Stripes
Current NASCAR
Then, again.... it may be Bill Murray and that darned Caddyshack gopher who we have to blame for DIGGER!
Forum Activity for @dave-fulton
Current NASCAR
Stripes
Current NASCAR
Stripes look good on zebras.
Stripes look good on Darlington Rookies.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19850804&id=IegeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jswEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1379,2099019
updated by @dave-fulton: 03/10/17 02:15:18PM
Darlington Sales Pitch Strikeout
Stock Car Racing History
I came across a column I enjoyed in the Darlington paper penned by its former publisher who also was once employed by Darlington Raceway.
Too bad ISC didn't run with some of Cathy Elliott's promotions. They'd have generated some real press, if not bad relations with many of the other ISC tracks.
My Brain on NASCAR - Sales pitch strikeout
By Cathy Elliott
cathyelliott@hotmail.com
I couldnt help smiling just a little bit when I saw Darlington Raceways advertising campaign for the 2012 Bojangles Southern 500.
Most of the promotional materials featured Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, who traded quite a bit of paint in the closing laps of the race before stepping outside to settle things man to man, which in this particular case involved Harvick dashing across pit road after the race, seemingly intent on applying his fist to Buschs head. Kyle avoided this by simply driving away, knocking Harvicks abandoned No. 29 Chevy aside in the process.
Darlington Raceway (DR) billed this years event as a rematch, which made some sense but also took some nerve, as unsportsmanlike conduct on the track is not generally NASCARs publicity tool of choice. Actually, it was pretty impressive that DR got away with it.
Since it is practically impossible for me to distance myself from the infamous Lady in Black after working there for so many years, now that its race week I couldnt help but remember a few of the advertising campaigns I conceived over the years that never saw the light of day.
The first featured a clean-shaven, nattily dressed guy sitting in a grandstand seat, methodically moving his head from left to right and back again.
The voiceover: This is your brain.
In the next shot, the poor guy is looking rather wild-eyed. His hair is standing on end, his J. Crew is askew, he has some 500-mile shadow on his face, and I seem to remember suggesting we add a little drool at the corner of his mouth. Just to be authentic, you know.
The voiceover: This is your brain on Darlington.
Ix-nay on that one. I guess looking like youve just come out of a day of wind tunnel testing may not have been considered too appealing to potential ticket buyers.
Another idea was the Darlington Cookie Company . This campaign panned over a tray of identically-shaped cookies and slowly named them one by one
The voiceover: Sugar cookie ... oatmeal cookie ... peanut butter cookie ...
You get the idea.
The final shot featured a wacky-looking cookie, bigger on one end than on the other you might even say it was egg-shaped with a bite taken out of it and teeth marks still visible.
The voiceover: One tough cookie.
This was back in the day when the 1 1/2-mile tracks AKA cookie cutters were getting a lot of media attention, not all of it positive.
Suffice it to say that the Darlington cookie campaign were judged unpalatable. It isnt nice to pick on those more uniform.
My final stroke of self-perceived brilliance featured head shots of four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) superstars: Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth. A graphic listing their combined total of victories, pole positions, top five finishes and championships ended with the voiceover, and zero wins at Darlington.
Then a big hairy hand brandishing a rubber stamp came down on their head shots, branding them LOSERS in big block letters.
Since then, Rusty went on to make the first-ever Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field and ended his career on a high note. Junior has received the Most Popular Drive award a gazillion times in a row. Kenseth has won a NSCS championship, and Stewart has won three.
It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but the LOSERS campaign was judged as ... well, a loser.
When you get right down to it, Darlington Raceway, one of the most famous, beloved and enduring pieces of NASCARs history, falls into the category of things that are so cool they almost sell themselves; no additional assistance is required.
But those ingrained habits, and one thing DR often has to deal with, is ageism. So Im offering the use of advertising campaign number four, free of charge.
Voiceover: Darlington Raceway; Shes younger than Cher.
Catchy, right? I have a really good feeling about this one.
NASCAR columnist Cathy Elliott is also author of the book Chicken Soup for the Soul: NASCAR.
Visit her online at www.mybrainonnascar.com .
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/16/16 07:54:05AM
Myrtle Beach Speedway Skid Racing With Cup Stars Video
Local and Regional Short Track Racing
Where was The Princess??
Myrtle Beach Speedway Skid Racing With Cup Stars Video
Local and Regional Short Track Racing
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:09:31PM
May 11, 1974: The King rocks Music City USA
Stock Car Racing History
Funny stuff here...
From TIME Magazine , October 15, 1973....
