01.04.03_115_BAL_SYR_0080_2.JPG (33314 bytes)

Photo ID # 01.04.03_112_BAL_SYR_0080_1
Car #: 112
Driver (s) : Gary Balough
Location: Syracuse, NY
Date: 1980
Photographer: Bob Scott (R SCOTT PIX)
Photo provided by: Bob Scott
Comments: What?.....this little old thing....?  Just a little sheet metal Kenny had lying around and a couple of Dzus fasteners......  Gary Balough showed up in Kenny Weld's Batmobile creation at Syracuse in 1980 and took everybody's candy.... 

Thanks to Bob Scott for the photo.

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Comment:

01/10/03 Bill Hanna/Easton PA This is the car that I feel DESTROYED "DIRT" Racing as we knew it.  Who can ever forget the multitude of car changes the night before the race in an attempt to race with this car that arrived at Syracuse under cover and with an APPROVED INSPECTION STICKER ALREADY ON IT.
01/12/03 Todd L Kenny Weld (I feel), did not ruin Dirt racing he was a trend setter, because of guys like Kenny Weld, Budd Olsen, Maynard Troyer Dirt Racing is alive and well, The race tracks and sanctioning bodies have a lot to do with rising costs. If cost cutting rules were commonplace for engines, tires, etc., then costs would not be astronomical
01/12/03 3-Wide I'm not sure where I weigh in on this one, but I do know that Kenny was an innovator and somehow he left Syracuse with a bigger bag of money than anyone else did that year... If it was legal (which I really don't know if he was or not...), then I have nothing but respect for him and give him credit for his innovation. 

If it was up to me, I would have put a rule in place back in the 70's that said that the quarter panel and roof must be from a stock production American automobile from 1936 - to within 10 years of the current production line.  Even though dirt track race cars have nothing in common with "stock cars" any longer, I still think it adds to the interest if people can relate to the shell as something they may have seen drive by them or maybe even owned at one time.  I went to the Turkey Derby this year and a white Buick Regal Street Stock caught my attention because I still have an 87 T-Type!

04/24/03 Steve Fegley This car did not ruin raceing as we knew it, Glenn Donnelly and dirt and time trialing to start a feature ruined racing as we know it.  How does joe average racer fair starting 20th in a feature, with brett hearn, danny johnson and all dirts best in front of u?  I dont think in in the 12 yrs i watched races at reading did kenny brightbill ever start farther front then 16th an still got the job done.  Donnelly never did nothin fer raceing except make himself ritch.  Kenny Weld was man ahead of his time.  But just makes me wonder if billy pauch or kenny b would have showed up at the mile with car like this if it ever would have been allowed to run.  There should only be one rule in modified raceing , that is 467 cid limit.  What you are smart enough to invent is what racing is all about.  When Weld built the gremlin for statewide that brightbill drove it was the baddest machine to ever hit the speedway.   Welds aerodynamic brillance an brightbills uncanny ability to read a speedway surface and know what it will do 50, 100, 200 laps in the future and adjust a car to it made this an unbeatable race car . Then its up to everyone else to figure out how to beat um.  Thought thats what racing was all about.  Of course brightbills car beat all the other Weld built cars many times but that im sure was the driver.
04/24/03 3-Wide I have never met Glenn Donnelly, and don't really know that much about the D.I.RT organization, so I won't comment on him as a person.  I also had never met Kenny Weld, but based on everything I heard and witnessed, I do think that Kenny Weld was definitely a guy who saw things much differently than most and whether good or bad, this difference, and his ability to put his thoughts into action was his fame and maybe his shortfall.  Whether we approve or not, it was an interesting life and a life of accomplishment.
08/08/03 Mike Great site, I do remember the 112 that he pulled in with .I was wondering what ever happened to the car and is it still around.The memmories are great and Charlie Z was my favorite. I have your site bookmarked to enjoy at a later date .Thanks Mike
08/10/03 Mike Yes, You are correct.  Hopefully something will turn up as to the cars whereabouts. I am in Fla.  Thanks, Mike
09/28/05 pilgram I was at the scales when the car weighed in.  My friend Butchy was there to.   It was light but the officals waved him through anyway.  I don't care what anyone says, you can't fight city hall....
12/15/05 Big Joe & BJ Holy racecars Batman! The Batmobile sits in the DIRT Museum in Weedsport NY Big Joe Alexander
02/07/06 Prolines I did know Kenny Weld and most of the drivers that have sat in the cars he built. I also hung out with DIRT employee and attorney, Andy Fusco at that time!  Prior to the 112 appearing at Syracuse that year, there were few written rules in regard to body dimensions. DIRT in fact at first was not going to allow the car to run... but when faced with possible legal action and having no leg to stand on (so to speak) they had to relent.

What that car did was take the natural progression of the rule book and jump it forward 5 to 10 years. Where there was no real body specifications to that point, (which was why there was so much diversity) the following year everyone looked at the rule book as a point to push out to!  This is what lead to every car looking exactly the same so quickly.  We would have gotten there eventually... it just was pushed into a time warp by that one car!

One other note... That car was all trick, but what most people missed was the "ram air" sheet metal hood that Indy's Don Brown fabricated and had a lot to do with the superior straight away speed that car had at the Cuyse.

03/13/06 Rich Reinhart With the RAM air intake that car could have have won even without a body
on it.
06/01/07 Bobby Brooks I also was there in fact I worked on the car with Kenny and few other like Ed stauffer. Few were better than Ed and kenny. There was a few other tricks that Kenny took to his grave with him. Kenny was my best friend in racing. He is my sons godfather.

The person who said Kenny was ahead of his time was correct. Just about every rule that was put a book was an attempt to slow him down. Who can forget the first night he showed up at Reading. There were a few new rules the next week.
 03/09/08  John Armbruster  I think this is a good article about the Batmobile:

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071018/SPORTS/710180330/-1/sports02

Kenny Weld didn't ruin Modified racing. Neither did Dick Tobias, Budd Olsen, Maynard Troyer, Sonny Dornberger, or anyone trying to build a better mousetrap every week...Promoters seem to think that creativity ruins the sport by increasing costs. Hogwash. Costs increase whether the rule book is a single page or as thick as the phone book, that's the nature of competition. Whether it's Donnelly then or NASCAR's Car of Tomorrow today...the philosophy of the "spec car" is only to help the promoter's bottom line. They can sell the myth of cost savings to the competitors and the myth of a level playing field and increased car counts to the fans. -John Armbruster

     
     
     
     

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