Charles Kendall Clapp (born April 25, 1939) is an American businessman, motorsports executive and entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder of the NASCAR Truck Series, chairman of the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame, and as a driving force in NASCAR's expansion on the West Coast. He is also an executive at numerous companies, holding various positions.
Clapp was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. After being introduced to the motorsports industry by racing promoters Margo Burke and Bob Barkhimer alongside car owner Cos Cancilla, Clapp began his motorsports career in the 1960s, promoting local racing events in California. After working various jobs in the early half of the 1970s, he was prospected by Burke and NASCAR executive Bill France Jr. to work as an executive in NASCAR and as the CEO of Bob Barkhimer Associates (now known as California Auto Racing Speedways) in 1977. While working for NASCAR, he helped organize several major projects for the organization, primarily projects on the West Coast and outside of the United States. In addition, he helped stage local events under California Auto Racing Speedways. Clapp retired from NASCAR in 1999, remaining as a consultant for the company until 2019. Since his retirement, he has served as an executive in multiple hall of fame organizations, racetracks, and other non-racing related businesses.
Clapp is regarded as an influential figure in NASCAR's expansion from its traditional Southeastern base. During his time in NASCAR, Clapp played a key leadership role in developing NASCAR's reach outside of the American Southeast, organizing races on the American West Coast, Australia, Japan, and Mexico. Over his career, Clapp promoted thousands of single-day motorsports events across multiple series, including national touring events and local racing events.
Early life Charles Kendall Clapp was born on April 25, 1939, in Oakland, California. He is named after Charles Hirsch, an Oklahoma City department store chain owner who offered Clapp's mother a job, assisted her financially, and offered her a place to live when she was living in poverty during her childhood. His father, Robert Harmon Clapp (1905–1989), was an accountant for Western Electric, and his mother, Macil Omega Clapp (née Allison, 1906–1982), was a clothing line designer and the owner of Macil's Fashion, a chain of women's apparel stores. He described his parents as "pretty religious, and they were conservative, but they were not narrow-mined or overly strict". He additionally described his father as a "political person", having been a Democrat supporter until the election in 1948 in which Harry S. Truman won; as someone who opposed Truman, he became a "staunch Republican" afterward.
Early in his life, Clapp was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. In December 1943, Clapp moved from Oakland to a rural farm in Walnut Creek; according to Clapp, the family moved due to fears of potential attacks on key military bases in the Bay Area during World War II, including Mare Island Naval Shipyard and Naval Station Treasure Island. After WWII ended, Clapp worked as a paperboy while attending elementary school. As a paperboy, he often stopped at Duke's Polly Hill Service, a car service station in Walnut Creek that often attracted local racecar drivers. Fred Erickson, the son of Duke's Polly Hill Service owner Duke and a racecar driver, introduced Clapp to auto racing and convinced Clapp and his father to attend a local race on October 7, 1951, at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds. After attending two more races: a NASCAR Grand National Series (now known as the NASCAR Cup Series) event on the 14th at Oakland Speedway and a AAA Championship Car event at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds on the 21st, Clapp stated that "I knew, somehow, I was going to be a part of this. All I needed to figure out was how I fit into the picture."
In 1953, while on a trip to San Jose with his mother, Clapp visited the offices of Bob Barkhimer Associates, meeting motorsports executive Margo Burke, who eventually became his mentor. Burke, who had no children, would eventually state that Clapp and NASCAR executive Bill France Jr. were "her children". In 1954, crafting a fake ID card, he applied to become a licensed NASCAR mechanic; after mailing his fake ID to NASCAR headquarters, NASCAR accepted the application. In the early 1950s, Clapp also met and later worked for stock car owner and mechanic Cosimo "Cos" Cancilla; Clapp described working for Cancilla as "an enormous impact on my life". As a racing crewman, Clapp worked for various drivers and teams. In addition to working for Cos, he was a part of the championship team of Danny Letner for the 1955 NASCAR Pacific Coast Grand National Division, a crew member at the 1956 Southern 500 for Harold Hardesty, and a crewman and qualifying substitute driver for Bob Keefe at the 1958 Crown America 500 at Riverside.
Clapp attended Acalanes High School, graduating in June 1957. While at Acalanes, he played gridiron football, baseball, and basketball for the school. After graduating, he went to Diablo Valley College before enlisting in the United States Navy in 1958, While serving in the Navy, he was stationed at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, where he remained for all of 1959. In February 1960, he was transferred to the USS Duncan. Clapp described himself as a "good military man", remarking that "I figured if I had to do something, I might as well do it to the best of my ability." He was able to be discharged from the Navy early in September 1960 after a conversation with LTJG Charlie Hawkins, one of Clapp's superiors, who successfully convinced commanding officers for his early discharge.
