MC ANDERSON
12/07/1936 - 05/06/1999
M.C. Anderson was the quintessential self-made man. According to local legend, he started with half-ownership in a single dump truck, and from that, he developed a sprawling construction business. He brought a state-of-the-art engine building facility to Garden City, an expensive proposition even in the late 1970s and early '80s. He hired a succession of drivers, from Buddy Baker to Benny Parsons to Cale Yarborough, who ran with varying degrees of success. His team debuted on the Sprint CUP circuit in 1976 at the World 600 at Charlotte, N.C. with driver Sam Sommers at the wheel. Sommers would start 23rd and finish 24th. He had a season best finish of ninth at Atlanta after starting on the pole (pic). Three all the years Anderson had a race team; he always ran the same number and had the same blue and white colors (as these pics show) except for the two years Yarborough drove the car. 1977 saw Sommers run 22 races and post two top five finishes. He also had eight top tens and a pole. He finished 21st in points. Buddy Baker was tabbed to drive the car in 1978 and in 19 event Baker posted two top five finishes just getting beat out of the teams first win by two car lengths by Cale Yarborough at Talladega. Baker posted eight Top 10 finishes. In 1979 Benny Parsons drove
the first full season for Anderson. He grabbed two wins. The first ever win for the organizations came in the Holly farms 400 in October at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Parson's started fifth but the event saw Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip lead the majority of the first 300 laps. On lap 309 Parson caught and passed Waltrip and Allison as they battled for the top spot. On lap 311 Waltrip moved Allison to grab the second spot; and Allison didn't like the way he got roughed up; so Allison put Waltrip into the wall and out of contention. Parson would lead the remainder of the race and edge out Allison by 1/2 a car length to grab the checkers. The second win came at the season's final race at Ontario CA. Yarborough won the pole with Allison starting second and Parson's third. The top three starters
battled for the lead all day along with Buddy Baker. The four combined to lead 167 of the 200 laps. The final restart happened just ten laps from the end with Yarborough leading, Parson was able to get the lead with four laps to go and hung on to win. Allison finished second with Yarborough third. Parsons finished fifth in the points chase. 1980 had Parsons win three more times with the biggest win coming in the world 600 at Charlotte. He also backed up his win from Ontario winning again in 1980. Anderson hired Cale Yarborough in 1981 wanting to run for
the Cup Championship. Having won the Championship for 1977-1979 Yarborough was more interested in racing part time and not concerning himself with racing every week. Clearly two people wanting to go in two different directions. The shame was that Anderson easily had the equipment to claim the CUP Championship. Cale had opened a few car dealerships the previous year and was more concerned about selling cars than driving them. Yarborough competed in 18 races in the 1981 season in the #27 Valvoline Buick driving for Anderson, winning his
fourth Firecracker 400 and his fifth Coca-Cola 500 at Atlanta, finishing in the top-ten a total of six times. Yarborough competed in just 16 races in 1982, winning three, including his hometown Southern 500 for the fifth and final time. In mid-September, Anderson announced he was closing his operation at the end of the season. He made the decision after driver Cale Yarborough, winner of three races this season, would not agree to compete for the Grand National driving title in 1983. Anderson, owner of a large construction company bearing his name, released the three-time Cup champion following the season final Atlanta Journal 500. Yarborough had already said he would drive for Harry Ranier's Cup team the following year. At the end of the 1982 season Anderson agreed to sell part of his racing team to three-time National Hot Rod Association World Champion Raymond Beadle. Shortly after he pulled the plug on his racing dream, he learned Richard Petty was shopping for a ride and was interested in him. But having given his word on quitting, he wasn't going to go back, even after The King called personally. And thus the team shut down and Beadle took over. (See owner Raymond Beadle)
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