If you'd like to have ten minutes of fun and memories, below is a brief clip from the late Bud Lindemann featuring racing pit crews. The footage was shot in the 60s-70s and features Grand National/Cup, NASCAR Modified and Indianapolis.
You'll see the crew men still clinching lug nuts on a wire between their teeth before they caught onto the Wood Brothers gluing the lugs on the wheels. Jack men still slung jacks from arm to arm as they crossed the nose of the car... a no-no today. Richard Petty's 38 second pit stop will be praised as lightning fast.
BUT, what really got my adrenaline pumping was when the film suddenly shifted to a 1960s Martinsville modified race I attended. There are pit stops of Junie Donlavey fueling the blue Sonny Hutchins #90 modified and Jack Tant and Clayton Mitchell servicing Rapid Ray Hendrick in the unbeatable cherry red "Flying 11" coupe.
Max Berrier's gold #12 mod is also seen getting service. The Berrier family is a cottage industry supplying shop talent the past 30 years for Richard Childress Racing. Also seen is Eddie Royster getting service in the candy apple red #21 Ford coupe originally built by the Wood Brothers for Sonny Hutchins. The car was purchased by Frank Edwards for Royster to drive and later completely destroyed in this same race. Royster would later have his arm severely injured at Richmond Fairgrounds and Edwards would go on to run fabrication operations for Rick Hendrick for many years.
This piece really stirred my memories.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/16/16 07:54:05AM
