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Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

A few race related articles.

Gurney withdraws from Daytona Beach Morning Journal

Race preview from Daytona Beach Morning Journal

Race report from Spartanburg Herald

And column re: USAC drivers withdrawing based on pressure from that sanctioning body. I do love, however, how Paul Goldsmith managed to work a loophole to get around USAC's demands. From Daytona Beach Morning Journal .

updated by @tmc-chase: 03/29/17 11:44:20AM

Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

Race program from Motor Racing Programme Covers

Richard Petty's Plymouth had a white hood with a thin white line running from it along the window line.

updated by @tmc-chase: 03/29/17 11:43:27AM

Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

And 1 more from the Henry Ford collection of the winner.

Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

The Henry Ford ArteHouse (sounds a bit snooty for NASCAR doesn't it?) has a remarkable set of Dave Friedman photos from this race. Too numerous to embed and credit here. Well worth browsing through them though.

Henry Ford ArteHouse GS400 Gallery

I will embed this one because Tim referenced in his text - Paul Goldsmith's wrecked car.

Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

Really neat 4 minute video with highlights from the race.

Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

And here is one Don Smyle shared months ago - though I think it was through his Smyle Media Facebook page vs. here. Its Richard Petty driving in relief of Junior Johnson. So 1969 was NOT the first time the future King piloted a car from FoMoCo.

Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

Dave MacDonald (21) racing Fred Lorenzen (28). From rsm collection.

MacDonald leading Dick Mitchell and Lorenzen. rsm collection

I believe this is from same race. MacDonald goes inside an unknown car with 77 of Marvin Porter trailing. From Richard Guido collection.

Another from  rsm collection of MacDonald leading Billy Wade.

2nd place finisher MacDonald. rsm collection

updated by @tmc-chase: 03/29/17 11:43:03AM

Racing History Minute - November 3, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

Boy Howdy! There is another stretched connection beyond Pabst's current ownership of Schaefer. Similar to Augie who left the beer business as a young man to concentrate on auto racing, we've kind of drifted away from racing as middle-aged men to concentrate on Schaefering.

updated by @tmc-chase: 11/02/20 12:57:06PM

Remember Wrestler Andre the Giant Living in Ellerbe and Frequenting Rockingham Races?

Stock Car Racing History

My uncle Earl took me to Jacksonville's Memorial Coliseum in February 1980. It was the Saturday night before the Daytona 500. He, my aunt, another uncle and a 'lady friend' of his were taking me to the 500 for my first trip there.

Earl got the two of us seats close to the action. Wasn't the first row - but it was 4 or 5 rows up the seats installed around the 'squared circle'. Dusty Rhodes was part of the card that night. He didn't disappoint. He strutted around, spewed all sorts of talk in his lisped, Texas wrasslin voice, and bled from the forehead into that perm'd bleach blond hair. I thought it was hilarious.

But the main event of the night was Harley Race vs. Andre The Giant. I can't remember who entered the ring first. But I DO remember Andre's entrance. He walked between sets of stands to music. Even with us sitting a few rows up, his head and shoulders were above our row. I couldn't believe it when he actually stepped OVER the top rope to enter the ring. This behemoth who was larger THAN life when I'd seen him on TV was larger IN life than I could have imagined. I don't remember who won the match - if that even matters in wrasslin. I'm sure Andre did since he pretty much was never scripted to lose.

To give some context to just how big he is, compare him to NASCAR's gentle giant, Buddy Baker. Coincidentally, Buddy won the 500 the next day in Harry Ranier's #28 Gray Ghost.

A couple of additional photos from Andre at Rockingham's 1979 American 500.

With Unocal Racestoppers

With Joe Millikan's / L.G. DeWitt crew

updated by @tmc-chase: 10/28/17 12:01:56PM

November 2, 1975: The King Sweeps Bristol

Stock Car Racing History

A blog re-run of sorts. Will update it a bit, but I originally posted it in 2011 here:

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/11/november-2-this-day-in-petty-history.html

Bristol International Raceway was not one of Richard Petty's better tracks. Coming into 1975, he'd only won once at the track - the 1967 Volunteer 500 .

But in 1975, he had another double-digit win season. In the Winston Cup era, his 13 wins were comparable to his 27-win 1967 season in my opinion. One of his 13 victories was at Bristol for a second time - the Southeastern 500 .

For the track's 2nd event in 1975, the Volunteer was held in the steamy Tennessee summer. Instead, it was slotted for November 2nd. Cale Yarborough won the pole and led sizable chunks of the early parts of the race. But his Junior Johnson engine failed (a rarity for Johnson's cars at Bristol), and Cale exited after 283 laps. Darrell Waltrip qualified alongside Cale and led 73 laps en route to a third place finish. Virginian - and 1973 Rookie of the Year - Lennie Pond started 5th, led 27 laps, and notched a proud 2nd place finish in the race.

But once Cale exited, the rest of the day belonged to the 43. He led 216 of the 229 final laps - interrupted only by a 13-lap segment led by Pond (probably during pit stops). Ol' Blue won again. The win was Petty's 177th career victory, the 13th and final win of the 1975 season, and the icing on the cake for the year as The King earned his sixth NASCAR Grand National / Winston Cup championship.

Photo from Bristol Motor Speedway Twitter feed.

For many years, Bristol's second event of the year was scheduled for July - a brutally hot time in Tennessee. Track owner and promoter Larry Carrier requested another date from NASCAR to ease the heat effects on his fans, and the 1975 race was scheduled for November. I'm guessing this may have been a message from Bill France Jr. to Carrier. In 1976, the race was moved back to August where it now remains.

Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

Today, we think of Bristol as one of the crown jewels of the NASCAR circuit. A modern day coliseum. Its kind of hard to remember how run down the place had become by the mid 70s - just 15 years or so after it opened.

The track became Bristol 2.0 when Gary Baker and Lanny Hester took it over from Larry Carrier in 1978. They had big plans for Bristol - including moving the summer race to Saturday night under the lights. At that time, the only 2 Cup tracks running night races were in Tennessee - Nashville and Bristol. I found this April 1978 Spartanburg Herald article about Hester & some of the plans for modernizing Bristol.

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Richard Petty	'74 Dodge
2	Lennie Pond	'75 Chevrolet
3	Darrell Waltrip	'75 Chevrolet
4	Dave Marcis	'74 Dodge
5	Benny Parsons	'75 Chevrolet
6	Dick Brooks	'73 Ford
7	Coo Coo Marlin	'75 Chevrolet
8	Cecil Gordon	'75 Chevrolet
9	James Hylton	'74 Chevrolet
10	Bruce Hill	'75 Chevrolet
11	Ed Negre	'74 Dodge
12	Walter Ballard	'75 Chevrolet
13	Richard Childress	'75 Chevrolet
14	Carl Adams	'73 Ford
15	Buddy Arrington	'73 Plymouth
16	David Sisco	'75 Chevrolet
17	Bill Champion	'73 Ford
18	Jabe Thomas	'74 Chevrolet
19	Elmo Langley	'73 Ford
20	Cale Yarborough	'75 Chevrolet
21	Dick May	'75 Chevrolet
22	Frank Warren	'74 Dodge
23	Bobby Isaac	'75 Chevrolet
24	Buddy Baker	'75 Ford
25	Grant Adcox	'75 Chevrolet
26	Joe Frasson	'75 Chevrolet
27	D.K. Ulrich	'75 Chevrolet
28	Travis Tiller	'74 Dodge
29	Dean Dalton	'73 Ford
30	J.D. McDuffie	'75 Chevrolet

updated by @tmc-chase: 11/02/20 08:18:01AM