MichiganCircleTrack.com is the online home of the MARC Times Racing News & Michigan Racing Scene and MARCTimesTV.

Joy Fair is a legend of Michigan short track racing having raced a remarkable 50 years from 1949 until he finally hung up the goggles in 1999. In spite of his considerable success, he is one of the most humble people I have ever known; when someone enters his business and asks if he used to race, his response is either "I tried" or "Do I look more like a racer or a lover". I grew up in his home town of Pontiac, Mich. and have had the great pleasure of being friends with him for the last several years. There is nothing I enjoy more than stopping over for lunch at Big Nick's Coney in Pontiac and listening to some of his stories about racing and life. I have never known anyone who has the charm and knack for telling stories as Joy, and in between his friendly jabs at the waitresses, he had some to share that I thought everyone would enjoy.

I have to ask, Where did your name come from?

Joy; Well, I was named after an uncle who was an airplane pilot; I never liked it, but I was pretty big, so I didn't have any trouble with it. These promoters would want you to race at their tracks and acted like they were all your best friends, but soon as they called me Joey, I knew they didn't know me, cause the name is Joy, you know.

Were there any other careers that you were interested in?

I always wanted to be a teacher. I went to college at Western Michigan Univ. for a while, but ended up coming back home and opening the garage.

Knowing you, I have no doubt you would have been a great teacher. You retired from driving in 1999; tell everyone what have you been up to these days?

Still running the garage in Pontiac that I opened in the early 50's.We've been working with the Postal Service repairing mail trucks and they are keeping us really busy with several getting service all the time.

I guess that everyone in the area should get their mail pretty fast now that you are tuning them up. How did you manage to race for all those years while running the business?

I don't know, we just worked all day and raced all night. When we had the supermodified, we could race it eight times a week; every day and even twice on Sunday. Sometimes you would get home so late, you would just go right back in the shop and start working again.

Speaking of the supermodified, you always used #719 for years before switching to your famous school bus yellow #1. What is the story behind that?

We built a car for Motor City Speedway in the 50's, and picked #714 cause they had a detective show on TV we liked with Badge #714. We go to the track figuring no one else would have it, but someone else must have liked the show too. We changed the 4 into a 9 and it became 719. We used the #1 because Flat Rock in 1965 decided the champion would use #1, 2nd would use #2 etc; it only lasted a year since everyone complained about it, but we just kept the number after that. We started using the yellow because someone near the shop painted school buses and had some paint left over, so it was cheap.

What did your family think of you racing?

My parents were very religious and they always thought of it as sinning with the devil. My dad went to see me race once, and wouldn't you know, I ended up flipping right in front of him on the front stretch. After he went up to the fence and asked me if I was OK, which I was, he never went again. My son Mark raced for several years, and one of my daughters, Debby, might have been pretty good, but women just didn't do that kind of thing back then. My wife, Annette, didn't go to the races because she always thought it was a silly waste of time; the more I think about it, she might have been right!

What other drivers did you have the most respect for? How about the ones you had trouble with?

I always liked Bob Senneker, and Ron & Bob Keselowski since they were all such hard workers building and racing their own cars like they did. Bob's son Brad is doing real good in NASCAR, I've known him since he was a little kid. Joe Ruttman drove for me in 1973 and has been a good friend ever since. I also really liked racing with Jody Ridley too. One race at Sandusky, Ridley and I ran inches apart for a hundred laps, and never touched each other. I ended up getting by him on the last lap, but it could have gone either way, and I had as much fun racing him that day as anyone. As far as people that I had trouble with, Dick Mitchell is one that comes to mind. He would think nothing of trying to wreck you. There was one race I was trying to pass him on the outside, and just caught a glimpse of his front wheels turning into me. I hit the brakes really hard, and he shot across my front, just missing me and hitting the wall head on. He wanted to fight me after the race, but after I said "Dick, you know what really happened back there", he just stomped off. Gordon Johncock is a good friend of mine, but one time after a supermodifed crash he wanted to take a swing at me, and he is just a little guy, so I was holding him up off the ground while he was trying to hit me.

You are undoubtedly the only driver who raced on the sand at Daytona Beach with NASCAR in 1956, and also indoors in the Pontiac Silverdome. What can you tell us about those races?

We raced both a new 1956 Dodge and also a modified at Daytona. The Dodge broke an engine, so we didn't finish that one. We broke the transmission in the modified in qualifying, but Bill France wanted us in the race, so we fixed the car and started dead last. There were 75 cars in the race, and we finally ended up finishing third with Tim Flock winning.  The Silverdome was the first dirt race I had driven in a long time, and we were in a special champion's race with Senneker, David Pearson, Kyle Petty, Neil Bonnett, and a bunch of others. It was a tight track and very hard to pass, so where you started meant everything. We drew for position and when it was Senneker's turn to draw, he reached in and handed it to me without looking at it and said "Joy, this one is yours". After everyone had drawn, I turned it over and it ended up being the pole! I led the entire thing; Pearson was really hitting me on my rear bumper the whole time, but never did spin me out.

Do you still get out to the races anymore?

Cheryl (Team Manager) and I try to go a few times every year to Flat Rock and Toledo. We usually attend the year end Glass City 200, and also the Racer's Reunions they have a couple times a year for the retired racers. I really enjoyed both tracks when I was racing. I liked Toledo for the speed and Flat Rock for the finesse of working through the traffic on a tight quarter mile.

Joy, I hate to end with this, but after 50 years, you must have some embarrassing moments; what one comes to mind?

We had a 1961 Pontiac we raced at the Michigan State Fairgrounds dirt mile in 1962. The car had this special lightweight factory aluminum hood, fenders, bumper and exhaust on it for racing. On my qualifying lap, I was on the backstretch and looked down and saw I forgot to tighten my belts. I thought I had plenty of time before turn 3, and after I got them all cinched up, I looked up, and there was no way I was going to make the corner. Outside of the turn, there were a lot of stumps and rocks, and it just tore all those aluminum parts right off the car. After getting back to the pits, all these Pontiac Motors engineers were all slapping me on the back saying "I never saw anyone go that fast; you would have set a new track record for sure!", but  I never told anyone what really happened for twenty years.