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Author Topic: Where are they now ?  (Read 17785 times)

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eightball

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« Last Edit: December 13, 2009, 06:06:46 AM by eightball »

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Where are they now ?
« on: December 12, 2009, 07:11:56 PM »

Offline zero

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Offline burbiotch

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Re: Where are they now ? Gary Balough , Salt Walther
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2009, 10:02:36 PM »
I'm not entirely sure who Salt Walther is, but I know Gary Balough was a guy out of Florida who used to buy brand new JR Hanley built cars on an annual basis. Had all the money in the world for the top of the line racing stuff, until Johnny Law caught on that it all came from drugs I do believe.

My story might have a few holes in it, since this stuff predates my birth by a decade or two haha.

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Re: Where are they now ? Gary Balough , Salt Walther
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2009, 10:02:36 PM »

Offline Shadowracer

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Re: Where are they now ? Gary Balough , Salt Walther
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2009, 05:16:16 AM »
Do a google search on Gary Balough. Yeah, he got busted in a pretty big drug thing. Got sentenced to thirty years.

Apparently his racecar was sometimes jammed full of weed and coke when he travelled.

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eightball

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Re: Where are they now ? Gary Balough , Salt Walther
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2009, 07:32:15 AM »
eightball,  explain??????

   I guess i did a poor job of setting that up for younger race fans .

 Gary Balough was one of the hottest drivers in America in the 70s and 80s . He was not only one of those guys that could drive anything but win in anything , dirt , asphalt , supers , mods and stock cars . Gary is best remembered for driving the Batmobile car in 1980 at Syracuse and being 2 seconds faster then anyone else . Gary had many Hanley cars that he won a ton of races in as burbiotch said . In 85 Gary had signed a deal for the 86 season with top cup team Harry Rainier and Robert Yates when he got busted for drug dealing with a group of other drivers and race people . Originally sentenced to 30 years it got it reduced and was out 4 years later . In 2004  he was rearrested when the Charlotte police found coke in his van . It cost him 6 years this time around but he will be out next spring .




 Salt Walther came on to the Indy scene in the early 70s from Unlimited Hydroplane boat racing  . His dad owned a big steel foundry in Ohio and they had FU money . Salt had the best Champ cars money could buy but never did much other then cause one of the Speedways most helacious crashes in 1973 .Walther was badly burnt a long with about 20 people in the grandstands .





 Salt got addicted to Diluddeds after receiving them for his severe burns and things pretty much spiraled down from there .

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« Last Edit: December 13, 2009, 08:15:54 AM by eightball »

Offline Lazerracer

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2009, 09:11:37 AM »
Here is a post I found.

Gary Balough

He will spend more time in prison than he spent in the Busch Series.

Balough, who competed in Busch in 1982 and '90, is serving a 30-year sentence in a Tallahassee, Fla., prison after being found guilty in a $300 million marijuana and cocaine smuggling operation.

   
Balough was one of five drivers indicted in the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Kritzer said in at least one instance a racecar was filled with smuggled marijuana, loaded aboard a trailer and towed across a state line.

The ring reportedly smuggled at least one million pounds of marijuana into the country each year after beginning its operation in 1976.

Balough's fourth-place finish in the inaugural Busch race was his only appearance in the series that year. He raced three times in 1990 with no top-10s.


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Offline Thayne

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2009, 11:26:35 AM »
You may see more of that if the economy doesn't pick up! Racing is expensive! haha

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Offline CanadianRacingOnline

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2009, 03:57:13 PM »
I like this topic maybe someone can post more where are these drivers now and yes there can be happy endings not all greats wind up in jail.

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Offline CanadianRacingOnline

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #8 on: December 13, 2009, 06:37:44 PM »
Canadian Racing Archive Project.
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Offline mike32

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #9 on: December 13, 2009, 10:11:18 PM »
two others involved with the Balough arrests were Billie Harvey and PeeWee Griffin. I remember Harvey having a multipage photo spread in SCR, bragging that he pretty well had one or two of everything-slm, mods, arca car etc. He was arrested pretty shortly afterwards. I used to see he and Balough picking up new cars and repaired cars in Oakville. Dick Anderson even used to buy Hanley equipment and I remember him showing up a regular night at Flammy (on his way home to Fla) with a new Oakville built camaro with an elevated roof acted more like a wing. They actually let him run like that!!

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Offline Racer43

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2009, 08:20:20 AM »
" I'd like to thank my car owner Mary Jane and my sponsor Coke or Cola."

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Offline Statsman

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #11 on: December 14, 2009, 12:40:02 PM »
two others involved with the Balough arrests were Billie Harvey and PeeWee Griffin. I remember Harvey having a multipage photo spread in SCR, bragging that he pretty well had one or two of everything-slm, mods, arca car etc. He was arrested pretty shortly afterwards. I used to see he and Balough picking up new cars and repaired cars in Oakville. Dick Anderson even used to buy Hanley equipment and I remember him showing up a regular night at Flammy (on his way home to Fla) with a new Oakville built camaro with an elevated roof acted more like a wing. They actually let him run like that!!

I'd heard that Jr. had a separate price list for those well-funded Florida guys.

Another series that had some drug offenders was IMSA in the mid-80s. Randy Lanier was the 1984 champion and 1986 Indy Rookie of the Year before going behind bars in a case that also took drivers Bill and Don Whittington with him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Lanier


Then there was the father and son team of John Paul Sr and John Paul Jr. who had their own drug and murder adventures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul,_Sr.
I didn't realize til I read the Wiki piece that Sr. got out and then disappeared.

Those GTP cars were pretty pricey to run :)



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eightball

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #12 on: December 14, 2009, 02:02:35 PM »
two others involved with the Balough arrests were Billie Harvey and PeeWee Griffin. I remember Harvey having a multipage photo spread in SCR, bragging that he pretty well had one or two of everything-slm, mods, arca car etc. He was arrested pretty shortly afterwards.

 I remember the day i saw that issue of SCR , i couldn't stop drooling
http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Billie_Harvey.htm

 That year at New Smyrna  Billie Harvey , Balough and Peewee had their own section of the pits fenced off . Inside their compound they had everything they owned chromed , actually i think they ran out of things to chrome and started chroming the chrome . They had more new Prototype and Baker engines in a separate trailer then some guys had tires.

 Billie and Peewee made out better then any of the others that were busted in that deal . Due to mistakes made by the Feds in charging Billie Harvey he beat all the serious charges on appeal but passed away 2 years a go i believe of a stroke.
 
Pee Wee got a relatively short stretch considering he was a major player and he was out of the joint by Nov 87 . Pee Wee laundered much of his drug money through Scotia Bank with no problems it turns out .
http://books.google.ca/books?id=-iuQQfh5zbYC&pg=PT175&lpg=PT175&dq=bruce+peewee+griffin&source=bl&ots=gEv7HqGE57&sig=g7myriAS9vJSixjpEdsYmiu_O-I&hl=en&ei=RfwlS-fjJoHDlAefstyKCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CB0Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=bruce%20peewee%20griffin&f=false
  

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larue

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2009, 06:38:27 PM »
Hmmm,Mr. Eightball...You seem to know ALot about this,hmmmm.Didnt you live in the states,back in those days???
Smoke and a pancake???lmao

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Offline Rob Howden

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Re: Where are they now ?
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2009, 11:35:04 AM »
While I was at the PRI show, I heard from a good source that Gary Balough is now out of jail.


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