JLM-Racing-1961-A J Foyt_midget car race (Wiki Commons)

A.J. was, like so many other drivers, hard nosed both on and of the track.  He was considered primarily to be an open wheel superstar but A.J. was a respected figure on every circuit that he competed on.  Anthony Joseph Foyt was born on the 16th January, 1935 in Houston, Texas where his father had a shop specialising in racing cars so, having been brought up in a racing environment, it was clear that A. J. would be influenced by the racing world and even decided, before going to elementary school, that he wanted to be a racing car driver in the future.   That is just what he did, going on to be considered by some the best racing driver of the century.

His career saw him winning victories on nigh on every North American racing venue including circuits ranging from quarter-mile dirt ovals to road courses to 2.5 mile super-spreedways, racing with cars such as midgets, sprint cars, Indy cars, stock cars and sport cars.  His open wheel racing includes USAC Champ cars and midgets and stock cars in NASCAR and USAC.  He has won many major sports car racing events and, with 159 victories, he holds the all-time USAC record for career wins, together with the all-time record for career wins, an impressive 67, for American championship racing.  He won the Indianapolis 500 four times, this is a record and in 1967 he won the prestigious 24 Hour of Le Mans sports car race with co-driver, Dan Gurney. 1972 he won the Daytona 500 – the Super Bowl of Stock car racing and in 1976 and 1977 he won the International Race of Champions (IROC) All-Star Series title.  A.J. occasionally went “down south” to compete in NASCAR races  during the 1960s to the ’80s, starting from the pole 10 times, and winning seven times in 128 starts. His first NASCAR race was the 1963 Motor Trend 500 at Riverside, California when he finished second behind Dan Gurney. He won two consecutive Firecracker 400s at Daytona in 1964 and 1965, and the Daytona 500 in 1972.  While driving for the Wood brothers he won the 1971 and 1972 Los Angeles Times 500 which was an annual NASCAR Winston Cup race held at Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. This Speedway was closed down in the 1980’s because of financial problems…

He also won on the 2.6-mile road course at Riverside Raceway near Los Angeles in 1970.  His performance in Indy cars has made him a living legend. He also is the only driver to compete in Indy-style, USAC short track, IMSA sports car and NASCAR Stock Car events in the same season–an accomplishment he performed many times. But his four Indianapolis 500 wins, and mastery of the speedway, establishes him as one of the leading racers in the world.  Other awards that he has received have been Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000, named as one of NASCAR’s prestigious in the “50 Greatest Drivers” list in 1998 during the yearlong 50th anniversary celebrations, named as co-driver of the Century by the Associated Press, Inducted into the first class in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1989 and Inducted in the first class into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1989 and inducted in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

A.J. lives in Houston with his wife Lucy. They have a daughter, Terry, and three sons, Anthony Joseph III (Tony), Jerry, and Larry, his adopted son. His sons are all involved in some form of motor sports. Jerry is involved in stock car racing; Larry is racing go-karts in the Houston area; and A.J. Foyt III is encouraging his son, A.J. Foyt IV, in racing junior dragsters in Texas.  Even now A.J. shows no sign of retiring, Foyt loves to race, and he loves to win. A.J. is as competitive as they come. He cannot stop himself. “Victory in the future is always what you’re looking for,” Foyt said. “I still have so much I’d like to accomplish as a team owner.” Nowadays, he has two IRL teams and a Winston Cup team (he has two IRL titles and 7 series race victories) and alongside of to his three race teams, he operates A.J. Foyt Enterprises, a race shop that he opened in 1965 based in Waller, Texas just west of Houston, Foyt’s other business interests include car dealerships (he once owned the largest Chevrolet dealership in Texas), funeral service businesses, oil investments, and raising thoroughbred horses. He has several cattle and horse ranches in Texas.

References:

http://www.circletrack.com/thehistoryof/1796/index.html

http://www.worthyofhonor.com/Inductees/AJ_Foyt.htm

http://sports.jrank.org/pages/1535/Foyt-J-Born-Drive.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_J_Foyt

The late Alan Kulwicki - Sears Point 1991 (Wiki Commons)

Alan Dennis Kulwicki, a Polish- American, was the son of Gerry Kulwicki, the crew chief for United States Automobile Club so most of his upbringing was centred on race cars.  Born on the 14th December 1954 he grew up in Greenfield, Wisconsin close to the Milwaukee Mile racetrack.  His career in racing started at the age of thirteen when he raced karts.  He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1977 and this gave him an insight into the physics of race cars.   He received his engineering degree the same year that he had his first career track championship at the Slinger Speedway.

