Goodwin News

Still going strong after 599 victories

06/18/99

The Birmingham News

Clyde Bolton

After Jerry Goodwin won the feature at Talladega Short Track the last two Saturday nights, he reckoned he had discovered an omen. So he decided to try his luck at another type of racing.

"My dirt car is 5 years old," he said, "probably the oldest one out there. I'm 55 years old.

"So I went to the dog track and bet $55 on the 5 dog in the fifth race."

And?

"He ran fifth."

If Goodwin can run first in TST's biggest race of the season, Saturday night's Talladega 100, an event on the Southern All Star tour, he will win $10,000. That spends at the grocery store, but he will earn something important in the satisfaction department, too. His next victory will be the 600th of his career.

"This is my 31st year in racing," the Leeds resident said. "I started at BIR in Limited Sportsman. I watched Red Farmer and Friday Hassler go around every Friday night, and it got me so enthused that I had to do it."

No one has ever questioned Jerry Goodwin's love of racing.

In September 1978, his car became a fireball when he crashed at Montgomery. His hands, arms and face were burned. He spent 4� months in the hospital. He was dismissed in January 1979. In February, he was racing again.

"Quitting never entered my mind," Goodwin said. "I couldn't wait to get back."

He won't speak harshly of the sport. "Racing got me hurt," Goodwin said, "but going back to racing helped me get the flexibility back in my hands and arms. I probably wouldn't have gotten it if I hadn't gone back."

He explained: "My elbows, wrists and fingers were locked when I came out of the hospital. I'd drive by palming the steering wheel. But if there was a wreck or something ahead of me I'd have to grab the wheel, and because of the adrenaline it wouldn't hurt. I'd make them move whether they wanted to or not."

Goodwin is on a tear at TST. "I won Saturday night, and I won the week before," he said. "I ran second in a Southern All Star race there about a month ago. I thought I was going to win it, too, but I ran out of laps."

The Southern All Star tour will bring top drivers from five or six states to TST. Merely qualifying will be difficult. At this event last year, 48 drivers fought for 24 starting spots. But I'll pick Jerry Goodwin to win the race.

"The car is hooked up, and the track suits my driving style," he said. "Sometimes there are three grooves at that track. It makes it exciting for the drivers and for the fans."

The two-day meet begins tonight with qualifying races for the Late Models and support divisions. Saturday's program will include the 100-lapper for Late Models and features for the other divisions. Racing will start at 8 each night.

Goodwin owns Capitol Container, a box plant, in Montgomery, but he not only finds time for dirt racing, he's about to resume asphalt campaigning, too. Beginning next Friday night he will start driving weekly at Birmingham International Raceway.

But isn't mixing dirt and asphalt tough?

"It isn't for me," Goodwin said, "but I've noticed a lot of drivers have trouble with it. You sling it through the corners on dirt, but you can't sling it on asphalt. You have to keep the back end behind you. I don't have a preference. I just like competition, seeing if I can beat somebody."

In 599 races he beat everybody.

Only once did he think of death

07/03/80

Birmingham Post-Herald

Bill Lumpkin

Only once did Jerry Goodwin think about death, and then only briefly.

"I said to myself that I wasn't going to get out," Goodwin was remembering.

The odds were that he wouldn't.

Goodwin was trapped inside a burning hell.

"But I decided I had to get out.  I hadn't said all the things I wanted to say and I hadn't seen all the people I wanted to see."

The stock car he was in had been tapped from behind in a heat race at Montgomery International speedway.  It spun backward and slammed into the guard rail.   The fuel cell exploded.

As the vehicle started spinning back on to the track, sparks from the dragging sheet metal ignited the gasoline.

"There was an explosion and gas went everywhere, inside and outside.   It was like being in a furnace.  The flames were roaring like they were being blown by a fan."

His pit crew started running toward the accident, saw the intensity of the fire and stopped.

It was too late, they thought.  There was nothing they could do.

