And THAT sports fans is why I've enjoyed posting these things. I'm a Petty first and foremost. But getting these anecdotes about other storylines surrounding a Petty win has been tremendous. Thanks Dave.
The man from North Carolina wins in South Boston.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-14-this-day-in-petty-history.html
1960 Virginia 500 at Martinsville
1st of what eventually became incredibly 15 wins at the track.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-10-this-day-in-petty-history.html
One of the neatest aspects of this site is its collection of photos. (Public Service Announcement: Please tag your photos for easier searching - year, driver, owner, track, etc.)
RR member Don Smyle, his company Smyle Media, and his efforts to collect, clean, digitize, protect, and obviously distribute old racing photos were featured in a nice article today by Ben White at Motorsports Unplugged.
http://motorsportsunplugged.com/?p=7289
In the last Grand National race on the dirt surface at the Hickory Speedway promoted by Ned Jarrett, The King wins again in his magical 1967 season.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-9-this-day-in-petty-history.html
Today, April 8, was the anniversary of another memorable Petty moment - unfortunately, however, it wasn't a win. He waged an epic battle with Darrell Waltrip in the waning laps of the 1979 CRC Chemicals 500 at Darlington. The two of them swapped the lead repeatedly making breathtaking moves lap after lap. With 2 or 3 to go, even Donnie Allison stuck his nose in briefly - but couldn't pry the top 2 spots from DW or The King.
When the checkers fell, it was ... sigh... the Gatorade Chevy that won. Dagnab it.
The race is also known for what I thought would never happen - the Wood Brothers and David Pearson separated a few days after the 21 car left pit road without lug nuts on the left side tires. Sure nuff, those things are needed as David soon found out. Both tires *poof* came off, Pearson sat helplessly, and a couple of days later Neil Bonnett got a huge bump in his career as he took over for Pearson.
Love hearing Jackie Stewart on these ABC WWS telecasts.
Short version w/finish:
Part 1 (starts B&W and eventually gets back to color) :
Part 2 - begins with 21's pit problem:
Part 3:
Only one caution. At Wilkesboro. Again, I type ONE caution.
However, I can find no archival reports suggesting the fans yelled for track owner Enoch Staley to tear the place down and rebuild it so more needless wrecks could occur.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-8-this-day-in-petty-history-part_08.html
The race was the first GN one on Columbia's new paved surface after years as a dirt track. But it was the next-to-last one there. After 1971, the track was cut as part of the reduced schedule under the newly branded Winston Cup series.
Thanks to RR's Perry Allen Wood for the help provided for this entry. And ol' Jim Seay makes another appearance.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-8-this-day-in-petty-history-part.html
The Kings win at Hickory...
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-7-this-day-in-petty-history.html
...on the same day F1 driver Jim Clark is killed.
Thanks for noting that Dave. RR's Jerry Bushmire has given me a ton of these articles, and I've noticed Jim's name on the byline for a few of them. Tried to keep a mental checklist of "need to mention this on RR, need to mention this on RR" - but was asleep at the switch today. Props to ya JIM SEAY!