Throughout his college days he raced as an amateur at the local dirt tracks before turning professional in 1980.  After graduating he joined his father in the engineering business working on and building car engines like his father for ASA.  Alan was responsible for developing the Indy car alignment system that is still in use today at the Brickyard.   He knew that he would have to choose one career over the other to achieve the success he was sure he was capable of.  Finally, in 1985, after selling most of his personal belongings he set off to Charlotte in North Carolina to try his hand at NASCAR racing.  He took with him little more than a borrowed truck, (his own had been destroyed by an electrical fault two days before he was leaving) towing a trailer in which to live, and a game plan for success in his head. That plan was to run for the Rookie of the Year in 1986, run competitively at every track on the circuit in 1987, and wins his first NASCAR race in 1988.

By 1986 Alan’s dream came true, with only 2 cars, 2 engines, and 2 crew members he not only made it to the Winston Cup Series, he went on to be that years Rookie of the Year. He had his first start on the 8th September, 1985 at Richmond for Bill Terry and went on to complete five starts, with his highest finish being placed at thirteenth.  Alan was described as being very studious and hard-working with a no-nonsense approach to racing, something of a loner and he demanded the same degree of excellence that he gave to his work from his crew and this made it difficult to recruit and retain crew members.  Nevertheless, Alan was respected for his stern work ethics.  He drove for himself and very often served as his own crew chief, he would work long hours, maintaining and servicing his car on a very limited budget.  One notable crew chief, Ray Evernham, who lasted just six weeks with him in 1992, said of him, “The man is a genius.  There’s no question.  It’s not a matter of people just feeling like he was a genius.  That man was a genius.  But his personality paid for that.  He was very impatient, very straightforward, very cut-to-the-bone.”

In 1988 Alan hired Paul Andrews as his crew chief after he was recommended by Rusty Wallace and that year saw him win his first NASCAR Winston Cup race in the second to last race of the season at Phoenix International Raceway.  Alan led forty one laps and won by 18.5 seconds.  When the race ended Alan turned his car around and he made a Polish Victory lap, driving to face the crowds with a victory wave. “It’s been a long road and it’s taken a lot of hard work to get here, but this has made it all worthwhile.  When you work for something so hard and for so long, you wonder if it’s going to be worth all of the anticipation.  Believe me, it certainly was.  And what do you think of my Polish Victory Lap?  There will never be another first win and you know, everybody sprays champagne or stands up on the car.  I wanted to do something different for the fans”.  (Alan’s victory quote in Grand National Scene magazine.)

1989 was a difficult year for his team; although he held the pole position for five races he was unable to secure a victory.  It was during this time that Junior Johnson asked if he would like to drive for one of his Thunderbird operations but Alan turned it down. Later he explained why, “Time will tell if my decision is right or wrong. But I have never been a quitter in my life. Even as bad as things have been lately, if I joined another team, I would feel like I never stuck it out with what I have now. Down the road I would never be able to say that I have given it my best shot. I would always second-guess myself.”  His decision proved to be right when he won his second race in the Winston Cup Series.  That season he finished eighth in the standings but his sponsor, Zerex, would be finishing at the end of the season.

Despite trying to find another sponsor he was not successful and when Speed Week 1991 arrived Alan he turned up at Daytona with a plain white Thunderbird, not sure what would happen.  Junior Johnson approached Alan again and again he refused.  The United States Army came up with sponsorship money for Alan in the Daytona 500, Alan paid his own expenses for the second and third races and he secured a one off sponsorship for the fourth race at Atlanta with Hooters.  This led to a long term sponsorship after he finished in eighth position.  This season saw him secure his third career victory at Bristol.  His single minded determination and belief in himself paid off for Alan in 1992.  Alan finished fourth in the first race of the season, the Daytona 500, he was in the victory lane for the sixth race and was victorious in the 1992 Championship Spark Plug 500 in June and completed fifteen more top ten finishes on his way to securing the Winston Cup Championship with a ten point lead over Bill Elliott.  Alan celebrated by doing his second Polish Victory Lap.

Alan had achieved his dream through what seemed to be  overwhelming complications and daunting odds, in just eight short seasons on the race track, he’d become NASCAR’s number-one driver and he did it “his way”.  Kulwicki proved to be a humble champion. Upon climbing out of his car in Atlanta he said “I thank God for the fortune to be here and to be an American and compete on the Winston Cup circuit.” He went on to reflect, “If you were to bet money back in ’86 that I’d be where I am today, the odds were slim. When you consider everything it took to get here from there, you’d say it couldn’t be done. But you can’t look at it that way. I didn’t. Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal.”  Alan returned home to Greenfield for “Alan Kulwicki Day” in January 1993, thousands of people turned out to welcome home their champion, the local television filmed the event and Alan signed autographs for six hours.  Alan didn’t celebrate his triumph for long; on Thursday, the 1st of April 1993 he was killed in an aeroplane crash while returning to Bristol for the spring race, from an appearance at Hooters in Knoxville. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to be the pilot’s failure to use the aeroplane’s anti-ice system to clear ice from the engine inlet system.  Alan was thirty eight years of age.  There was an emotional moment on Saturday morning, the 3rd of April at Bristol. It was a cloudy day. All of the drivers were at the track as the Alan Kulwicki Hooters Racing Hauler circled Bristol and received the checked flag from Harold Kinder for the last time.  The next day, on Sunday, Alan’s friend, Rusty Wallace won the race and honoured his friend by doing the Polish Victory lap.

