Ervin Carpenter  “Once it’s in your blood”
Recollections of a dirt track legend of the south.

Compiled by Charles Craig host of “Racing Around Carolina”
Gastonia,N.C.
March 14, 2009

I attended my first stock car race in the summer of 1962 at the legendary Robinwood Speedway in Gastonia,N.C. I was told all about it for weeks in advance by my buddy and his dad who new several of the drivers. I kept hearing about the super fast Fords of Bryant and Larry Wallace and the Justus Pontiac sponsored Chevrolet number 5 of Eddie Morgan from Rock Hill,S.C. He also said the most fun part of the night would be watching a red ’50 Chevy number J-2 from Rock Hill. He said these guys were the “main dogs” to watch along with Harold Dunaway son of Grand National star Glen Dunaway of Gastonia.

I can still smell the castor oil in the air that was either used as a fuel additive or in some cars was replacing the regular engine oil in the crankcase. (Eddie Morgan would tell me a few years later that they could run it in the engine and if it stayed together the oil would last the whole summer without being changed!).This great smell combined with the hot dogs and Cokes we had has stayed with me all these years. It only took that first Saturday night for this twelve year old to realize this was the most exciting and dangerous spectacle I had ever seen. If we could only have known at the time that these memories would stay with us and be something we would talk about and keep photo albums of for the rest of our lives.

There are probably eight or ten drivers that I have had special memories of all the years I have been involved in racing. I would never want to put any of them, (some are dear friends of mine to this day) in any order. Each one has something unique about their racing career. That first night I was exposed to the driver of the J-2 car owned by Jake Jacobs. It was driven by a fellow named Ervin Carpenter. The S&R Wrecker Service cars of Charlotte won that night but I’ll always remember the crowd reaction to this guy in the candy apple red J-2. He was the most intense person I had ever seen in the race car but at the same time smiled and seemed to enjoy the attention from the stands whether good or bad.

I think Ervin could be compared to the late Fireball Roberts in the fact that the race that night was, in his mind, the only thing in the world that mattered. When he was not in the car or after the race he always had a smile and time to stop and talk to kids like me. I watched him and followed his career for the next twenty three years. That first race was 46 years ago.

Ervin gave his heart and soul to our sport. He realized that was what it takes to be on top of whatever you decide to do. He came to see that taking sacrifices not only of himself but it also took a toll on his family as well. He has said many times that “once racing gets in your blood, it will never leave you peacefully but will be as addictive as any drug.”

Over the years when Ervin got in the car and put on his helmet, gloves, and belts I could see the intense concentration come over his face as he chewed his ever present cigar with a scowl on his face that looked as if he would bite it in two and spit it in your direction. Winning was the only race plan Ervin had as he took to the track every weekend. He was the type that if he crashed hard enough to totally destroy the car you would expect him to climb out and pick up the pieces of what was left and run on foot to the checkered flag. He could run with the best that have ever lived and a lot of times beat them without running over them to win.

As I sit in my office with him we are surrounded by hundreds of newspaper articles that document the accomplishments of this man who has won over 400 races in the last 50 years. He has been in almost every type of race car. He started out in the flathead coupes in 1950, saw action in Korea and came home to resume his place in the sport he loves. He moved his way through the ranks of Semi-modified sedans to the Late Model Sportsman cars on dirt and asphalt. He even dabbled with the Grand National circuit and secured a factory ride with the Chrysler team but circumstances came together that showed him it was not to be. Continuing where he had left off, he traveled and raced in any and all types of cars he could get his hands on. He was a star in the old GATOR big rig truck racing series on asphalt and finished his career in dirt sprint cars. He says these cars were the “most fun he ever had”, due to the fact he was just there to race and did not have to prove himself as he did when he was a young rookie.

As we talk I can see the old fire and passion for the sport come over his face as he answers the mountain of questions I have for him. He seems to relive each lap with such enthusiasm that I think we may need to look around for goggles. He has raced at over 83 different tracks and won at many that are now just a memory to all of us. Included is part of our 2009 conversation that lasted seven hours on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I am pleased to help him preserve a record of his accomplishments as “one of the best to ever grab a steering wheel”, and to call him my friend.

