Ronald Bouchard
Born	(1948-11-23) November 23, 1948 (age 63) Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Awards	1981 Rookie of the Year voted into the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame (1988)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
160 race(s) run over 7 year(s)
Best finish	8th - 1982 Winston Cup Series season
First race	1981 Valleydale 500 (Bristol)
Last race	1987 Winston 500 (Talladega)
First win	1981 Talladega 500 (Talladega
Last win	1981 Talladega 500 (Talladega
Wins Top tens Poles 1 60 3

1983 racecar

1985 racecar

Ron Bouchard (born November 23, 1948 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, USA) is a former NASCAR driver who was the 1981 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year. His brother Ken Bouchard was the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year.

Local driving career[link]

Ron began racing career at Brookline Speedway as a substitute driver in 1963 by replacing the ill driver for his father's car. After high school he began racing in his father's car, and he rapidly moved up the ranks to late models at Seekonk Speedway. He claimed five consecutive track championships from 1967 to 1971. He began racing at other local tracks in the Camaro, and he was noticed by Bob Johnson.

Johnson quickly put Bouchard in his Modified car at the famous Stafford Speedway, and he won his first of his 35 career victories at Stafford in April 1972. He won the 1973 and 1979 track Modified championships.Bouchard also drove for Legendary car owners Bob Judkins (#2&#7)and also Len Boehler (#3)where he won numerous races at Stafford Speedway,Thompson Speedway,Seekonk Speedway,Waterford Speedbowl and Westboro Speedway.One of Bouchard's biggest modified victories came at Thompson Speedway driving Dick Armstrong's #1 in the Thompson 300 in 1980.

NASCAR career[link]

Ron began his NASCAR career in 1981 in the #47 J.D. Stacy Buick for owner Jack Beebe (Race Hill Farm team). He captured the 1981 NASCAR Rookie of the Year title even though he only raced in 22 of 31 events. He posted 12 Top 10 finishes in the 22 races, including his only career win in the Talladega 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Running third to Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte on the last lap, he swooped under both of them as they battled side-by-side out of the final turn. The three cars crossed the finish line nearly simultaneously, with Bouchard winning in a photo finish. After the race, Waltrip, who had thought Bouchard was a lap down, asked, "Where the hell did he come from?"

In 1982 Bouchard finished a career-high eighth in the final points standing with 15 Top 10 finishes in 30 races.

He ran full-time in 1983, 1984, and 1985. He finished between eleventh and sixteenth in the final points standing each of these years.

In 1986 he changed to the #98 Valvoline Pontiac for owner Mike Curb (Curb-Agajanian Motorsports). The team generally finished in the Top 20 when they completed a race, but they had 9 DNF's (did not finish) in their 17 events.

In 1987 he raced in the #1 Bull's Eye Barbecue Sauce Chevrolet for owner Hoss Ellington in five events. Their two finishes were eighth and twelfth. He has not raced in a NASCAR event since then.

Award[link]

In 1998 he was inducted into the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame in its inaugural class.

External links[link]

• Drivers statistics at racing-reference.info
• Ron's Biography

Ron Fournier (b.1963) is an American national political journalist currently of the National Journal. In June, 2010 Fournier left the Associated Press (AP) where he served as Washington bureau chief.

Fournier is a native of Detroit, Michigan. He attended the University of Detroit.

Fournier began his journalism career in 1985 at The Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Two years later, he moved to the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock, Arkansas. He stayed there for another two years before joining the Little Rock bureau of the AP in 1989. While there, he covered Bill Clinton during his final term as Governor. When Clinton was elected President, Fournier moved to the AP's Washington bureau.^[1]

Fournier left the AP in 2004 to take a Harvard Institute of Politics fellowship. During this period, he also co-wrote the book Applebee's America with Matthew Dowd, a Republican strategist, and Doug Sosnik, a Democratic strategist. In 2006, he took a position as editor-in-chief of a new Internet website called Hotsoup.com, which aimed to foster discussion on a number of topics including politics. The site failed to catch on, however, and Fournier returned to the AP in March 2007 as its Online Political Editor, after considering “a senior advisory role” with John McCain's presidential campaign.^[2]

In May 2008, Fournier was named the acting Washington bureau chief, replacing his "mentor" Sandy Johnson. Since taking over the position, Fournier has led a dramatic shift in the AP's policy, moving it away from the neutral and objective tone it had become known for and toward a more opinionated style that would make judgments when conflicting opinions were presented in a story.^[3]

On August 23, 2008, following U.S. Senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's announcement of his selection of Senator Joe Biden as a running mate, Fournier wrote a widely circulated piece titled "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence".^[4] A Washington Monthly columnist described the piece as "mirror[ing] the Republican line with minimal variation".^[5] Editor & Publisher noted that Fournier's article "gained wide linkage at the Drudge Report, Hot Air and numerous other conservative sites...."^[6]

While investigators for the House Oversight Committee were looking into the death of Pat Tillman, they uncovered an email from Fournier to Karl Rove encouraging him to "keep up the fight."^[7] Critics such as Eric Boehlert have lambasted Fournier for his apparent bias.^{[citation needed]}

Fournier has won the Society of Professional Journalists' 2000 Sigma Delta Chi Award for coverage of the United States presidential election, 2000. He is also a three-time winner of the White House Correspondents' Association Merriman Smith award.

