Thanks to our RR member TooMuchCountry / TMC-Chase and his outstanding collection of articles describing wins by Richard Petty through the years, I have found in his collection of posts an article in Southern MotoRacing so accurately describing the huge fire I witnessed at Richmond Fairgrounds on September 9, 1973 at the beginning of the Capital City 500 (won by Richard Petty, of course).
I am happy to note that my memory did not fail me and that according to the article, " Many drivers, officials and others connected with the sport described the scene as the most awesome they had witnessed in any auto racing mishap."
Our own Raytona / Ray Lamm was most likely at this Richmond race. Perhaps he has a photo he could post.
Jim Reep ... were you there? Rick Newsome finished 13th.
Bud Moore told me that he was screaming at DW on the radio all the way down the Richmond backstretch to stop. He always said that DW driving into Baxter Price's car was the stupidest thing he ever saw at a racetrack. Guess that's why DW didn't bring it up on the telecast during the Juan/jet dryer incident at Daytona..
Thank you TMC for your outstanding collection of Richard Petty History posts. This is the article from the TMC collection of posts:
SEPTEMBER 9, 1973 CAPITAL CITY 500 - Richmond, Virginia
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 09/10/24 12:48:10AM