Greg Trammell #18 Melling Automotive Ford

    This may be the hardest blog post I've ever had to write, for the simple fact that Greg Trammell's racing career didn't last long at all~ His sole BGN start came in 1992 @ Darlington in the MarkIII Vans 200, driving the #11 Budweiser Ford co-owned by Junior Johnson and Charles Hardy~ Starting in 35th, he lasted only 18 laps before succumbing to handling issues, finishing 35th in the 36 car field~

    In 1989, Greg ran 4 ARCA series races for Harry Melling in the #91 Melling Racing Ford~ The first of these races was the 96 Rock 500k @ Atlanta where he started 15th and battled his way up to finish 4th~ His next race was the Champion Spark Plug 100 @ Pocono where he rolled off 3rd and came home 4th~

     He then ran the AC Spark Plug 100, also at Pocono, where he qualified 9th, and finished runner up to Bob Keselowski~ His final race of the 1989 season came in the Atlanta Journal 500k @ Atlanta, where he qualified 14th, and finished 23rd after crashing on lap 92~

                                                Greg Trammell's Racing Champions card~

    Greg attempted to qualify for the season opener @ Daytona in the #91 Melling Automotive Ford, but failed to make the field~ The remainder of the races he ran was in the #18~ His next attempt came in the 6th race of the season, the Champion Spark Plug 150 @ Pocono, where he started and finished in 3rd~

    He skipped the next 3 events, and his next start came again @ Pocono in the AC Spark Plug 150, where he started 4th and finished 3rd~ This was the first race he ever led, leading 11 laps~ He skipped the 11th race of the season, and next raced @ Michigan in the Michigan 200, where he qualified 5th, and finished 8th~ After skipping the next 5 races, he qualified 3rd in the Atlanta Journal ARCA 500k, leading 3 laps and finishing 8th~

For the 1991 season, Greg ran 1 race, the Atlanta ARCA 500k, where he started on the pole, led for 46 of the 204 laps, and won the race~ This was the final race of his ARCA career, and his only win~ He was 25 years old~

    After this event, and the one and done start he had in the BGN series, his racing career was done~ If he ran any races in lower divisions after 1992, I don't know of them~ He finished his ARCA career with 9 starts, 1 DNQ, 1 pole, 1, win, 6 top 5's, and 8 top 10's~ Pretty good stats for someone that just seemed to drop off the face of the earth~

                                          Greg Trammell #18 Melling Automotive Ford~

                                                               Click pics to enlarge~

    This car was basically a copy of Bill Elliott's Cup car with Melling Automotive as the sponsor instead of Coors~ I always thought Bill's red Coors car was one of the coolest looking cars on the track at the time, and basically think the same about this one~ I love the gold and blue striping and the gold rims~

    The car also seems to have a lot more shine to it than some of the other RC cars~ Red cars seemed to all have more shine to them than some of the others~ I was always a fan of the Ford cars that RC did back then, they were bigger and boxier, making you feel like you were getting more car for your money versus buying a Pontiac car, which seemed much smaller compared to the Fords~ This is one of my favorite RC cars, basically because I don't see how it got made since he didn't last long at all, and this was an ARCA car~

    I wish I knew what happened to Greg Trammell, I really do... but there just isn't any information on the guy, at least that I could find... and believe me, at this point, I've spent the last 4 hours searching for info for this post~ I was blown away when I couldn't even find a single picture of him on Google images~ The only thing you'll find is pics of this RC car, and 1 very, very small pic from a Youtube video that is extremely too small to use~

    It got me wondering if he was like the modern day Fred Lorenzen of his day, and just gave up racing to be with his family~ Whatever happened to him, there's still people like me out there that remember him, if for nothing more than his RC car~ I was able to find a couple ARCA races he ran on Youtube that I have posted below~ Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by for another Racing Champions review~

                                                             1990 AC Spark Plug 150~

                                                         1990 Michigan 200 (part 1)

                                                        1990 Michigan 200 (part 2)

                                                       1990 Michigan 200 (part 3)

                                                1990 ARCA Atlanta Journal 500k start~