With NASCAR's Grand National division preparing to race for the second time at the new Michigan International Speedway, several GN and Grand Touring drivers gathered in nearby Ann Arbor to chat on Thursday, August 14, 1969. The meeting wasn't just to banter with one another - and it wasn't open to media, fans, team owners, manufacturer reps ... or NASCAR officials.
The drivers gathered to talk about key issues affecting their livelihoods as professional stock car drivers. Perhaps the meeting was a natural extension of what had happened in auto racing over the past decade:
- a transition from dirt track bullrings towards many new paved superspeedways - fast ones
- deaths of notable drivers in NASCAR, USAC Indy cars, and Formula 1
- the on-again, off-again financial support from Detroit's Big 3 auto makers of stock car racing efforts
The result of the meeting was the formation of the Professional Drivers Association.
Richard Petty was elected as the inaugural president of the PDA. (To my knowledge, I'm not sure the PDA ever had a second one.) - DBMJ
As noted in the article, the PDA's executive committee was made up of Petty, David Pearson, Buddy Baker, James Hylton, Pete Hamilton, Charlie Glotzbach, Lee Roy Yarbrough, and the Allison brothers. It was perhaps the 1st of 2 times in their careers that the King and Bobby Allison were on the same side of an issue (the 2nd being their support of Ronald Reagan as President.)
Bill France Sr's reaction to the news was as expected - a shrug of the shoulders and a defiant reiteration of his "you need us worse than we need you" credo for NASCAR. - DBMJ
As history knows, the PDA quickly grew from an expressed interest in financial stability and track side working conditions (whatever that meant) to a very public confrontation with France at his new monster facility at Talladega.
Though the PDA had an executive committee of 9 drivers, they leveraged over 30 at Talladega to leave the track with safety concerns could not be resolved with the tires and specifically with France.
France of course didn't flinch. He ran his race anyway albeit with a cobbled together field. But as he did with the banishment of Tim Flock and Curtis Turner earlier in the decade, his hard line stance all but neutered the PDA before it ever really got rolling.
The PDA continued as an organization at least through early 1972. I'm uncertain when it was finally dissolved.
--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 08/14/17 11:00:29AM