Joe Raymond drove this beautiful Chevrolet to the ARCA win at Dayton Speedway on July 15, 1979. It was the only ARCA win in his career.
---Photo from the collection of Ralph Bray Jr.
This is an early photo of Joe Raymond in what is likely a MARC/ARCA car at Dayton Speedway. It's an early photo; Joe is wearing a t-shirt and early style helmet. a "driver's uniform" from the late 1950's or very early 1960's. Notice that the car still has a door handle, lock and vent window. We'll continue to try to get more information about the date this photo was taken and the car Joe is sitting in.
July 1, 2008: Lee Raymond e-mailed in the identification on the car that Joe is driving in this photo. It's a 1965 Plymouth that Jerry Gara bought from the Walther family. The Walthers had purchased the car from Troy Ruttman and only wanted the engine out of it.
---Photo from the collection of Lynn Mitchell
I found the photo below on the web. It shows Troy Ruttman sitting in his 1964 Plymouth Belvedere at some unidentified track that's definitely not Dayton Speedway. This may well be the Plymouth that Jerry Gara ended up with after the Walthers bought the car from Ruttman, but kept only the engine. There's a lot of similarity including the paint scheme. While I don't know what number Joe Raymond/Jerry Gara had on the car, it's remarkable that the top of the number that can be seen is in the same location, color, and slant as the 8 on Ruttman's car. ----Mickey
