Legendary Racer Gary Balough’s Cheating Stories: The Miami Gang was WILD in the 1980s

You drove through a window. Yeah. Yeah. On purpose. Yeah. But up on up on the sidewalk and crashed through the window and right there his bed and punch his bed against the wall. And they're all cheating and you're not. Then you're just stupid. If you never heard of Gary Belaloo before, consider this your introduction to a super interesting guy. He was a wicked talented racer, car builder, very good mind to think of outside the box in terms of innovation and, you know, just straight up cheating. He admits that, too. Well, we came here to do video with Gary Belaloo on his car and it expanded very quickly. This is Tim. Tim helps us find videos. Yeah. I wanted to do a Miami project and so I started making phone calls and we got some heavy hitters here today. Thank you all so much. This means an incredible amount for everybody's future. Question becomes, how do you know it's all going to be truth? Do you know how many lies we've had to tell to get where we are? Well, no, we can tell that. It's not cheating. It's being competitive. Okay. But I was talking about a certain wreck with some silver liquid. Silver liquid? Yeah. I don't know about I don't know much about silver liquid. I wasn't involved in it, but one of my best friends said it got in his eye. He takes off and it rolls everywhere. And he thought he had a BB in his eye. We had my watch fell apart. Coming out the vent was the vent was the fire bottle. Yeah. Above my head there out my watch. My I guess the watch. It fell all apart. Gary called from the big house. That was the best part. First time he called in the house of Sunday dinner. They were all sitting there. The phone rings and my dad goes, "Who's calling on a Sunday?" So my mother answers the phone. She goes, "Excuse me, collect call for whatever wherever we were." And she goes, "Oh, it's your friend." So every Sunday when the phone rang, we knew it was Gary. Well, he was seeing how we did at the go-kart races. Well, then he's like, "You got to get a lot left side weight. Got to get offside weight." So he calls and I said, "Well, during the week, I called Brian said, "Hey, that that is in the tubes. We need that." I didn't know it would kill you or it was dangerous. So, we went over there and we duct taped the tie wrapped it to the side of the go-kart. Well, we get 65% left side wide in this go-kart. And he calls up, "Well, how'd you do?" Like, so that whole week he's thinking, "How the hell did these get that weight in this go-kart?" Cuz you ain't doing that. He go I says, "What's that we had in the cage?" He's Oh, Jesus Christ. I had a fire bottle. I had a fire bottle and like a a hook for a seat belt with a rod stuck in a carbon fiber on the back about that wide top. I can move it from the right side to the left side. Yep. And that little got caught between the steer wheel and my knees about wrecked me. I had to get it over. I wanted to laper. It's $10,000. I said, "How am I going to get this thing back over there?" [Music] I passed out. Concord Concord. And then then it was light, like 10 lbs. Yeah. Jesus Christ. What are we going to do to win this race tonight? Yeah. Everybody was handing me gears. I'm putting gears in my pocket. I go to get in the car and the cop wants to pat him down. Get your ass off me. Ain't no cop deal here. You you ass off me, man. You're not touching me. I had all all the gears and stuff in my pockets and stuff. Make that 10 lb. We stuff that thing, the rag and I've had to do that go-kart races in my pocket. We You got to get close, man. You got to get within two, three pounds. Yeah. I remember you come down pit road with with lead shot bags in your arm. That was all American 400. You walking like this my legs WR got hit. Yeah. I couldn't get up on the front of that court cuz my legs are so heavy. Oh, I said, "What's the matter?" Said, "I can't get on it. Help me." I tell you another story. Gary, we used to murder them. We practiced and all that stuff, qualified. And about 9:00, Gary called me. He said, "Daddy, we got to go back to racetrack." I said, "What for, Gary? I got worried. I got worried that they're going to take it pull the intake off of it." Now, the intake matched the head, so you had to use that intake. There was no nitrous in it, but all that underneath there. Yeah. Yeah, but it wasn't hooked up. So, you know what he does? You know what I mean? That intake's on that motor and we're on the ball for all of water. I said, "We're going back and crawl over the wall." Eddie, what? He takes me, he buys steak, a bunch of steak, goes down the end, throws it over the fence. Dogs in there. In the morning, the dog took off from the states. Come on. We got in the trailer, didn't take off, swap in, take off. Big took it off as one old American 400. Hey, how about the one? How about the one going through inspection and the nitrous bottle goes off and blows all he put he put the line together in blue. He