From racing down the speedways with NASCAR for 22 years, heading down the wedding aisle four times, zooming off runways in his private planes, driving down the streets of the Rim Country to his rental properties or volunteering as a pooper-scooper at the Payson Off-Leash Dog Park, Bud Matson has done it all and with a smile on his face.
However, Matson said it was not for the fame that he got involved in racing. He said a simple ad in the paper asking for drivers caught his attention.
“They asked you to bring out your ‘34 Ford and they would pay you good money, well I thought, I can do that, I can turn left,” he said. So, Matson headed down to the track at 17 and was hooked.
In 1949, after attending college in Detroit, Matson won his first feature event in a 1934 coupe at the Parkington Pastures Speedway. From there, he raced full time for seven years.
He won four features and placed 12th in the national point standings during his more than 20-year career in racing and NASCAR.
He said he ultimately stopped racing after 13 of his closest friends were either severely hurt or killed while racing. Matson recalled a race on a Pennsylvania circle track where the sun blinded nearly everyone in the field and a 41-car pileup ensued. Matson barely made it around the wreck by weaving in and out of tumbling and flipping cars.
During one race, Matson nearly killed a photographer when his car went careening off the track where the photographer was standing. The man was thrown on the hood of the car, but escaped serious injury.
Today, Matson is officially retired from the sport and flying after losing most of hearing from racing.
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