David Gauldin stands in front of his three-carburetor, six-cylinder Ford race car he ran at Sportsman's Speedway in the 1960s. (Contributed photo) [Click to enlarge]

David Gauldin was once a thriving claim car driver at Sportsman's Speedway, where he and his best friend, A.J. Utlaut, battled hard on the track with no mercy.

Gauldin's occupation for many years of his life was a plumber. While he was working, he met Floyd Rhodes, who was a carpenter. Rhodes owned a car that was being driven by Bob Mikels. Rhodes said he would build a second car for Gauldin to drive.

Gauldin went out in the next few days and bought a Cromwell crash helmet. He said he didn't realize Rhodes did not mean the car would be ready in the next few months.

"Floyd never did get the second car built," he said.

Gauldin had just partnered with his dad in the plumbing business.

"Dad found out (about me wanting to race) and went ballistic," he said.

Raymond "Van" Howery came across a 1932 Model B Ford that was rebuilt. Actually, Ray's brother owned the car.

Howery, David and David's brother, Charlie, partnered together and bought the car for $200. They converted the car into a racer with hydraulic brakes.

"It was a nice little hot rod," he said. "It was a crying shame what we did to that car. It had red leather interior. We stripped it all out and put roll bars in it."

"That was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life," Gauldin said about the destruction of the Model B Ford.

Howery later left the partnership.

"We never could decide the number (for the car)," Gauldin said. The Gauldin brothers just taped an X on the car with masking tape during the first race. "We ended up with that number."

While the car was being readied for racing, Gauldin's dad was on a two-week fishing trip.

"He came home and found out," he said. "I knew he wasn't going to fire me because he would have to do all the work himself. It was a feud with dad the entire time (I raced)."

For quite some time the Gauldin brother switched drivers every other week.

Gauldin said his two main pitman were Lamar Hains and Rodger Shroeder. "They were the best," he said.

Gauldin went from driving the claimer class to a B-modified, which was just basically a name change with a few rule changes.

"It was a big class," Gauldin said about the B-modifieds. "We put on some good races and had some good cars."

In the B-modified class, a driver could race a six-cylinder engine in any form or a V-8 with only one carburetor.

"We got all our parts from Ray Dennis at 65 Auto Salvage," he said. Dennis approached the brothers and told them he had a 1955 six-cylinder Ford engine and they could have it for $75 dollars.

Prior to owning the '55 Ford engine, the boys tried running V-8 motors.

"We went through two of them," he said. They decided to go back to their six-cylinder motors.

"We will make it run or break Wood & Huston Bank," he said, with a big grin on his face.

"They made it run," said Utlaut, friend and fellow competitor. "No other could make a six-cylinder run like that."

"I did not run to win," he said. "I ran to beat a Chevy." Gauldin is a Ford person all the way.

The Gauldin brothers ran the six-cylinder motor with three carburetors.

"There was a plate under the third carburetor," he said. "It just made it look mean."

Gauldin enjoyed racing in a different way than others. As most raced to win, he raced to beat a GM product. His favorite thing about racing was "outrunning anybody in front of me."

Gauldin said, "The biggest thing of racing was to take a pile of iron, put it together then go out there and try to tear it up and make it run." Actually, "building something and watching it work."

Gauldin said he held the Marshall track record until Donnie Cooper broke it several years later.

"He came up to me and asked me, 'How in the world did you get that six around there? I am trying it with a V-8,'" Gauldin said. "He finally did it with that V-8 Chevy."

Gauldin decided to step out of the racing circuit for his family.

Betsy Gauldin, David's wife, said, "I was one of few women who had a carburetor on my table all the time."

"So things tasted a little bit like gasoline," Gauldin said with the biggest grin he could muster.

A little fact that many may not know -- Gauldin was senior class president and student body president in 1951 at Marshall High School.

He even lettered in leadership twice.

Contact Rachel Harper at

marshallcity@socket.net