During the remainder of the 1993 race schedule, each driver winning a race in 1993 completed the “Polish Victory Lap” in honour of Alan Kulwicki.  The last race of the season, the race winner, Rusty Wallace, along with the Series Champion, Dale Earnhardt, completed one final “Polish Victory Lap” side by side.  Rusty carried the #28 flag and Dale carried both the #7 and #28 flags to honour both drivers. In Alan’s words, “in every aspect of life, have a game plan, and then do your best to achieve it.”  He was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kulwicki

http://www.nascar.com/2003/news/headlines/wc/03/31/kulwicki_stories/index.html

Benny Parsons (wiki commons)

Benjamin Stewart Parsons was born on the 16th of January 1941 in the small town of Ellerbe, North Carolina. When he was five years old he went to live with his great-grandmother in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Living in a wooden house with no running water or electricity “Mama Julia” instilled in Benny the need to strive for success in all that he does in life. Throughout his life Benny never forgot his humble rural roots and this showed in his relaxed demeanour and pleasant nature.

After the end of the Second World War Benny moved to Detroit, Michigan with his family where his father operated a gas station and a taxicab business. Before becoming a race car driver he worked for his father, driving taxis or working in the service station and it was here, one evening in 1963 that a chance meeting would change his life. A truck carrying a race car pulled into the gas station and Benny got chatting to the occupants who told him that they were on their way to Mount Clemens Speedway, inviting him to join them. Not wanting to give up this opportunity Benny jumped at the chance and went with them.. The story is that the driver failed to turn up at the race track and Benny volunteered to drive the car. This year was also the year of his first visit to Daytona, he was a huge race fan and would have given anything to get into the garage area to be near the cars. The best part of the trip was when he bumped into H.B. Bailey’s ( a former NASCAR driver) wife in the hotel that they were staying. She gave him a pass to get in to the garage area. “It was the highlight of my life, getting inside the garage area and getting close to those race cars.” Benny was hooked and began his racing career on the Midwest short race tracks. The chance of a lifetime came on the 9th August 1964 at the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in North Carolina when the Ford Motor Co. summoned two unknown drivers to an audition for a factory-backed ride in the 250-mile race for the NASCAR Grand National drivers. The two drivers Ford had their eye on were Cale Yarborough and Benny Parsons. Both drivers were strapped into 1964 Ford Galaxies and the race began. Both qualified in the top 10 in the 36-car field. During the race, Parsons had problems getting used to the powerful car on the fast track, and failed to impress Ford during this great opportunity. Though Benny early NASCAR efforts were unsuccessful ,his persistence paid off with a Daytona 500 victory in 1975. Benny soon made an impression on the Midwest short tracks, rising in the racing ranks and going on to become “Rookie of the Year” in 1965, together with two Automobile Racing Club of America, ARCA, championships in 1968 and 1969.

The next opportunity in NASCAR didn’t come until 1969 when L.G. DeWitt hired him as a substitute for Buddy Young who had been injured at Riverside. Buddy’s injuries took almost a year to heal and during this time Benny excelled in his performance, gaining 23 top ten positions in 45 starts. DeWitt decided to hire him on a more permanent basis. 1973 saw the DeWitt team with no sponsorship and they only had three cars available. Benny was chasing the championship.

1973 saw a unique points system introduced, awarding points not only for overall finish position but also for teach lap completed and so far Benny had completed 9311 laps out of a possible 10,258 by keeping the car running in most of the races, giving him, at this point, a lead of 194 points when entering the final race at Rockingham. The winner of this race would gain 371 points and five drivers were in a position to win the championship. Benny qualified as a strong fifth. As the lead cars were completing their early laps Johnny Barnes spun into a wall, bouncing off into the path of Benny, the cars hit hard and the axle on Benny’s Chevrolet was broken, the whole of the right side was torn away, suspension parts were all over the track and the car was totalled. Back in the pit many pit crewmen from several teams worked together, taking parts from a car that had failed to qualify, to reconstruct the car to keep his chance of winning alive. Amazingly, after a further 136 laps had been completed Benny drove back onto the track to drive to victory, taking the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National Championship in one of the most spectacular way in the series history. “I was lower than the gutter when I first came back to the pits after the wreck,” said Parsons. “We were out of it. Fifth place [in the NASCAR Winston Cup standings] was looking me dead in the eye. But I really got inspired when I saw everyone on our team and so many from the other teams swarming over my car. What they did was a real miracle.” Benny’s’ NASCAR Winston Cup career continued through the 1988 season. In addition to his title season in ’73, he captured NASCAR’s biggest event, the Daytona 500, in ’75. He logged 21 victories in stock car racing’s premier division, and was voted among the top 50 drivers in NASCAR history during the Golden Anniversary in 1998. His awards also include:- Inductee into the Court of Legends at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 1964, Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994 and Inductee into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005.

