The Preacher wins big
at Huntsville

Photos and Words by Dale Wilson
5/7/03

rtie Fulcher wasn't supposed to drive that Saturday night at the Huntsville Dragway B&M race, much less win. But he did both.

In doing so, Fulcher, of Memphis, Tennessee, fattened his wallet to the tune of $20,000 and redeemed himself of years of first- and second-round losses along the B&M Racer Appreciation Series trail.

"If I can win, anybody can win," Fulcher told me. "Even you." Ah-hummm, well, I guess so, Artie. Can I rub some of your luck off on me?

The race, the Saturday version of the Huntsville (Alabama) Dragway B&M go on March 14-16, was held under rain-threatening skies that had lingered over the track since the day before, when they had dumped water all over north Alabama. The drizzle had canceled Friday's race and forced race promoter George Howard to double the purse for Saturday. Hence the $20,000 first place prize for Pro Eliminator on Saturday.

Lucky Artie. The B&M traveling preacher now has $20,000 to deposit into his bank account, sharing it with wife Cheri, who wasn't there this weekend, plus the Lord.

I didn't think he would make the call for first round Saturday afternoon, much less win the whole 10-round race six hours later.

Artie was sick. His blood pressure had shot up to about 200 over 120, with a 125 pulse rate. When I sat down in his Tiffin Zephyr 40-foot motorhome and watched an old Paul Newman movie with him, his face was as red as a candy apple. "Must have been that meatball sandwich I just ate," he said. "Man, I'm pumping some pressure."

Artie never keeps care of himself. Like me, he is diabetic. Unlike me, he has never switched to Diet Cokes. He drinks his Cokes full-strength and full of sugar, or else has a big glass of iced tea, the sweetened kind.

Follow the straight and narrow, Artie preaches, but that doesn't mean you can't have some fun in life. Hey, Dale, let's go get some ice cream, he'll often say.

He's been a Mopar man all his life. He still owns the "King Kong" Charger, Sheldon Gecker's first "King Kong" car. Artie also has good friend Joe Sannutti restoring the old C/Stock Automatic Plymouth once owned by Californian Dave Kempton, the car that won Stock Eliminator at the 1965 NHRA Winternationals.

But his latest ride is the oddest oddball of them all, a '60 Rambler with an alcohol-fed small-block Chevy for power. Named "Rambow" because it's a combination of Rambler and bowtie Chevy power, the two-door runs 6.40s all day long in the eighth-mile, yet Artie says it can be driven on the street.

People keep care of Artie, maybe because he's their preacher, maybe because he rarely goes more than a couple of rounds at a time. He is the consummate underdog. Funky ol' Rambow adds to his stature.

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