Looking ahead to his 80th birthday next month, Lincoln County’s first champion stockcar driver Ernest “Buster” Grover of Wiscasset says he has enjoyed every bit of the life he has lived thus far.
Racing has always been an important part of Grover’s existence and he can easily support that fact with stories and photos of his stockcar racing days, before the beginning of the Wiscasset Speedway, at the time of its inception and extensively beyond.
Between 1955 and 1987, Grover was well known throughout the state as a stockcar racer who loved to compete and who was a force his challengers learned was something to be reckoned with on the race track. Grover’s motto, “You’ve got to be tough!” was painted on the front of his car.
Grover’s resiliency and skill repeatedly earned trophies and championships on the track and his mechanical expertise resulted in the ownership of the winning car in races throughout Maine. He is quick to credit his pit crew for their loyalty as well and he knows their vast, immeasurable commitment was an important part of his success.
“I began racing because I have always loved speed,” said Grover. “I was a little wild back then and I used to go very fast on the highway. I’d always loved racing anyway and thought I’d like to try it.”
Grover says his parents were not thrilled with the idea of their son racing stockcars but he refused to listen to their fears regarding potential dangers.
“I was in my early twenties at the time and I didn’t need their permission, so I did it anyway,” he smiles.
An Army veteran of the Korean war and no stranger to hard work, Grover had no interest in idling away his time. Stories of his youth reflect a rebellious young man who had been a worm digger for much of his life and someone who was looking for all the excitement he was convinced life had to offer.
Grover’s first opportunity to race stockcars occurred at Beech Ridge Speedway in 1954. He drove a 1939 Ford Coupe that he’d built himself and won the race hands down.
“I got racing fever and I just had to keep going,” he recalls.
In 1955, he married Elaine Merrill of Woolwich and the couple had two children, Danny and Gail.
Grover soon learned that his wife enjoyed racing as much as he did and was quite talented in the sport, sometimes even gaining victory when racing against her husband in the same heat. She began her own racing career in 1956, driving in races called Powder Puffs that allowed adventurous women to compete against each other on the race track.
Elaine Grover was the first woman to ever compete a full season with men and her debut within that realm occurred in 1979 when she entered a race in the men’s stockcar division under a false name at Oxford Plains Speedway.
“I put on a helmet and drove my car right in there with the men,” she says.
At the time, women were not allowed to drive in the same races as the men and Elaine Grover’s entry into the men’s side of the sport caused quite a commotion within the racing community.
“As I headed for the track, a man in the pit crew recognized that I was a woman and he went to the control tower to alert the racing authorities,” she said. “Within the pit area, I heard them announce, “There’s a woman in the line up! One man stood out there insisting that I stop immediately, but I drove right past him.”
Hearing the announcement and concerned that his wife may not be able to compete, Buster Grover says he immediately went to the tower. He remembers his words to those in charge as if it were yesterday.
“I told them that if she doesn’t race, ain’t nobody gonna race,” he said.
Elaine was allowed to race with the men, while at the same time, making her own mark in the history of Maine racing.
Wiscasset Speedway became a part of the stockcar racing community in 1969 when its first owner, Wilford Cronk, decided to bring the excitement of stockcar racing to Lincoln County. Buster Grover was there in the line up on opening day.
“I won eight features in a row,” he said, his excitement reflecting the thrill of the event nearly forty years ago. “I would’ve won more but my radiator was steaming and they gave me the black flag.”
Over the racing records of both Grovers continued to be impressive. Along with their frequent racing in Wiscasset, Buster and Elaine became regular competitors on racetracks throughout Maine, including those in Biddeford, Unity, Arundel, Bangor and Oxford.
The racing life was always exciting for them, but both remember times when the occurrence of injuries could have spelled disaster. One such circumstance happened during a race in Oxford when Buster’s friend, Ronnie Farnsworth asked him to drive his stockcar.
“My first time out that day I got third,” Grover said. “During the second heat, I was passing racer, Bob Babb when one of my tires blew and the car spun out of control and hit the wall. I had a helmet on but it didn’t fit me very good. As the car spun around and slammed against the wall, my head hit the wall too. I was checked out by a nurse, then fainted and was transported by ambulance to the hospital in Norway.”
Another opportunity for injury occurred when Grover was racing at Wiscasset Speedway one night.
“I believe it was in 1980. I was going so fast that I ended up on a ledge and couldn’t stop before hitting a pole,” he said. “I wasn’t hurt but all the lights went out and that was the end of racing for that night.”
For Buster and Elaine Grover, racing has been a way of life. They were both extremely serious about the sport and competed to win.
“My favorite car of all time was a 1957 Chevy,” Buster says. “I won the Race of Champions with it at Unity in 1968. In 1969, I was the first champion of Wiscasset Speedway and I was driving that car.”
Elaine says her favorite stockcar was a 1970 Nova and she is proud of the fact that she worked on the car herself.
The Grover’s son, Danny, now owner of Grover Auto and Tire in Wiscasset, shared racing fever with his parents and began competing in 1987 after returning to Maine from a Virginia college in 1983, eventually stacking up his own list of wins. He remembers the admiration he has always had for his father, feeling particularly proud of him when he was racing.
“One thing about my dad is that he has the ability to adapt to whatever vehicle he is in,” said Danny. “He has the combination that a winner needs. He was able to set up a stockcar and he was always able to adapt in whatever way necessary to get the job done.”
Danny says he noticed the loyalty of his father’s pit crew and knows they (Neil Greenleaf, Al Brawn and Fred Wallace) were devoted to his father’s success.
“The commitment those guys had was incredible,” he said. “They had a true and total ‘go for it’ attitude and their goal was to win.”
Buster and Elaine Grover haven’t felt the thrill of being in the driver’s seat of a stockcar for many years, yet their lives continue to revolve around a sport they love and one that is so much a part of who they are as individuals and as a couple. Racing memorabilia is seen throughout their home and photo albums are shared readily, accompanied by stories that promote both astonishment and laughter.
They continue to be a legendary part of the state’s racing community and were recently invited to participate in a popular Augusta car show, thrilling race goers by offering autographed pictures of themselves in their days of racing glory.
The Grovers will celebrate their 54th wedding anniversary on Feb. 19, the day before Buster turns 80. The racing lifestyle hasn’t eluded them by any means, but life has certainly taken on a slower pace than the one they kept while in the limelight.
“If there was a race anywhere, we’d drop everything on the spur of the moment and go,” Buster Grover said. “It was an obsession, we just couldn’t get enough and we still love it.”