After his retirement, Parsons went into television commentary. He served as an analyst for NASCAR NEXTEL Cup broad¬casts starting in 1989 and remained a firm favourite with the fans until he passed away after complications after treatment for lung cancer in early 2007 at Charlotte, North Carolina.

References

http://www.nascar.com/news/features/bparsons.hof.bio/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Parsons

http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/01/16/bparsons.obituary/index.html

http://www.bennyparsons.com/

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/drivers/benny-parsons.htm

A photograph of the late Bob Welborn; a retired NASCAR Cup Series driver (Wiki Commons)

Robert Joe Welborn, better know as “Bob”, was born on the 5th of May 1928 in Denton, North Carolina. Bob was one of the last NASCAR pioneers competing against the like of Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson, Lee Petty and others of the same ilk and he was a leader who always forced a challenge as a member of the “Pontiac Pack” in the early 1960s He ran in 183 NASCAR Grand National Cup Series races over a period of thirteen years, giving him nine victories, 102 top ten positions and seven poles.  He never ran a full season in the NASCAR Grand National Cup series. His first three NASCAR Grand National Cup races took place in 1952 at Martinsville Speedway when he finished 81st in the points positions.

In 1953, driving for Julian Petty and J. O. Goode, he took part in eleven events, giving him two top ten and six top ten finishes. Driving for Julian Petty, Bob Griffin and George Hutchens in 1954 he gained one top five and three top ten positions.  Finishing fourth in the 1955 points Bob ran thirty two out of forty five events in cars belonging to Julian Petty and himself, taking twelve top five and twenty five top ten positions and gaining the pole position.  He only ran in six of a possible fifty six events in 1956, giving him two top ten positions and a final points position of eighty fourth.  He won the NASCAR Convertible Division championship in 1956.

His first success in the Grand National Series came at Martinsville in 1957 but he didn’t actually drive over the finish line – it was Lewis “Possum” Jones who took over half way through the race but NASCAR always credits the driver who started the race.  For the second time he won the NASCAR Convertible Division championship.

In 1958 Bob had four straight wins plus one, ten top five, fifteen top ten finishes and gained one pole position and finished at 149th in points because he only took place in eighteen of a possible fifty one events.  He won his third straight NASCAR Convertible Division championship in 1958. He won the qualifying race in 1959, giving him the pole position for the 1959 Daytona 500 and had five poles in total along with three wins during this season.  Over a course of four years, 1956 to 1959, he ran in a total of 111 events in the NASCAR Convertible Division, with nineteen victories, sixty nine top five and eighty seven top ten finishes together with eighteen pole positions.  His last race, the Pennsylvania 200, was in 1964 at Lincoln Speedway.    His awards include:- Inductee into the National Motorsports Press Associations Hall of Fame in 1982 and named s one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.

Sadly, Bob died on the 10th August 1997 at the age of sixty nine.  He left behind his wife, Novella and two daughters, Lisa and Barbara.

References:

http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Bob_Welborn.htm

http://www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=welbobo01

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Welborn

Cotton Owens was one of the forerunners of stock car racing.  Born on the 21st of May 1924 in Union South Carolina, Everett “Cotton” Owens became known as “the King of the Modifieds” after winning over one hundred races and two series championships back to back in 1953 and 1954 during the 1950’s whilst driving open wheel Modifieds.  He also ran some limited races in the NASCAR Grand National series without too much success until on the 17th February 1957 he had his first win at the series premiere annual event, the Daytona Beach Road Course, beating Johnny Beauchamp, the runner up, by a staggering 55 seconds.  This race was of historical importance for two reasons, firstly it was the first ever race that NASCAR had sanctioned speeds of over 100 mph, (the average speed was timed at 101,541 mph) and secondly it was the first ever win for the manufacturers of Pontiac in NASCAR racing.  The car was a 1957 Pontiac, owned and prepared by Ray Nichels.  Cotton was to win again the following year at Monroe County Fairgrounds in Rochester, New York but it was in 1959 that Cotton started to make his name as a race car driver.  He came second to Lee Petty in the Grand National Series championship which was pretty remarkable because he only had thirty seven starts but managed to have one victory, thirteen top fives and 22 top tens.

