Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Just look beyond the forest to see the trees.

Stock Car Racing History

Jim...

This is really great stuff.

I always knew the ragtops and hardtops had raced together at Daytona, but never knew they did separate qualifying deals. Very interesting enlightenment. And thanks, PK for the other identifications.

I got very sad thinking about Marvin Panch and the number 98. Marvin's late son, Richie Panch, carried on the tradition of that car number. Richie used that number on almost all of his 47 Cup races between 1973-1976. In 1974 Richie scored his best career finish, 3rd place in the September Capital City 500 at my hometown Richmond track wheeling the #98.

Richie was one of the nicest, friendliest, outgoing and most helpful people I ever met in automobile racing. When I started representing Wrangler full time in 1981one of the first people at Daytona to be helpful to me was Richie Panch. He was so nice and so funny.

Richie had gotten himself hooked up with a new television enterprise called ESPN and was working around the garages and pits for them. Like Morgan Shepherd, Richie's favorite mode of travel was on roller skates! Here he'd come through the garage leading a tv crew, all the time spinning around, laughing and giving them directions what to do. And, Richie was only about 26 years old at that time.

When we got to Darlington for the 1981 spring Cup event, Richie came to me. He had a stack of ESPN decals they'd just produced ( the old original ESPN logo ). He told me if I'd put a couple of these new ESPN stickers on Dale Earnhardt's Wrangler car, he'd tip off the producer, director and cameramen to look for those stickers during the race. Richie was good to word. Our executives couldn't believe how much air time our car was getting. All because I put a couple of ESPN stickers right next to the word "Wrangler" on the quarter panels and rear end.

Richie was one of those people who generated excitement and he was always trying to help other people. One of those people he tried to help was motorcycle racer Dale Singleton, an AMA champ I had met and sat next to at the AMA Awards banquet at Disneyland in California. Dale had won two Daytona 200 cycle events and wanted to break into Busch Series racing. Richie had befriended him and was helping him get a ride and get acquainted. Being nice as always.

Most folks remember the 1985 Southern 500 as the day a fellow from Dawsonville became "Million Dollar Bill." I remember it for a different reason.

Long story, short.... following the the 1985 Southern 500 at Darlington, Richie took off in his plane for Florida with Dale Singleton and two others. They never made it. The plane broke apart in mid-air when it flew into a severe thunderstorm over Rion, South Carolina. All four aboard perished. Richie, already a veteran of 4 Cup seasons in the previous decade and with a television career ahead of him was only 30 years old.

I never see the number 98 on a stock car that I don't think about Richie Panch and what a nice guy he was and how he died helping other people.

The late Richie Panch with his ever present smile

A young Richie Panch poses with dad Marvin Panch beside the famed Wood Brothers mount

Richie Panch in one of his #98 Cup rides

Richie Panch's #98 at speed on the high banks of Daytona

Richie Panch used his dad Marvin's old number 98 at the weekly tracks, also

And, Richie's resume will forever show that he was another in the distinguished list of drivers who once steered a ride for my hometown Richmond car builder and legend, Junie Donlavey.

Thanks, Jim, for making me think of Richie Panch - another of racing's truly nice people lost too soon.

Credit for all above photos to Legends of NASCAR web site.

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks, Dennis.

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

And this, too:

The polio epidemic of 1948 struck harder in the North Carolina Piedmont than in any other part of the country. By raw count, Los Angeles County, Calif. and Harris County, Texas had more total cases, but no county had more people infected per capita than Guilford, wrote John S. Stevenson in a 1966 article for The North Carolina Medical Journal. Across North Carolina, 2,516 polio cases were reported in 1948, according to state health records, compared with 300 the year before and 229 the year after.

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

Laverne, I didn't know that.

