Fred Lorenzen

Fred Lorenzen has been likened to the great chess player, Bobby Fischer, in that he was alone, so far superior to his counterparts that he was his only challenger, a rarity for someone to be so gifted. He is thought to be one of the most capable drivers in NASCAR's history and at the peak of his career there was nobody harder to beat. Born in Elmhurst, Illinois on 30th December 1934 he was attracted to cars at a very young age, building his first car at the age of thirteen. At eighteen he won the National Gas Eliminators proving himself to be a capable drag racer. He wanted to try out another form of racing, stock car racing, and on entering his NASCAR debut race in 1956 in an untitled race at Langhorne Speedway he won $25 after coming in at 26th with a broken fuel pipe before gaining two further United States Auto Club stock car championship wins in 1958 and 1959 driving his Talarico Bros. built Chevrolet. This was the beginning of an outstanding, albeit seemingly short career. He won twenty six races, had eighty four top ten positions and thirty two poles. He became a full time driver for the Holman-Moody team in 1961 and it was in the southern stock car circuit that Freddie (as he known) that he established his Fischer credentials. In his first season as a factory driver not only did he defeat veteran Curtis Turner to take the victory in the annual Rebel 300 but the way that he did it was truly spectacular – he created a never before travelled groove on the high banks at Darlington and in turn two, driving at 130 mph, he faked high, drove low and somehow passed Turner on the inside. This race gave him his first nickname of "Fearless Freddie", a name that would be with him forever.

From 1961 to 1967 Freddie broke more records than had ever been seen before or since. Up to that time he was the only driver to win races at all of the southern original superspeedways, accomplishing this feat at Rockingham in 1966 and when he initially retired in 1967 he had won twelve races at superspeedway events. He was the first driver in history to earn over $100,000 in a single season in1963; he had six consecutive wins in1964 and three consecutive wins in the Atlanta 500 from 1962 to 1964. He won five consecutive races in 1964, setting another record, whilst racing against a full complement of factory drivers at the major events. Although this record was broken by Richard Petty in 1967 winning ten consecutive races, these races were not against all of the factory racers and were not all won in major events, some were in minor events. This record was set after Freddie retired and there was a saying in the south that year, "Ole Richard wasn't doing so good when "Fearless Fred" was running." Freddie earned the nicknames of "The Elmhurst Express", "The Golden Boy", "Fastback Freddie" and so on.

One of the most talked about stories about Freddie is his 1966 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he drove a #26 Ford owned by Junior Johnson. The car was aerodynamic, with the front end sloping down, the roof lowered, the side windows narrowed, the windscreen lowered and the tail kicked up. Because Ford was boycotting NASCAR the season Freddie was allowed to drive this very illegal car as NASCAR hoped that it would bring up the lowered attendance caused by Fords boycott. Other drivers called it "Juniors Joke", "The Yellow Banana" or "The Magnafluxed Monster". Freddie crashed it while leading the Dixie 500 on the 139th lap.

In 1964 Freddie saw his close friend, Fireball Roberts, involved in a crash at Charlotte on 24th May, receiving horrific injuries that claimed his life on 2nd July and when asked if the Roberts tragedy had an impact on him he replied, "Yep … did," and when asked how he reacted to the loss he replied, "It hurt, he was a very good friend of mine, very close. I saw it happen. I saw it coming, the accident. He didn't have a fire suit on."

Freddie returned to NASCAR in 1970 to drive a Dodge Daytona for Ray Fox in the World 600 and raced a few more events that year. 1971 saw him with the Ray Nickels/Paul Goldsmiths #Plymouth and part way through the season he swapped to do a practice run for the Woods Brothers prior to the Southern 500 and during this run he was badly injured. He joined Hoss Ellington in 1972 driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo and his last start came at Martinsville Speedway. He didn't win during his 1070 to 1972 comeback but settled for a couple of runner ups at Dover and Darlington. When asked if he was happy with his comeback he replied, "Not really but you've got to take into consideration, the big thing is age. The older you get, the slower you get. That's my opinion, 25; 27 years old - that's the peak of your career in auto racing."

The King himself named Freddie as one of NASCAR's five greatest drivers, and one of the ten toughest drivers. His awards include as well as his championships named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998) and Inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. He is a member of more than one Hall of Fame and no doubt will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame before too long.

There is no doubt that Freddie was a rare athlete, always ready to sign an autograph, asking the fans their name and signing it - Best of luck, "John", Fred Lorenzen "28". He was also a man's man, tough, determined, and when the checkered flag was near he would not give an inch.

Freddie is now approaching 76 years of age and is still a tremendously busy man being involved in the stock market, living off the dividends of his portfolio.

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Fred Lorenzen
Fred Lorenzen - Wikipedia

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