In 1961 Cotton ran a very limited schedule of seventeen races but still managed to win four races and was placed in the top fives in eleven others, including a win at his home town of Spartanburg, South Carolina.  It was this year that Cotton decided to retire from racing to concentrate on his career as a car owner and fabricator and in 1962 he hired the renowned car driver and owner, Junior Johnson to drive for him along with the young, as yet unknown development driver, David Pearson, who went on to earn the nickname of “the Silver Fox”.  Cotton came out of retirement briefly in 1964 to take part in a special race at Richmond Speedway in Virginia to see if he, now a prominent car owner, could beat his up and coming rising star, David Pearson.  Cotton did beat David and received his final NASCAR Grand National career win.

1965 proved to be a bit of a down season for Cotton Owens Racing because NASCAR disallowed the Hemi-engine, designed by the Chrysler Corporation because NASCAR felt the engine was high powered and up-staged their vision of a level playing field among the factory teams.  The Corporation decided to boycott NASCAR and as Cotton was one of the teams backed by the Corporation and the Corporation asked that the teams do the same.  Boycotting NASCAR Cotton and David spent the 1965 season drag racing, using a Dodge Dart drag car which Cotton had built. The car had a full-sized Hemi engine in the back of it and ran it on nitro and alcohol based fuel in the Experimental class.  In 1966 Cotton and David returned to NASCAR racing and they won the Grand National Championship.

In 1967 they had an amicable parting after a successful six year partnership during which they earned twenty seven wins in 170 races.  Over the years Cotton has been very lucky to have had some of the most formidable names in stock car racing drive his cars including several from NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers.  Twenty five drivers have driven Cotton’s car, giving him thirty two victories and twenty nine pole positions in 291 races.  Cotton’s career statistics as a car owner and driver include forty one victories and thirty eight pole positions in 487 races.  A truly illustrious career that saw him gain many awards including:- Modified Series champion in 1953 and 1954, Daytona Beach Road Course winner in 1957, Grand National championship car owner in 1966, National Motorsports Press Association’s Hall of Fame in 1970, Recipient of the “Car owners of the 1960s” awarded by the Old Timer’s Racing Club in 1996, Named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, Presented with the Smokey Yunick Award for “Lifetime Achievement in Auto Racing in 2000, Honoured by the Vance County Tourism Dept. Henderson, North Carolina with the “East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame Motorsports Pioneer Award” in 2005, Pioneer of Racing Award, Living Legends of Auto Racing in 2006, Recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian honour awarded by the Governor of South Carolina, created in 1971 to recognise lifetime achievement and service to the State of South Carolina in 2006,  Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2008.  This list is not exhausted as there are more awards and credits for notable achievements. Truly a living legend in Stock Car Racing.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Owens

http://www.autoracingdaily.com/news/nascar/nascars-legend-cotton-owens-story-needs-re-told/P1/

Glen Wood

Glen Wood was born on the 18th July 1925in Stuart, South Virginia.  He competed on a part-time basis from 1953 to 1963; taking part in sixty two races of which he won four all at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Sale, North Carolina had thirty four top ten positions with fourteen pole positions.  He mostly drove at tracks near to his home in South Virginia but had his best season in 1960 when he won three races, with six top five and seven top ten positions at the Bowman-Gray Stadium.  He was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and was an inductee in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002.

Glen is most famous for founding the well-known Wood Brothers Racing team in 1953.  Glen, together with his brothers, Leonard and Delano, guided the team in its growth successfully into the 1980’s.  Today the team is owned and managed by Glens’ children, sons Eddie and Len, and daughter, Kim.  Starting up in the early 1950’s the team is still very active today and throughout this period of time the Wood Brothers team have been victorious in ninety six cup wins and have taken part in excess of 1300 races.  The Wood Brothers Racing Team has included many of the NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers, such as Bill Elliott, Junior Johnson, Fred Lorenzen, Tiny Lund, Marvin Panch, David Pearson, Glenn “Fireball” Roberts, Curtis Turner and Cale Yarborough.

The Wood Brothers team, operating from Stuart, South Virginia, has also found success outside of NASCAR racing by winning the Indianapolis 500 with Jim Clark in 1965.

References:

http://www.nascar.com/drivers/tps/wood/index.html

http://motorsportsdigest.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/glen-wood-richard-childress/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Wood

http://www.nascar.com/news/features/gwood.hof.bio/

Herb Thomas

Herbert Watson Thomas was born on the 6th April 1923 in the small town of Olivia, North Carolina.  He worked on the family farm and at his fathers sawmill where they supplied the military with lumber during World War II.  After the war ended Herb continued to work the farm and lumber business.  Life continued as usual, he married and had two sons but in 1946 things were about to change.  Herb went to his first Modified race at Greensboro and he was smitten.  The following week Herb had his own car at the track.  Over the next three years he ran a few races but didn’t win.

In 1949 Bill France Sr. organised the first NASCAR Strictly Stock race (later known as the Grand National and finally as the Sprint Cup Series) at Charlotte Speedway Herb was there!  He built himself a late model car for competition, made four starts but again was winless.  It was not for the want of trying, Herb was considered a hard charger and very competitive and when he didn’t win he either wrecked the car or blew the engine in his attempts to take the chequered flag.  Herb reputedly said of himself, “It’s won or bust with me.  Second place is never good enough.”