Goodwin's daughter Tracy, who was 12 at the time, was so scared that she ran under the grandstand and hid.

"I tried to get the window net down but I couldn't.  It was too hot.  That's when I thought that I wasn't going to make it.

"But I finally got determined and I broke the rod that held the net.   I tried to dive out backward and my belt caught on the top of the window.  My head was out and my legs were inside.

"I sat up and put my hands on top of the car to push off.  When I did, I looked down and there was the skin off all my fingers and hands still on the car.

"I said, and this is exactly what I said, good-bye.  I was going to leave part of myself there.

"Probably what saved me was I knew to hold my breath.  I don't know why.  I just thought about it.  A little voice inside said 'flame inhalation.'

"I wasn't burned on the inside.

"Fire was all around the car.  My goggles had started melting.   I closed my eyes and put both arms up to protect them.  I had to run 30 or 40 feet to get out of the flames."

Damage to the body was severe, third degree burns over 25 per cent.   The face, neck, shoulder and arms were bandaged.

"Doctors didn't think I was going to make it for 10 days."

The accident that was near fatal to one of Alabama's up-and-coming drivers occurred September 9, 1978.

There have been five skin grafts and $78,000 in hospital bills.   Operations are still needed on six knuckles.

"Track insurance paid about 75 per cent.  I'm still paying off the rest.  I was in the hospital 12 weeks.

"The whole time I was in bed, it never entered my mind that I wouldn't drive again.  I think that was the driving force that gave me the initiative and determination to get well."

Five months and a day later, Goodwin was in Daytona, racing his dirt track car at Volusia Speedway.

"The skin grafts still hadn't healed.  You could see the blood running out through the gauze.  I raced five straight days and finished third overall.

"I was real glad to be back in a race car.  I think my wife was just as excited as I was.

"I have been in several accidents since.  I have never thought about the bad one.  It has never flashed through my mind.  If it did, I've got no business out there.

"Exactly one year and three days after the fire, I was racing at Montgomery again.  I hit some oil, spun, and went into the guard rail and ended up on the outside of the track.

"There was no fire.  I didn't even think about it.  I did get even with the guard rail."

The year after was not exceptionally productive for a happy-go-lucky driver who lives with an obsessive devotion to win races.

"I didn't do very good.  I won a race on dirt at Talladega.   I didn't win any on asphalt.  I didn't have the equipment and, too, I wasn't in any condition to be competitive.

"I've got the greatest sponsors in the world, Noland and Diane Stephenson, who own Eastern Tire Distributors.  They really stood behind me.   They told me to come back.  Some others didn't."

The biggest checkered flags Goodwin has ever had waved at his car were in the Cajun 100, 125 and 150 at Baton Rouge and the $1,000-plus he pocketed for winning twin 50-lappers at Jackson, Miss.

The lure of fast cars and round tracks got in the way of a college education at Alabama after 2 1/2 years with the books.  He was 22.

"The first race I won was at Albertville Speedway.  That was the best feeling in the world.  It still feels just as good.  I almost bust every time."

Age is beginning to creep up.  After standing pat at 31 for several years, he now admits to being 35.

"The Grand National is where I want to be.  I'm going to make it.  I held at 31 for several years.  That's the magic number in NASCAR.   They like to get a guy who's 31 and has 10 or 11 years of experience.

"The only way to get a Grand National ride at 21 is to have a rich daddy."

Goodwin says this is his comeback year.  He races a '77 Camaro regularly thrice weekly, at BIR on Friday, the Talladega short track on Saturday, Rome, G., on Sunday and long races wherever.

He has four victories on his log at BIR this year and leads in the point standings.

"BIR is harder to win on than any other track."

He'll be in the lineup tomorrow night when BIR holds its Mid-Season Championship, which will include a 50-lap feature for modified sportsman's, a 15-lap main event for limited sportsman's, a 10-lap bomber race and a fireworks display.

"I'll skip the fireworks.  I've had mine."