Rotund Andy Granatelli, chairman of STP Corp., has become one of television's most familiarindeed, unavoidablecommercial pitchmen, touting his much criticized engine-oil additive as the "racer's edge." A little more than a week ago, Granatelli, 50, got the razor's edge when his board of directors abruptly cut him loose and replaced him with John J. Hooker Jr. , entrepreneur and sometime politician . Hooker was hand-picked by Derald H. Ruttenberg, chairman of the widely diversified Studebaker-Worthington Inc., which owns a controlling interest in STP. The keenly publicity-conscious Granatelli was almost as incensed by what he believed was inadequate press coverage of his ouster...
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,910820,00.html#ixzz1ua3SaV00
May 11, 1974: The King rocks Music City USA
Stock Car Racing History
Back in those days John J Hooker was always running for some office in Tennessee.
I haven't found a photo yet, but I remember in 1966 when Buddy Baker ran 5 races in the Emory Gilliam #00 Dodge. They got the pole at Maryville and also ran it at Bristol, as well as the Northern Tour races at Oxford, Fonda and Islip.
The #00 on the door was incorporated into the name HOOKER.
I believe he may have done the same thing with Neil Castles and some others in the 60s-70s, but it is the Buddy Baker #00 at Bristol that I remember. Should be some photos out there of HOOKER on those #00 cars.
1957 Southern 500
Stock Car Racing History
From the days when Darlington produced a Southern 500 film for promotional purposes each year. This one is an absolutely amazing film underwritten by Wynn's. Thank you for posting this. As has already been noted, it is AWESOME.
The days of three abreast starts and pith helmets at Darlington.
Great in-car camera shot from the Fonty Flock car.
RC Cola would never be able to afford the big tunnel entrance sign at the rates charged today by ISC.
I loved seeing two old racing friends - Junie Donlavey and Bud Moore.
That's Richmond's Junie Donlavey clearly visible in his Swansboro Motor Co. shirt helping Smokey Yunick get the new radiator in Curtis Turner's Ford to get him back in action. Fellow competitors helping each other back in the day. Junie's 24th starting 1957 Chevy #90 driven by Richmond's Runt Harris had exited on lap 50 with clutch problems.
And I loved Bud Moore's plaid "sporty car" cap!
I about fell on the floor laughing, though, when Bud Moore gave his "supposed" closing comments at the film's conclusion. That most definitely was NOT Bud Moore, but an actor/narrator who had most likely never been south of the Mason-Dixon line judging from the hilarious accent he gave Bud's words! Most likely, judging from that piece, it is doubtful that was Paul Goldsmith talking earlier, either.
What a wonderful find, though. The first of two consecutive wins by a 1957 Chevy in the Southern 500, the first model to win twice in a row on Labor day.
Ghost Track Photo - Richmond Mile Dirt Track 1930s
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Here is a photo of the Richmond 1-Mile dirt track in the 1920s-1940s at the old Richmond Fairgrounds on The Boulevard in Richmond that preceded the location where today's Richmond International Raceway evolved from the half-mile dirt track built when the fairgrounds moved.
The Richmond 1-Mile Dirt track is where Bill France, Sr. raced his "Big Cars" - his open wheel roadsters when he came down to Richmond from Washington, DC.
I have seen event programs from the old 1 mile track, but never a photo. The track was located where the present Richmond baseball park and Arthur Ashe Tennis Center are situated on North Boulevard.
This is a motorcycle photo in Eddie Boomhower book, The Racer's Book .
The caption is written by Mr. Boomhower of Chesapeake, Virginia.
J OE PRATALI CLASS A SPEEDWAY RACER
THIS PICTURE WAS MADE IN THE MID 1930S AT THE RICHMOND ONE MILE SPEEDWAY . IT WAS LOCATED AT WHAT IS NOW THE ARTHUR ASHE COMPLEX ON NORTH BLVD IN RICHMOND. JOE WAS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS SPEEDWAY RACERS FOR MANY YEARS. WHEN YOU THINK, THEY WERE RUNNING SPEEDS WELL OVER A HUNDRED MILES PER HOUR AND DROP CENTER RIMS HAD NOT BEEN INVENTED YET. THIS WAS DONE WITH CLINCHER RIMS. A BLOW OUT WAS A DEATH SENTENCE. JOE WENT ON TO BE HOWARD HUGHES RIGHT HAND MAN . HE HAD THE REPUTATION OF BEING THE BEST OF CARBURETOR SPECIALISTS IN THE COUNTRY AND HUGHES NEEDED HIM IN HIS AIRPLANE VENTURES
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:08:38PM