I watched the documentary on Ayrton on the Documentary channel several weeks ago. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it. Great stuff.
For goodness' sake, we MUST add the '57 Chevy, first car I ever owned. Wish I could afford one today!
Johnny, I thought you'd never wake up. Please be advised that I was raised on grits and country ham in Richmond, married a Carolina girl and my dad once resided in Columbia and Lake City, SC! Surely, that makes me part Southern??!!
Tell ya what. A couple of the coldest nights I ever spent weren't up nawth, but over at New Smyrna in February during the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. I recall there being 55 gallon drums all over the infield with fires trying to generate a little heat.
As for me, I'll take a stock car on a dirt track any day over all the superspeedways in the world. And, I don't mean those wedge looking things. I mean '55 Chevys and '64 Chevelles and '37 Chevys.
My favorite drivers and most of y'alls could wheel 'em on dirt and asphalt.
Haven't we been blessed to have had so many great drivers, including many that most of us have never even seen?
Mike, here is a photo of Ray Hendrick posted at Kilbey Racing that claims to have been taken at Huntsville in the mid-70s. Never having been to Huntsville, I don't recognize the grandstands. Anybody know if this is in fact Huntsville? The sponsor on Ray's familiar Tant/Mitchell #11 is the Chevy dealership in Emporia, Va. owned by Elliott and Hermie Sadler's family.
See if any of you recognize the slim fellow in the Silver Crown car with Tony Stewart painted on it at Richmond in 1995.
The opening to this telecast is terrific, showing the Offy Champ cars on the dirt at Richmond in 1948, as well as The King on the dirt in the solid blue Plymouth. Great stuff!
Allow me to indulge for just a moment...
Ray Hendrick's 3 big superspeedway LMS wins came at the ages of 46, 47 and 48.
My favorite and I was there was the first of his two consecutive World Service Life 300 victories at Charlotte on October 4, 1975 at 46 years of age - that's right - age 46 when he outfoxed all the young whippersnappers. That day he finished ahead of fellows named Bonnett from Alabama in 2nd, Bobby Allison form Alabama/Florida in 3rd, Sam Sommers from Georgia in 4th, North Carolinians Jack Ingram and Dale Earnhardt in 5th & 6th, Maryland's Jack Bland in 7th, fellow Richmonder , "Terrible Tommy" Tommy Ellis in 8th, South Carolinian Charlie Blanton in 9th and Cup regular Dick Brooks in 10th. Further back in the field you'll find names like Waltrip, Shepherd, Gant, Houston, Hutchins, Ottinger, two Utsmans, etc.
When the race was over, Ray didn't even look like he'd broken a sweat, but a young 29 year old Neil Bonnett was jumping up and down, yelling, screaming, pissing and moaning that the 46 year old Hendrick had blocked him from passing all day in the race in which Hendrick led 138 laps. It was a funny moment when a grizzled old veteran who many had written off beat all the young lions and made them look really bad. It was just worse when he beat them all again the next year at age 47 and then did them in at Talladega at age 48 for good measure!
World Service Life 300
NASCAR Late Model Sportsman race
Charlotte Motor Speedway, Charlotte, NC
October 4, 1975
200 laps on 1.5 mile paved oval; 300 miles
Fin St Driver # Owner Car Laps Money Status Laps Led
1 4 Ray Hendrick Chevrolet Chevelle 200 20,300 running 138
2 10 Neil Bonnett Chevrolet 200 10,575 running 20
3 13 Bobby Allison Chevrolet Monte Carlo 199 6,550 running 4
4 11 Sam Sommers Chevrolet 197 4,200 running 0
5 5 Jack Ingram Chevrolet Chevelle 197 4,125 running 13
6 12 Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet Chevelle 197 3,200 running 0
7 20 Jack Bland Chevrolet Chevelle 197 2,700 running 0
8 18 Tommy Ellis Chevrolet Chevelle 197 2,500 running 0
9 32 Charlie Blanton Chevrolet Nova 197 2,300 running 0
10 7 Dick Brooks Ford 196 2,150 running 0
11 35 Connie Saylor Chevrolet Chevelle 193 1,950 running 0
12 38 Chet Williams Chevrolet 187 1,850 running 0
13 22 Gene Morgan Chevrolet 187 1,750 running 0
14 33 Junior Crouch Mercury 184 1,650 running 0
15 14 Alton Jones Ford 182 1,450 running 0
16 1 L.D. Ottinger 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 174 3,945 accident 21
17 6 Tommy Houston Chevrolet Chevelle 173 1,220 accident 0
18 29 Ron Bouchard Chevrolet Chevelle 167 1,145 running 0
19 19 Darrell Bryant Chevrolet Chevelle 166 1,070 transmission 0
20 15 Morgan Shepherd Mercury 159 1,120 engine 7
21 16 Don Miller Chevrolet 156 970 differential 0
22 34 Benny Kerley Ford 146 945 engine 0
23 26 Harry Gant Chevrolet Chevelle 133 1,020 engine 0
24 25 Joey Michaels Chevrolet 133 895 clutch 0
25 3 Darrell Waltrip Chevrolet 127 1,070 engine 0
26 21 Larry Utsman Chevrolet 116 845 rocker arm 0
27 23 Johnny Allen Ford 86 820 valve 0
28 8 Sonny Hutchins Chevrolet 85 645 engine 0
29 17 Sonny Easley Ford 85 770 running 0
30 36 Joe Falk Mercury 72 745 engine 0
31 37 Francis Affleck Mercury 64 720 overheating 0
32 30 Harry Jefferson Ford 63 705 engine 0
33 40 Clyde Peoples Chevrolet Chevelle 59 680 overheating 0
34 39 John A. Utsman Ford 42 675 engine 0
35 31 Bob Jarvis Chevrolet Chevelle 42 660 engine 0
36 24 Brad Teague Chevrolet Chevelle 32 645 engine 0
37 28 Phil Gibson Chevrolet Chevelle 30 680 accident 0
38 9 Larry Schild Chevrolet 19 665 accident 0
39 29 Jimmy Means Chevrolet 11 675 engine 0
40 2 Joe Millikan Dodge 7 985 engine 0
Time of race: 02:32:36
Average Speed: 117.955 MPH
Pole Speed: 34.11 seconds
8 cautions for 41 laps
Attendance: 40,000
Bobby Allison coming to Southside
Published: April 22, 2008
From press release
Many great drivers over the last fifty years have come to Chesterfield, VA to try and tame The Toughest Short Track in the South, but none any greater than Bobby Allison. The NASCAR legend and leader of the Alabama Gang is coming back to Southside Speedway on Thursday, May 1, 2008 as the Grand Marshall of the Denny Hamlin 175.
