Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"What Could've Been: David Pearson and Halpern Racing"

Posted by nascarman on November 25, 2018

Viewed 6074 times Tweet In 1980, a man named Joel Halpern entered NASCAR with attractive tri-colored cars, first Oldsmobiles then Chevrolets. Donnie Allison drove the car in their debut event before Chuck Bown was given the ride. When Darrell Waltrip failed to qualify at Michigan in August 1980, his team rented Halpern's car for the race. Darrell led 67 laps and finished 4th, the best for a car owned by Halpern. After six races, the new owner looked to expand his program for 1981.



There are many things you can look back on and see their unfulfilled potential. The short-lived Halpern Racing is one of them.



This could've been a team that won a lot of races. This could've extended David Pearson's legendary career. A lot of money, a great driver, it should've been very successful. But instead, The Silver Fox's two months driving for Halpern in 1981 were lackluster and forgettable.





David Pearson and the Halpern Racing Chevrolet (Halpern Racing Post Card)





Who Was Joel Halpern?



The real estate market in New York was very good to Joel Halpern and his family. His father, Harry, amassed a fortune building dozens of apartments and office buildings after WWII. The Halperns even partnered with baseball icon, Jackie Robinson, to build affordable housing around New York City. In the 1970s, Joel became the President of Halpern Enterprises and grew the family investments. Their company built and rented office buildings north of Manhattan in Westchester County. At the time of his entry to NASCAR, Joel's company was also building a 550-room Marriott Hotel in Tarrytown, NY.



It seems unlikely that a New York real estate entrepreneur would be a racer, but Halpern loved it. He was a champion powerboat racer who won national titles in 1976 and 1977. As speeds on the water reached 100 mph, offshore racing got very dangerous. In 1980, Halpern was seriously injured in a crash off the coast of Freeport, Long Island. It was around this time where Joel started to enter NASCAR.





Joel Halpern (CBS Sports / 1981 Daytona 500)



Building Something Great



For 1981, Halpern wanted to run a part-time schedule in the Winston Cup Series and found the perfect driver. David Pearson had been a part-time driver since 1970 and had no interest in ever running full-time again. With 105 career wins, he was attractive to any owner, especially Halpern.



In October 1980, Pearson confirmed he was listening to the New Yorker. "We've talked a couple of times, and I like what I've heard," Pearson said. "From the way he talks it sounds like a fairly good deal. But there's nothing definite yet."



After weighing his options between going with Halpern and staying with Hoss Ellington, Pearson decided to join the new team. To lead the operation, they tried and failed to hire "Suitcase" Jake Elder as crew chief. Instead, Harold "Frog" Fagan assumed the position. Fagan was a tremendous fabricator and worked for Roger Penske, Rod Osterlund, and DiGard before joining Halpern.



"Harold Fagan runs the shop and he will be in charge," Pearson told the Herald-Journal in January 1981. "When Jake decided not to come with us as crew chief, they never really got anyone else. But Frog can do it. All we need is somebody that don't get excited under pressure."



Dale Earnhardt won the 1980 Winston Cup Championship driving for Rod Osterlund Racing and Halpern looked to create a partnership. He rented space from Osterlund in the team's shop and Pearson's cars were prepared nearby Earnhardts. Halpern was also able to get Earnhardt's engine builders to switch to his team: a trio of brothers, Herman, Keith, and Earl Almond. And reportedly, Pearson was getting paid quite handsomely. Overall, Halpern was said to have invested around $750,000 in his new team, perhaps one of the largest budgets for any team at the time.



With a set schedule of 15 races on tracks over a mile in length, Halpern was already counting the checkered flags.



"I really think (Pearson) can win four or five races out of the 15 we're going to enter," Halpern told the AP in December. "I would say we could win at either Daytona or Talladega, once at Darlington, once at Michigan and maybe once miscellaneously."



"We have assembled some very big talent, and we're going to give them the best equipment and give David a chance to drive over the tracks he can win on."









Standing Out, The Only One Wearing a Bowtie



In 1981, NASCAR downsized the race cars, shrinking from 115 inch wheelbases to 110. That year, a staggering 12 different models of cars were elligible to compete. Teams could run Buicks, Oldsmobiles, two different types of Chevrolets, two different types of Pontiacs, Chryslers, Dodges, two different Fords, and two different Mercurys. Most General Motors teams chose Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, and Buicks because of their sloped noses. Halpern Racing was the only team to run the Chevy Monte Carlo. Despite its sharp, vertical nose, Pearson thought the team got it to perform very well in winter testing.







"The Monte Carlo has surprised a lot of people," he said. "And I expect you might see a lot of people go to it after the race instead of sticking with Buicks and Pontiacs.



"I know my car has felt real good at 191 mph, but over that it still has a tendency to get a little loose. But we're happy. We have found some things that make the car feel better and this is the best I've felt in years going to Daytona.



"The best."





The Boxy Halpern Monte Carlo



Close Calls at Daytona



The 1981 Daytona 500 was known for the surprise Bobby Allison pulled. Like Pearson, he was the only one to have a certain model car. Allison showed up as the lone Pontiac LeMans and was instantly faster than everyone because of the Pontiac's rear window shape.



The Halpern Monte Carlo was reasonably close in speed to Allison's Pontiac. In a rain delayed qualifying session, the Silver Fox posted the fifth quickest speed, two mph slower than Allison. In the Busch Clash and Twin 125 qualifying race, the team finished fourth and fifth respectively.





