July 4 - This day in Petty history - part 1

1975 - After trying since 1959, Richard Petty finally wins the Firecracker 400 at Daytona.

Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers

The King qualified in the unlucky 13th spot, and he only led about 10% of the race - 16 of 160 laps. Buddy Baker ruled much of the hot Florida afternoon by leading 118 laps. But Petty in his STP Dodge Charger passed Baker with yep ... 13 ... laps to go, and he motored on to capture his 172nd career NASCAR Winston Cup victory.

Even after winning the pole and finishing 5th in the Firecracker, Donnie Allison was fired after the race - the mid-point of the 1975 season - by DiGard team owner Bill Gardner. Third-year Cup driver, Darrell Waltrip, finished 4th in the race in his own car and was immediately hired to replace Allison.

Throughout Petty's career as a driver - and continuing in recent years in his role as a car-owner - the King has celebrated his birthday (July 2nd) at Daytona.

Despite the good wishes from friends, competitors, and hot trophy girls, Petty wasn't happy with his car after practice and qualifying. Likely compounding the angst of readying the car was the continual oversight of all preparations by his father, retired driver Lee Petty.

As the race unfolded, however, the Petty Enterprises adjusted the Dodge, and the King let former Petty Enterprises driver Baker set the pace for the afternoon. Then when it became 'go time', the 43 dropped the hammer and took the victory.

Among those greeting Richard in victory lane was his teenage son, Kyle. He can be seen in the photo below - over Richard's right shoulder.

#81779155 / gettyimages.com

Also greeting the victorious driver was Linda Vaughn - Miss Hurst Shifter - which seemed to have increased the smiles on the faces of both Richard and Kyle.

#88763448 / gettyimages.com

In the issue of Sports Illustrated released the week after the Daytona race, Petty's win was described in a feature article. The article was significant for NASCAR, Petty and STP because stock car racing wasn't generally featured in SI.

Even more remarkable in this case is that the race got any coverage. The top sports story of the 4th of July weekend was Arthur Ashe's win over Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon. With his win, Ashe became the first black player to win the coveted tennis championship.

Yet, Petty's Daytona win earned him the full-length story and this caricature on the table of contents of ... appropriately enough, Volume 43, number 2.

A digital version of the original SI magazine - including the coverage of Ashe's and Petty's wins can be read on-line here, and the feature just on Petty's win follows.


TMC

June 27 - This day in Schaefer racing history

1976 Schaefer 500
USAC Indy car race
Pocono International Raceway
Pocono, Pennsylvania
Winning driver: Al Unser, Sr.
Full results: UltimateRacingHistory.com

Some notables from the race:

• Unser's victory was his first win since 1974. I'm guessing Big Al thought nothing quenched a two-year drought better than a cold Schaefer.
• Wally Dallenbach finished 3rd. He is the father of Wally Dallenbach, Jr. who once raced in NASCAR (including for Petty Enterprises) and now works as a color announcer for TNT.
• Al Loquasto, who later drove a Schaefer Buick in the 1981 Mountain Dew 500 NASCAR Cup race at Pocono, finished 15th driving for himself.
• Johnny Parsons won the pole but finished 22nd in the race.  Ten years later, Parsons became part of the small Schaefer fraternity when he got a shot in a Schaefer / Machinists Union Indy car.

Photo courtesy of Russ Thompson

In scouring the web for information about the race, I ran across the blog Life of a Small Town Photographer. As fate would have it, he blogged about some of his experiences at the Pocono Indy races back in the 1970s. He was kind enough to give me permission to share his pictures for these next two trivia nuggets.

• A.J. Foyt, "Super Tex", had a Sucky Day and finished 31st out of 33 starters. I'm guessing this photo was made before the race vs. afterwards.

• Janet Guthrie, a racing pioneer as the first woman to drive in both the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500, finished 24th. On race day 1976, however, she had the unfortunate timing of being photographed next to the iconic Miss Hurst Shifter, Linda Vaughn.

The engine cowling cover for Unser's Cosworth engine...

Credit: brooklandsspeedway on Flickr

...and the nose of his American Racing Wheels sponsored Parnelli Jones chassis.

Credit: jkracing50 on Flickr

Source: Spartanburg Herald via Google News Archive

Race report from The Beaver County Times - including some candid language from Parnelli Jones about his former driver, Mario Andretti. Yowza.

I like this headline from the Spartanburg Herald better. The wording is more emblematic of some race day memories of the Schaefer Hall of Fame after a late Saturday night.

TMC
Edited June 26, 2014