of them would tell you things it wasn't. But the guys I went and talked to mostly, helped me. That was Frankie Schneider, Ray Cable, Bob Wallace, George Heffner... any of those kind of guys I could go talk to.

TVR: Who do you think were closest competitors?
Buck: All of 'em! <laughs>

TVR: Who do you think were the most underrated drivers your ran against?
Buck: Oh... hmm. <long pause> There was some of them down here in Baltimore that was that way. Tommy Roden was one, I don't know if you ever heard of him or not. Umm... Jerry Shindler. They were good drivers, but just didn't have them money to put into the cars. Up at Lincoln... well, some of the guys that were good and they didn't have a whole lot to put into the cars. They worked and built their own cars and all, but Pete Kantorski, Ray Cable and those guys. They got credit for it, but not really what they should have gotten, for what they were driving. They drove the same thing I drove. They drove the big cars. Umm.. "Big Daddy" Vic Lewis, I don't know. I could probably sit here a while and think of a bunch of them.

TVR: Which track do you think was your best or favorite track?
Buck: I never had a problem with any of the tracks, except for one. That was Dorsey Speedway. I just could not get comfortable on Dorsey Speedway. Westport was what... a fifth of a mile? It was built around a ball diamond and I could go down there and run all night long... never had a problem. I just never could get comfortable on Dorsey Speedway for some reason or another. But every other track I ever run, if it was a half mile, three quarter mile, whatever, I never had no problem.

TVR: What was the most memorable or proudest moment of your career?
Buck: Well, it was a lot of them... But, the day I pulled onto Daytona Speedway in my car, that I built and ran around Daytona Speedway... the new one, the one that's running now, was one of the greatest times I ever had in a race car. When I pulled on the race track, cold chills actually ran up and down my spine... with the car that I had built, the car I drove and everything. That was one of the... my wife said all she could see under the helmet was grin from ear to ear. <laughs>

TVR: What was the most disappointing or hardest moment of your career?
Buck: <long pause> I don't know. Can think of some of them, but... <long pause> The night Johnny Roberts got killed. The night Bobby Hersh got hurt. They were always downers for me, you know.

TVR: What was the funniest moment of your career?
Buck: A lot of them was funny! <laughs hard> We use to pull little tricks, you know. We'd go to these tracks down south and what they were, they were just fairgrounds that NASCAR would, you know... they'd have horse races there one night and we'd run a couple nights later, after they got the track in shape.

We went in there one night, just looking for something to aggravate them with. On each side of the heads, there was a plug hole for the thermostats to go in. Well, we put plugs in there, with spark plugs in them. Then we'd run a spark plug wire down to the distributor. They couldn't figure it out! Them people down there went crazy trying to figure out what that spark plug wire was going down to the distributor for. <laughs> They were gonna disqualify us and everything else... they wasn't gonna let us run or anything 'cause we had those damn spark plug wires on there. We'd do different things like that, you know.

TVR: When did you first get involved with NASCAR?
Buck: The very first race with the #17. That was at Westport. That's when Bill France, Ed Otto and Bill Clagget would come into the racetrack and you'd sign in on the tailgate of their whatever it was... pie wagon or whatever you called them back the, those Chevrolets. That's were we would sign in. I think it cost us $2 for us to get into the pits. That was the first NASCAR I ever ran.

TVR: What divisions?
Buck: The Modified division mostly. Then I went into the Grand Nationals and I ran for Hatchell Plumbing and Heating.

TVR: Of all your competitors and associates (drivers, mechanics, etc), who were your closest friends?
Buck: Ray Cable... Bob Wallace, Johnny Roberts and Bobby Abel... See, in NASCAR, when you'd run with them, you didn't really... you had friends, but you didn't have really close friends. I'm talking about close friends, you know. I mean NASCAR, you'd be friends with the people, but it wasn't a family situation is what I'm trying to say I guess. There's a lot of other people, but I can't remember who they are all right now.

TVR: If you could pick a list of the greatest drivers ever (including yourself) from any point in history, from any venue in racing, and could magically bring them through a time machine to compete together in a race, who would they be and why?
Buck: A.J. Foyt, Tommy Hinnershitz, Ray Cable, Bobby Abel, Pete Kantorski, you know. A whole bunch of them. I, umm, and maybe this guy Rick Mandelson. I'd like to put him out again, you know. <laughs> Put him through the fence again. <laughs>

But... I'm gonna beat 'em all, you know. <grins> I never went to a racetrack, or went to a race, that I didn't think I could win. If I thought I couldn't win the race, I didn't go there. That's the reason why that at Darlington Speedway and all those (super) speedways, I couldn't run against the factory teams. I found that out really early, you know, running the Grand National. There's no sense going to a race knowing that you're not going to win before you even get there. You might luck one out once in a while, but that's all you're gonna do.

TVR: What changes do you think could, or should be made in racing today that would improve the sport most?
Buck: Not so much money. That would help out a whole lot. And, change of the rules they've got. NASCAR's got some idiotic rules. The biggest thing is money. There's just so much money that has to be spent and the little guy that could run, can't because he don't have the money to do it. I mean you're talking $25,000, $30,000 for an engine. Let's face it... Who in the heck can do that? There ain't too many people that can do that. And when they try building their own engines, they're just not competitive with these other engines. The biggest thing is money as far as I'm concerned.

TVR: What advice would you give to a young man or woman who was thinking about starting a career in racing?
Buck: Don't do it! <laughs>

TVR: When future generations find your name in the history books of racing, what is it about you and your racing career that you would most like to be remembered for?
Buck: Competing, being straight up with everybody about things. Not being a dirty driver. You know, I'd just like to be known for... that I competed and competed well... and did what I could to help to expand the sport and get it to where its at today, and where it will be at in the future.

When we started in racing, the very first race car I had... remember those cartridge belts they had in the Army? That was my safety belt. Didn't have no shoulder harnesses or nothing. That was unheard of back then. I had a tank helmet for a helmet and that's what we started racing with. As NASCAR went on, we had to change. We had to put in safety belts. We had 1" pipe for roll bars, black iron. As it went on, things changed, you know.

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