As a youngster Ward had raced go-karts but got bored and gave it up at age 16 before spending the next three years at Hargrave Military Academy. Jeff, meanwhile, had become the race car driver in the family, with help from his father. Likewise, John had helped nurture Ward's love of the outdoors, spending countless hours hunting, fishing, and canoeing down rivers.
Ward, curious about Jeff's racing success, paid a visit to South Boston Speedway in '85 and was offered a chance to drive a Mini Stock one week, then a Street Stock the next. "Once I got in a Street Stock, everything else came second," he recalls.
Ward Burton, avid outdoorsman, was quickly becoming Ward Burton, race car driver. In 1986 he moved to Late Models at South Boston and had enough success to land a full-time ride in the NASCAR Busch Series in 1990. By '94 he was running Winston Cup full-time for car owner A.G. Dillard before landing a job with Bill Davis' Cup team in the latter part of '95. He and Davis each earned their first career win that season at Rockingham.
Protecting The LandBigger things had arrived for Burton, fulfilling the sense of destiny he had felt for much of his life. The passion for the outdoors never left him, however. His success enabled him to begin acquiring land in The Cove, including a large tract owned by the family of a childhood friend. More purchases have followed.
Those initial purchases led to the development of the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation in '96. The foundation works with youth groups-via 4-H programs, schools, the Boy Scouts of America, etc.-to foster education about natural resources. The goal is to ensure that natural resources are preserved through education and by acquiring tracts of land to be protected in a way similar to what the foundation has done with The Cove, where wildlife management techniques are in place through habitat management.
Ward is also working with a group of fellow conservationists who run Return to Nature, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating school children about natural resources. Return to Nature, which will eventually be under the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation umbrella, reached 32,000 school-aged children during a recent school year.
"This whole program is not about me, it's about giving back to the next generation," Ward says. "In a hundred years, I won't be around, none of us will, but I want to leave something so my children's children and other children can enjoy the same things I did growing up."
The Foundation is just one more place where you can see a part of Ed Burton's legacy, where one more piece of Ed can be found in his grandson.
"I've got a lot of old manuscripts where he wrote to the game department complaining about this or that or advising them, whether it was a river issue or whatever," Ward says. "It wasn't until I got to where the racing brought me more into the forefront of some issues, with people wanting me to get involved, that I really started looking into my grandfather's involvement in outdoor and environmental issues. That's when I realized that this was handed down to me."
Want To Help?
The Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, like other nonprofit organizations, depends on private donations to further its cause. Contributions, payable to the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation, can be mailed to P.O. Box 519, Halifax, VA 24558.
For more information about the Foundation and its programs, contact executive director Dennis Campbell at 540/529-2202.
Trivia Contest
Hey, Ward Burton fans, correctly answer the trivia question below for the chance to win a die-cast replica of Ward Burton's Caterpillar Dodge, personally autographed by Burton.
Q: Ward won his first career Winston Cup race at Rockingham in 1995. His second career win came in the 2000 season at which track?
A. Las Vegas
B. Darlington
C. Atlanta
D. Pocono
Send your answer to: Stock Car Racing, 5555 Concord Pkwy. S., Ste. 328, Concord, NC 28027. Die-cast winners will be drawn randomly from the pool of readers who correctly answer the question.