Home

Schedule

New Releases

Stories

Hisortic Car and Driver Photos

"Racers Reunions"
Upcoming,
and from the past

The Finish Line

Mississippi Valley
Vintage RaceCar
Association

Corrie Stott Racing

Iowa Speedway

Daytona Superbird

Lee County Speedway

Raceway 34 Burlington IA

Quincy Raceway

Scotland County Speedway

Keokuk.com

Contacts

Stories

Don White, Ramo Stott, Dick Hutcherson, Lem Blankenship, Ernie Derr - what do these guys have in common? They all call Keokuk Iowa their home. And they all raced or were involved with the cars we love.

Located in the southeast corner of Iowa on the Mississippi River, Keokuk Iowa was a hotbed of racing activity in the 1960's and '70's, with possibly more name drivers than anywhere outside of NASCAR country.

Life in fast lane puts Derr in Hall of Fame

Living in the fast lane isn't always bad. Ask Keokuk's Ernie Derr.

The former late-model stock car driver, now 62, watched his brother-in-law, Don White, race back into the late 1940s and thought "it looked like a good way to make a dollar." For him it was, and he went on to enormous success as a race driver, winning more than 300 feature events in a 25-year career that ended in 1977.

Today he becomes the 105th member of the Des Moines Register's Sports Hall of Fame.

Complete records of Derr's achievements aren't available because they were destroyed in a fire. And the modest man says he has no idea of how many race victories he had.

Derr raced primarily on dirt short tracks, mostly half-mile ovals, and his greatest days were on the International Motor Contest Association circuit. He won 12 IMCA season championships, notching his first in 1953. Then he claimed four straight beginning in 1959, lost out to Dick Hutcherson, another Keokuk driver who went on to NASCAR fame, in 1963 and '64, and won the next seven.

White, who won three IMCA crowns and later two United States Auto Club titles, and Derr started a craze in the Mississippi River city, and over the years 18 others there have tried their hand at racing, many with success. White, Derr, Ramo Stott and Hutcherson were the big guns, however, and they often had the big wheels of the racing world calling.

RACE PUBLICISTS were fond of referring to the always mustached, 5-foot 8-inch, 165-pounder as the "diminutive Derr." There will be arguments, but he may have been the "biggest" driver of all.

In 1963, General Motors helped Derr, and from 1964 through 1970 Chrysler Corp. kept him in race cars, parts and engines and provided some other gratuities. Obviously, that was an advantage over the have-nots of racing, but no one was ever more dedicated to keepin the car in tiptop condition than Derr. And he had the know-how.

Here's what Al Sweeney, former premier promoter of IMCA now retired, said: "Without a doubt, Derr was the outstanding stock car driver in my lifetime in automobile racing. He was one of the best mechanic-drivers and rates along with Gus Schrader and Emory Collins, who set up, repaired and built their own motors.

"Drivers like that are few and far between today. Ernie Derr also was highly respected by Ronnie Householder, who was the racing engineer for Chrysler Corp., and was responsible for the aerodynamics ... and success of Dodge stock cars. Ronnie also rated Derr tops as mechanic-driver combination during his lifetime.

"No other driver to my estimation has ever won a national championship 12 times in a sanctioning body."

Sweeney called Derr "a fine family man and a credit to auto racing in general."

"I think it was 1950 when I started racing," said Derr. "Back then, dollars weren't floating around everywhere. It looked like an easy way of making a dollar. I'm not saying it was. If a guy had good equipment, he could do all right. Don and I had as good equipment as anybody.

"WHEN I FIRST started you didn't do much to make a car into a stock car except reinforce the wheels. We didn't have roll bars until 1957. It was common to drive the race car to the track, take out the seats, put in seat belts and take out the head lights. We didn't start towing cars to the race track until 1954.

"Usually, the guy who had a new car had an advantage," Derr said. "It seemed every year the motors got more powerful.

"Racing was something that took a lot of time. Those old, rough dirt tracks were hard on axles and ball joints, and it was a constant maintenance thing. I never fell out of many races unless I lost an engine.

"I got to the point where I enjoyed racing an awful lot," he said. "In certain years, such as 1961 and '62 when I had Pontiacs, you felt like the race was yours before you started because it was a good, reliable car.

"Then there were the slower years. I lost several engines in 1963. The first year with Chrysler I had to iron out a lot of wrinkles as far as getting the car to handle good. From 1965 on, with the Hemi engines, you felt like the race was yours, too."

Mike Derr, 35, Ernie's oldest son, recalls racing was a serious business.

"Dad won a lot of races in the garage," he said. Racing "was a business with us and on the serious side over the years. I can't ever remember Dad watching television [during breaks in race preparation]. He was always working on the car.

"Dad hated to get beat. I can remember Dick Hutcherson saying, 'Got to beat the old man. The old man will be tough to beat if you have to haul him out in a wheelchair.'

"Dad was a helluva driver and he knew by feel if a car was right," Mike said. "I remember one day at the Missouri State Fair, he came in from a practice lap and said, 'Boys, the right front tire needs some air.' Talk about driving by the seat of your pants. He had the ability to detect if any part of the car was off."

LIKE ALL GREAT athletes, Derr used his skills and knowledge to make a difficult sport look easy.

"People talk about luck, too," Mike noted. "I think he thought you make your own luck by working hard and being dedicated. ... He was smart enough to stay out of problems.

"It seems like there's a woman behind every successful man," he added. "My mom [Marianna] was very dedicated. She gave up a lot for the sport and so did Dad."

Stott, who still races occasionally, won championships in the Automobile Racing Club of America and USAC, but he never was able to beat Derr out of an IMCA championship.

"I enjoyed running with Ernie," Stott said. "He taught me a lot. He was the man I knew I had to beat and I looked up to Ernie.