Found this interesting summary of NC Triad Polio situation in the North Carolina Nursing History archives of Appalachian State University, specifically referring to Greensboro and Winston-Salem:

Greensboro area citizens suffered from a polio epidemic in 1948. The community came together to confront this acute crisis, and the custom of racial segregation was temporarily set aside to provide emergency care to all affected children. While healthcare facilities in Greensboro would remain officially segregated for another 15 years, during the summer of 1948 in the emergency polio hospital, white and black patients shared wards, and nurses of both races worked side by side to treat the sick.
An article in the Kansas City Plain Dealer conveyed the need for African American nurses to help in the 1948 North Carolina epidemic:
In response to the urgent need for nurses in sections of North Carolina seriously affected by infantile paralysis, Negro nurses in scattered localities throughout the country are following the lead of twelve Southern Negro nurses volunteering for polio duty, the American Red Cross reported this week. All Negro nurses available for service are urged to register as soon as possible with their Red Cross chapter. The Red Cross functions as a recruiting agency when local nursing resources are depleted; salaries and transportation of nurses assigned are paid by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.
Three Negro nurses recruited through Red Cross national headquarters during the past few days are among those who will serve on polio duty in N.C. Mrs. Gladys Johnson of Fort Worth, Tex., former Red Cross itinerant nursing instructor in Midwestern States, will serve as supervisor in the polio wards at the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem and Estelle Coles, a recent graduate of Freedmans Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, DC, has also has been assigned there. Earlier in the week Manna Beaman, Richmond, volunteered for service and was assigned to St. Agnes Hospital, Raleigh.
Plain Dealer; Date: 08-13-1948, Volume: 25; Issue: 31; Page: [6]

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

Curiosity question, Robert - do you know if 10th place finisher in the 3/26/51 Modified race, Ted Swaim is/was kin to Mike Swaim?

Mike Swaim #63 Busch Series car at Daytona 1988

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

Robert,

Not 1947, but wondered if you've seen the photo of the 3/26/1951 Herb Thomas NASCAR Pit Pass for "Peach Haven" for I guess a Modified-Sportsman race as posted by Laverne Zachary from the Bill King collection on RR several years ago.

Link to photo:

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/photo/bill-king-collection?contex...

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

Glad it's not just me questioning why so many historical mistakes keep coming out of "our" Hall of Fame. Add that one to the Richard Petty becoming famous when his Hemi "Dodge" won the 1964 Daytona 500 in 1964 as the HOF show on Richard stated last week.

Looking after Bill Tuthill's Museum of Speed and being the spokesman for the NASCAR Hall of Fame obviously call for a different skill set.

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

Robert... N.B. did mean 1947 .

Here are his photos from his personal collection that N.B. has posted on his profile page of that 1947 Martinsville NCSCA race program cover and entry list:

Help Decipher The Mysteries Of The First NASCAR Season

Stock Car Racing History

Robert, I too get very frustrated with the treatment of NASCAR's inaugural 1948 season.

I hope you don't mind if pass along the 1948 winners page you have posted to the Richmond track. Some rocket scientist there decided to spend the entire year celebrating "60 Years of NASCAR" at Richmond during the 2012 season, because they ran their first Grand National race in 1953.

Only problem, as I have repeatedly pointed out to them, is that on May 16, 1948 - 65 years ago - they ran the very first NASCAR race in the Commonwealth of Virginia. That was a NASCAR Modified race, won, of course, by Red Byron.

Even folks you would never think would make these errors do make them. When I worked at Richmond I once read a Martinsville news release written by a very good friend, the late Dick Thompson, claiming credit for the first Virginia NASCAR race and the first Virginia NASCAR telecast at the Martinsville track.

I had to correct Dick on both counts. He was shocked to learn that the Richmond race was the first Virginia NASCAR race, followed by two Danville NASCAR races before Martinsville held the 4th Virginia NASCAR race.

And, as I pointed out to Dick, the first Virginia NASCAR telecast was from Richmond in 1965 when ABC's Wide World of Sports telecast Junior Johnson winning the Richmond 250.

Being the gracious individual that he was, Dick immediately issued a news release correcting both Martinsville mistakes. I do note, however, that the first Virginia NASCAR telecast thing has crept back into some of the current Martinsville media materials.

Thanks for this very informative post.

It took Richmond 3 days to Run 125 Miles in 1964 - My 1st race

Stock Car Racing History

This is the dark brick building where G.T. remembers the cars being stored:

It is the "Old Dominion" building, for many years the site of Friday night Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. The Richmond building that once housed Worth McMillion's Pontiac is now on the National Historic Register... take that Daytona, Charlotte and Martinsville!