goes, "What the hell was that? What the hell was that?" An infection. Hey was right behind said, "You know exactly what it was." What about Mark Martin calling? Pas behind it. Well, Gary was messing with the button make the maroon shift weren't working right. Yeah, he kept kept messing with the marine kept going like this. You know, he calls on the phone and said, "Hey, go there. Tell Gary's crew." He broke something and keeping back and forth. And how would lay in a corner on the ground look at the car like how could that left tire be in? It was out. I know it was out when he went out. The deal was it had to be in line with before the race and after the race, right? They say it during the race where it had to be. We had practice and racing racing and get the car all in before the World Series. They want to change the rules. We put a belt crank in it. But the problem with a bell crank was couldn't get the threads right to where I could drive it off in three real hard, get the tires hot to get off four for the first lap. First lap was the best with the stickers. So I said, "Ah, I can't do this thing down the corner because I don't know where it's at." J said, "All right, we'll take and put a core screw in there." Went to the machine shop and change it. But he timed me from when I went out the gates, I was in the third turn. So we knew what the distance had to be for it to be all the way over. I can remember when he was doing a modified car. He never run F97, 312, and 88 and all them cars. He broke his leg. Mhm. He built a trough in that thing for his right leg. He dumped finger l so he can work that th see and that's like but how about when he cut his fingers off in the air in the air killer bowler and I know how that switch hand got better with his left than he was with his right see and it's all about and and the people don't realize never giving up no and and how tough you guys are persever Allison Oh yeah Dave He was either winners or or hospital. I worked I worked for Bobby doing the M store. Tell that story. Dave used to come in the shop and the first engine him and I built together. The first racing one was the Uncle Donny's Nova. The blue one. Yeah. At Birmingham. Yep. Back then. The Red Farmer uh story here was um we was at I think was Pensacola. Red took his hearing aid out and gave it to one of the pit crew guys. Right. Well, after the race, Red was looking for it here. The guy done left. Hey Gary, should I tell a story about the hotel? Turn all the power off. Oh god. He called me. He always called me Toto after the little dog was off. We're in Nashville. All American at the holiday in the bar. They wouldn't let us in the bar. Remember? Yeah. Gary called called up and just told him, "Come on." I said, "No, no, Gary." So, we go out to tow truck, had a little torch in there that big. We found a chain link fence with all transformer, all the power, cut the lock off. We go in there and we cut all the power off. This place was a restaurant, a nightclub, and they're all there with cigarette lighters trying to see what's going on. Yeah, you ain't playing. Gary Gary goes where it started. Gary goes to the room and calls the front desk and complain they ain't got no power. The cops come the cops come looking for us. Me and Eddie's underneath the bed with What about leaving Pocono? Oh god. We're in a nine passer station wagon. This is good. And all you guys know, if you're ever around Gary at a racetrack, get the car with him. If you don't, you're going to be sorry. while I'm sitting in the back seat with facing the back. We're doing donuts in this farmer's field and here's his car behind us doing donuts. I said, "Blue, somebody's behind doing who is." Hell, I don't know. So, out on the road we go. It's a two-lane road. It comes to left or right. Well, we hang it cuz we got everybody over there. Yeah, we got we got nine people in in the car, right? Guy behind us tries to make it. He pushes kiss knocked knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knocked the telephone p bowl out I said blue he hit the pole you he dead I said hello we backed up we backed up with Buddy Griffin buddy came calling up the call what you got to do kill me so we took we took a knife we puncture right front tire well here comes a cop an old cop in a cop car he's got his notebook on his steal filling out accident report Right. Me and Tom Pstone are standing in front of the car pissing on the radio steam coming out. They tell him big buddy. They tell him well he owns a radiator store. He'll fix it for you. [Laughter] And then that's when we went to the motel and you start chasing George White around in the parking lot. That's when you went to the motel. One of them. Remember? I built the window cuz it wouldn't Yeah. and push the bed against get get the wall up the wall. I got to get up your window. You drove through a window. Yeah. On purpose. Yeah. But up on up on the sidewalk and the wall about that high went up that wall crash through the window and right