Old School NASCAR Moments

LARRY said:
When I worked at Ford, we did some work for the Ford race teams.
One was the 28, when we talked with them of course Robert Yates was all horsepower horsepower ect.
But Davey sat down with us, looked at the data and wanted to understand just what it meant and how it applied to the car.

We all got Davey Allison jackets for the work .
Just weeks latter Davey was killed. I still have the jacket but it actually hurts for me to wear it and have only worn it twice.
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Cool story Larry , thanks.
 
Last race at North Wikesboro happened 19 years ago today

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Greg said:
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Old school racers weren't as cool at least they didnt get the attention of todays racing (note not my personal opinion, just a commentary on the times).

Personally old school to me (and it is subjective) was living in a mill village and seeing a race car. Even a mill hand could race back then.

Knowing where a gas station was (late 1960s and 1970s) that garaged a race car. They would run the station in the day, changing customer tires and oil, and massage the race cars at night.

Your local short track hero lived nearby, probably ran a garage and was one of the greatest masters of invention that you would ever meet.

In the 60 and 70s racing was the old textile leagues. Great and uncouthly cool. God, the limited late models in the mid 70s were turning lap times comparable to todays super late models.

I never saw that pictured # 71 nova race, but I saw many like it. Those fat tires and speed off the corners was beautiful as I anything I have ever known. The smell of raw racing gas and the rubber filled my senses, they were loud and shook the earth.

I woke up on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday thinking about Saturday night.
There was no internet, so I would write run downs down, and track the points personally just to know the complete standings.

If I could leave a thought to younger readers I would say to cherish your own old school personal history. I got to see Butch Lindley, Jack Ingram, Harry Gant, and Kulwicki while they were not as well known. But I didnt get to see Fireball and Smokey Yunich or see the real Donnie Mactavish story (one better than the tragic final event). I didnt get see Indy when the cars were most beastly.

But there will always be new moments destined to be "old school" by a younger generation. Go get em, I wish I could do it all over again.

And I had to add some pictures about the grit of Petty, all the drivers were bigger than life to me, but as a boy he was my favorite .
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I recognize some of those pictures as being taken "back in the day" at Raceway Park in Calumet Park, Illinois, just south of Chicago.

The #71 car (attachment 13992) was driven by Larry Middleton, a two-time late model champion at the track.

That's Stash Kullman in the 4U car (attachment 13994) and Bob Pronger in the #1 car (attachment 13995).

The track, a quarter mile in length and paved with asphalt, was in operation from the late '30's until it closed in 2000. It was torn down in 2001 and shortly thereafter a shopping center went up on the site.

Still have a lot of great memories of the place.
 
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Any night Bristol race from the 90s. Not that old school, but man, what awesome memories.
 
Since the off-season starts in two days, I thought it would be good to put this thread back up, and maybe it will get more use in the off-season then it did during the season.
 
Not really "old school", but four years ago today, Jimmie Johnson wins his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup championship.
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CamelPowered said:
It's cool you were there. I wish that more racing like that went on in the top levels of Nascar these days.
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The best moment of that race for me involved Robert Presley and he was very good on small tracks like that.
He ran an Oldsmobile owned by Brad Daugherty. The car was solid black if I remember correctly, with no sponsors decals just the Presley #59. To best of my knowledge Brad was signing all the checks out of pocket.

Sometime during the middle of the race Robert spun around just in front of the flagstand. If you ever have been to Hickory you have to know how insane it was for 30 BGN cars whizzing around the place in the heat of the battle. It was incredibly sensual just sitting in the stands. I been to several 3/8 mile tracks but Hickory had a character and feel unlike any other. Lanier was more pristine but an easy track to drive, Hickory was a lot more laborious and scary as well imo.

When Robert came to a stop after the spin he was facing traffic head on. But in his mind that wasn't the biggest dilemma. They raced back to the flag in those days, and the lead pack was somewhere around turn 3 and 4 and even with the caution being thrown they were still bringing on a lot heat or speed to the flag and poised to lap Robert.

Robert nailed the throttle for a quick burst of speed and hooked a perfect 180 right in the front of the pack, then he nailed the gas to try and beat the lead car to the flag. I wish I could say it was successful and that didn't have to loose a lap, but he unfortunately the lap was lost.

But you had to be there probably sounds corny as a read, but it was an incredible maneuver against a perfect storm. One of my favorite memories.
I took a preachers daughter to that race, but that move was the thing that had me shaking my head and thinking just damn, that was incredible
Even some 25 years later.
 
