Volunteer Speedway will honor one of East Tennessee’s true racing legends on Friday, May 6 with running of the fifth annual Walter Ball Memorial.
“Fast Friday @ The Gap” will feature Steel Head Late Model (30 laps … $1,200-to-win), Sportsman Late Model (25 laps … $800-to-win), Modified Street (20 laps … $500-to-win), and Classic (15 laps) racing action.
The pit gate will open Friday, May 6 at 5 p.m. and the grandstand gate opens at 6 p.m.
The drivers’ meeting will be held in the backside pits at 7 p.m., with hot laps tentatively scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m., to be followed by qualifying and then green flag racing beginning around 8:45 p.m.
Adult grandstand admission on Friday, May 6 is $10, youth (ages 10-14) $5, with kids 9-and-under admitted free in the grandstands. Pit passes and backside tier-parking $25, regardless of age.
Walter Ball of Johnson City began his racing career in the mid-1950s. Strapped in behind the wheel of a race car, once the green flag dropped he had only one thing in mind — winning! And by the time he hung his helmet up for the final time following the 1978 racing season, he had recorded over 200 feature wins. Plus he captured track championships at the old Sportsman Speedway in Johnson City, Appalachian Speedway in Kingsport, Davy Crockett Raceway in Rogersville, Newport Raceway, Richlands (Va.) Raceway, and at Volunteer Speedway.
Besides racing on dirt at tracks all around East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky during his career, he also competed in some NASCAR sanctioned events on asphalt.
From 1968 through 1971, one of the biggest dirt races held in the Southeast was the Tri-Cities 200, a 200-lap Late Model event. During the four-year time span, the first three races in 1968, 1969 and 1970 were held at Sportsman Speedway in Johnson City, with the 1971 event staged at Kingsport’s Appalachian Speedway. Walter Ball won the inaugural Tri-Cities 200 in 1968 at Sportsman Speedway, and the 1971 running at Appalachian Speedway.
Ball was headed to an apparent victory in the first race ever run at Volunteer Speedway, but he was sent spinning between turns three and four on the white flag lap – thus giving the win to Danny Burks of Richlands, Va. But before his racing days were over, Ball captured several victories at “The Gap,” and one track championship, in 1977. He finished second in points the first two seasons the track was open, behind Herman Collins of Knoxville in 1975 and narrowly losing the 1976 title in the final race of the year to Dewey “Red” Ledford of Morristown by the slim margin of four points.
When you think of dominating performances in racing, Walter’s championship-winning campaign at Volunteer Speedway in 1977 most definitely defined the word “dominance!” Putting up numbers that have never been approached since, he recorded 19 feature wins in 21 starts. The talk in the pits and the stands each week prior to the night of racing was, “Do you reckon anybody will beat Walter Ball tonight?” Well, he only got beat two times the entire season. H.E. Vineyard, who is a four-time Volunteer Speedway champion, chased Ball to the checkers and finished in second-place on 15 occasions in 1977. The battles Ball and Vineyard staged between themselves, along with such other drivers as “Little” Bill Corum, Tootle Estes, Herman Goddard and Bill Morton, are legendary.
Walter Ball and his son Dale Ball, they hold the distinguished honor of being the only father-son racers to have been crowned Late Model champions at Volunteer Speedway. Walter captured his championship in 1977, while Dale won the 1999 Super Late Model title, plus Dale has Fastrak Racing Series-sanctioned Pro (Crate) Late Model championships in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012 – giving him a total of five titles. Dale and Vic Hill each have five Late Model championships, with Hill taking top honors in Super Late Model in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005 and 2009.
While Walter loved driving a race car, he got just as much pleasure once he hung his helmet up helping work on his son Dale’s race cars. Also heavily involved helping both Walter and Dale with their racing efforts was Walter’s brother, Robert Ball. Even though Robert is now in his 80s, he helps Dale and his racing teammate son-in-law Tim Maupin, work on the Alan Poyner Motorsports race cars back at the shop during the week.
On Saturday, March 18, 2006 – while in the infield pits at Volunteer Speedway watching Dale compete in the Super Late Model feature, on the day of his 70th birthday – Walter suffered a massive heart attack and passed away. But, with his love of racing for so many years, there’s no place Walter would have wanted to leave his life here on Earth than while at a night of good dirt-track racing – cheering Dale on hopefully to victory.
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