References[link]

1. ^ Ron Fournier named chief of AP's Washington bureau
2. ^ Calderone, Michael (2008-07-30). "One of Fournier's job options: McCain". Politico. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=70AFE0F1-3048-5C12-001A56872008C572. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
3. ^ Calderone, Michael (2008-07-14). "Is Fournier saving or destroying the AP?". Politico. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1DA639E4-3048-5C12-0010F30E475931F7. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
4. ^ Fournier, Ron (August 23, 2008). "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence". Associated Press. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080823/ap_on_el_ge/veepstakes_analysis. Retrieved 2008-08-23. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ Benen, Steve (August 23, 2008). "Fournier Is At It Again". Political Animal (Washington Monthly). http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_08/014385.php. Retrieved 2008-08-23. 
6. ^ "MoveOn.org Targets AP's Fournier for Alleged Pro-McCain Bias". Editor & Publisher. August 23, 2008. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003842038 
7. ^ "AP's Ron Fournier To Karl Rove: "Keep Up The Fight"". Mother Jones. July 14, 2008. http://motherjones.com/mojo/2008/07/aps-ron-fournier-karl-rove-keep-fight 

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2011)

Joe Bouchard (born Joseph Bouchard, 9 November 1948, in Watertown, New York) was the original bassist for Blue Öyster Cult.^[1] He grew up in Clayton, New York. He joined Soft White Underbelly, the group that would become Blue Öyster Cult, as a bassist in the summer of 1970, although he had already been jamming and performing occasionally with the band for a few years.

Originally a guitar player, Bouchard took up bass for the formative BÖC after the departure of Andy Winters. Bouchard is skilled on many instruments including keyboards and trumpet.

Bouchard's songwriting contributions often dealt with otherworldly themes, such as "Nosferatu" and "Light Years of Love" but Bouchard's signature piece was most definitely "Hot Rails To Hell."

Bouchard left Blue Öyster Cult in 1986, and since then has worked with several musical projects, including the Spencer Davis Group, and appeared on records by Deadringer^{[disambiguation needed ]} (with Neal Smith & Dennis Dunaway), Fabienne Shine and his own X Brothers.

In the last few years he completed his masters degree in music, and recently welcomed the new release of a CD with his band, BDS (Bouchard, Dunaway, Smith) with Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith of Alice Cooper Group and Deadringer. He also currently teaches at a number of preparatory school academies in Connecticut. He recently performed with his Washington Montessori School Acoustic and Rock band. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity.

He is married to Sara (née Pinckney). They have two daughters and live in Granby, Connecticut.

In 2009, he released his first solo album, entitled Jukebox in my Head.

He is the brother of former Blue Öyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard. Albert and Joe, along with Dennis Dunaway [original Alice Cooper Band bass player]play live as 'Blue Coup', performing songs from both alice Cooper's and BOC's early years, as well Blue Coup released an album in 2011. Joe recently released a new solo album "Tales From The Island", in which he performs every instrument! The songs have been written half on his own and half contributed by artist / friend John Elwood Cook.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Joe Bouchard's web page

http://www.travellersintime.com/UniversalWheels/bouchardinterview.html

Richard Crawford (born July 26, 1958)^[1] is a race car driver who drives the #73 SUPERSEAL Chevrolet Silverado for Tagsby Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Crawford is the current record holder for the most NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races competed in with more than 325. He is a regular weekly guest on The Morning Drive on Sirius NASCAR Radio, Channel 128. On March 2011 Rick Crawford entered a multi-year contract to be the promoter and manager at Mobile International Speedway, His home track, in Irvington (Mobile), Alabama.

Early career[link]

Crawford began his racing career as a short-track racer in the southeastern United States. He won the 1989 running of the prestigious annual short track Snowball Derby race.^[2] He also won the track championship at Five Flags Speedway in 1981 and 1984, and won the championship at Mobile International Speedway in 1981, 1982, and 1984. After that, he moved to the Slim Jim All Pro Series, where he collected sixty-one top tens, and earned five victories. In 1993 and 1994, he attempted four Winston Cup Series races in the #84, but did not qualify for any of them.