The 1983 Winston Cup Champion frequently made trips to the .333 mile oval throughout the 60s and 70s. Allison would travel from his Hueytown, AL home to various short tracks throughout the south and win wherever hed go. He has started over 2,400 races and won an astounding 717 times.
When he came to Southside, he would stay with the founder and owner of the speedway, J.M. Wilkinson. I ran there quite a bit early on and Mr. Wilkinson just became a special friend early on. He was one of those people who really promoted races well and we struck up a friendship, said Allison. Wilkinson was the father of the current speedway owners Sue Clements and Patsy Stargardt. They are excited to bring back one of NASCARs legends to help them celebrate 50 seasons of racing in Chesterfield.
Allisons racing credentials are among the best ever. His 85 victories in the NASCAR Winston Cup (Sprint Cup) rank him third all-time. He is a three-time Daytona 500 winner and a seven-time NASCAR Most Popular Driver. Allison was also the leader of the famed Alabama Gang from Hueytown, AL. Bobby; brother, Donnie; Neil Bonnett; and Red Farmer formed a super group that would dominate the short tracks and super-speedways throughout the south for years.
Although Bobby hasnt been behind the wheel of a race car for several years, the winning continued for the Alabama Gang this year with 76 year old, Red Farmer winning the season opener on March 9, 2008 at the Talladega Short Track.
Allison will join an all-star line-up that includes 2006 Sprint Cup, Rookie of the Year, Denny Hamlin; his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and 2005 Sprint Cup, Rookie of the Year, Kyle Busch; and two-time, Southside Speedway track champion and Denny Hamlins spotter, Curtis Markham. Tickets for the race will be on sale at the speedway on Friday, April 25, 2008 at 3:00pm and again on race day, May 1, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.
Tickets are $20.00 for adults, $10.00 for children 7-12, and free to children 6 and under.
A portion of the nights proceeds will benefit the Denny Hamlin Foundation.
Bobby Allison on occasion came up to Richmond and stayed at the home of Southside Speedway owner, JM Wilkinson back in the early 60s. He and Donnie both won the season ending Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified race at Southside.
Here is a photo of Bobby standing by his modified at Richmond's Southside Speedway in 1960 from Bobby's web site.
I don't know of Ray ever running the Snowball Derby. Ray was 61 when he died in 1990 and many of his biggest wins came in his 40s when he was only showing up at big money events that were paying him deal money to show.
Johnny, I will concur that Mr. Stewart looks great on dirt, in the IRL and his Cup championships speak volumes. I did have occasion to watch him in person in both USAC Midgets and USAC Silver Crown cars on asphalt at RIR. He wrecked out every time and didn't look very sharp
Johnny, I was gonna ask Mama to give ya a geography lesson last Saturday, but she looked pretty busy. Knowing that you are deep down in the heart of the peanut and peach state, I wanted to advise in our discussion of Ray Hendrick and your mention of northeast wins that the bulk of Ray's wins came in Virginia, generally acknowledged as a mid-Atlantic state ( and often as a South Atlantic state along with Georgia ), at Southside, South Boston, Martinsville, Langley Field and Old Dominion Speedways. Many wins were also recorded at Beltsville in the mid-Atlantic state of Maryland.
Ray's home base of Richmond was the Capital of the Confederacy and the cars for much of his success were fielded out of tobacco country in Littleton, NC decidedly southern. While Ray, Jack Tant, and Clayton Mitchell graciously accepted big money from promoters in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey to go "up nawth" and "clean their clock" as Ray put it, he was also the man to beat anytime he showed up at Trico/Orange County in Rougemont, NC and Cumberland International in Fayetteville, NC.
Besides all his wins in various Champions races at Trenton, Langhorne and Pocono, it doesn't take many digits on one hand to count how many drivers racing the best of the best at Martinsville, ever won a 250-lap NASCAR National Championship Modified race and then immediately stepped into a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman car and beat 40 different fresh drivers in another 250-lap race.
And that is the end of our Geography 101 course for today!
Listing only drivers who I saw race in stock cars. I always remember Barney Hall asking David Pearson doing color on the first Cardinal 500 Modified MRN Radio broadcast from Martinsville how long it would take Ray Hendrick to be a big winner in Cup if he decided to go that route. David's answer, "Long enough to strap in." Ray won a lot of races outside the northeast, Johnny. Multiple Charlotte 300s, Talladega, and had a Daytona Permatex race won until Junie Donlavey's pit crew was beaten on the final stop by the Pettys pitting Joe Millikan.
Stock cars:
Ray Hendrick
David Pearson
Curtis Turner
Dale Earnhardt
Richard Petty
Tony was terrible in the Busch Series. One of the worst drivers I ever saw in that series to be running good equipment. From 1996-1998 he ran 36 races in Busch with no wins and just 5 top-5.