In 1950 Herb came through, he won taking the lead over Lee Petty at Martinsville Speedway.  The win set Herb up for the 1951 season when he drove three different brands of cars – Plymouth, Hudson (the Fabulous Hudson Hornet) and Oldsmobile, taking them all to the victory lane.  In thirty three starts he had seven victories in two months and a late charge enabled him to beat Fonty Flock giving him the Grand National Championship.

1951 saw him come in second in points for the Grand National Championship and in 1953 saw him triumph again, taking the Grand National Championship and becoming the first driver to have won the title twice.  Herb won twelve races in 1954 including a second Southern 500 win, making him the first driver to have won twice at Darlington. Taking a bad spill at Charlotte Herb was out of the 1955 season for six months, having been hospitalised for several weeks but not to be beaten he said,”Don’t worry about me, I’ll be racing again by the time the Darlington500 comes up in September.  And I’ll win it again too.”   And he was true to his word, driving his Motoramic Chevrolet to victory in the Southern 500 and despite missing twenty two of the forty five races he still managed to finish the season fifth in the points standings.

1956 saw what was to be in effect Herb’s last year in competition.  Circumstances prevented him from winning the title for a third time.  After winning a race in his own Chevrolet he joined the Yunick team and after securing a win for them he went to the Carl Kiekhaefer team gaining three consecutive NASCAR Grand National Series wins he returned to being an owner/driver.  With only five races left in 1956 season Herb was on top of his game to win the championship and one of those races was a hundred mile race at the Cleveland County Fairground in Shelby, North Carolina.  Starting in thirteenth position Herb charged for contention by the halfway point, taking second place from Thompson down the back stretch but Thompson tagged Herb’s rear bumper, spinning Herb into headfirst into the outside guard rail.  His car pierced the steel plate of the guard rail, leaving Herb at the mercy of the oncoming cars.  Herb’s car was hit by at least six cars, leaving him unconscious and with head injuries.  He was critically injured and underwent brain surgery, miraculously recovering from his injuries.  He made token appearances in 1957 and 1962 before finally retiring.   “It’s too much dog-eat-dog out there now,” Thomas said at the time. “I used to pass everyone in the turns. Now they pass me in the turns. It’s time to hang it up. There’s no use in running if you can’t be first.”   He had won the Grand National Championship twice (1951 and 1953), and came in second for that title three times (1952, 1954, and 1956). Thomas was the first driver to win three Southern 500′s (1951, 1954 and 1955). He won 21% of his career starts, which ranks as the highest win percentage all-time among drivers with 100 career starts.  His awards include: – Received the Buddy Schuman Award for loyalty and outstanding contributions to NASCAR auto racing in 1957, Inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame in 1965, Inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1992, Inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994 and Named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.  Sadly, on the 9th August 2000 Herb suffered a heart attached and died at the age of seventy seven in Sanford, North Carolina.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Thomas

http://ezinearticles.com/?NASCAR-Race-Legend—Herb-Thomas&id=1232054

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/nascar/drivers/herb-thomas.htm

Hershel McGriff

Hershel’s career started way back in 1945, before NASCAR was founded in 1948 and has spanned nearly seven decades.  His last race to date at the age of eighty two was the Bi-Mart Salute to the Troops 125 at Portland International Raceway when he came in at seventeenth place after a flat tyre sent him in for a pit stop at the half way stage of the race.

Hershel McGriff was born on the 14th December 1927 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota situated on the Big Sioux River on the prairie of the Great Plains.  It was here that his fascination for driving and racing began.  Hershel had a motor scooter from the age of nine years and, in the summer months in his pre-teens; some of his chores would be to drive farm machinery.   At the tender age of twelve his father allowed him to drive the family car and he bought his first car when he was thirteen (of course, in those days drivers did not require a licence!).

During the war years the family moved to Portland, Oregon and it was here, on the 16th of September 1945 that Hershel competed, using the family 1940 Hudson car, in his first race, 250 laps on a dirt track, coming in around twelfth or thirteenth.  The following year he was offered a 1946 Ford Coupe to race and he won that race.  Hershel was smitten, every weekend was committed to racing on the streets with the car doors tied shut and a number stuck on the side.

In 1950 Hershel competed in the inaugural Mexican Carrera Pan Americana road race, he out-ran all of the competition including NASCAR racing founder, Bill France and other NASCAR drivers to take the victory.  This was where Hershel first met Bill France and from then they became life-long friends and it was Bill France who convinced Hershel that he should go down south and race in the first Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.  He drove from Portland, Oregon to Darlington, South Carolina where he took part in the race; coming in at ninth position then drove back to Portland the following week.  Part way through the 1954 season again Bill convinced him to run the rest of the season in the Grand National Series.  Hershel ended the season winning four races, seventeen top ten finishes in twenty four events and finished sixth in the points standings even though he missed the first ten races of the season, giving him an average finishing position that was higher than points champion Lee Petty.

