I spoke with Mike briefly about his plans for me, he was rattled at best he looked at me and said the Pontiac 2+2 had an issue with parts, Bouchard and Valvoline was coming, everything in the team was changing, he said please concentrate on paint. Berry Owen and Jeff Rapp was trying to acclimate themselves to the 2+2, the 009 car had the first kit on it, technically the interior was still Petty blue. The Daytona Car was the 007 car, had a ton of the King’s chrome parts, heavy car, the rules dropped the overall weight to 3500lbs, I didn’t see one effort to lighten it. 007 had a crazy bastard front clip, the roof was lowered in the rear, 1.5” off the template, nose height lowered 1”, rear of hood flattened 2”, and windshield angle laid back, The King could get this through inspection, Ron Bouchard not a chance. The fleet was random as a herd of fox squirrels, everyone different, only one not a hybrid of some kind. Beam only had real faith in one car the new Laughlin front steer 009 and a straight up Hutch rear steer 005. I was instructed to paint and decal them as they landed, grabber blue inside to hide the Petty Blue, Valvoline colors outside.
As January rolled around, Curb made a deal with Dale Jarrett, we had 3 cars in the house on top of the Winston Cup cars. We jumped in on Jarrett’s Busch ride still using 311 cu in V8’s, we updated the nose to a Ventura, and Bhagwan Barry Owen started to take advantage the lax Busch series rules. Everybody was thrashing the Jarrett deal added to the mix, they had a Banjo rear steer speedway car, a new Rick Townsend intermediate Grand Am, with no body, a used Townsend short track Grand Am bought from Tommy Ellis. The cheeses were all chasing sponsor money, the Jarrett ride was going to Daytona with Busch on the hood a go to of their family for years.
In the only team meeting in 1986 that I ever attended with Mike Curb, Ron Bouchard, Rich leader of the Curb Racing, the Jarrett’s/ Icenhower’s all together in one room was in Kannapolis, Curb outlined the Valvoline deal, $1,000,000 which included a driver guarantee of a minimum of $300,000, all based on 50% winnings, $300,000 administrative stipend to Curb Racing for running the business. That left Mike Beam with $400,000 plus winnings to run a team. Valvoline later verified that their contract with Curb included dollar for dollar matching with Mike Curb. We were learning quickly how politicians did math. When Curb made a deal with Dale Jarrett, there was an understanding of some sponsor income, both sides thought the other had the sponsor commitment of course. It was limited at best based on the promises made from Curb organization to Jarrett’s. Mike Beam got his first taste of selling his soul and he had never been to Mississippi.
In Daytona, Valvoline brought a program to NASCAR at the end of the day, word was Nationwise Auto Parts stepped up to sponsor NASCAR as a blanket sponsor with $500000, $400000 to Lake Speed, $100000 to Curb for Jarrett.
By March 1st my team that included Todd Gantt and Steve Crowe Jr both 16, had painted and decaled 4 cup cars and the Busch speedway car for Daytona, after Daytona the speedway Busch car was painted to the Nationwise colors for Rockingham, and the short track ride was painted for Hickory& Martinsville in March. Darlington was the first scheduled week for the new Townsend car. I was pulled from the body shop to help finish the fabrication on the new car. For 1986 Mike Beam’s goal was to go a standard chassis, Curb purchased a new Laughlin chassis end of 1985, converted a rear steer car to a front steer by changing the clip, the clip was a new generation drop snout geometry. Ron Bouchard really wanted the new generation clip we took both cars to Atlanta to test, 009 a proven car and 005 a converted Petty dinosaur. Bouchard couldn’t tell the difference, the 009 conventional clip car was more consistent, Bouchard was a Laughlin disciple and convinced the dropped snout was by far the better choice, the stopwatch didn’t tell that tale. After the test Mike Beam told us to prep 009 for Rockingham, Kelly Hunt, Steve Wilson, Scott Beam, disassembled and reassembled the car for Rockingham, just like the last Atlanta race of 1985. We got to the track unloaded, done the inspection dance, and rolled out on pit road for practice. Ron Bouchard flew in, walked up to the car and asked which car it was, we told him 009, he said that is not the car he wanted. After dragging around ½ way thru practice to get in car he made about 5 laps and declared a vibration we chased until he parked the car 140 laps into the race, finishing 40th he told the press we lost a clutch he thought. Mike Beam left the team shortly after. Curb’s management crowd went into damage mode, the team scattered, many felt that this was an opportunity to move up the ladder, Jerry Surgeon Curb’s business manager felt Bhagwan Barry Owen was a wizard, he got the nod. With Barry going from body builder/ chassis repair, to being crowned fearless leader, he expected me to take over. The addition of Carlise Johnson as a fabricator, in the spring had the Jarrett crowd’s program under control, but the funding for the Busch deal was challenged. Technically, the Icenhower’s owned the cars, the Ruggles engine deal was random for Pontiacs, but Curb promised a manufacturer change in 1987. The loss of Mike Beam and associated members challenged the direction of the team. Mike and Scott were now prepping Randy Hopes car for Road Atlanta at David Ifft’s shop. David was building a Howe car for Lee Raymond and needed the floor and firewalls in it, nobody would do it. Scott told David I would do it. With the cars at Curb pretty much in place, I took a few days to help, Barry heard and pushed me to work in the shop while the road boys were at the track. The Bouchard deal was blowing up, many pushed putting Dale in the car, Valvoline was married to the original deal that was a matching dollar for dollar deal not a politician’s your dollar/my dollar equivalency. Tim Sullivan was involved but not involved in the Nationwise deal with Dale Jarrett and Lake Speed, but totally managed every dollar of the Valvoline deal heard from the Rahilly 75 team that they could land Neil Bonnett, we had one race left and that rabbit sprinted for 1987. The disagreement with Barry was enough for me, my reputation as a painter/ finish fabricator was enough to stay busy, and the plan was in motion to build a shop at my place in China Grove. We had our first Buick LeSabre primed ready to assemble, I told Carlise Johnson I would come back when Barry was gone, his days were numbered at best. I got wind that Randy Baker had a fleet he needed help with I went over to check that out.