Museum gets Martin’s
first car — sort of
BY STEVE ROGERS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
More than 30 years ago, 15-year-old Mark Martin rolled onto a racetrack for the first time. On Thursday, the car he drove that day — or at least a close facsimile of it — rolled into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame museum.
Martin, of Batesville, went on to become one of NASCAR’s biggest stars. But his career began in April 1974 on the dirt track at Independence County Speedway near Batesville, driving a bright orange, 1955 Chevrolet built by his father, Julian, Larry Shaw and Troy Lynn Jeffrey. Restoring Martin’s first car for the museum was chiefly Shaw’s job, along with his employees at Larry Shaw Race Cars in Batesville. Shaw said he wanted to reproduce the car exactly as the original, and its driver was impressed with the results.
“It blew Mark away,” Shaw said, referring to Martin, who was out of state Thursday. “We put a lot of time and effort into it, and it turned out really, really nice.”
Martin raced the car in the six-cylinder class in 1974 and 1975 at several tracks around the state. He won the six-cylinder state championship in 1974 at what is now I-30 Speedway in Little Rock. In 1974-1975, he won 13 consecutive feature races at I-30, which is still a track record.
Typically, dirt cars are pretty well used up after two seasons on the track. Presumably, the car then was taken to the salvage yard. Finding original parts from the car or even parts from the era was next to impossible, Shaw said. But there was an extensive search and some outdated parts, like the wheels, were specially made for the museum piece.
“Not too many parts of the original car were still around,” Shaw said. “And when you were able to find a piece, the person usually knew what it was and didn’t want to let it go.”
Shaw and his crew made sure to reproduce the car’s original lettering and painting. The chief oddity of the car was that it was center-steer, meaning the driver sat in the middle of the car rather than to one side.
“I think Mark’s mom had more to do with that than anyone,” Shaw said. “She was worried about his safety more than anything, and it seemed like to us that he would be safer sitting in the middle of the car.”
While the car seemed to be a perfect fit for the museum, it barely fit into the museum. In order to get the car into the main showroom, two sets of glass doors and two water fountains had to be removed. Shaw and about six others helped push and slide the car into the building, with just inches to spare at several points.
Ray Tucker, the executive director for the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, said the car will be one of the main draws for the museum, which is scheduled to open in April.
“And it will be a permanent exhibit,” Tucker said, laughing. “With the fun we had getting it in here, we’ll all probably be long gone and that car will still be here.”