The same year he also won a race in the first season of what is now called the NASCAR’s Camping World Series West.  This year also saw him becoming very active with public relations for forthcoming events.  In 1955 Hershel was offered a car to ride in NASCAR for millionaire, Carl Kiekhaefer but he turned it down, preferring to return to the West coast to be with his family and to look after his lumber business and he didn’t race again until 1967 when he started at forty first position, moved to second place by the sixth lap and beat Ron Grable in a photo finish to secure victory.

In 1989, at the age of sixty one he became the oldest driver to win a NASCAR feature race, AutoZone West Series and his fourteen wins is the most wins at any NASCAR sanctioned events, he did this at the now defunct (1988) Riverside International Raceway where he was chosen as the grand marshal for the final race at the track.

November 1996 saw Hershel, along with several other NASCAR champions go to Japan for an exhibition race, known as the NASCAR Suzuka Thunder Special, at the Suzuka Raceway. His awards include NASCAR Winston West champion in 1986, Inductee into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in Portland in 2001, Inductee in the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2002 and Inductee in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2006 and named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.  One of his proudest moments was when he was presented with the coveted NASCAR Award of Excellence at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York in 1994.

Hershel was named the Most Popular Driver in the NASCAR Winston West Series for twelve consecutive years from 1981 to 1992.  He has raced against three generations of the Petty family, namely Lee Petty, Richard Petty and third generation Kyle.  He is married to Sheri and has five children, Doug, Marilyn, Debra, Hershel Jr., and Gina and now resides in Arizona.

References

http://www.hershelmcgriff.com/news/portland/

http://www.hershelmcgriff.com/about

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershel_McGriff

Junior Johnson, Car Owner, Crew Chief at the Nashville 420, July 16, 1983 (Wiki Commons)

Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (more famously known as Junior) was born on the 28th June 1931 in Ingle Hollow, Wilkes County, North Carolina.  His parents, Robert Johnson and Lara Belle Money owned a farm and owned and operated what was reputed to be one of the largest copper stills in the county. Bootlegging was very common in this part of the county and the older men ran the distilleries, the younger men delivered the bootleg liquor and the women “called the cows” if the alcohol and tobacco tax agents arrived.

Junior and his two brothers worked on the farm and helped out in the moonshine business.  Learning to drive at the age of around eight or nine years  Junior was making bootleg liquor deliveries by the time he was fourteen, honing his driving skills to escape from the pursuing  local law enforcement.  Incidentally, it was during this time that he invented and perfected what became known as the “bootleg turn,” a 180-degree turn implemented by dropping the vehicle into second gear and jarring the steering wheel to the left. The evasive techniques that he used driving his souped-up Olds mobiles and Chevrolets became infamous and junior’s reputation of hoodwinking the enforcement officers went far beyond Wilkes County.  Such was his reputation that it caught the attention of journalist Tom Wolfe who wrote an essay, published in March 1965 in the Esquire magazine, “The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson.”  In Wolfe words “Finally, one night they had Junior trapped on the road up toward the bridge around Millersville, there’s no way out of there, they had the barricades up and they could hear the souped-up car roaring around the bend, and here it comes – but suddenly they hear a siren and see a red light flashing in the grille, so they think it’s another agent, and boy, they run out like ants and pull those barrels and boards and saw horses out of the way, and then … Ggghzzzzzzhhhhggggggzzzzzzeeeeeeong! … gawdam! There he goes again, it was him Junior Johnson! With a gawdam agent’s si-reen and a red light in his grille!” This article later became a film, also titled “Hard Driver” in 1973, starring Jeff Bridges.  He was never caught running with or delivering bootleg liquor.  Before too long he was driving around the Wilkesboro dirt track, perfecting his “power sliding” into the turns and other bootlegging driving techniques and gaining many track records all over the area.

In the late 1940’s his brother, L. P., asked Junior to run his car at North Wilkesboro Speedway and after coming in at second place Junior knew he had to race stock cars, this was the beginning of a long and illustrious career for NASCAR racing’s bad boy.

1953 saw Junior entering his first NASCAR race at the Southern 500 held at Darlington.  Using the skills that he had learned while moonshining Junior ran his first full season in 1955, winning five races and coming sixth in the NASCAR Grand National point’s standings. Unfortunately, his racing was curtailed in 1956 when he was arrested working at his father’s still, Junior was given a   two year sentence of which he served eleven months at the Chillicothe federal prison at Ohio.  Incidentally, President Ronald Reagan pardoned Junior in 1986, returning his right to vote and hold a passport.

