The 10th annual Victory Lane Racing Association will hold its 10th annual awards banquet on Tuesday night, February 17, 2015 at the Pelican Bay Country Club in Daytona Beach, FL and the late Dick Hutcherson will be honored, along with five other racing legends. Hutcherson will presented the Tim Flock Driver’s Award by former driver and close friend, Ken Ragan. Others being honored are: Curtis Turner, Mike Duvall, Sam Ard, Gene Stokes and Steve Waid. A meet and greet social hour will start at 6:00pm/et and the banquet will follow at 7:00pm/et. Tickets for the banquet may be purchased by contacting Gary Phillipson at 386-295-3487.
Hutcherson started his racing career in 1956. After returning home to Keokuk Iowa from Iceland, where he was stationed during the Korean War, he learned that his brothers-in-law were building a race car to compete at his hometown track, Keokuk Sportsman Park. They asked Hutch if he wanted to drive the car. He later made the comment that he just did it as a favor to them. He had never considered racing as a vocation. Before the war he had worked for his dad’s construction company and was an excellent carpenter. But the night he drove his first race at KSP he was hooked and knew he would be doing it on a regular basis! He raced jalopies for a couple years, winning on a regular basis.
In 1959, he started racing in the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA), and found success immediately, winning his first time out. In his five seasons in IMCA, he won 91 races and finished in the top three in points each season, reaching the very top his final two seasons, winning 60 races, (29 in 1963 and 31 in 1964), and the national points title both seasons. As if that wasn’t enough, Hutch was his own chief mechanic his whole IMCA career and in 64 won the prestigious P.A. Sturtevant Co. Master Mechanic of The Year award, THE TORQUE WRENCH! Ironically he went on to win that award again in 68 as crew chief for David Pearson as the team paired to win the NASCAR Grand National (now known as Sprint Cup) Championship. Hutch ran four NASCAR races in 1964, winning the pole in his very first start in the series at Greenville Pickens Speedway on March, 28th. He went on to win a second pole and have two top 5 finishes in only four starts that season. He then headed back to Iowa to successfully defend his ’63 IMCA National Championship.
In late ’64, Ford Motor Company invited Hutch to move down south and race NASCAR full time for the famed Holman-Moody organization. It was the opportunity he’d been waiting for, so in December of ’64 he packed his tool box, his pregnant wife, Betty, and headed south. His rookie season in NASCAR’s premiere series 1964 and what a season it was! He ran great right from the start of the season and found victory lane in the 10th race of the season on April 17th at a bullring in Hillsborough, N. C, a mere five days after his son, Ricky, was born. He went on to win nine races and captured nine pole positions and battled Ned Jarrett for the championship right down to the end of the season, settling for second place, by far the best rookie season ever in NASCAR.
Ironically Hutch didn’t win the Rookie of The Year honor because at the time, the rule book stated that any driver who had won a championship in any other series wasn’t eligible to run for rookie of award. Just imagine if that rule was still in effect, NASCAR wouldn’t be able to crown any rookies of the year because in order to make it to the top racing series drivers, have won championships somewhere along the way!
In 1966 Hutch was without factory backing because Ford boycotted NASCAR because of its new engine rules, so he only raced in 14 GN races. He did, however, drive a GT40 in the 24 Hours of LeMans for Ford and finished third overall in that event! What a long way he had come from a dirt racer in Iowa to race against world talent in the biggest sports car race in the world in France and showing them he was a real wheel man! Back in NASCAR he won two races in his shortened season! In ’67, he moved to Bondy Long’s team and won three more races including the 500 lapper at Bristol, Tenn. and the Dixie 500 in Atlanta.
His wife talked him into retiring at the end of the ’67 season because it terrified her every time he raced, afraid he was going to get seriously hurt or even worse. John Holman hated losing such a talent and told Hutch he would have a car if he changed his mind and wanted to continue racing. But he was committed to following his wife’s desires so he didn’t race again for many years. John Holman and Ralph Moody offered Hutch the General Managers position at Holman Moody and asked him to oversee the cars and be the crew chief for new hire David Pearson. The duo immediately found success winning in their fifth attempt, at Bristol Speedway. They won 16 times that season and capped it off with the championship! The team found more success the next year with 11 more wins and a second consecutive championship.
But he grew tired of the constant traveling and didn’t like being in the middle between Holman and Moody, so in 1970, he started putting things in place to open his own business. So in December of that year, he and good friend Eddie Pagan, also a former driver, broke from H-M and started building Hutcherson Pagan Enterprise Incorporated. Their goal was to build race cars, fix wrecks and sell parts. Within a few short years, because of their attention to detail and customer service, they rose to the top of their field where they remained until Hutch’s death in 2005! They built cars for Dale Earnhardt , A J Foyt, Darrell Waltrip and Harry Gant, just to name a few. In fact, when Earnhardt was giving his acceptance speech after winning his seventh Cup Championship, he thanked Hutch by name for helping him in his early years by extending him credit and continuing to work on his cars when he couldn’t afford to pay! Another example of what kind of man Hutch was! He built, and was crew chief for his brother, Ron as the duo paired to win three consecutive ARCA championships between 1972-1974.
He became great friends with Foyt through the years and built all of his USAC and NASCAR Stock Cars and acted as crew chief for him through the mid ’90’s. The pairing was very successful, winning the USAC stock car championship in back-to-back seasons in ’78 and ’79. Hutch and AJ remained close friends until Hutch passed away in 2005. It would be interesting to know just how many races were won in the cars he built over the years at HP. The number would be well over a hundred!(Victory Lane Racing Association)(1-6-2015)
