June 18, 1967: RP is King of the Rock

Richard Petty wins the Carolina 500 at Rockingham.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/06/june-18-this-day-in-petty-history-part.html

Contemporary race fans don't know how good they've got it with event scheduling and fan amenities. To recall the Grand National circuit once ran Rockingham, Atlanta's Dixie 500, Daytona's Firecracker 400, the Talladega 500 and Darlington's Southern 500 all during the summer and ALL during the day... whew, I'm sweating just thinking about it.

I never had the opportunity to catch a true, Labor Day Southern 500 (though I did go a November race at the time thought to be the final Southern 500). Any my trips to Rockingham and Atlanta were always spring and fall. But I went to several Talladega and Daytona summer races - and believe I drained 30 pounds of sweat into the ground. Ahh, the good ol' days, right?

Anyway, the blog entry is about Rockingham. Almost forgot!

I was there that day. It was hot and humid as all get out. Got a horrible sunburn.

The article fails to mention that this was the rescheduled rain date of what was supposed to be a March race. My buddy, Frank and I again took the race train down from Richmond in March 1967, just as we did for the March 1966 Peach Blossom 500.

By the time that Seaboard train (we called it the Seaboard "Square Wheel Special" 'cause the track bed was so rough between Raleigh & the division end in Hamlet) got to Southern Pines/Aberdeen around 9:00 a.m. on that Sunday morning in March 1967, it was raining cats & dogs. The track owners had called the race before we even made it to the track because they were afraid of a poor gate.

Our group (which had been picked up at stops in DC, Fredericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg & Raleigh) wouldn't be picked up again until 6:00 p.m. that Sunday evening by the Seaboard train heading north to New York from Florida.

Faced with the dilemma of what to do with a train load of drunk race fans, the Rockingham track owners arranged for the owner of the only movie theater in Hamlet to open its doors. We were shuttled on a siding from the Rockingham track to Hamlet by a work engine. The film was Haley Mills' "Polyanna." I'm sure you can picture what that must of been like.

To add insult to injury, when we exited the movie theater around 2:00 p.m., the sun was shining brightly on a beautiful early spring Carolina afternoon. It was a grumpy crowd on the return ride to Richmond, having traded Richard Petty for Walt Disney.

Frank & I left Richmond again on Saturday, June 17, 1967 with me behind the wheel of dad's brand new 1967 Chevy 327 Caprice. That car turned out to be the biggest pile of crap ever produced by General Motors, 'though PattyKay Lilley will argue in favor of her 1965 Chevy.

After spending the night in Lumberton, we drove to the Rockingham track bright and early Sunday morning, June 18 to watch the King get one of those 27 1967 wins. Even with the sunburn and long drive back to Richmond it was a good day.

It took us three trips, two by train, from Richmond to Rockingham to see our first two Rockingham races in 1966 and 1967. Ya reckon that is some sort of record?

Also of note.... there were four days of timed qualifying scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday plus a 25-lap Saturday qualifying race to determine the final 14 starters in the 44-car lineup.

Here's an interesting article link with photos:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19670615&id=yydhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T3QNAAAAIBAJ&pg=4517,2497824

I'd grown to love Google News Archive in doing research for these Petty themed posts. Just killed me when I learned late last year that Google made the decision to no longer add new content to it. For now, the existing content is there - however, its tougher to find it sometimes and no new papers will be added. Because there is no certainly how long the archives will remain, I generally screen-cap any articles I want to keep.

Bump for memories of @dave-fulton and @frank-buhrman