Congrats to Kyle Larson and congrats to Dan Elliott and the Greshams for turning the old Jeffco track into a showplace and providing great local short track racing. Need more of these places.
Didn't know Sam Hornish drove 18 wheelers on the side!
Is this her, Tim? I was looking for Go Daddy green shorts, but I believe she chose black.
I was looking really hard trying to find her!
Wow!!!
Those Formula One folk have all the fun and excitement. This definitely ain't Dawsonville.
Don't look Cody.
However, I'm not sure I want to see a bunch of nude protesters at Pocono, lol!!
MONTREAL GAZETTE
Breaking News
Live Events
Montreal Grand Prix opening night: Riot squad moves in on protesters Live
After a tense standoff outside the cocktail party launching the Grand Prix party in Little Burgundy resulted in a dozen arrests, protesters have moved north to the downtown core and Grand Prix festivities along Ste. Catherine St.
Link to live coverage (with photos!!!)
http://live.montrealgazette.com/Event/Montreal_Grand_Prix_opening_night_Riot_squad_moves_in_on_demonstrations
The family of Cotton Owens released a statement Thursday morning:
"The family would like to express gratitude for the thoughts and prayers of precious friends and fans."
"While Cotton was a racing legend with an incredible racing "family" we mourn the irreplaceable great granddad, granddad, father uncle, brother-in-law and friend we have all lost. The family respectfully requests privacy at this difficult time."
NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France released a statement Thursday afternoon saying, in part:
"This is a sad day for the NASCAR industry, but we are all consoled by the fact that Cotton was voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame before his death. Today we have lost a portion of our past. But people like Cotton Owens are the reason our sport thrives today -- and can look forward to a promising future."
From the Cotton Owens Garage web site, this is the photo of Cotton crossing the finish line for his final Grand National win, with flagman "Rusty" Russ waving the checkers. He beat his own driver David Pearson in a team car in September 1964 at Richmond's Virginia State Fairgrounds 1/2-mile dirt track in the Capital City 300. That race remains one of the most thrilling in my memory. The photo is misidentified as a USAC race, but it was a NASCAR Grand National.
We were so fortunate to have Cotton "assigned" to our Richmond track by NASCAR during the 1998 NASCAR 50th Anniversary celebration because of his great success at that venue. He was a delight to have as our guest and left all transfixed by his memories.
His '64 Dodge driven by David Pearson won the first race I ever saw. Cotton, himself won the second race I saw in 1964, coming out of retirement to show David how to make pit stops and beat him.
Prayers to the family. A great racer has passed and a very nice gentleman as well.
Here's a link to a listing of all race trading card sets in the collection at Applachian State University in Boone, NC:
http://guides.library.appstate.edu/content.php?pid=129494&sid=1110896
My complete set of Winner's Circle cards are safely put away. I treasure them because Gene Granger produced them and thought enough of me to give me a complete set in the binder. I don't take them out.
They were, of course, commissioned by the same crook in Kinston, NC who got hooked up with Maurice Petty and Bobby Labonte... Mr. William Shackelford.
Here's a post I made last year responding to TooMuch Country receiving the book Chief :
Reply by Dave Fulton on December 19, 2011 at 9:01am
TMC & BB, I have never read the Maurice Petty book and would be curious to hear your reviews. That book has to have one of the most colorful backgrounds of any book in motorsports history. It was commissioned by the Winner's Circle outfit and its founder/owner, William (Bill) Shackelford, the soft spoken, pipe smoking Kinston, NC area Insurance executive who became fascinated with stock car racing. Like so many other crooks, in every instance when I was around Shackelford, he was nice as he could be - the perfect gentleman with his silver hair.
Starting at Wilson County Speedway, he sponsored dirt cars all carrying his black & silver Winner's Circle color scheme, including local sportsman standout Mike Wiggins, who Shackelford hired as a representative to travel to the Cup tracks with his Winners Circle exhibits. Shackelford also dumped a lot of money Bobby Labonte's way and of course to Maurice Petty representing Winner's Circle for him. I still have my original set of Winner's Circle "Say NO to Drugs" trading cards of historical NASCAR figures that my old friend Gene Granger produced for Shackelford.
Only problem with Shackleford's racing exploits were that they were financed by what the North Carolina Attorney General called the largest automobile insurance fraud scheme in North Carolina history. Granger, Wiggins, Labonte, Maurice Petty and all the other "racers" were paid from the insurance premiums of 90,000 policy holders, who in fact, had no insurance, because the very "Christian" Mr. Shackelford paid for all of his racing exploits with their premiums.
The Maurice Petty book was published by an eastern NC Christian publishing house. Its author, James. R. Adams, the eccentric Episcopal minister of St. Mark's on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, who also dabbled as a writer, was as fascinating and colorful a figure as Shackelford. On several consecutive Sundays, he rode his big Harley up the main aisle of St. Marks in biker attire to deliver his sermon. Author Adams also convinced his church to purchase a bar as a money making venture where parishoners could throw back a couple of drinks after Sunday services.
He must of been the ideal foil for Shackelford to hire to do the Maurice Petty piece. Adams is recently deceased. His extremely interesting obituary/life story can be found in The Washington Post. I am extremely curious to find out what kind of book the crook and eccentric pastor crafted about one of our NASCAR legends. Please give us a review.
I received several other sets of cards which I have never opened, but none that would compare to the Gene Granger historical set produced for Shackelford.
Here's a few other complete, never opened card sets I have, but I don't think they have any value:
