As modified champion Ron Bouchard finished his breakfast on the morning of Aug. 2, 1981, he had a feeling it was going to be a great day.
Forty-one years have passed since the David-and-Goliath scenario sent the Fitchburg, Mass., driver to victory lane after winning the 1981 Talladega 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
It’s a finish that’s still being talked about as Bouchard surprised veterans Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte and stole the victory. That day, Bouchard became the 13th different winner in 13 Talladega 500 races.
Even though it was Bouchard’s only Cup Series victory, it made his NASCAR career a success. The yellow-and-white Buick Regal he drove to victory is a prize possession that continues to grace one of the late racer’s many car dealerships.
Bouchard’s path to the Cup Series began in 1963 at Brookline (N.H.) Speedway as a substitute for another driver who had become ill. While in his teens, Bouchard became a late model star at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway, claiming five track championships. Bouchard was also the 1975 track champion at Westboro Speedway in Connecticut.
Bob Johnson, a standout owner and mechanic of modified cars in the Northeast, hired Bouchard to drive his modified at Stafford Motor Speedway where he collected 35 victories beginning in 1972.
Bouchard also won the 1973 and ’79 modified championships at the famed Connecticut track. Bouchard was a proven winner, visiting victory lane with car owners Bob Judkins, Dick Armstrong and Len Boehler. Bouchard joined team owner Jack Beebe six races into the 1981 NASCAR Cup Series season, replacing Harry Gant. The familiar face of Bob Johnson made the transition to NASCAR’s ultra-competitive Cup Series a good bit more comforting.
Bouchard ran his first Cup Series race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, but he completed only 349 laps before the engine in his No. 47 machine failed. That was the beginning of a roller-coaster ride of results.
Bouchard’s first visit to Talladega was on May 3. He finished 20th following an afternoon of learning to draft at the massive 2.66-mile race track.
Bouchard logged three top-10 finishes leading into the return visit to Talladega.
Johnson’s chassis setup helped Bouchard qualify the No. 47 Buick 10th for the 188-lap race.
When the green flag waved, polesitter Gant led the field into the first turn. By lap 37, Bouchard held the lead for one lap, remained within the top-10 and held it again on lap 103 when the caution flag waved for debris on the backstretch. Bouchard led again under caution on lap 140.
Bouchard had a strong car and good pit stops throughout the race. He could stay with the dominant Bobby Allison, the leader of 105 laps before he fell back with engine issues.
During the final lap, Waltrip led Labonte, Bouchard and Gant into turn one.
Entering turn three, Labonte moved high to challenge Waltrip, leaving the bottom open for Bouchard. As Labonte and Waltrip closed tightly to challenge one another for the win, Bouchard dropped low and took the win away at the line by two feet in a photo finish.
Paula Flemke, the daughter of New England modified racer Ed Flemke and sister to modified driver Ed Flemke Jr., was dating Bouchard at the time. They married in June 1983 and had five children — Eugene, Robert, Michelle, Tracey and Chad.
There was an article published by the Boston Globe the day after Bouchard’s unlikely victory. It read, “The confident girlfriend and positive thinking helped Ron Bouchard win yesterday’s Talladega 500 NASCAR race. Bouchard, a furniture truck driver from Fitchburg, took his first NASCAR race.”
The article stated, “At breakfast today, my girlfriend told me, ‘You know something? You’re going to win the race.’ I looked at her and said, ‘You know something? You might be right.’ I had kind of a funny feeling we might win.”
“That’s interesting because I had forgotten all about it,” Paula Bouchard said for this story. “I’ve had it in my desk drawer all these years until a friend reminded me of it.”
The race winner was ecstatic as he addressed the media in Talladega’s press box that day.
“It’s the greatest feeling in the world to win a Grand National race,” Bouchard said. “When I saw Waltrip move up to crowd Labonte, I shot down to the inside. I don’t think Darrell saw me.”
Waltrip was puzzled to see Bouchard steal the victory.
“Terry and I got to racing each other and completely forgot ole Ron Bouchard. Where’d he come from anyway?” Waltrip lamented
Four decades later, Waltrip is still asking that same question, as is Labonte.
“That’s one of the craziest races I can remember,” Waltrip said. “Terry and I were having a heck of a battle. We were coming down that long straightaway on the last lap. I’m thinking if I can beat him to the line, I’m going to win this race. I was basically looking to my right most of the time because that’s where Terry was.
“We were banging into each other and I’m trying to slow him down. All the sudden a car comes streaking by on the inside and I’m thinking, ‘Where did that car come from? I don’t remember a car down there.’ While I was trying to knock Terry down so I could win, he snuck up on us and won the race. That was the biggest shock I’ve ever had in my life. There we went and he won.”
Added Labonte, “Here I am battling with Darrell for the win and out of nowhere comes Bouchard and like Darrell, I’m thinking, ‘Where did he come from?’ Neither one of us was thinking about him. We were dealing with each other and let him come right in there and take the win away from both of us. Right out from under us.”
When Bouchard crossed under the checkered flag, Beebe’s Race Hill Farms team went crazy with excitement.
“I was keeping the laps with a stopwatch and was writing down each lap time as Ron went by. Of course, all of us were so excited just standing on the pit road wall,” Paula Bouchard remembered. “We could more or less see what was going on. We did see at the finish line that he had won, but Ron wasn’t aware that he had won until he got around to the backstretch and looked up to the scoreboard and saw the No. 47 in first place.
“I remember when I jumped on the side of the car, he was squeezing my hand. I was banging on the top of the car in disbelief. Then when he got to victory lane, it seemed like there were a million people there. We just hugged each other.”
CBS Sports carried the race live with Ken Squier and Donnie Allison providing the commentary. However, with eight laps remaining, the video feed was lost. Audio remained but fans did not see the finish. The final lap of the race was shown on the “CBS Evening News” that night. Bouchard’s father, Bob, famously tossed his television through his living room wall when the race finish wasn’t shown live.
Added Waltrip, “I would have liked to have been with Ron’s dad because I would have helped him toss that TV set for sure.”
Bouchard completed five starts for team owner Hoss Ellington in 1987 before retiring from Cup Series competition. All told, he made 160 starts with one win, 19 top-five finishes and 60 top-10 results.
Bouchard died on Dec. 10, 2015, after a lengthy battle with cancer at the age of 67.
Paula, his wife of 32 years, offered a glimpse of his life in just a few words.
“His glass was always half full. He was always a positive thinker and always thinking ahead,” she said. “We always talk about him. He was one of a kind and a genuine go-getter in life and nothing would stop him. He was a delight to be around.”