In respect for the Billie Harvey Memorial Late Model race being run this weekend at Auburndale, and in cooperation, we are canceling the Late Models from the schedule at Citrus this weekend. We will look for a possible make up date and announce later. The Sportsman 50 will be the headline event for this Saturday night, along with Street-stocks, Mini-stocks, Hornet Pro and Hornet Rookies. A race day schedule will be out later this evening. Thank you !
For that show…I’ll set the over/under at 38 cars total in the pits, post your guess!
Wasn’t Billie Harvey convicted of major drug smuggling? I mean major…
I don’t understand a memorial race for this type of individual/criminal??? Respect???
What did I miss?
When you figure it out please explain it to me.
Feeling generous are we?
[QUOTE=Groundpounder;143947]Wasn’t Billie Harvey convicted of major drug smuggling? I mean major…
I don’t understand a memorial race for this type of individual/criminal??? Respect???
What did I miss?[/QUOTE]
Yep, here’s a article on it http://www.nationalspeedsportnews.com/racing-history/torn-from-the-headlines/black-thursday-saw-racers-arrested-in-drug-ring/
Maybe 38 late models at Volusia for the UDLMS race there…not at Auburndale.
29
29 including Gary’s cars and pit vehicles.
I guess from the grave this guy is still lining somebody’s pockets…the promoter! 
I guess he did a lot for the community?
I’ve never liked the idea of ‘Memorializing’ this guy.
No offense to his family & friends, but this guy didn’t exactly live a clean life. Running drugs, spending tons of cash & just flaunting it around… sorry, not the hero I’m looking for.
What bothers me about this race, is that I saw somewhere that the family is looking for sponsors or donations to make this race happen (it’s not being done out of the kindness of Rex Guy).
This guy pissed away MILLIONS of $$$$$$… and yet the fans are being asked to kick in for the cause.
Sorry… not me.
Come on you guys, if it wasn’t for those guys we might not have gotten to see as many factory cars and giant haulers as soon as we did here in Florida. You’re being ungrateful.
Props to Citrus, that’s cool. I’ll go to Auburndale this Saturday, hopefully more than 13 cars as the last race had. And I will go to Citrus more this year.
I read the article (from the posting of the speed sport story)
But at the time it was written,they were only charges not convictions.Does anyone have a corresponding article about the ending of these cases? I remember growing up and going to the races in Columbus,Ohio that Gary Balough competed for an entire season at CMS and other central Ohio tracks driving the #44 Chevelle late model that was owned by Bob May from up in the Cleveland area and formerly driven by Jim Bickerstaff amongst others.The talk was he had been in some legal problems(although I myself never heard exactly what these problems were)but this was back around 1975 or 76,if not a little earlier than that.I know it was before I started racing which was 1978.All a lot of us had really heard through the grapevine was he was a Florida hotshoe that had “relocated” to the Ohio area.If someone has more info or articles show us more dont leave us hangin.I dont get running a Memorial race for a convicted felon myself,but I would like to know if he (or any of the others mentioned)were ever actually convicted before I speak up any more.Any help out there?
From the Orlando Sentinel:
Ex-auto Racer Sentenced To Life On Drug Charges
December 18, 1993
A former NASCAR driver will spend life in federal prison for helping supervise a marijuana and cocaine smuggling ring between 1982 and 1987, U.S. District Judge Patricia Fawsett ruled Friday. William ‘‘Billie’’ Harvey, 43, of Fort Lauderdale and Rome, Ga., was convicted in October of operating a continuing criminal enterprise. Fawsett also fined him $100,000. Prosecutor Cynthia Hawkins said Harvey was a partner of convicted Winter Springs smuggler Robert Castoro in the mid-1980s.Castoro, who is serving life plus 65 years in prison, testified against Harvey.
Drugs Took Smuggler From Low To High To Low
By Jim Leusner Of The Sentinel Staff, January 16, 1991
It all started in December 1974 when Robert Castoro, then 25, his brother and several of their boyhood friends decided to invest in 1,000 pounds of marijuana. After they sold it and made a profit, they bought 2,000 pounds. And later 3,000 pounds. Before long, Castoro and his friends from suburban Miami were speeding to the Bahamas on Cigarette boats, picking up marijuana for some of the biggest smuggling groups in South Florida. He said they imported as much as 100,000 pounds a year in the mid-1970s and 1980s.
I personally don’t give a care about the pot, but coke ain’t no joke…
After Balough got done with these charges, but still on probation, he wound up in deep shit.
He had run a Busch GN race at Charlotte that afternoon, and afterwards, he & a van full of friends stopped at a convenience store. One of his buddies wound up in a fight there, and when the cops arrived, they wanted to search Gary’s van.
Lo & behold, one of his passengers was ‘holding’ some coke… and off to the pokey goes Gary again. He spent a few more years before being released about 4-5 years ago.
For those that didn’t connect the dots, Herbert Tillman, better known as Herbie, won the very first race at Hialeah Speedway when it opened. Bruce “PeeWee” Griffin was a VERY successful Modified racer in the Northeast in the 60’s-70’s.
Pete Pistone is the nephew of Nascar’s “Tiger Tom” Pistone.
Never heard that story, that Busch race was right after the initial charges though and before he went to prison the first time. He had signed with, I believe it was Harry Ranier, in the Cup Series so Dave Mader III ended up with the ride.
As I heard it Balough did his time on the drug charges then when he was due to get out, after 10 years or so behind bars, the feds slapped him back in for income tax evasion. Then he did another 10 years or so and finally got out. Then got caught again for bringing it in while on parole. Just got out a couple of years ago.