there his bed and push his bed against the wall. What you want to do with it? I'm out of here. I'm going home. This guy's nuts. I'm going home. Hey anyway. What I tell you? Every weekend was a new experience. Oh yeah. I'm telling you. Every weekend. We had a good time. We had a good time. We didn't hurt nobody. We raced hard. Played hard. What' you tell the front pass? There's a hole in your room. Huh? They pay for it. Oh, you got paid for it. Got to pay for all the rental car. Take the wheels off. We went We went fell off the log nuts. Take the doors all off. It was the door and the door to fall to the ground. We had a diamond elevator on. I said, "I'm done, boys. I'm out of here. You want to mess with this car? You go ahead." I got a grill going to tell you. We was at Syracuse with the Modifi and Jerry anytime we went out of town, it was a long race. He'd always win a garage to work on a car at night time and so I was with Mario Rosie. We was in the Pontiac Sunbury. We left. Gary leaves behind us. We're going up overass. Gary catches us, spins us around. We're in the other lane. Look at that traffic coming. It stopped there. So Mariel gets away from him. We take off. We pull in the parking lot. Here comes G across the parking lot. Took the front bumper right off the car. There goes the front bumper. How about we turn over the park? Wait a minute. Wait. So wait a minute. So we pull in, we parked, put it put it parked. Roll it locked up. Go upstairs. Turtle calls up. Come down. You ain't believe this. Oh boy. I come down the elevator and everybody in the lobby going at the picture and going, "Oh my god." They picked up the back of the car, pulled it out, rolled it over his top. It's sitting there spinning in the parking lot. Me and Mario went back to the park airport with the roof sitting on our head. Rosie was one of them preppers. You know, he had to blow dry his hair and he had to wait on 30 minutes. I'm not waiting on you. Yeah. Get up early. You're going to do all that crap. Yeah. We got to go. We got We're here to win the race. We're not here to play. Screw you. Like, oh, screw me. Okay. That car was upside down spinning. I get there now. Glad I didn't travel with you. Oh my god. We go down, boys. I got one more for you after this. We going down. Always go down the interstate. And he holds a record for the distance turning up a rental car. I mean, we hardly got out of the parking lot. He pitch pitch it in reverse going down the interstate. There goes the transmission. He said running his flexes over, you know, hit him. Yeah. You can always You can always tell the head went out the back window. Hey, you can always tell when when he get juice up. We go down the interstate. He reach down and grab the merchant break. He'd pull it. He'd do, you know, 360 in the middle of the interstate. Look behind me. Cars are going like this all over the place. We we had Tom Pell was was a piece of work. It's all is a piece of work. Oh my god. He was a piece of work. He aggravate Billy and aggravate him and aggravate. Well, how about the pig? So, we went by Richard's shop. I used to drive for Richard Minelli and went by his shop. We had all them 1550s stacked up old car stuff. Harvey taped him up with duct tape. His hands all taped up around his place and over his mouth and put him in the 1550s. There was 5 lbs of alcohol sitting and dumped alcohol all around the tires on the tires and pushed him over and kicked the tires and now tires are rolling on fire and he's in the middle of it. I said, "You going to burn him up? You're going to hurt him now. Stop. That's a little too far. He's all right. He's all right." He come crawling out again. So he's untaped. I said, "Unted he started that mouth run that mouth again. I'm going to call cop. You going to call copy?" We took him pull all his clothes off now. hand over his underwear and taped it to the roof rack and took him to the police station like that. The police left the car at the police station with him taped to the roof. Yep. Yep. Yep. That got him there quick. I remember all that Daytona. Yeah. Huh? They taped him to the telephone pole in Daytona. We put him in his hair's box in the side box one time where everybody come in the gate. His hair stand talking ball and everybody's sitting there talking. He's in there beating on the side. God, what's that noise? What's going on here? Bob to his partner. Nobody's telling to get out of Bob. Yeah, but Bob did that to his partner Butch on the way to Riverside. Tell me I haven't spent enough time behind the wheel. I'll show you how much time I spent behind the wheel. What about What about Hugh's car and poking found it took the doors off of it all the chrome and tail lights and all that stuff. That was that was you guys. How about when I got the chickens? Hey, the that was good. We always need a motel about 9:00 to go to New Simra. Well, while we at Newer, they went and got a dozen chickens and put them in a room and put them in a room. So, they got some