It Wasn't Always Fun
Stock Car Racing History
Better bring on the Schaefer then!
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It Wasn't Always Fun
Stock Car Racing History
I had lots of fun traveling the big time stock car racing circuit for a number of years.
But each year when the first Pocono race of the year rolls around, I remember a day when it wasn't fun.
I love racing at Pocono and I love the area - beautiful mountains and great restaurants and nice people. However, if you've ever been in the Poconos at this time of year, you'll know that the mornings can get really foggy and the mist just hangs around. Darrell Waltrip's "vortex" doesn't work in the Poconos.
In 1981, I agreed to pay for some chartered flights to several Winston Cup venues for myself, my assistant Wrangler program manager, Bob Janelle and driver Dale Earnhardt. Danny Culler of Piedmont Aviation in Winston-Salem, NC put these junkets together and would fly 2-4 small aircraft to Pocono, Dover, Talladega and Michigan.
On a nice June morning in Greensboro, NC, Janelle and I drove in the Wrangler Racing van over to Smith-Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem, NC to fly to Pocono. We weren't scheduled to land at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Airport or the Allentown Airport where the commercial jets landed, but at the Mt. Pocono Airport, then a little strip for private aircraft on top of Mt. Pocono.
Recent Aerial Photo of Mt. Pocono Runways
Our pilot was Dale Earnhardt's next door neighbor on Lake Norman, Loren Edwards, a commercial jet pilot for Piedmont. The other passengers besides Dale, Janelle and myself were Wes Beroth of RJR/Winston and radio announcer Barney Hall.
Long before 1981 was over I learned that I didn't like flying back and forth to races in small planes. There were tornadoes leaving Michigan and really bad storms leaving Talladega. And Barney Hall knew just how to not put you at ease. Flying into the little strip near Dover Downs he'd always pointed out the culvert that driver Dick Brooks hit and flipped his plane.
Anyhow, on this inaugural flight to the Mt. Pocono airport, the region was shrouded in fog. Loren made a pass but we never saw the runway. He made a second pass and we still didn't see the runway. My mouth was dry and my heart was racing. I was absolutely scared to death.
As we began to circle for a third approach, Earnhardt grabbed Loren's arm and informed him as only Dale could do that we were not making a third try for the runway nobody could see. We landed eventually at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, but in July we did land at Mt. Pocono on a really nice morning. It was the only time I ever landed there. I gave up small planes after 1981 - they scared me.
Back then, when we'd return at night from a race, Dale would have Loren drop him off at a cowpasture strip around Statesville, NC, illuminated by smudgepots and car headlights. That kind of flying was not for me.
I guess those were the good ole days, though.
updated by @dave-fulton: 04/14/22 11:41:44AM
a problem I am having
General
Best to worry about the hairline crack that frying pan will deliver to your head!!
Julian Petty - trying to put more pieces of puzzle together
Stock Car Racing History
The only fatality in the history of the Richmond track occurred in the March 23, 1958 NASCAR convertible race on the first turn of the first lap when Gwyn Staley rolled his J.H. Petty owned #38 Chevy convertible several times and was hit by oncoming traffic. A clip is from the Lexington, NC Dispatch and the race recap from Racing Reference. Billy Myers would finish 14th in the #42 Petty Engineering 1957 Olds in the Richmond Fairgrounds convertible event won by Joe Weatherly. Note the Associated Press account says the Julian Petty owned Chevy was a 1956 model, whereas racing Reference says a 1957 model. I don't which account is correct.
1958-03 NASCAR Convertible Series race number 3 of 19
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Julian Petty - trying to put more pieces of puzzle together
Stock Car Racing History
It all seems so much more real and not just something from the past when you see a photo like the one you've posted here, LaVerne.
Julian Petty - trying to put more pieces of puzzle together
Stock Car Racing History
One of my all-time favorite character actors was the late Noah Beery, Jr.