Pearson talking with the crew at Daytona (Credit Unknown)



In the Daytona 500, Pearson hung around the top-five for most of the race. During green flag pit stops with about 60 laps to go, Pearson led the race for three laps. After a fast stop, Pearson rejoined the action in second place, right behind Allison. Unfortunately, the Halpern engine dropped a valve just laps later and ended their race. Despite the letdown, Pearson was happy the car performed as well as it did.



"(After the stop) I came out right in front by Bobby, I drafted him and passed him going down the backstretch," Pearson told CBS. "So that made me feel good, I know that at least I could've drafted by him and win the race"



The team's next race was Rockingham. The Monte Carlo blew an engine around halfway and failed to finish. Then at Atlanta, Pearson qualified sixth, led four laps early, and again blew an engine. Three races, three blown engines. If the power issues could be fixed, they expected the good results to come.





Pearson leads Earnhardt and Petty at Atlanta



Losing Halpern



After Atlanta, the Winston Cup schedule went to the short tracks of Bristol and North Wilkesboro. They were tracks that Halpern Racing planned to skip before returing at Darlington on April 12th.



With a little time away from NASCAR, Halpern made his powerboat driving return in a race on March 28th at Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. In a freak accident there at less than 40 mph, Halpern lost his life at the age of 42.



Prior to the race, Halpern's 38 foot Cougar catamaran was in the lake's warm up area. Nearby was a boat driven by Al Copeland. It was a tragic combination of Copeland applying the throttle and having the bow of the boat come up in the air at the same time Halpern turned his boat in Copeland's way. Neither one saw each other coming, but with Copeland accelerating, the bow of his boat climbed on top of Halpern's cockpit and landed on the New Yorker. Halpern died of massive head injuries shortly after the crash.



"The bad thing about it is that he was getting into stock cars so he could get out of racing boats," Pearson told the Herald Journal on the eve of Halpern's funeral. "He liked to got killed racing boats twice before. Once I told him he was crazy for doing it and he told me I was crazy for racing cars."



As Pearson and several other members of Halpern's team flew up to New York for the funeral, the future plans of racing were in doubt.



"I don't even know if we're running Darlington," Pearson said. "I have heard we are, but nobody on the team has told me. I expect we will hear something in New York but I don't know what will take place. Right now I just feel very bad about Joel dying. He was a good man and a good man to be around."



Shortly after the funeral, the executors of Halpern's estate told Pearson and Frog Fagan they wanted the team to continue as Joel would've wanted.



"They just told me not to worry and go looking for another ride," Pearson said. "As far as they knew, we would go on just like we always had."



So without their owner, Halpern Racing went to Darlington and finally got the results they were looking for. Pearson qualified 4th and finished 8th. While they didn't contend for the lead, at least they finished.



"We just didn't have quite enough to stay with them," Pearson said after the race. "But the car stuck together and that's something it hasn't done in the earlier races."





Pearson in the Halpern Car at Darlington



Locks on the Doors, Pearson on the Outside



The Halpern Racing team had a lot to be proud of after Darlington. They qualified well, the motor lasted the entire race, and David got a top-10. But despite the Monte Carlo's relative success, the team planned to switch to a Buick Regal in the three weeks before their next race at Talladega.



Then the doors were locked.



The executors of Halpern's estate decided they would evaluate the team's existence over the next two weeks. Fagan was ordered to put padlocks on the shop rented from Osterlund and leave everything where it was. Supposedly, they would reopen in two weeks, but that meant there was no way they could build a Buick for Talladega.



"All I know is they came in and paid everybody for two weeks and told them to take a vacation," Pearson said. "I do know if they stay closed two weeks there is no way we are going to run Talladega. We might could run the Monte Carlo if they decided to go ahead at the last minute, but if they stay closed, the Buick is out. I have been told two or three people are thinking of buying the team but there is no way of knowing that either.



"I understand they had to close up the shop to get things straightened out. That's the only way to go about it. The people handling the estate don't know anything about racing and I don't think they even like it. But I just don't know what they're going to do. Being honest, I don't see how they could go ahead and keep running. In my mind, you would at least have to know something about it to stay in it."



After two weeks, nothing happened. The doors stayed locked and nobody heard anything. But Pearson couldn't switch teams because he still had a contract to race for a team with no owner.



"I still don't know what they're going to do," Pearson said in May. "I'm sure they're going to sell the outfit but I've called twice and they still haven't gotten back to me."



Because Dover was never on his Halpern schedule, Pearson avoided contract issues and drove for Kenny Childers at the track in May. Stunningly, in his only race for the team, Pearson broke the track record and won the pole. After leading the first 41 laps, Pearson blew an engine and finished 25th.



As the summer of '81 progressed, no one bought the team and Pearson found nothing else. After driving the Southern 500 for Hoss Ellington, he ended the season with just 6 starts.





Aftermath



It could be argued that Pearson's career was never the same after the Halpern team. 46 years old in 1981, observers thought Pearson's career was on a downhill slope and strong rides weren't offered to him. In 1982, he drove for South Carolina businessman, Bobby Hawkins, whose Carolina Tool company sponsored the team. In the last five years of his career, Pearson won only three more poles and finished in the top-5 only three more times. After owning his own team for a few years, Pearson stepped out of the driver's seat in August 1986.



NASCAR in the 1980s could've been very different if Halpern lived. With his large budget and Pearson's skill, the team likely would've won races. But like many other things, this never had a chance to happen.







For More Stories on Short-Lived Teams:

Rock Racing: Dwayne Johnson and Hermie Sadler

Black Cat Racing

Hispanic Racing Team

Galaxy Motorsports

Bang! Racing



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