In 1958 Junior returned to racing and proceeded to transform the sport with his intimidating style of racing. He introduced “aerodynamic drafting” and pioneered the two-way radios between the drivers and the pit crew.  He retired in 1966 after winning fifty victories, giving him eleven wins in major speedway races but he never had a championship.  It is said that Junior was a master of dirt track racing.  “The two best drivers I’ve ever competed against on dirt are Junior Johnson and Dick Hutcherson,” said two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett.  Junior was later to be awarded:- Inductee into International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990, Inductee into Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, Named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and Inductee into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame 2010.  Junior also had an 8.5 mile stretch of Highway 42, from the Yadkin and Wilkes County line to the Windy Gap exit named after him, known as the “Junior Johnson” Highway.

Junior has been married to his second wife, Lisa, since 1994 and they have two children, Meredith Suzanne and Robert Glenn Johnson 111 and the family live on an estate in the Hamptonville area of Yadkin County.  His son is also a professional race car driver, gaining 2010 UARA Rookie of the Year, and Junior announced that he would restart a race team, at Hamptonville, North Carolina with his son, Robert as the driver. Ironically, .since his retirement Junior has teamed up with Piedmont Distillers, the only legal distillers in North Carolina to produce “Midnight Moon”,  and this product follows the Johnson family’s authentic traditional method of making moonshine and Junior describes it as “Smoother than vodka.  Better than whiskey.  Best shine ever.”

References:

http://sports.jrank.org/pages/2314/Johnson-Junior-Last-American-Hero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Johnson

http://sports.jrank.org/pages/2309/Johnson-Junior-Spn-Moonshiner.html#ixzz1Cv2XydJY

A photograph of the late Lee Petty; a retired NASCAR Cup Series driver (Wiki Commons)

Lee Arnold Petty was born on the 14th March 1914 in the small town of Randleman, North Carolina.  His parents worked the family farm to raise their two sons but even though they worked hard the family were very poor.  Prospects didn’t improve as Lee grew up and during the Great Depression of the 1930s and Lee was forced to take any job that he could get to support his wife Elizabeth and two young sons, Richard and Maurice.  Life was made more difficult when in 1943 a freak fire burned down their house forcing Lee and his family to convert a trailer into a new house.

His obsession with cars, driving them and working on them, led him to start his own trucking company. Illegal stock car racing took place on the back roads of the county and the prize money was only what others were prepared to bet but by the end of World War Two the races were legalised but still on an informal basis.

In 1948, when Lee was thirty five years old he decided to enter his first race, going on to win the race at Danville, Virginia.  He was driving a 197 Plymouth that he and his brother had rebuilt.  His second race in Roanoke, Virginia saw him come in at second place; this was to become his mark and nickname “Mr Consistency” as throughout his career of sixteen years he was placed as finishing in the top five in more than half of his races.

This year was also the start of what is known today as Petty Enterprises and paving the way for NASCAR racing Winston Cup’s first four generation family of race car drivers.  His ability on the track and his grim determination to win proved to be his success.  In the old days a lot of the drivers were out for a good time, partying before and after the race but Lee took the racing much more seriously and he knew that only the winners would be able to pay the expenses of racing that often ran into several thousand dollars.

His son, Richard, recalled his father telling him,”There ain’t no second place, you win or you lose.  That’s the only two arts there are to racing”.   His NASCAR career began in 1949 when he drove in his first Strictly Stock race on the 19th June.  He began with an eight race schedule and he won at the Heidelberg Raceway in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Lee went on to have fifty five career wins and this places him at seventh place as drivers with the most wins. His son, Richard ranks first with 200 wins.  He won the Grand National Championship three times, in 1954, 1958 and 1959.  He won the inaugural Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in a spectacular way, Lee, Johnny Beauchamp and Joe Weatherly were battling during the final laps of the race and all three drove side by side across the winning line in the final lap, making it a photo finish. Johnny Beauchamp was declared the unofficial winner but Lee protested, saying “I had Beauchamp by a good two feet. In my own mind, I know I won.”  It took NASCAR three days to decide, using the national newsreel, who was the winner and Lee was declared officially the winner.

His awards include: – Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990, Inductee into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1996, Inductee into the North Carolina Hall of fame in 1996, Named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and will be Inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011.  Lee retired from racing in 1964 after racing his final race at Watkins Glen, New York.  During his retirement Lee continued as head of Petty Enterprises until he decided to leave the running of NASCAR’s most successful racing team to his sons, Richard and Maurice, instead taking up golf, playing sometimes as often as four times a week.

In February 2000 he underwent surgery for a stomach aneurysm. He never recovered. On April 5, 2000 he passed away at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina.

References:

http://sports.jrank.org/pages/3716/Petty-Lee-Complicated-Man.html

http://espn.go.com/auto/news/2000/0405/464469.html

http://www.essortment.com/biography-lee-petty-20419.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Petty