Truck Series[link]

In 1997, Crawford moved to the Craftsman Truck Series with his Circle Bar team. He qualified for every race, had ten top-tens, a top 5 at Texas Motor Speedway and finished 12th in the points. He was also runner-up to Kenny Irwin, Jr. for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year. The next season, he picked up his first career win at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Unfortunately, the team struggled to find consistency, with only five top-ten finishes and he dropped to eighteenth in the standings. Crawford started 1999 with two consecutive top-tens, but only wound up fourteenth in the points, scoring ten top-tens and four top fives.

In 2001, Crawford finished 8th in points, his first top-ten points finish, he would earn sixteen top tens and ten top fives. The 2002 season would prove to be Crawford's most successful to date, although winless for the season he had 17 top-ten finishes, a career high 12 top five finishes, two poles (at Dover and Phoenix), and finished second in the standings only 46 points behind champion Mike Bliss. 2003 saw him grab his second victory, at the Florida Dodge Dealers 250, in a memorable three-wide race to finish line at Daytona International Speedway. He finished the season seventh in points with 16 top tens and 10 top fives.

In 2004 in his first race after a massive crash at Atlanta Motor Speedway, in which Tina Gordon and Hank Parker, Jr. were also involved, he picked up a win at Martinsville Speedway. He would finish the season with 9 top tens and 4 top fives, and fell to 12th in points. Despite a win at Loudon in 2005, Crawford finished seventeenth in points, mainly due to missing the first race of his Truck career after suffering injuries, ironically while practicing for the Built Ford Tough 225. Boris Said, who was scheduled to be a guest on the Speed Channel's race coverage, was hired to drive the truck. While he wrecked later in the race, he returned to the booth to cover the rest of the race, as the late Neil Bonnett once did at Talladega Superspeedway in 1993 after taking a wild ride into the tri-oval. He did score two poles at Atlanta and Martinsville and had 11 top tens and 3 top fives.

For the 2006 season Crawford had four top-fives and ten top-ten finishes including a win on August 4 at O'Reilly Raceway Park, finishing 9th in the final standings. Rick had a consistent year in 2007 racking up 11 top 5 finishes, 18 top 10's and a near win at Mansfield Motorsports Park in route to a 5th place standing in the points championship. The eighteen top ten finishes would be a career high to date. In 2008 Crawford put together another solid season with thirteen top tens and seven top fives and a pole at Texas. He would end the season seventh in points. In 2009, now age 50, Crawford would again finish in the top ten in points at 10th. He scored seven top tens and three top fives and would win the pole at Martinsville for the second time in his career.

Crawford would start the 2010 season with a great deal of uncertainty. Long time sponsor Circle Bar Motel and RV Park would cut back their sponsorship of the team dramatically and Crawford stated that he was unsure how many races they would be able to run without a new sponsor.^[3] He would run the first four races of the season with Circle Bar, scoring two top tens. However, prior to Kansas Crawford announced that he would not race for Circle Bar in the #14 truck and would instead race in the Ray Hackett Racing #76 truck with sponsorship from SUPERSEAL Construction Products. This would be the first race in his record 327 Camping World Truck Series starts that he would not be in the #14 and would not be racing under Circle Bar Racing. Crawford would qualify for that race 15th and finish 31st after an accident going for the lead. In August, Crawford would take yet another unfamiliar step in his career as he would join forces with Tagsby Racing to race in the EnjoyIllinois.com 225 at Chicagoland Speedway. This would be the first race in his career that he would race in a Chevrolet truck. Crawford would earn his 3rd top ten finish in 6 races with an 8th place finish in the race. He ran in two more races with Tagsby to close out the season.

Crawford attempted to race with Tagsby Racing and make his 12th consecutive start in the season opening race at Daytona in 2011, but failed to qualify. Before 2011, Crawford was one of only 3 drivers to compete in all Camping World Truck Series races at Daytona.

Crawford currently is manager and promoter of Mobile International Raceway, and will attempt the 2012 season-opening race at Daytona with Tagsby Racing.^[4]

Legacy[link]

Crawford does hold the current record for most starts in the Camping World Truck Series. He raced in 210 consecutive races before missing the 2005 Built Ford Tough 225 race at Kentucky due to injuries sustained from a hard crash in practice. He had not missed a race since that date until failing to qualify at Daytona in February 2011. Prior to 2011, Crawford was one of the few drivers in the history of the sport with more than 50 starts who has never raced in any major series in NASCAR other than the Truck Series. However, that statistic was ended in 2011, when Crawford made his Nationwide Series debut driver for Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing at Chicagoland Speedway.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Rick Crawford at Racing Reference
• Rick Crawford at NASCAR.com