CC SPEEDWAY

[Poprivet]

Does anybody from CC remember a baby blue latemodel that raced in the early 80's.the guys # was 1.If you have any old CC Speedway photos it would be great if you could post them.

[Mel]

I believe you might be thinking of Lawrence Mikulencak.

I remember his car was #1 and blue when he started at CC.

[Poprivet]

I'm not sure .I was a little kid back the ,but i do remember Rick Rapp racing out there the Sullivan brothers,Nicky Hardcastle,Don Yocum,Larry Smith,Joey Heinamann.Just trying to see if anyone in the CC area has any pictures from the past of this storied speedway.

[fullview]

James Mikulencak drove the baby blue #1 camaro at CC.He won like 22 out of 23 feature races back in 79or 80 when the car was a dark blue with gold number 1. The following year is when he changed the body to the baby blue #1.Lawrence started in 79 at half season in the #17 camaro.The following year he won the hobby car championship.

[Flyin34]

Yep, that was James. I think I have some pictures of the car I can post. See if I can find them.

[supertx]

Does anybody from the CC area remember Rick Baldwin running a dodge I believe Rick got hurt in Michagan and later died from from the injurys.The last I heard someone in his family tryed to sue NASCAR.

[NeilTPS]

supertx

 

I knew Rick Baldwin when he ran in the Texas Race of Champions a few times. He moved up NASCAR and competed in 11 Winston Cup Series races from 1981 to 1986. During this period he won only $32,695.

 

He was seriously injured in a single car practice crash at Michigan International Speedway in 1986. I understand that for years he was cared for in a series of hospitals and nursing homes. No treatment was able to bring him back. NASCAR's insurance covered far less than his total medical expenses and eventually ran out.

 

He was in a vegetated state of coma for many years. I visited his room in Lutheran Hospital in San Antonio in the mid 90's. It was a pitiful sight to see him non-responsive, in bed, but with his eyes open.

 

He died sometime later in another facility. He was survived by his wife and 2 or 3 children.

 

His wife brought suit against NASCAR claiming that NASCAR was liable for the cause of his death. The jury trial case was heard in Corpus Christi. Among the expert witnesses called to testify for the defendant NASCAR were, Darryl Waltrip, Richard Childress, Ken Schrader and some high ranking NASCAR executives. The verdict by the Corpus Christi jury found NASCAR harmless and agreed with the NASCAR lawyers that the fault of the crash was "driver error".

 

Except for initial payments from the NASCAR insurance company, the Baldwin family bore sizable costs for almost all of Rick Baldwin's many years of medical care.

 

I heard that Rick was buried in Corpus Christi.

 

 

This post written by,

 

Neil Upchurch

[Flyin34]

I remember Rick's Grand National car on display in CC when it was Speedway Park. #04 or 84, not sure which.

 

It's a shame what Rick's family had to endure, much less dealing with the financial part of it. I think if a racetrack or organization such as NASCAR let's you run under their sanction, they should have the insurance to cover you no matter what happens. What, did they have their drivers sign a waiver stating "AT YOUR OWN RISK", I doubt it.

 

I bet at that day and age, if his name was Rick Petty, it wouldn't have been given a second thought.

[Mel]

I remember many years ago at CC Speedway. Back when Frank Hoch owned/operated the track. Rick had a red/white/blue dodge. Beautiful car and a very nice guy. Across the back was the musical passage:

 

 

"AFTERNOON DELIGHT"

[txtom]

My scanner is not very good, but here is a pic of Rick at San Antonio in 1979, with a USAC legal Chrysler kit car. The body looks like an Aspen.

 

The Cup Car that the Baldwins owned was #04, always a Chrysler or Dodge Body. While he had other Cup starts, they ran their family car a total of 6 times from 1982 to 1985.

[TheLegend96]

No disrespect meant at all and I do not have any knowledge of this incident, but..... I do not get on the track and I have medical insurance that covers anything, dental, vision, more than enough life insurance to pay off everything I owe and give my wife enough to live off for a long long time with out working. Even under outlandish conditions.

 

Why is it that people feel that Nascar or any other company should foot the bill for thier drivers? The driver "today" make a generous living in thier sport. Everyone is always finding reasons to get someone else to cover them due to poor planing. If you can not afford inscurance to take care of yourself much less racing then possibly one might be inclined to go towards thier second passion such as speed chess. Something that is a little less in the middle of things.

[Flyin34]

You are right Greg, a person should take the responsiblility to make sure they have their bases covered, especially if they intend to make a living in high risk activities. I know the risks involved, and I too have full insurance, and I and my family are taken care of should something happen.

 

I don't expect that a Saturday night operation have full coverage. I know they do good just to put on a show, much less pay for high coverage insurance. I'm sure a policy like that doesn't come cheap. I know CC has insurance, it may not be great, and they will fight you tooth and nail on it, but they have it. When you sign up they tell you that whatever they don't cover, you need to have your own secondary insurance.

 

Back then, Nascar drivers didn't make millions. Especially somebody like Rick who was just trying to get his foot in the door. But Nascar is and has been for many years, the big daddy of auto racing, and I think that with that they should take responsibility to cover a driver who races under their license. JMO

[REBELRACER]

most times a driver doesn't even think about things like life insurance or accidental death and dismemberment insurance until they need it, and by then it is too late.........

[oldguy]

Yes, The baby blue #1 was James Mikulencak and he won all those features while starting from the back as those days used a full invert. Those days were way before Nickie Hardcastle and Joey Heinaman. They did include Billy Hardcastle (Nick's dad) and Sonny Heinaman(Joey's dad). Rick Baldwin had already left CC speedway by then. James Mikulencak took that same car to Riverside Speedway and was a winner with it but not as dominate as that year at CC.

[Poprivet]

Does anyone have any pics?

[Mel]

Does anyone remember the winner of the "Bi-centenial 200" race that Frank Hoch promoted in 1976?

 

Hint: Was won by the first "Kit Car" in CC.

[fullview]

Lawrence Mikulencak's first year 1979 CC Speedway

[Pig]

That Lawrence Mikulencak must be pretty old!

[The Shrimp]

Has Lawrence ever had a car that looked good.

[fullview]

Check this one out.Lawrence ran this car in 1982 at CC after winning the hobby car championship in 81.Same car just with some new skin.He was second in the points championship that year.Bruce sanders won it in his #74 corvette super stock.

[fullview]

This car is also the same chassis with a slight wedge look to it.We built this car knowing that a dirt track was opening soon(Riverside Speedway).He raced a few weeks at CC then took it to Riverside for the first race there for 1000 to win.He was lapping the third place car with three laps to go when the ingnition wire was burned off by the header.We had to change the number to 47 because some hot shoe by the name of Tom Williams had the number 17.I believe he won the race but don't quote me on that.That is also when we learned that Dirt is the best to heck with the rest.

[Pig]

Check out the air cleaner!!