Driver, car owner and
potential superstar, Dick Meyer competed
in NASCAR’s earliest days. Born and
raised in Porterville, Meyer owned
Sniffin & Meyer Auto body. The family
owned a mortuary. The #98 Burgundy
Mercury that he, Marvin Panch and
Hershel McGriff drove was partially
sponsored by the mortuary.
He won at Bay Meadows
on the mile, Carrell Speedway in a
Hudson in ‘52 and the high wall at
Oakland. He also won on on the mile at
San Jose. Danny Letner was a teammate.
He won a race at Reno once and several
others.
Ken Clapp said, “He
knew how to win races. He’d come up
through the roadster and jalopy ranks.
I’d rate him as a Jimmy Johnson. Meyer
could be rough. He was no pussycat. In
his total career in Cup from ’49 until
his death, he won about a dozen races.
“He did so many
things in his short time and the future
was so bright for him. If he’d have been
around for a few more years, he’d have
been as well known as Joe Weatherly. He
climbed in sprint cars and won and set
records in sprints. He wanted to go to
Indy. Back then, that was the “big gee,”
you didn’t have the Daytona 500. He
drove a Hudson only three times and he
won all three races. We went to Daytona
in ’52 and he ran the beach in one of
the first beach races and he had a bad
deal with Ford and that’s when he quit
and went full time with Chrysler on the
Plymouth deal and he was Plymouth’s
“golden boy” and he was ahead of Lee
Petty in the pecking order when
everything came to an end.”
He did not win a
championship, likely because he didn’t
really pursue a championship. From the
west coast, in those days, the fast guys
would go to Phoenix or Portland.
When he began racing
he was driving Mercury’s. Later he drove
Hudson Hornets and Dodges. He won the
bulk of his races in V8 Dodges in 1953.
He finished 4th at Darlington
that year in a Hudson. He also had great
success in Oldsmobile’s. He was a
teammate to Marvin Panch. He was #1 and
Panch #2.
Dick Meyer Jr. said
that his dad “gave Marvin Panch his
start. Mom asked if he’d lost his mind.
He had a factory Mercury ride then.
Marvin and him were buddies and Marvin
was trying to dig up a motor.”
It is said that only
the good die young and in Dick Meyer’s
case, it’s literally true. A
Porterville, California native, Meyer
was killed in his race car, not on the
race track, but on the way home to
California from Darlington in 1954. In
those days, it was not uncommon to pull
the tape off the headlights and drive
the race car home from the track.
Outside Henderson,
Nevada, Meyer and his crew got stopped
by the police chief and went with him
into town. The police chief knew a bit
about racing and thought Meyer might
have an idea of how to fix up his police
cars to make them faster. The Chief of
Police’s son had a Red Ram V8 and
challenged Dick to a race on the
highway. Meyer said OK and the chief
said, “when we get done we are going to
keep right on going and thanks for the
info on shocks and springs.”
Unfortunately, Meyer
hit a bridge abutment and he and his two
crew members were killed, but Meyer’s
legacy didn’t stop with his passing.
His grandchildren now
work for Richard Childress in the
fabrication shop. Dick Meyer Jr., who’s
here tonight, makes his home in
Troutman, NC. Adam Meyer is also here.
He did all the aerodynamic work on
Earnhardt’s Daytona and Talladega deal.
Meyer Jr. scratch-built cars for A.J.
Foyt and worked with Jr. Johnson. “{I’ve
been in victory circle at Daytona,” he
said. Of his father, Meyer Jr. said, “He
left a heritage.
“I came back [to the
Southeast] in the mid-seventies and I
didn’t realize how many people still
remembered him. It really amazed me how
many people remembered my dad and told
me good things about him.
Born
and raised in Porterville, California, Dick Meyer was immersed in
racing. He came up in the racing world the hard way by racing in the
jalopy and roadster divisions, which were pretty rag-tag. The time he
spent driving in those divisions made him a driver who knew how to be
rough on the track. He jumped into sprint cars and instantly began
winning and setting track records. 
