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| RICHARD
“THE GASMAN” GRIFFIN by Norm Bogan |
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Note: This story appeared in Flat Out Magazine's 2002 Champions Issue. Due to size constraints, much of the story was edited. Below is the complete version as penned by the author, Norm Bogan. Thirty-nine years ago in the west Texas town of El Paso, the “Gasman” arrived. For the first few years, Richard lived a mundane life in Silver City, New Mexico, just up the slope from the famed “Badlands of the Old West”. The early years were spent like most boys, going hunting and fishing, riding bikes and of course, trying to one-up each other with daring fetes. Richard was just your average kid. Approaching his teens, Griffin wanted to step up from a bicycle to a motorcycle, expanding his ability and gaining more speed. Finally, Richard’s parents relented at thirteen and Gasman’s racing career got underway, racing flat track motorcycles at Deming, New Mexico. At fifteen, Richard bought a Street Stock and started racing on Friday at Las Cruces, New Mexico and Saturday at El Paso, capturing the championship as a rookie. Griffin celebrated early success moving up to the Modified class for the next two years and collected the championships at both Las Cruces and El Paso. Richard dominated that second year running in 81 features and winning 69 of them. Racing a number of shows at Albuquerque, the family befriended local sprint car driver, Mark High. Griffin’s parents eventually purchased a car from High and Richard began racing sprinters at seventeen, with a 377” steel block racer at both Las Cruces and El Paso. Occasionally, the team would also venture to Manzanita to run with the likes of the Gasman’s hero, Bubby Jones and many of the legends from CRA and ARA. In 1983, longtime Phoenix car owner, Lowell Carstens tabbed Richard to wheel his famous sprinter. This allowed Griffin to move into big time sprint car racing and make his first visit to Knoxville. In 1984, Griffin claimed the SCOA championship while driving for Carstens. He and Lowell were together for nearly three years, with a major competitor being another young open wheel driver, Billy Boat. Richard relocated to Phoenix during this time and attended a trade school, studying refrigeration and also began taking flying lessons. 1986 found Griffin driving for Bill Hardy and scoring his first CRA victory. The next year, Richard teamed with Tom Klein, running mostly on the World of Outlaws circuit for two years. While Griffin stumped for a stronger WOO ride, nothing developed, until old friend and chassis builder, Rick Stewart got Richard together with Bob Smith, where he raced until losing the ride to Lealand McSpadden. In 1989, Gasman and Klein once again teamed to run Bill Tempero’s American Indy Series circuit. Campaigning a two-year old March chassis that Roberto Guererro had run with CART for the Machinist’s Union, Richard scored one win, finished second in points to Robbie Unser and won the Rookie title. Tom Klein was the person who coined the name “Gasman”, because Griffin is a “stand on the gas” kind of guy. Griffin then returned to Silver City and attended Western New Mexico University, becoming acquainted with a pretty coed named Charlotte, whom he wed in 1990. During this time, Richard worked for a company, distributing oil and gas products and propane, owned in part by Griffin’s Dad, “Doc”. Richard functioned as the Fleet Manager for the dispatching, plus the maintenance and upkeep of delivery trucks. When the corporation dissolved and Doc was left with a downsized business, many of the previous customers were left without the service they had enjoyed over the years, so in 1991, Richard and Charlotte, wanting to stay in the Silver City area, came up with enough money to buy one used truck and some propane tanks to try and meet the needs of the former customers. Griffin’s Propane, Inc. has been successful and grown to a fleet of 50 trucks, with thirty-five employees and locations in Silver City and Las Cruces, New Mexico plus Safford, Arizona. Richard now flies his Cessna 210 to each location on a weekly basis, to look after the business. Many weekends during racing season will find Gasman and Doc flying into an airport near that week’s venue. Now the second reason for the moniker “Gasman” is that he is the biggest propane distributor in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona. In 1990, Griffin teamed with Pepper Fite to campaign his Ford powered sprinter with the California Racing Association (CRA) until the CRA disbanded early in the 1994 season. Richard then replaced Lealand McSpadden in the famed Tamale Wagon in 1995, running with the SCRA. When Lealand retired after winning the Owner’s and Driver’s title in 1995, Griffin was again asked to step up and replace him with the Ron Chaffin Motorsports team. The Gasman joined this strong team with adequate funding from owner Ron Chaffin’s Madera Produce Company and the expertise of Crew Chief Bruce Bromme Jr., many-times Mechanic of the Year recipient. 1996 found Richard vying for the driving championship against the veteran racer, Ron Shuman. At the season’s final race, Griffin flipped his own car early, causing damage too severe to repair for the evening. After a second flip in a borrowed car later, the medical team would not clear “Gasman” to drive, leaving him a disappointing second in points. The following year, Richard had a slight lead and was ahead on the last lap of the season, when Shuman came around the outside of turn four and brought another car with him. Griffin lost the title by one point, an event he notes as the biggest disappointment of his career. The “Gasman” did secure the Owner’s championship for Chaffin each year. The Chaffin/Griffin/Bromme team has dominated SCRA since that time, except for 2001, when the Harlan Willis and Cory Kruseman team edged out Griffin’s team after a work related injury caused Richard to miss a couple of races that year. The team came back strong in 2002 to reclaim the SCRA Owner and Driver Championships, along with their third straight NWWC Owner and Driver titles. Griffin notes that the four SCRA driving titles are the finest accomplishment in his career. Richard says that the team is running a John-Boy Chassis powered by Shaver engines. Crew Chief Bruce Bromme Jr. has surrounded himself with competent dedicated crewmembers, some going back to the Bromme glory days with Dean Thompson. Gary and Mike Tanaka along with Eric Kaufman, Carl Hogan, Dean Buckley and Dr. Matthew Lotysch, M.D. take care of all the preparation details. The Gasman has a combined total feature wins with CRA/SCRA of fifty-eight. Fourteen were accumulated while campaigning with CRA and forty-four have been tallied driving the Chaffin Motorsports car with SCRA. Richard Griffin says that at this point in life, he is happy running the sprint cars with this team. As a younger man, Richard wanted to go to Indy, but the opportunity didn’t come about and now, with an established business, parents nearby and a seven year-old daughter, Lindsay at home, Gasman is enjoying life and being settled in New Mexico. When asked how he would feel about his daughter racing, he stated that she already handles a quad quite well and when they went to watch his nephews race bicycles, Lindsay tried them out and was pretty good at it. Richard said he would support her if she were inclined to go into racing. Maybe there is a “Gaswoman” waiting in the wings. |
