In early 1969 the NASCAR talk was often centered around a new track that was being built in Talladega, Alabama, a place of which I had never heard, but looking in up on a map let me know it was about a 6-hour drive to make it there. Along about June, my racing buddies and I started planning our trip there in September. The race was scheduled for September 19th, and we were already making concrete plans about every small detail of the weekend trip.
We were totally unprepared for what happened to change our plans, but as it worked out, we were saved what would have been a worthless trip because all of the big names, especially Richard Petty, our guy, pulled out and headed home late Saturday due to what they considered unsafe conditions and a huge issue with the tires. Had not our surprise happened, we would have wasted all that money for nothing.
The situation came about that I was about to live a lifelong dream. My closest friend at the time was always on the lookout for a race car we could afford so I could finally become a race driver. He called me Sunday night and said he had found a 1959 Plymouth that had been running Columbia Speedway, and it was for sale. We made arrangements to go look at it Monday.
Monday, after work, we traveled over to West Columbia, talked to the guy, made a deal and told him we would be back Tuesday to pick it up. That was August 18, 1969. Immediately all plans for a trip to Alabama were cancelled.
Tuesday, we went to pick up the car with my friend Marty’s Daddy’s pickup truck. We hooked the car to the truck by running a chain through a pipe and away we went. We got it home and spent several hours into the night checking it out.
Wednesday, we painted my name on the door, changed the oil and spark plugs and were ready to go. You can read that whole story in “The Magic Window You Climb Through” here on Pure Thunder Racing.
So, after the race Thursday night at Columbia Speedway we were so high off the finish we could hardly contain ourselves. As it worked out, there was a race in Augusta, Georgia that Saturday night and a very nice man loaned us a trailed to go down. We ran that race and actually led 7 laps of the 50 lapper on a half mile asphalt track. Didn’t win, but third wasn’t bad.
So, when Talladega came around a couple weeks later, my buddies and I had a get together at my house and we listened to the race. As I remember it was not particularly exciting because we had not been to the track to know what it looked like. Both full size Grand National (Cup) cars were running with the pony cars Bill France used to make a field of 36 starters. Richard Brickhouse, usually a backmarker, won the race with the top five finishers all driving Mopars.
The next race at ‘Dega was April 12, 1970, a week before my racing season was to start. Our car was already on sitting on jack stands in our garage. So, we decided to load up our crew and go west, as was once said.
Buddy Baker dominated that race but, in the end, it was Pete Hamilton driving a second Petty car who came home victorious. We all enjoyed that and would look forward to the next visit to Talladega. We returned home to keep my racing dream alive.
Over the years we attended almost all the races at ‘Dega until 1993. By that time, I was happily married, my racing dreams were over, and I settled down to covering races for a local radio station. Talladega is a unique track, built, they say, on an old Indian Burial Ground and some blame that circumstance for all the odd things that happened there.
In 1975, my friend Aubrey and I would start a two-week vacation at the race in August and then on to Key West for two weeks for fun in the sun. The race got rained out, so we went on down to Key West. When the race was run the next week, Tiny Lund, a great guy and a good friend of mine was killed in a crash. Although we still attended races there, I was always sad thinking about Tiny.
There are many more ‘Dega stories in my head, but we may do some more of then another day.
Hope you all enjoy the racing on TV or, if you are there in person, enjoy yourself.
Photo Credit (cover): Pinterest