In The Story of Will Rogers he plays aviator Wiley Post, pilot on the doomed airplane that crashed claiming both his life and that of Will Rogers.
As a Baby Boomer, I watched Beery every Saturday morning between 1956-1958 as Joey the Clown - confidante, teacher and friend to young Corky in the hit children's television series Circus Boy . Corky was played by Mickey Dolenz who grew up to be one of the musical Monkees .
And if you've ever watched the movie 43: The Petty Story , that's Beery who comes on screen around 3 minutes and 45 seconds into the movie as Julie immediately following Richard's horrendous Darlington crash.
R.I.P. Cecil Wilson - Wood Brothers Racing
Stock Car Racing History
I got to share a victory lane with Cecil Wilson in February 1986 at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway when Kyle Petty scored his first Cup win in our 7-Eleven / Wood Brothers Ford. That's Cecil just behind and to the right of Kyle's sister (and Richard Petty's daughter) Rebecca (in STP colors) in this Wood Brothers Racing photo.
R.I.P. Cecil Wilson - Wood Brothers Racing
Stock Car Racing History
We've lost another of the really nice folks in racing, Cecil Wilson, who was with the Wood Brothers on their crew for over 4 decades. You'll see a nice photo posted by Harlow Reynolds on the photo page of he and Cecil together. Thoughts and prayers to the family. Another link to the great races of the past is gone.
Mr. Cecil Ray Wilson
September 08, 1935 - June 04, 2013
Mr. Cecil Ray Wilson, age 77 of Lawsonville, North Carolina, passed away Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at Stanleytown Healthcare Center in Bassett. He was born in Patrick County on September 8, 1935 to the late Pete and Gladys Lawson Wilson. In addition to his parents, Mr. Wilson was preceded in death by a brother, Lonzie Wilson. He was a devoted member of Trinity Baptist Church where he thoroughly enjoyed going. He had worked for 42 years with Wood Brothers Racing Team where he was affectionately known as Big C and he also worked for Fieldcrest Mills for over 40 years. He loved being Papa to his grandsons.
Mr. Wilson is survived by his wife of 53 years, Sharon Steele Wilson of the home; a son and daughter-in-law, Darrell and Suzanne Wilson of Stuart; a daughter and son-in-law, Joan and Dennis Shelton of Stuart; three grandsons, Justin Wilson and girlfriend, Sara Webber, Brandon Shelton and girlfriend, Stephanie Clark, Brad Shelton and wife, Taylor; two brothers and sisters-in-law, A.J. and Elizabeth Wilson of Mayodan, North Carolina, David and Rebecca Wilson of Patrick Springs; two sisters and a brother-in-law, Patsy Wilson of Ridgeway, Margaret and Randy Bouldin of Martinsville; and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services for Mr. Wilson will be held Friday, June 7, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at Moody Funeral Home Chapel in Stuart with Pastor Reggie Steele, Pastor Jerry Whitlow and Pastor Don Reynolds officiating. Burial will follow in the Peters Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in Lawsonville, North Carolina. The family will receive friends Thursday evening from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Moody Funeral Home in Stuart, and at other times at the home. If desired, memorials may be made to the Big C Motorsports Scholarship Fund, 6727 Salem Highway, Stuart, VA 24171.
Online condolences may be sent by visiting www.moodyfuneralservices.com .
The family would like to thank Pastors Reggie Steele, Jerry Whitlow and Don Reynolds, Dr. Paul Eason and Dr. Katragadda, the Steele family and the Wilson family, Stanleytown Healthcare Center and Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital for the special care and support given during his stay.