C.C.  Give us a starting point for your career.

E.C. “I got started in 1950 after seeing a few races and knew this is what I wanted to do. I worked days as a truck driver for Case Trucking and Ed Case had a ’37 Ford coupe that Possum Jones drove and I asked if I could tag along and we went to the old track at Midland,N.C. and Possum didn’t show up for some reason. I had lied about my age to Ed and was young and cocky and told him I could drive his race car if his driver didn’t show. When he asked if I really thought I could, I was bit. I got out and ran with the likes of Slab Widenhouse and Jimmy Thompson and it felt great to be able to go so fast and still be able to control the car.

Times were tough and the Korean war was on and I felt I needed to enlist in the army so I joined the 101st. Airborne and did a tour of Korea and was a soldier from 1953 till 1957. In 1957 when I got out I wanted to go racing again. Buddy Baker and I shared a ’37 Ford built by Ike Kiser and the Butlers. I next drove a coupe for Bill Sings who would later own cars for champion Bunk Moore. This was the first time I had been in a car with a full roll cage. We went to Robinwood in Gastonia for my first time and I finished between Bobby Isaac and Ned Setzer in my 40 Ford coupe that was pink and grey and called the Easter Egg. Next week we won at old Gaffney Speedway. 

In 1959 I ran Martinsville and finished 31st. I was driving Dr. Neal’s ’56 Ford and we would race Columbia Thursday, Southern States Fairgrounds in Charlotte on Friday, Greenville Pickens on Saturday, and Asheville Weaverville on Sunday. I was in the big time and was racing Rex White, Buck Baker, the Petty’s, Fireball, Tiny Lund, all the greats, but I was losing money. I still continued my job as a truck driver the whole time.

The S&R cars owned by Mr. Stokes and Reid Robinson came available and Bryant Wallace and I ran them as a team for 3 years. Bryant and I built all the cars and worked on them in our own time. Bryant was a front end mechanic at S&R Garage and we used their shop and equipment at night. We could go out on Friday and Saturday night and make $175.00 each for the two nights if we didn’t crash the car or hurt the motor. Reid Robinson was the best at making an engine live. People need to remember that if your job paid 50 or 75 dollars a week that was good money.

C.C. How long did the partnership last?

E.C. “Like I said, I think 3 years. I left as drivers will do and Larry Wallace who was no relation to Bryant, contrary to what the sports writers liked to think for publicity, took over the #41. I had the opportunity to drive the J-2 and the 6 for Bill Justus Pontiac in ’62 and ’63. The mid 60’s was a big change in racing as more cars started to run the small block Chevy instead of a 6 cylinder. This opened up the Sportsman class for the v8’s and the sixes were run as the semi-modifieds. At some tracks we all would run together.

Pete Taylor and Tommy Turner from Holman-Moody  and Bryant Wallace built a new late model in the mid sixties which was maybe the finest car I ever drove. Pete had been around for years and his dad was killed at Darlington on pit road in 1960 when ironically Bobby Johns driving the Justus Pontiac number 5 Grand National car was involved a crash near pit road.  Pete’s new car was just as clean and shiny underneath as it was on the top. It was Mustang poppy red and had 3-d blue lettering. The inside of the doors were covered with aluminum like a Grand National car and Pete would have a fit when I would spin into mud at the bottom of the track. We went all over to go jump some hot shot we would hear about in another state with say a 427 Fairlane or whatever just for the fun of it. Bryant and Pete had come up with a rear suspension that was trick and would allow the body to stay planted in the corners and the springs did all the work. That car handled like a Lexus on rails. I stayed a year with them and when Pete and I decided to part ways, I was replaced by Darlington Southern 500 winner Speedy Thompson.”

C.C. Wasn’t this about the time O.L. Nixon in Belmont was building his team?