Business and promotional career
Early ventures
After his discharge from the Navy, Clapp took a job with the Weatherly Motor Company, a Chrysler and Dodge dealership, in Ventura, California. However, after five weeks with the company, he was let go after only selling one Chrysler within the period for less than the invoice price. After becoming friends with NAPA Auto Parts businessman Hubert Catlin, he took a job at Catlin's business in nearby Oxnard as an outside salesman. He left the job in the summer of 1961 to work as a general manager at his mother's business, Macil's Fashion, which had recently expanded to Lafayette. He described working at Macil's Fashion as "a lot like going to college. I learned so much about product, inventory control, and, importantly, how to manage people... I learned how to sell... That period made a businessman out of me. I believe that." He worked at the company until 1968, when the company was sold. During his time at Macil's Fashion, he reconnected with Cancilla and became friends with football player and eventual racing executive Les Richter; Richter would eventually become lifelong business partners and one of Clapp's closest friends, working on several major NASCAR projects together during their business careers.
In 1964, Clapp, his father, and retail store manager Chuck Schillings acquired the exclusive rights to sell The Beatles-branded pom-poms after seeing the band's popularity after their February 9, 1964, appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. According to Clapp, before the collaboration, Schilling initially bought "fuzzy fur balls" with a clip to sell as shoe ornaments, which did not sell well. The three, forming the Beatle Pom-Pom Company, sold "more than 100,000" pom-poms in 1964, which Clapp stated was "more than we'd initially hoped for, but certainly less than we envisioned once we decided to go ahead".
Motorsports career beginnings Clapp promoted his first motorsports events in 1966, collaborating with fellow Acalanes High School alummus and personal friend Gary Gorman to promote NASCAR-sanctioned races at Vallejo Speedway. Gorman, who was not a motorsports fan, joined Clapp because "it was a nice way of extending our friendship". The first event the duo ran occurred on July 31 for a NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model (now known as the ARCA Menards Series West) race; despite hot temperatures and a large amount of discounted tickets sold for the event, the race drew a crowd of 3,700. According to Clapp, both he and Gorman each earned profits of $3,000 (adjusted for inflation, $) from the event. The duo ran more events during the year at Vallejo that achieved further success, including an event on Labor Day weekend that made a profit of $17,000. Clapp and Gorman continued their partnership until 1968, running races at various Northern California racetracks, including Vallejo Speedway, Altamont Speedway, Shasta Speedway, and the Alameda County Fairgrounds. After a race at Vallejo in May 1968, Gorman stepped away from auto racing promoting due to a lack of interest; the two remained lifelong friends afterward.
After Macil's Fashion was sold in 1968, Clapp began to pursue a career in motorsports more heavily. Starting in 1967, with the help of San Francisco Chronicle writer Gordon Martin, Clapp began discussions with the owners of a project of what would eventually become Sears Point International Raceway (now known as Sonoma Raceway), which led to the owners giving him an offer to become a vice president and consultant at the track. The following year, Clapp signed a long-term lease to host United States Auto Club (USAC) and NASCAR-sanctioned races at Sears Point International Raceway (now known as Sonoma Raceway), which at the time was under construction. With the facility now complete in 1969, Clapp was hired as the vice president and director of public relations at Sears Point in October. His time at Sears Point was brief and lasted for under a year before the track was shut down in May 1970 due to financial issues. During his time at Sears Point, he took credit for canceling a concert at the facility in what would eventually be known as the infamous Altamont Free Concert, which was originally set to be held at Sears Point but was cancelled and moved on short-notice to Altamont Speedway. According to Clapp, he was convinced to call his superiors to argue the cancellation of the concert after witnessing a 13-year-old woman with a newborn baby, which was accepted. After the track's shutdown, he was tasked by Filmways to try and sell the track to potential buyers for six months; however, all refused the asking price of $7.5 million set by the track's owners. Clapp later described the asking price as "very optimistic on the part of Filmways".
After his departure from Sears Point, Clapp began to heavily consider a job offer from Russ Goebel of auto racing newspaper Autoweek, which he had previously rejected due to his job at Sears Point. He accepted it in 1970, with his position "combin[ing] marketing, looking into potential new deals, and thinking about ways to more strongly present our publication to the public and to the industry". During his time at Autoweek, he played a key role in increasing its publication from 50,000 to 77,000 within the span of a year. He left the company in 1972 after internal conflicts with the company's management and after the company moved its operations to Sparks, Nevada. After turning down separate offers to work for Bob Barkheimer Associates and later the Atlanta International Raceway (now known as the Atlanta Motor Speedway) to become their president, Clapp was hired as a sales manager at Varner–Ward Leasing, a vehicle leasing company, shortly after his departure from Autoweek. He remained at Varner–Ward until 1974, after the company had gone through consolidation due to financial troubles. Additionally, Clapp wanted to go back to motorsports business full-time. While working at Varner–Ward, Clapp strengthened his friendship with future NASCAR president Bill France Jr., which Clapp credited to an renewed friendship starting at an August 1973 NASCAR race at Laguna Seca.