Riding the Hound to Darlington on Labor Day - September 5, 1966
General
Found this photo of the former Southern 500 Truck Stop building in Elm City, NC on a roadside architecture blog:
Forum Activity for @dave-fulton
General
Riding the Hound to Darlington on Labor Day - September 5, 1966
General
A post about the cancellation of the Darlington Fall Festival made me realizethat thecalendar is fast approaching Labor Day, a sacrosanct date once synonymous with what was termed "The Granddady of Them All" - the Southern 500 stock car race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. The temperature is now dropping out of the nineties at night occassionally, the days are getting shorter, the ground is covered with heavy dewfall in early morning. All signs that the good ole boys should be getting ready for the one they all wanted to win.
The Southern 500 was the one race my buddy, Frank and I most wanted to see. More than Daytona, more than Charlotte, more than Atlanta. It was the race we had listened to Bob Montgomery announce on radio after the strains of "Dixie" faded.
On Labor Day 1965 I was enlisted to help my Dad with the repainting of our Richmond home. We had big extension ladders propped against the back of the house. Much to my mother's consternation, I mounted a radio in an upstairs dormer window, cranked to full volume with the Southern 500 broadcast and listened as Ned Jarrett won. There wasn't much said on the broadcast of the death of Buren Skeen, but a lot made of Cale flying over the guardrail in Banjo's #27. I was so impressed with stories I read afterwards about Ned speaking to church groups about winning the Southern 500, that I incorporated that into my sermon when I was named the "Youth Week Minister" at my Southern Baptist church the following spring - 1966 - my senior year in high school.
Although one gentleman in the church congregatation worked on Al Grinnan's modified, I guarantee I was the first (and probably the last) to preach stock car racing from the church pulpit of Monument Heights Baptist Church!
I have recounted on these pages the adventure Frank and I took in March 1966 when we took the race train from Richmond to Rockingham for that track's first spring race - the first, last and only Peach Blossom 500. Well, we knew we were ready for Darlington - but, our parents didn't share our readiness. Although we were both 17 and had graduated from high school in June and would head to college right after the Southern 500, both sets of parents forbid we two 17 year oldsdriving from Richmond to Darlington and back on Labor Day. However, we weren't to be stopped. We finally convinced our folks to let us take a bus to Darlington, an idea that seems pretty stupid in 2011, but one we thought was outstanding in 1966!
Around 8 or 9 pm on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend, my father dropped us off at the downtown Richmond Greyhound bus terminal, not a very nice place, even in 1966. We already had our Darlington race tickets and we had previously bought two round trip bus tickets to Darlington. We were the only two caucasians on the "Hound" and the rest of the bus was filled with folks going to Labor Day family reunions in South Carolina. Everybody but us had fried chicken to eat on that long bus ride. We rode through the night, departing out of Richmond on Interstate 95 South, which still hadn't been completed between Gold Rock, north of Rocky Mount, NC and Kenly, south of Wilson, NC. At Gold Rock the bus cut over to U.S. 301 and sometime after that Frank awakened me full of excitement. To our left we were passing the brightly lit,now long goneSouthern 500 Truck Stop, which in the 70s I learned was in Elm City, NC and frequented by the racers after Saturday night shows at Wilson County Speedway.
We still had a long ways to go, but sometime around 7:00 a.m. on Labor Day Monday that Greyhound let the two of us off at a little Pure Gas station in what I guess was downtown Darlington. It had one of those little rectangle signs you used to see at country stores, etc. that read, "bus." The place was closed, of course. In fact, everything was closed and we were totally lost without a clue how to get to the track.
I only remember that we walked for a long ways until we came upon a big open field with hundreds of cars and tents. There were campfires everywhere and a local church had erected a big tent and was serving breakfast to race fans. We thought we'd died and gone to heaven.
Our seats at Darlington were in the main grandstand, a place I never sat again, preferring Robert E. Lee's Paddock on the old turn 4. The cars ran right up on the wall out of turn 4 and all we could see on the main straight that day was the roofs of the cars.
Prerace was spectacular, much bigger than anything we'd seen at Richmond or Rockingham. The one similiarity was Ray Melton bellowing on the P.A. system, god bless him. We'd never seen a drag car before and during prerace the gold Hurst Hemi Under Glass Baracudda did wheelies down the main straight. Don't know if Linda Vaughn was riding along or not. Then our hearts really stopped. Coming in a parade down the front stretch were all the cars on exhibit in the Joe Weatherly Stock car Museum. The Johnny Mantz 1950 Plymouth, Buck Baker's Olds, Jim Reed's '59 Chevy, Little Joe's #8 Merc and the lavender #22 Ford of Fireball Roberts. By then we were ourselves steeped in the Darlington tradition and had each purchased a "Darlington Cushion," a seat cushion with the Southern 500 logo that we each carried like a badge of honor for years to come to races all over Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina as proof that we'd been to "The Grandaddy of Them All." Lord,I wish I knew what happened that cushion.