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Greg said:
The best moment of that race for me involved Robert Presley and he was very good on small tracks like that.
He ran an Oldsmobile owned by Brad Daugherty. The car was solid black if I remember correctly, with no sponsors decals just the Presley #59. To best of my knowledge Brad was signing all the checks out of pocket.

Sometime during the middle of the race Robert spun around just in front of the flagstand. If you ever have been to Hickory you have to know how insane it was for 30 BGN cars whizzing around the place in the heat of the battle. It was incredibly sensual just sitting in the stands. I been to several 3/8 mile tracks but Hickory had a character and feel unlike any other. Lanier was more pristine but an easy track to drive, Hickory was a lot more laborious and scary as well imo.

When Robert came to a stop after the spin he was facing traffic head on. But in his mind that wasn't the biggest dilemma. They raced back to the flag in those days, and the lead pack was somewhere around turn 3 and 4 and even with the caution being thrown they were still bringing on a lot heat or speed to the flag and poised to lap Robert.

Robert nailed the throttle for a quick burst of speed and hooked a perfect 180 right in the front of the pack, then he nailed the gas to try and beat the lead car to the flag. I wish I could say it was successful and that didn't have to loose a lap, but he unfortunately the lap was lost.

But you had to be there probably sounds corny as a read, but it was an incredible maneuver against a perfect storm. One of my favorite memories.
I took a preachers daughter to that race, but that move was the thing that had me shaking my head and thinking just damn, that was incredible
Even some 25 years later.
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Racing back to the line created some wild moments, and it was a lot harder to get a lap back once you lost it. Understandable why Presley would make such a bold move, but it must have taken cajones of steel. Looked like quite an exciting race to attend.
 
Ya had to love those 6 cylinder engines that sounded like a pack of mad bees looking for someone to sting. Hickory produced some great BGN racing. It was good "back in the day" when Busch Grand National cars ran at Myrtle Beach, Hickory and Orange County and one of the more exciting regular Winston Cup Series tracks they raced on was Martinsville. The Busch cars really put on a show there.
 
Amid fallout from the oil crisis, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest enacted new fuel consumption bylaws for the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans. Entries declined, manufacturers backed out, and the French sanctioning body was sent into a bit of a panic.

To ensure a full and exciting grid for 1976, the ACO expanded eligibility. Bill France Sr. sealed a deal with IMSA founder John Bishop, and the NASCAR GT (also known as Grand International) class was established to usher American stock cars into FIA sports car racing.

David Pearson's 1975 Ford Torino was the crème de la crème of this new class, derived from a Grand National chassis with a 600 HP dry-sump BOSS 429 big-block under its hood. The Torino took 1st in its class at the Daytona 24 and was originally meant to represent NASCAR GT at Le Mans '76, but dropped out after the untimely death of team lead John Holman prior to the race.

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Father and son team Doug and Hershel McGriff replaced David Pearson in the NASCAR GT class at Le Mans in 1976. The boys brought a red-white-and-blue war chest to France: a 1972 Dodge Charger, three purpose-built 426 engines, and 15 cases of Olympia beer labeled as "lubricant."

Unfortunately, Hershel's first run at Circuit de la Sarthe was brief—octane differences between Europe and the U.S. caused confusion (and detonation), and one of the HEMI's pistons failed after a 215 mph dash down the Mulsanne Straight. The Mopar dropped from 47th place to an outright DNF in just two laps.

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An invitation to Le Mans '76 was also extended to Richmond's own Junie Donlavey and his Truxmore Ford Torino, nicknamed "Herbie." Former NASCAR Rookie of the Year Dick Brooks signed on to drive, and Dick Hutcherson (who'd co-driven the #5 GT40 MKII at Le Mans '66) was coaxed out of retirement to fill the other seat.

Starting from last on the grid, the Torino didn't fare too well. Though its engine held up better than McGriff's 426, the Ford's NASCAR 4-speed saw over 20 changes per lap - grueling punishment for an oval-racing gearbox that seldom saw rapid shifts, never mind starts and restarts. By hour 11, the #90 Torino retired due to transmission issues.

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http://www.roadandtrack.com/go/car-culture/muscle-on-mulsanne-best-of-the-rest-2#slide-2

http://www.motortrend.com/classic/features/c12_0606_nascar_goes_to_le_mans/viewall.html
 
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So, is this a good place to upload some of my personal photos?
 

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The fastest NASCAR race ever, the 1987 Busch Clash at an average speed of 197.802 MPH (for many years, caution laps in the Busch Clash did not count):

 
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