A special thank you to the Wood Brothers Racing Team who stood behind Big C and our family during these past few months. Your love and faithful prayers are what has helped carry us through these difficult times.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
Racing History Minute - June 6, 1965
Stock Car Racing History
The story below was carried by Scripps Howard News Service on June 4, 2001, just before the dedication of the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia:
6/4/01
By Lance Gay / Scripps Howard News Service
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| Roy Stevens, 81, was one of the few members of the National Guard unit -- Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division -- to survive the D-Day landings and make it back to Bedford. |
BEDFORD, Va. -- It was something so painful they only wanted to forget. In the first 15 minutes after the dawn broke June 6, 1944, this tiny Virginia hamlet, population 3,200, lost 19 of its 35 soldier sons on Normandy's Omaha Beach. Four more were dead within weeks -- giving Bedford the highest casualty rate for its population of any place in the United States during the D-Day invasion. The loss left painful, open wounds that some here say have never really closed.
Congress in 1996 recognized Bedford's tragedy by naming it as the site for the nation's memorial -- to be dedicated Wednesday -- to all of those who gave their lives on D-Day. President Bush will attend the commemoration.
Long before talk of a memorial, each day until she died, Martha Jane Stevens kept watch for her son, Ray, expecting that some day the U.S. Army might have found it had made a mistake about his death on the beach and Ray would walk down the path to home.
Ray's twin brother, Roy Stevens, now 81, was one of the few members of the National Guard unit -- Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division -- to survive the D-Day landings and make it back to Bedford. Roy Stevens' landing craft hit an underwater object and sank at sea, leaving him floundering in the water, struggling to shed his heavy gear as the friends he grew up with in Virginia's farmlands died on the beach several hundreds yards away.
Four days later, in a search for his brother, Roy came across a cemetery and the first grave he found had Ray's dog tags on it. Lucille Bogess, 72, whose brothers Raymond and Bedford Hoback were killed on Omaha Beach, said families were never the same after the news of the deaths came. "I heard my father say that it wasn't just their sons fathers lost that day, but their wives, too. I know my mother was devastated, her health deteriorated, then there were a series of strokes," she said. The number of deaths "was a tremendous loss, but we accepted it, and went on," she said.
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| Wednesday's commemoration of the nation's memorial to all of those who gave their lives on D-Day will be attended by President Bush. |
Accepted, but not discussed for many years. "We just wouldn't talk about it, not to a civilian, they would think I was bragging," Roy Stevens said. He said other survivors would meet occasionally at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars building to remember what they saw, talk of their losses and relieve the pressure.
Ray Nance, now 85, was the only officer left alive from Company A 10 minutes after the boats landed at Omaha Beach. "There wasn't anybody in front of me. There wasn't anybody left behind me. I was alone in France," he said. He was the first sent home to Bedford, where he became the town's mailman.
Stevens said he wanted to get on with his life and forget that he never shook his brother's hand the last time he saw him -- a memory he says he still bitterly regrets. Bobby Latimer was 11 years old that July. That's when the messages from the War Department came over the teletype at Green's Drug Store, the local Western Union office, notifying families of their losses that occurred the month before. "It was a real blow to Bedford," he recalled. "I want to tell you that made an impression."
But as time passed, the tragedy's impact lessened as the veterans and families kept their memories to themselves. Bogess said that by 1960, you could find people on Bedford's Main Street who had never heard the story about how the town's heart was torn out on Normandy's beaches on D-Day in 1944.
Almost three generations passed before the World War II generation realized their grandchildren didn't really know what that war meant to Bedford. Stevens and Nance are the only two living survivors of the Omaha Beach invasion. Both visit Bedford Middle School to tell seventh-graders what World War II was all about, and what it meant to Bedford. Bedford was once named Liberty in Revolutionary War times, and Stevens says he hopes coming generations will think of their liberties when they visit a memorial to D-Day, Bedford and Company A.
That's the message he tries to tell the new generation: "These men made it possible for you to be here today, and talk about being free, and they aren't here today so you are," he said. "This is something we should never forget, and kids ought to know this."
Racing History Minute - June 6, 1965
Stock Car Racing History
Just noticed that Buddy Arrington fielded two cars at Birmingham. Raymond Carter of Henry County, Virginia (home of Martinsville Speedway) finished one position behind Buddy in 9th palce also driving a 1964 Arrington Dodge.