E.C. “ Yea, O.L. had a money is no object dream team housed down the street from Belmont Abbey College. He had Jim Vandiver’s brother Tommy and Dana Warriax and some of the best help and equipment money could buy. All of the best drivers came and went through the doors at O.L’s.When I was there it was me and the great Lefty Bolton, Bunk Moore, Stick Elliott, and Jim Vandiver was driving O.L.’s Grand National car. Carl Smart, Freddie Smith, Chuck Piazza, and many more including Darrell Waltrip were there. Jim Vandiver won the ARCA race at Talladega and was a front runner with the winged car in Cup races. I fell out with O.L. as drivers will do and got hooked up with Arlie Linker and John Gaskey who was promoter at Concord. Dub Simpson also at this time had the beautiful “playing card #22” He got so mad at it at Concord one night he gave me the car and trailer to get it out of his sight.” (Ervin laughs because he and Dub are still close friends today.) “ I took it home and Jake Jacobs from the old J-2 days and I painted it burgundy and made it #41.I ran that dang thing one race and it was so bad I gave it back to Dub and John Gaskey. Just said, here take it back!

I next drove for Ken Parker in a Mustang and won a lot of races.This was the car I was driving in August of 1973 at Monroe Starlight Speedway when the beginning of the end was approaching. I was best friends with Dub Simpson and James Sears who everybody loved. I had started the main and James and I were running together and had moved up to about 6th. My fan belt came off and I parked my car and got in the back of James’s truck with his wife Jo Carol and my wife. James and Jimmy Trull were battling for 3rd and fourth with Dub leading. They came full bore down the front stretch with James barely getting the edge on Jimmy. As they got to the first turn, James right quarter and Jimmy’s left front touched and this sent James sideways at about 90. He hit the end of the guardrail at the front of the driver’s door and the car was cut half in two at the firewall. I mean it was completely gone from the windshield forward. In the confusion that followed, some of the lights were knocked down. Dub had no way of knowing what had happened and came back around and saw what had taken place at the end of the front stretch. He locked his Camaro down but was unable to stop in time and hit the rear of James’s Mustang and both cars exploded. Dub landed beside the guardrail and was able to dive out of the passenger’s window to the other side of the rail uninjured. James was in the shell of the car and roll cage which was completely engulfed in fie. I jumped off the back of James’s truck and ran to help. His wife Jo Carol was right behind me and I stopped her and my wife took hold of her. I got a few feet from the car and stopped because I could see it was no use. We had no fire truck at the track and everybody emptied there extinguishers on the flames. Some drivers including Howard Allred  through buckets of water on the fire in vain to try to save their friend and knew they could not but had to do all they could to stop the horror. It was a total of thirty minutes before fire crews arrived to put out the fire.

I went to the hospital and walked out of the emergency room for some air and to collect my thoughts when James’s brother “Big John” who was a Grand National regular drove into the parking lot and got out of his car and said “is he gone Ervin?” when I told him yes, he grabbed me with his huge hands and said “what am I going to tell Mama?” All I could say was “It’s over John.” I had been close to tragedy and death in Korea and on the race track but was never as physically depleted as when we lost our dear friend James”.

C.C. Ervin’s carnation from the funeral is still pressed into one of the pages of his scrapbook with many articles about James Sears’ life and death. He and Dub Simpson were pall bearers that day. James was only 32 and worked at the body shop of the Plymouth dealer in Charlotte. He roomed with Dub while he left his wife and family in Richmond County to build a new life for them here.

E.C. I came to realize what could happen. It was all over but the racing demon in my blood kept me going for a few more years. There were many of us who were close friends in racing who never had the desire again to do what we had always loved. I teamed up with car owner Steve Stevens in the purple #47 for a while and won a few races. Then it was back to Arlie Linker about 1976 or ’77. We ran the new Queen City Speedway in Charlotte out near the airport and won a few races. That stopped being fun and I took about a year off from racing to think it over and see what future held.

The early eighties brought about big rig truck racing and I gave that a try. 13500 lbs. at 158 miles per hour on a super speedway is ablast. I ran the old GATOR series then had by-pass surgery and lost sight in my right eye. I figured then I did not to be in these monsters any longer. I finally settled into a mini sprint car in the early nineties. This was actually the most fun I ever had racing because it was my golf game and I could race and have fun with no pressure. I have been out of the car now about as long a Richard Petty has”

“I’m glad that with the internet and people who love racing like I do that what all of us did in the early days will be preserved and shared for a long long time. I had a lot of fun and would do it all again. You know what I always say, “Once it’s in your blood”.