By David G. Firestone
Sometimes in life, you have to part with something. Very rarely does it ever come back. This Stevie Reeves 1997 suit was one such example. I had to sell some of my stuff for reasons not worth getting into. Then, recently, as I browsed through eBay listings, I saw this suit, and was able to buy it back. I never actually featured this on The Driver Suit Blog before.
While his career as a spotter is his current occupation, having spotted for Paul Menard, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. during his 2004 Daytona 500 win, Stevie Reeves was also a driver. He raced a few races in Indycar, namely the 1998 VisionAire 500K at Charlotte, where he scored a top 10, and the 2000 Midas 500 Classic, Belterra Resort Indy 300, and Excite 500 at Alanta, Kentucky, and Texas, respectively.
1997 was his standout year in the Xfinity Series. That season, he raced in the #96 Big A Auto Parts Ford Thunderbird for Donald Laird. In 1997, he raced in 28 of the 30 races, and even scored a top 10 at the 1997 Food City 250, where he finished 7th. The rest of the season was rather unremarkable. During that season, he wore this Simpson firesuit. The suit shows light wear.The dual colored collar does not have a Velcro strap, and while there is a FORD logo embroidered on the left side, the right side is unadorned.
There is a Simpson warranty label sewn into the cowl.
On the right chest, there is a NASCAR logo embroidered, and two SIMPSON patches sewn into it. This suit was from an era where the placement of logos was just started to be enforced, so this was one suit that didn’t have proper logo placement.
The left chest features a YOUR LIFE VITAMINS logo, and a BUSCH logo embroidered into the red material.
The front torso features a large BIG A AUTO PARTS logo embroidered.
The suit has a blue and red belt with STEVIE REEVES embroidered in white.
The legs are in red and blue material with a white stripe up the side. There was clearly a lot of effort put in this suit.
The right shoulder epaulet is blue on white with GOODYEAR embroidered.
The right sleeve has white, blue, and red material. There is a CURB RECORDS logo embroidered on the upper white material, and there is nothing in television position.
The left shoulder epaulet is blue on red with GOODYEAR embroidered.
The left sleeve has blue, and red material. There is a SIMPSON patch sewn on the upper red material, and there is nothing in television position, and a red cuff.
The back of the suit doesn’t show wear.
While the back of the neck is unadorned, just below it is FUTURE SUIT 2 1943 embroidered in white. What exactly “Future Suit” means is still unclear, though it might be an inventory code.
The back torso features a large BIG A AUTO PARTS logo embroidered.
Next week, on the final traditional Friday Feature, I will discuss a Robert Pressley driver suit.
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