Article from the May 21,1964 Anson Record about the upcoming race at Charlotte where the writer used the ages of the drivers as the topic instead of just listing the entries.
How does it compare to today?
Those young guns were making their moves onto the scene. that's cool Dennis.
I think today's fans would be just as interested to read that kind of info.
Used to be the entry lists and radio info all contained the driver's name, hometown and car #, as well as the car owner name and sponsor. Now you're lucky to see the driver name and car number flash on a screen in the tv openings.
Very interesting stuff, Dennis.
The 5th World 600 would have been the 1964 edition.......everybody remembers the 7th lap crash of Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, and Fireball Roberts.
That's the one Bobby. I found an article that described the accident that was printed when it looked like he was improving and would be granting interviews soon. We now know how it turned out so I did not post the article.
Iremember as a kid reading those encouraging articles and how sad it was when the Fireball took a turn for the worse. To me, his death was every bit as tragic as was Dale Earnhardt's.
Robert, I agree. Fireball's death was as tragic as Dale Earnhardt's. At the time of his death, like Dale, Fireball was a NASCAR mega superstar. Also, like the Earnhardt situation, tremendous safety advances resulted from Fireball's death, most significantly, the fuel cell, and the mandatory implementation of fire-proof suits.
Auto racing has rarely seen a more horrible time than the 1964 season. NASCAR lost Joe Weatherly, Fireball Roberts, and Jimmy Pardue and the 1964 Indy 500 claimed Eddie Sachs, and Dave McDonald. Unfortunately 1964 was not the grim-reaper's last act, Billy Wade and promising rookie, Larry Thomas, were both killed in the 1965 pre-season. Very dark days,, indeed.
