The Vault
TERRY BALDRY – SMOOTH AS SILK
Posted on: Thursday May 18, 2023
One of the winningest drivers in WIR history – Terry Baldry.
(The following is an excerpt from the 2017 release “Wisconsin International Raceway – Where The Big Ones Run.” This chapter titled “Smooth As Silk” chronicles one of the best ever drivers to wheel a car at WIR, Terry Baldry. This book can be purchased by clicking on the “books” tab on this website.)
Track announcers would often cringe when Terry Baldry would wind up in victory lane.
It wasn’t because Terry was a bad guy. On the contrary.
The problem with Baldry was two-fold. For one, he was a man of very few words. During pre- and post-race interviews, track announcers quickly discovered getting Baldry to give anything above and beyond one or two word answers was akin to a painful visit to the dentist.
Baldry did his talking behind the wheel of his race car at speed.
The Omro driver also won frequently. Baldry, who is 63, won an unprecedented 12 super late model titles on WIR’s half mile. Baldry’s feat included six straight championships from 1999 through 2004. Baldry’s first crown came in 1982 and his final track championship was in 2010. No other driver in Kaukauna history has even come close to putting up those type of championship numbers.
A man who’s reputation was that of a clean driver – not one to rub fenders often – Baldry would just as soon go around a driver than try and squeeze inside of him or through him.
“We started running WIR full time on the pavement in 1979,” recalled Baldry. “We were still running some dirt stuff then with the same car at Shawano and De Pere. Leo’s Speedway had closed the year before in Oshkosh.”
The following season Baldry went full time with racing exclusively at WIR after the track in De Pere shut down.
In the early ‘80’s Baldry’s brother Dennis Baldry served as his crew chief. The car was owned by Baldry’s parents Wallace and Lorraine Baldry. “That 9:1 compression rule really helped keep the asphalt late model going,” explained Baldry. “Before that came around guys were blowing a lot of motors at Kaukauna. These were lasting us a lot longer it seemed.”
When Baldry’s first title came in 1982 it was against some tough customers on Thursday nights. “I remember Ted Musgrave running there weekly along with Jim Sauter and JJ Smith,” said Baldry. “Dave Watson was there, too, and always seemed to have real good equipment.” A few years later Green Bay’s Scott Hansen would come onto the scene when Baldry won his last title in the 80’s in 1984.
With a trio of track titles under his belt, Baldry began to spread his wings a bit, running the full American Speed Association (ASA) series in 1992. He wound up second in the final rookie-of-the-year standings to Tim Fedewa.
“(Traveling) was ok, but it got to be a grind after a while,” said Baldry. “I drove for a guy from Cleveland, Ohio named Jack Sinclair. They kept the car out in Ohio. That was the first time I was a hired gun. It was a lot cheaper going that route.”
The following season Baldry and his brother Dennis chipped in and co-owned the car and Baldry returned to his winning ways, capturing the ’93 track championship.
In 1997 Baldry teamed up with Mike Butz, who was hot off winning a pair of titles with Matt Kenseth in ’95 and ’96. It didn’t take long for those two to mesh as Baldry went on to win the ’97 title. “I remember we had All Car Automotive Centers that year and we even won Oktoberfest at Lacrosse too,” Baldry pointed out.
The Butz/Baldry combination proved to be tough – very tough. “The only year I didn’t win the title driving for Butz’ was in 1998 when I broke a vertebra in my back in a crash at the Dells,” said Baldry. “I was out for six weeks. Other than that, until that point we won pretty much everything.”
The hired gun from Omro switched over to the De Pere-based BUCO racing team in 2003. New car owner – same result. Baldry won back-to-back titles driving their number 00 car in ’03 and ’04. “There were different personalities between Butz and BUCO but they had the same goal in mind as Butz’ did and that was to win races and titles,” said Baldry. “Every car owner I had was a little bit different.”
“He was so damned smooth that guy,” said BUCO Racing car owner Mark Patton. “He never got fluttered or fired up. He’s real quiet and was always very calm when talking to him on the radio.”
One night with using just two new tires underneath their car, Baldry broke the track record with a 19.236, a record that had been held by the late Joe Shear. “So with just two new tires under the car Terry crawls out and says to us, “I left some on the track. I could have probably gone even faster that lap. He was just incredible,” said Patton.
It would be six seasons later when Baldry would once again reunite with Butz, and Baldry would win his 12th WIR track championship in 2010. Baldry raced sparingly since then, his last time behind the wheel for Butz in 2014 at Kaukauna.
“Terry Baldry had the utmost respect for the equipment he was driving – bar none,” said Bob Schafer of Oshkosh. Schafer is a “SuperFan” who attends over 300 short track races a year. Schafer hasn’t missed many races at WIR in his adult life. “Terry’s approach was always to find a way to get the car in victory lane and bring it home in one piece. And he almost always did that. It did not matter whose car he was driving. He was always a threat and his moves, especially towards the end of his career, were quite calculated. He’s one of the best to ever run WIR.”
Retired now as a full time employee from Mercury Marine since 2008, Baldry spends much of his time in the winter months in the state of Nevada. He has plenty of family members who still race – and he attends their races on both dirt and asphalt.
Baldry’s son Brady Baldry has an asphalt super late model he races on occasion and son Kevin Baldry races an IMCA modified on dirt. Grandson Wyatt Blashe races in the T.U.N.D.R.A. super late model series. His daughter Sarah Blashe used to race street stocks at WIR while his son-in-law Brandon Blashe, a former Fox River Racing Club president, used to race an IMCA stock car on dirt.