Red Farmer Biography
One of the legendary original “Alabama Gang” Charles Lawrence “Red” Farmer was born on October 15, 1932 (his year of birth is uncertain) in Nashville, Tennessee, and moved to Miami, Florida with his mother in the middle of the decade. 1940’s after her parents estranged.
It wasn’t until 1958 that Red moved to Hueytown part-time with Bobbie and Donnie Allison, racing there during the summer months and returning in the winter with his family to work as an electrician. During this time, construction work was slow, and Red often had to support his wife, children, and mother-in-law with unemployment money. Finally, in 1962 Red took his family to live in Hueytown, Alabama and they settled there, considering it his hometown.
His first race was in 1948 at Opa-locka Speedway in Florida, driving an old 1934 Ford Coupe for a friend’s father. He won his first prize money of around $300 at Dixie Speedway in Midfield in a 1936 hit and the next day won again at the show in Montgomery, giving him around $600, giving him more money than he had ever had. in a while.
After moving to Hueytown, Red continued to work as an electrician until, after a few years, he quit to focus on racing full time, beginning an incredible journey for the next sixty years. Ray has amassed an incredible estimated 700 to 900 dirt, asphalt and superspeedway victories, winning the NASCAR Modified championship in 1956 and then taking three Late Model Sportsman (now Busch Series) titles in 1967-70-71. He was voted NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver four times and has been inducted into the Talladega/Texaco Walk of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame, and the Alabama Hall of Fame. the Fame of International Motorsports.
Farmer is the 1999 recipient of the Alabama Governor’s Award, given annually to an individual or organization for their contribution to auto racing. Perhaps the most prestigious award Farmer has won was being named in 2000 as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers of All Time.
He has been married to his wife Joan for over 55 years and has three children, two daughters, Cindy and Bonnie, and a son, Michael. He also has nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Red is still active as a NASCAR racing driver and regularly competes at Talladega Short Track and also works as a consultant with the ARCA team.
Alabama Gang legend Red Farmer will be honored at the track where he still races at 77 years of age. It has been announced that the Talladega Short Track will host the Red Farmer Classic on May 15, 2011 at the Eastaboga dirt track across from the Talladega Super. -Speedway. In honor of Red’s number 97, the super late-model race will be 97 laps and pay $9,700 to win. Red responded to this honor by saying, “To have a race named after him ‘is quite an honor, especially since they want to do it every year'” when asked during an interview for Stock Car Magazine. When asked if any tracks stood out as your favorite Red responded;
“Any track I win at is my favorite. But I guess Daytona and Talladega were two of my favorite tracks. That’s unusual for a short-track driver. Of course, I loved Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery, tracks we raced at on Thursday, Friday and Saturday”. for 20 years. We were racing Huntsville on Thursday night, Birmingham on Friday night and Montgomery on Saturday night. Then we were going to look for a great career somewhere. Sometimes we’d go as far as Manassas, Virginia, and race on Sunday, or somewhere in Tennessee. We ran four nights a week many times. Basically, I’ve always been a short-track driver, but I like Daytona and Talladega. I like super speeds.”
They asked him if he preferred dirt or asphalt tracks and he answered;
“Nothing but dirt. That’s something I really enjoy the most. It’s much more fun. I have two dirt cars, Super Late Model dirt cars, right now. I have a GRT and a CJ Rayburn chassis. I’m building a new engine for next year. I will start my 58th year in 2006. My grandson has a car. We are building you a box engine class to start running. I don’t even care about short track asphalt racing anymore. For me it’s boring compared to a good gravel race. You’re going to watch a World of Outlaws Super Late Model race with Scott Bloomquist, Billy Moyer, Rick Eckerd, Darrell Lanigan and Dale McDowell and those guys race on a half mile dirt track and you’ll never see another asphalt race again. . You see those guys put on a show and that’s what I really enjoy. I love dirt tracks sideways, sideways, running uphill and it’s so much more fun for me to run than asphalt. On tarmac you can set up a car and come back the following year and never have to change it. It’s the same every week. But you go to a dirt track and you have to work on it all the time. One time it’s wet, other times it’s dry and slippery, other times it’s black and you have to work continuously all night to keep up. It’s much more interesting to me.“