Here's a great little video from the Richmond paperchronicling Elizabeth Taylor's 1976 visit to the NASCAR Modified / Sportsman double-header at Martinsville. She sat in the grandstands with the fans drinking Schlitz and opining the racing was better than Formulas One at Monaco. Geoff Bodine says his kiss from Liz was his most memorable moment in racing.
It did ask me for the subcategory with a dropdown menu. I had clicked on the "Add Content" / Typewriter icon first, I think... but don't hold me to that... too many cases of "old timers" recently!
Finally found another photo I mentioned... of my wife and her group at Belk Dept. Stores in Charlotte the day they had lunch with Liz. That's Liz holding the dog and my wife in the zebra print, lol.
Good stuff, Dave, thanks for sharing. I always wanted to attend a Martinsville double header, but never made it. I'd wear out the pages ofStock Car Racingmagazine's accounts of those classic events, though. As successful as those events were, you'd think M'ville would be interested in reviving them.
Bopper, they died a horrible death in 1982, the day NASCAR turned the LMS division into a "Tour." All of the Virginia tracks had already dropped the NASCAR mods several years before that and 95% of the cars were coming from the northeast except the Bowman-Gray contingent.
Martinsville has tried diligently to run a big Late Model Stock Car event, but it never drew like the old Dogwood 500 and Cardinal 500 races. NASCAR kept the Grand National/Winston Cup calendar open on those two weekends so the top talent in the country could be there and there was no competition for fans. MRN Radio used to broadcast both halves of both events. The very first Cardinal 500 was a 500-lap Modified only affair, won by Richmond's Ray Hendrick, but then the format changed to twin 250-lap LMS & Modified shows. Probably the very best racing I ever saw anywhere, anytime. The crowds rivaled the GN crowds at Martinsville.
Great stuff Dave, I sure wish they would bring back those twin 250"s . If they did my belief is the fans would come back. I know I would....
Me, too and I bet a lot of others.