Our hero, JT Putney, had contracted to carry an onboard camera in his #19 that day in order to shoot footage for the annual Southern 500 promotional film. Seemed like he stopped every 20 laps to change film. I remember james Hylton in his pale yellow #48 pitted right across from us. I must have a thousand shots of him on 8mm film leaving his pit that day (or did until NASCAR lost all my film).
The big happening that day was Earl Balmer getting up on the fence in Turn 1. His K&K Dodge chopped off the tops of the guardrail posts and threw them into the open air press box like so many wood chips. The race was stopped for an eternity while the guardrail was rebuilt.
In the closing stages, Richard Petty cut down a tire and gave up the lead to Darel Dieringer who was flagged the winner in his Bud Moore #15 Mercury Comet.
When we left the track it started raining. We tried to thumb a ride back into Darlington and the closed bus station without any takers. We did both get hit in the head with rolls of wet toilet tissuetossed by drunks in a passing pickup. Sometime that evening, the bus enroute to Richmond picked us up at the closed bus station. My dad met us in the wee hours. We had survived our first Southern 500 and there would be many more Labor Day Monday adventures. But that was the the first and last time we rode the "Hound" to Darlington!
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
Junie Donlavey Sells It All
General
Excuse me if I have a tear in my eye, but I just read a post on the RaceRap board by Benny Parson's son, Kevin, telling of the auction this week of all of 87 year old Junie Donlavey's racing equipment, souvenirs, collectibles, etc. in Richmond by Motley Auctions. Kevin spotted for his father when Benny drove for Junie. I cut my teeth watching Sonny Hutchins in a Junie Donlavey Ford modified #90 on Friday nights at Southside Speedway in Richmond. Junie's wife, Phyllis passed away this year and I guess this is the official end of a magnificient racing career. When I go home to visit my sister in Richmond, Old Midlothian Turnpike will look pretty empty without the Swansboro Motor Company shops of Junie. So glad I was at Dover to see his Cup win with Jody Ridley. Starting out with modifieds in 1949, Junie fielded a car in the first Southern 500 for Bob Apperson on Labor Day 1950, just one of his 863 Cup starts as a car owner. Junie's driver roster is a who's who ofstock car racing history. Many a youngster got his start wheeling the #90. Joe Weatherly drove his first Cup event for - you guessed it - Junie in the 1952 Southern 500. One of those 3 women in the 1977 Firecracker 400 was in Junie's car - Christine Becker. Bill Dennis was the first to win 3 consecutive events at Daytona, claiming consecutive Permatex 300 LMS events for Junie. The list goes on and on. Enjoy your retirement Junie. A nicer man never walked the garage. No more beautiful #90 Fords & Mercs.
http://www.motleys.com/index.php?subp=1&sct=1663&pg=ap&pid=23271
Link to Auction Site
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/01/18/where.is.jdonlavey/index.html
Link to a 2007 NASCAR Article on Junie
Pride of NASCAR Junie Donlavey Video Link
http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2009/07/04/cup.day2.pride.donlavey.nascar/index.html"> http://www.nascar.com/video/cup/2009/07/04/cup.day2.pride.donlavey.nascar/index .html
updated by @dave-fulton: 01/08/17 08:09:00PM
Talladega Trivia
Trivia
We have eliminated Richard P, Donnie A, LeeRoy, David P as being the driver... correct?
Is the driver in this group:
Tiny Lund?
Hoss Ellington?
John Sears?
Carlton Lamm Dirt Car at Wilson County Speedway
General
From everything I read, he enjoyed tremendous success with the Dunn-Benson Ford Motorsports program over the years.
Carlton Lamm Dirt Car at Wilson County Speedway
General
On a recent Racing Through History segnment Wayne Andrews mentioned running some dirt races for Carlton Lamm. The shot below, courtesy of Raleigh's Kristi Maynard as posted on the Local Race Chat web site, showsDennis Smith of Goldsboro, NC in the red #32 Carlton Lamm Barbecue Barn car at Wilson County Speedway sandwiched between Don Macon (foreground) and Carl Horton (background). Dennis won the 1974 Southern Late Model 200 at Wilson (over Bud Elliott and Chubby Thompkins, with Al Grinnan on the pole) and $2,000 in that car. This is a 1973 photo. That looks like Chief Steward, Cliff Winstead (owner of Cliff's Drive-In) on the track. As Ray Lamm mentioned on the broadcast, there were/are a lot of Lamms around Wilson.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
Boris & The Biff
General
Down goes Arie, Down goes Arie, Down goes Arie.... (if Cossell was calling it)