chicken and put them in a room and locked the door. them ticket was in there at 1:00 at night and they had then we take it out about the seventh floor see if he can fly and hit the ground and they got up and he's still alive went down and we put him in the bar left in the bar the rest of that you know what he did to that bar that cost me what about what about um putting corn flakes and and syrup in in the guy's bed making a bed up. They go in at night time, get in there, it' be cornflake cereal and his syrup in bed. I always take the wheels so put the humps back on. The wheels would fall off. How about in Montgomery when you guys got all the soap and put in the fountain stop the place running each other. It was it was crown bubble everywhere. They had a waterfall, square waterfall, and we loaded it up with all kinds of soap powder. Had soap powder at um the cops one across the interstate across the road in the parking lot. What about the cow? The dandel cow. The big cow y'all stole. What about what about for what? Let me tell you, let me tell you this. across the street. Across the street from Pensacola is a steakhouse, right? Well, we didn't have no rental cars. We got barred from all the rental car places. So, we had we had to call this redneck taxi cab. So, we go across the street to have a steak dinner. On the way in, it's this wooden totem pole Indian. Really nice, man. We like to have that thing. So I got through eating. We grabbed the totem pole and was in a four-door old car taxi cab. I jumped in it with the Indian. They went shut the door and his head went through the side one. Knocked the one out. Knocked the one out of the thing. So we take the Indian to the motel and uh we put it in bed. Put it bed turned over. So we put it in back of pickup truck. Wrapped it up. Right. Take it back. We go on the racetrack and damn the race. Here they come. Here come the sheriffs, boys. Bring them coming to get me. You know what I mean? Get in trouble to get me there. Bring the Indian back or we're not starting this race. The Indian comes home. We don't know what you're talking about. Bring the Indian back or this race ain't going to start. So we stand the Indian up and back in the pickup truck, right? They two or three of us, put our arm around him. We made a couple laps around the racetrack as the engine waving to everybody. You know, they said, "We do need to bring it back." I said, "Yeah, yeah, we're going to bring him back." Wow. I got every day there was new a new pizza here. You better go hide a hide from them. See, the problem is we work so hard on the race cars at the track all the time. Well, when they kick us out, we got so much pent up energy, we got to use it for you to use it for something. Oh, yeah. Bobby, weren't you with us in Australia when we dumped the water on the guy's head? Oh my god. I didn't think we're coming back to the US. I'm all right. You were probably You were probably involved. You weren't dumping the water. No, no, no, no. Him and Johan. No, I had nothing to do with that. I was staying away. remember what the note was under the door the next morning? I don't remember. Well, they were on to us, but they really couldn't prove it. And there was a note up underneath the door. It says, "One more time and we kick your Yankee ass." Yankee ass. They're all Yankees over there. You know, in Australia, every call. Yeah, that was an times were experiencing. Hottest I've ever been in my life. when we won with with Morgan. Yeah. Yeah. 118 of the day of the race. Wow. And Dick Batty was Dick Batty and uh what was um Elmo were the the inspectors. That's what we're after the big they uh Bob goes go ask Dick what what were inspect you know. He goes it's too God. You guys won. But in L of that we had remember we had to smuggle a carpet in. We had to hide the carpet in the 2 plus two cuz he didn't have didn't pay duty on it. Dick Batty's wife bought some big expensive throw carpet. We rolled that thing up and stuck it in the two plus two. Oh yeah, that was an adventure. That's what it was fun, man. Those are the good days. Don't know any different today than what it was then. You can't do that now. The world's just too serious right now. It's just it's just too serious. and and uh you know stuff that uh I I feel sorry for kids growing up. I mean we could cut up in our cars and you know they tell us to you know cut it out. Don't do that anymore nowadays. You know you lose your license for 5 years and then all the ramifications that come with that. I mean poor kids are just uh so constrained nowadays. It's no wonder they're crazy. When I drove your car, I was like 31 years old and I was too young. Petty and Ying and guys didn't want me around. That that was a little little bit wild, but they didn't want me around. You're too young. So, I started racing when I was 15 years old. I got some years on me. Today, you're 31 years old. You're out. Yeah. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. That you don't even get a…