I know the older I get the more sentimental I am for the "old days" of stock car racing and I know that today's fans with all the tv coverage (as PattyKay has so clearly documented) just don't understand what it was like to have that occassional contact with the cars and drivers back in the day. I and my buddies were 16 in 1964 when we began going to a FEW races. We had started listening every week on the radio to any that were broadcast. This was how it went in my hometown of Richmond in 1964. It was a 62 race Grand National calendar beginning at Concord and ending at Jacksonville. We'd made it to thespring Richmond race won by David Pearson in Cotton Owen's #6 Dodge. That race started on Sunday afternoon and finished under the lights on Tuesday night after rain turned the 1/2-mile dirt track to mud. But we were hooked and thus we begana tradition that no longer exists - going from motel to motel the night before the cars were due to sign in so we could see who had come to town to race. For our September "fall" race, the cars came straight to Richmond from a dirt event in Hickory. On Saturday the Pearson/Cotton Owens car was at Southside Dodge, along with David. Richard Petty and car were at Lawrence Plymouth and Ned Jarrett and his Ford were at Richmond Ford. They still had red Hickory clay on them. The Richmond race was a one day show on Sunday - practice, qualify, race. After dinner on Saturday night we again went around to all the motels. Petty & Pearson, along with their cars on open trailers were at the Holiday Inn near the track. We would park and actually walk up to the trailers and cars. The crew would come out of the rooms whose doors were opened and talk to us. We were thrilled. Then we'd go to the much cheaper Richmond Auto Court. That's where Bill Siefert, Tom Pistone and most of the guys were. It was a bunch cheaper. When we went to the dealerships that September weekend, we could peer into the impound lots and see the next year's new car models ready to go in the showrooms. That was a huge thrill. Then after the race, the track gate was opened and in we went to talk to our hero, JT Putney. The last driver left was always Richard, who sometimes would go sit in the grandstand until every child had spoken to him and had gotten their program signed. Is it any wonder that man was loved by most fans regardless of what make car you drove or pulled for? These are the sorts of memories that are difficult to relate to today's fans. It's not just trying to describe Junior Johnson and Tiny Lund side by side coming out of Richmond's turn 4 throwing a roostertail of dirt into the bleachers, it's about those intangible feelings and times we know we will never relive andthat will never happen again. When I tell today's fans it was different then, these are some of the things I'm talking about. Today's 16 year olds can't sit down in a NASCAR Grand National car that Bill Champion just climbed out of. Does this make sense, or is it just old fuddy duddy stuff?
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
