It’s NASCAR Quiz Time
With NASCAR retuning to the Mid-West this week at MIS I noticed a couple stories, one directly related to the geographical area and one that is related via a similar race car.
Here is the quiz question: When was the first ever win for the 426 hemi-powered Plymouth Superbird? (HINT: it was not in the Mid-West, but was driven by a Mid-Western driver)
Ding, ding, ding… Times up. The correct answer is Ramo Stott in winning the 1970 ARCA 300. Stott was one of my earliest stock car racing “heros” along with this bunch that gathered last March. Note the reference to Bob Studt’s 130+ feature wins in the Figure-8 division. He along with my “turning turtle” during a T-bone crash at the intersection in 1973 went a long way towards aborting my, at that point, 5 year racing career.
Stotts story is detailed here and where I was prompted to ask the quiz question. Stott started in the Mid-West based IMCA circuit and later moved into USAC’s stock car division with fellow Keokuk Iowa natives Ernie Derr and Don White. His NASCAR highlight was “earning” the Daytona 500 pole in 1976 after A.J. Foyt, Darrell Waltrip and Dave Marcis were all caught cheating. (Bet you thought Chad Knaus had the patent on cheating didn’t you?)
As a side note, I hope Rusty Wallace does something to honor all three of these Iowa natives when the “Rusty Wallace Signature Series” Iowa Speedway opens later this fall.
The second story, and related to the Superbird, (actually the Dodge Daytona of the same era) is this story of Richard Petty returning behind the wheel of a 1972 Dodge Daytona (or not, the article calls it a Charger). Allegedlly there are photos of The King and the car here, but as of this writing the page fails to load.
Petty will be driving the car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Sussex, England on July 7-9. He was asked if he wears his famous cowboy hat when in Europe and said he hasn’t but during a trip to Scotland he “got one of those Scottish wool hats. I didn
Rusty was discussing the track on Trackside last night. I tell you what, it’s going to be a first-class facility.
Built-in on track camera’s that the media can just plug into, top-rate facilities, and a ton of other stuff.
To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the trucks there, and even the Busch series in the not so distant future. They aren’t saying that they are persuing dates, and as far as I know from all the info I’ve read on it, it isn’t part of the business model the track will depend on to operate.
However it seems the philosophy has been to build an incredible facility, and let it speak for itself. He’s got the Hooter’s Pro-Cup and Arca already lined up, as well as some other events. Not sure on their schedule for 2007, but they will be opening the track in September if I remember correctly.
It’s basically a track built for racers, by a racer. Add into the mix the attention to details such as media and fan access, and the facility could compete with just about any of the tracks on either three of the top series’ schedule.
At 7/8’s of a mile, the concrete surface and surrounding facility definitely isn’t cut from any mold.
I have been following the progress of Rusty’s track since its groundbreaking. For a while it looked like they were having problems with some shady loans taken out by the developer. After that issue was settled it has been smooth sailing.
I have no doubt the NCTS will end up on the ‘07 sched along with ARCA, the ASA Late Models, USAC and IMCA.
With Iowa’s long history of supporting motorsports the place should be an outstanding success.
It’s going to be something neat to keep an eye on. Especially with one Mr. Wallace’s involvement. He know’s how things operate, and it seems that it’s at least kept the vision and business model on a realistic track.
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