WEEDSPORT, N.Y. – Harold Bunting, a standard-bearer in the southernmost reaches of Modified territory, has been selected as a 2020 inductee into the Northeast Dirt Modified Hall of Fame.

Driver inductions and special award ceremonies are scheduled for Thursday, July 23 at the Northeast Dirt Modified Museum and Hall of Fame on the grounds of Weedsport Speedway in New York.

Bunting earns the distinction of becoming the first Delaware driver to be inducted in the Hall of Fame, joining an elite group of dirt Modified champions from the United States and Canada who have been honored over the past 29 years.

The elder statesman from Delaware was an accomplished Kart racer before Harry Dutton gave him a shot in his dirt Mod at the now-defunct Little Lincoln Speedway in 1969. After a rocky start, Bunting clicked that first season, teamed with Harry and later his brother Harvey Dutton, winning at Little Lincoln, Georgetown and U.S. 13 speedways. In 1972, he picked up a ride in the Hitchens brothers No. 80, scoring twice at Little Lincoln.

Then came 1973, the year Bunting set the state of Delaware aflame.

Bunting was still racing the Hitchens Mod when Sportsman car owner Paul Whitelock approached him at the State Fairgrounds track in Harrington. Whitelock’s driver hadn’t shown up that day; would Bunting do the honors?

That impromptu pairing was the match that ignited an inferno: from June through October of ’73 Bunting won 11 times in the 8-cyl. Mod and an incredible 42 times in Whitelock’s 6-cyl. car, at all four Delaware dirt tracks – U.S. 13, Little Lincoln, Georgetown and the State Fairgrounds – for a whopping season total of 53 victories.

In 1974, Bunting went all in with the Whitelocks, driving father Floyd’s Modified and son Paul’s Sportsman to victory lane 51 times, winning the Mod title at Georgetown and 6-cyl. championships at both Georgetown and U.S. 13.

What sparked that wild success?

“1973 was the first year of the tubular cars – the Tobias chassis – and the beginning of new racing,” Paul Whitelock recollected. “Coming from Go-Karts, that type of car was a natural fit for Harold. He drove it the same way he drove the Karts.”

And it didn’t hurt that Bunting wasn’t afraid to get up on the wheel.

“He was a clean driver, but really determined,” Whitelock said. “He would worry any driver who was in front of him — running under them, outside them, right up on them — until he had them so confused they didn’t know where they were at.”

The team continued to reel off the wins through the middle of ’75. After scoring six in a row from late April through mid-June, Bunting had a bounty placed on his head. By then, the Whitelocks had become disillusioned with the sport, and sold out their entire operation to Dutch Warrington.

“They had real, real good cars,” Bunting said of the Whitelocks. “If they hadn’t gotten out of racing, I don’t know how many we would have won.”

But Bunting had landed in a good place. He won a pair of Fourth of July holiday races for his new car owner less than a week after the Whitelocks closed shop. And Dutch Warrington, also, was intent on keeping the team on top.

To that end, he was in negotiations with Will Cagle for a coveted Kenny Weld frame. Weld had just quit building Modifieds in 1976 so Cagle was asking for a premium price, which didn’t sit well with Warrington. Dutch drove up to Kenny’s shop — and by the time he left, Weld had agreed to build him a car.

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