ORANGE SHOW SPEEDWAY PACE CAR PAYS TRIBUTE TO LEGENDARY CHAMPION IVAN BALDWIN

Source: Jim Short
Date: 09/22/2006

To quote major league baseball great Yogi Berra, a lot of long-time Orange Show Speedway fans and racers will experience “deja vu all over again” during Saturday’s (Sept. 23) stock car races.

Ivan Baldwin, a former Highland resident who began his career at the speedway and became one of the most successful drivers and car builders in the country, was killed in an automobile accident in North Carolina on Sept. 29, 1996, one month after celebrating his 50th birthday.

Saturdayt, in remembrance of the many-time track champion, the pace car for the races will be a meticulous replica of the 1965 Baldwin Engineering Chevelle in which Baldwin enjoyed enormous success in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The racing action will be provided by the ASA Super Late Models, Late Models, Pony Stocks, Sport Trucks, Mini-StocKars and the visiting Stock Car USA series. But the likely star of the 6:30 p.m. show will be the car – painted in Baldwin’s familiar blue-and-yellow colors with the number 07 on the doors – that is Don Bierma’s tribute to his long-time friend.

Bierma, of Yucaipa, said he purchased the car as a primer-painted shell and, guided by photos provided by Baldwin’s daughter, Tammy Baldwin Hart, has spent the past three years transforming it. The project, which had the blessing of Baldwin’s widow, Arlene, had its unveiling during a photo session at Orange Show Speedway July 21.

The 07 Chevelle will be pitted in Baldwin’s favorite spot, adjacent to the staging road outside Turn 3 throughout the day and following the racing program, when the pits are opened to the spectators.

Baldwin got his first career win at Orange Show on Sept. 29, 1968. He posted his final win on the quarter-mile paved oval in October, 1986. By then, he had established his reputation in the sport as a champion driver and crew chief. He won the NASCAR Winston West championship as the crew chief for Hershel McGriff in 1986 and pioneered the coil-over suspension that revolutionized the Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup) series. Along the way, Baldwin worked with drivers like Bill Elliott, Dave Marcis, Darrell Waltrip and Ernie Irvan and was instrumental in the career of Gary Nelson, a former Redlands resident who apprenticed with Baldwin, won Cup championships as the crew chief for Waltrip and became technical director of the Cup series.

Baldwin and Nelson were inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in July.

Bierma said a number of Inland Empire residents and businesses were instrumental in recreating the car, among them Troyce Gayle of Calimesa (engine), Russ Pennell of San Bernardino (transmission), Precision Tune and Prep of Fontana (fabrication), John Soares of San Bernardino (roll cage), Kenny Sapper of Speedway Engineering (rear end and suspension) and Mike Face of San Bernardino (paint).

For further information, call 909-888-6788, X438, or visit the speedway web site at www.nationalorangeshow.com/speedway.htm.

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