The late Edward “Ed” Gibbons Jr. became a Clarendon County legend by slinging his late model around dirt tracks across the country, and now he will be remembered as a Clarendon County Hall of Famer.
Gibbons started racing around the age of 8. He graduated to a racecar at the age of 15 in the limited sportsman division driving a Camero. He picked up his first racecar win that year at Timmonsville Motor Speedway.
Racing was a lifelong passion, said his father, Slick Gibbons.
“He always liked tinkering with go-karts and then messed with the race care a whole lot,” Slick said of his son.
Gibbons moved up to the late-model series in 1982, and he never looked back. Slick Gibbons said his son “caught on pretty quick.”
“He drove with a cool head, but he was always up on the wheel,” he said. “He always wanted to win but wasn’t rough on his equipment. He was patient and waited for the right opportunity to make a pass.”
Gibbons made a quick leap into dirt racing stardom just two years into his late model career when he outlasted 100 other cars to win the J.W. Hunt 200 in Concord. He received $20,000 for the win.
He’d won several other races, but the 200 jump-started his career.
“That was a pretty big stepping stone at the time,” Slick Gibbons said. “It really boosted his confidence in the race car.”
Gibbons went on to travel the racing circuit in the southeast, mainly in Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Florida. He slowed down the career traveling later on and began racing more locally.
“He wanted to spend more time with is family,” Slick said. “He’d often have to leave on Thursdays if he was racing far-off, so he started racing locally more.”
Gibbons managed to accumulate more than 400 career victories during his 26-year career, with other notable accomplishments including a $10,000 Hava-Tampa (now Lucas Oil) series win at Sumter Speedway, and becoming the 2001 Carolina Clash champion. The latter was a big honor.
“You know, it’s tough to beat those top-notch competitors on a week-end, week-out basis to become a champion,” Slick said.
His last victory was in 2008 at Fayetteville Motor Speedway, earning him $9,000 and vaulting him to third in the Carolina Clash points system that year. He died in 2009 after an automobile wreck near his home. His son, Gib Gibbons, continues his legacy racing behind the wheel of the famous ‘07 late model.
