Racing History Minute - June 11, 1972

Coincidentally, as the NASCAR boys of today head to the Irish Hills of Michigan for this weekend's event, our History Minute today will take us to that 2-mile track as well. Our story today does not include names such as Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch or Jimmie Johnson, but, instead, names like David Pearson, Richard Petty and Bobby Allison.

Forty cars entered, or at least qualified, for the event that Sunday afternoon, with Bobby Isaac in the K&K Dodge snagging the pole. Second place starter was Richard Petty in a Dodge, third was David Pearson in a Mercury and fourth was Bobby Allison in a Chevrolet. Pretty historic first four, huh?

Bobby Isaac would lead the first two laps before David Pearson would slip by. David led until lap 18 when Donnie Allison roared by for the lead. Two laps later, James Hylton would lead. In fact, for the first 55 laps, the lead would change every two or three laps between Isaac, Pearson, the Allison brothers, Hylton, and Petty. Finally, on lap 55, David established a lead he would hold until lap106 when Isaac took over again for one lap. The race then settled between Pearson, Bobby Allison and Petty. On lap 158, David took the lead he would hold, and continue to lengthen, to the end of the race.

In his Victory Lane interview, David said he had the fastest car by far, but even more important to his win was the exceptional pit work by the famed Wood Brothers. David said "I hardly had time to get a drink of water they are so fast".

This was Pearson's third win in 14 races for the 1972 season. Bobby Isaac departed the race on lap 147 when his suspension failed, and Donnie Allison and LeeRoy Yarbrough both fell out of the race with mechanical issues.

There were only two caution flags for a total of 12 laps which allowed Pearson to average 148.639 mph for the event witnessed by 33,000 fans.

Top five finishers were:

1. David Pearson, Wood Brothers Mercury, winning $12,935.00

2. Bobby Allison, Richard Howard Chevrolet, winning $8,980.00

3. Richard Petty, Petty Enterprises Dodge, winning $6,925.00

4. James Hylton, Hylton Engineering Ford, winning $3,360.00

5. Ron Keselowski, Roger Lubinski Dodge, winning $2,150.00

Sixth through tenth were Larry Smith, Dean Arnold, Ben Dalton, Buddy Arrington and Bill Champion. Cecil Gordon was 11th.Walter Ballard 12th and John Sears 13th. J. D. McDuffie finished 16th, Richard Childress 19th, Pete Hamilton 22nd, Jabe Thomas 24th. Benny Parsons took 25th position with Bobby Isaac 26th, Elmo Langley 29th and Dave Marcis 30th. Earl Brooks was 37th and Neil Castles 40th.

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.

Thanks, Tim. I have a curiosity question and some observations about several drivers and their rides at this particular race at one of my favorite venues... pretty countryside, nice folks, good food and great racing.

I note that Dave Marcis is listed not in his customary #2 Dodge for this 1972 race, but in a 1971 Mercury #87, owned by Hammer Mason . Why was Dave in this ride instead of his own car?

Bill Seifert is shown driving the #2 Dodge owned by Marcis and finishing 39th.

The #45 Ford owned by and usually driven by Seifert was driven by LeeRoy Yarbrough. LeeRoy qualified the Seifert car in 7th position. I have not looked this up, but I am guessing that if LeeRoy's lap wasn't the best qualifying effort ever for a Seifert owned car, it ranked near the top.

Anyway, if anyone knows who Hammer Mason was and whay Marcis made a one time start in that Merc, with the domino effect on Seifert and Yarbrough, I'd sure be curious to know.

Here's a photo of the Marcis car posted on our site by John Betts:

The Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame shed some light for me on Jim "Hammer" Mason. My bad that I didn't know this name. He certainly fielded some awesome cars driven by some awesome drivers.

James "Hammer" Mason Inducted into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.

James "Hammer" Mason started as a mechanic working on stock cars after World War II. In the 1950's he owned cars, which won championships at Mt. Clemens, Flat Rock, and Toledo Speedway. His car also won the Michigan Tri State Championship. One of his cars driven by George Cooper won at Heidelberg, PA when the track was dirt. Dick Mitchell and George Cooper drove his cars in the Michigan Ohio area. Hammer gave Joe Ruttman his first ride in this area. His cars won races at the Michigan State Fairgrounds one-mile track. In one race, Cooper, Mitchell, and Ruttman qualified 1st, 2nd and 3rd and finished in that order driving Hammer's cars.

1964 was Hammer's first year in the Sportsman Division at Daytona. Johnny Allen drove his car, but crashed while running up front. For years Hammer held the record for best finishes in the Sportsman Division and could still hold this record. His drivers and finishes at Daytona are as follows:

1956 Tiny Lund finished 2nd (this car was sponsored by Miller Beer after some legal hassle it became the first car at Daytona sponsored by a Beer company)
1966 Curtis Turner finished 1st (this is the last car Curtis Turner won a major race with)
1967 Curtis Turner finished 3rd
1968 Bobby Allison finished 3rd
1970 Donnie Allison finished 3rd (Hammer still has this car exactly as it came back from Daytona, engine in it and all)
1969 Donnie Allison finished 3rd
In 1966 and 1967 this car won the Best Looking Car Award
In 1971 and 1972 the following drivers drove Hammer's cars in Grand National Races:
Cale Yarborough (drove his first race back in NASCAR after running USAC Indy cars)
Jackie Oliver (this was his first race in a Grand National stock car), LeeRoy Yarbrough, Dave Marcis

Hammer also invented the Plemium Air Cleaner and he worked with Pop Sullivan on the first oil cooler for stock cars.

Here's a photo of car owner Hammer Mason taken at Daytona three years before the 1972 Michigan race as published in the February 23, 1969 Daytona Beach Morning Journal covering the Permatex 300 won by LeeRoy Yarbrough in a Bondy Long Ford. Donnie Allison would finish 7th in Hammer Mason's Ford on the tragic afternoon that claimed the life of Don MacTavish at Daytona.

A reporter for the Daytona paper actually spent the day in the pits with Hammer Mason at the 1969 Permatex 300 and wrote a feature story about it in the Daytona paper, including Mason's remembrance of having to wake up Curtis Turner at race time! Link to that story is below:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bXAeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kskEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2548,5257630&dq=hammer+mason+daytona&hl=en

Race program cover - thanks ebay!

John Betts collection has this shot of David Pearson taking the checkers.

I realize the Silver Fox had his way with the field that day. But as an unabashed Petty fan, I had to include this one shot from John Betts collection of the 43 leading the Wood Brothers' Mercury.

Race report. And since I was just in Vegas, I left in the piece about Evel Knievel since arguably his greatest legacy is his near fatal crash while attempting to jump the fountains at Caesar's Palace.

Source: Rome News Tribune

The 72 Motor State 400 was featured in Dale Jr's series Back In The Day series:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Rather than embed all of John Bett's pics from the 1972 Motor State 400 in this post, I'll just provide a link to them.

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/photo/photo/search?q=1972+motor+state+400

Pre-race pic of James Harvey & Ronnie Householder from Chrysler - Getty Images

I believe this is the same car that was bought by Wendell Scott and was totalled at Talladega in May of 1973.

Bump