TMC,
3Notables stand out in the newspaper coverage of the 1971 Richmond Capital City 500:
1) Local Richmond driver and former GN Rookie-of-the Year, Bill Dennis qualified on the pole in local Richmond car builder Junie Donlavey's famed 1969 Mercury #90. That was a real treat for the Richmond crowd.
2) The "legendary" Billy Wood of the Tidewater, VA area had been hired by Charlie Glotzbach to "hex" the rest of the field. In later years, Billy was employed exclusively by Darrell Waltrip until his death, who paid all of his traveling expenses, to"hex" the field. Billy could be a scary sight, standing by the track "putting the hex" on the other drivers as they passed by. I'm sure Ray Lamm and Jim Reep remember Billy. When I or someone else gets the time, we ought to do a piece on him. He was a real part of 60s-80s racing.
3) The starting lineup sheet lists the two "alternate starters", which is a discussion I started on this site several months ago asking if anyone remembered when we stopped having the alternates.
Lastly, I always love to see my old buddy and employer Paul Sawyer in old racing pix. That's a good one of him in Richmond's victory lane with Richard, who would go on to become the all-time winner at Paul's track with 13 Cup victories. Thanks for posting with the newspaper article.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