"Before I could outrun him, I had to know how he did it. He wouldn't talk to me too much about his strategy or working on his cars, but I could watch and I could drive behind him lap after lap and learn."

Derr said he has no regrets about getting into racing. "I think maybe if Don and I ever made a mistake, it was not getting into NASCAR racing when we first started," he said. "We would have been in on the ground floor."

Derr had many fans and some who didn't like him because of his "factory help."

"If a guy was a good racer he had people who didn't like him," Ernie said, "they came to see him get beat. Those that liked him came to see him win. Either way, it's good. You draw [the fans]. I didn't mind the boos. I always thought there were more pulling for me than were against me."

DERR HASN'T ATTENDED many races since he wound up his illustrious career one September night in 1977 at a Fall Jamboree at Knoxville, and he said he misses his friends and old adversaries.

He owns income property in Keokuk and no longer works at all with race cars. However, Mike says he buys cars sometimes, fixes them up and sells them.

His red-and-white 1970 Dodge Charger, the last big one he got from Chrysler -- still proudly displaying the big "1" symbolic of a champion -- rests majestically in the "old man's" always spick-and-span shop.

Both are quite now, long removed from the dirty, dusty race wars. But they certainly knew where the groove on the track was.

Stott perseveres in NASCAR's big shadow
FOR THE LOVE OF RACING

DENVER, N.C. -- The hand-lettered sign on the door at Corrie Stott Racing instructs deliverymen to leave packages across the street if the building is empty.

“Extra bills?” it continues. “Across street. Extr (sic) $, money trees or golden pots?? Bury out back.”

Inside the door there's a small lobby with racing pictures on the walls. In one photo is a a man wearing a pair of striped bell-bottom pants that quite frankly most people wouldn't be caught dead in.

“Yeah,” Corrie Stott says. “That's my dad.”

Ramo Stott is approaching his 75th birthday. He spends most of the year in south Texas, but during the summer he goes back to his hometown of Keokuk, Iowa, from which he spent his life going racing.

Ramo ran 35 races in NASCAR's top series between 1967 and 1977, finishing in the top 10 in 17. Ten starts came in the Daytona 500. His moment in the sun came in 1976 when A.J. Foyt, Darrell Waltrip and Dave Marcis all had their qualifying times disallowed by Bill France Sr., leaving Stott on the pole in the No. 83 Chevrolet.

Yes, there's a picture of that on Corrie Stott's wall, too.

On the day Corrie was born 47 years ago, Ramo was racing at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. He won, too, so all in all that was a good day.

And by all indications, plenty of Ramo's racing blood wound up in Corrie's veins.

Corrie Stott Racing is not one of NASCAR's big-time operations. It hasn't had sponsorship to speak of since sometime back in 2007. There are a couple of cars beyond the No.02 Chevrolet Andy Ponstein drives – a couple of Automobile Racing Club of America cars, one Cup car of tomorrow and a “new” used Nationwide car bought off one of the big teams for a nice discount – but there's only one motor.

And it's had it.

“It is like a germ,” Corrie Stott says. “I guess racing is my addiction. It gets me in trouble sometimes because I don't make the smartest business decisions, I make the racer call. Just like in Las Vegas.”

Ah, Las Vegas.

That's where the motor that sits under a canvas cover finally gave up. It had been used during seven Nationwide Series outings last year, none lasting more than 41 laps. That netted just over $113,000 – barely enough “start-and-park” money for Corrie Stott Racing to have life for another season.

Stott split expenses with a Truck team owner to take his car and his tired old motor to California for this season's second race, but it didn't make the show.

Stott decided as long as he was that far from home he'd stay and try to make the next race in Vegas. With what his wife Alison calls their “no budget team,” Stott worked on the car in a parking lot and prayed the motor had one more race in it.

“We laid everything we had out there when it came time to qualify and Andy did what he needed to do,” Stott said. Ponstein made the cut, qualifying 27th fastest.

Stott knew his engine would never last for another race. So instead of parking, he'd let Ponstein go as long as the motor and the tires he could afford would last.

There was one issue. It takes seven men to do pit stops, and you also have to have a spotter. Corrie Stott Racing's at-track roster consisted of six people, including the driver.

Corrie, officially the crew chief, missed the driver's meeting trying without success to round up help. That meant Ponstein had to start at the rear of the field. It also meant pit stops would have to be improvised.

Dennis Duchene served as spotter, his debut. Andy Alonzo was the jack man the first time Ponstein stopped each time under yellow, then the gas man the second time around. Stott was the tire carrier and tire changer on the front tires. Mica Horton did the rear tires. Grant Enfinger, coming off recent shoulder surgery, did the catch can.

“We'd get done with the stops and we were sweating and coughing and panting,” Stott says. “We had so much fun.”

When it came time for the final pit stop, Ponstein had a shot at a top-20. Stott had bought a set of 10-lap scuffed tires on pit road, paying $300 instead of the $2,000 they'd cost new, and he and Horton bolted those babies on..

“And,” Stott says, “then I got greedy.”

Stott slapped a piece of tape on the nose of the Chevrolet, hoping to give Ponstein just enough downforce to let him pass the two cars on the same lap and finish 18th. But the engine had no more to give. It died after 189 of the 209 laps and Ponstein finished 23rd.

Still, the check for $23,375 was the biggest yet for Corrie Stott Racing in its eight series starts. When Corrie called home, Alison says it sounded like the car had won.

Corrie says Alison's salary as a second-grade teacher has been “carrying him” for several months, but she's been married to him for nearly 30 years and clearly knows what this team means to him. They moved from Iowa to North Carolina more than 20 years ago so Corrie could do what he was born to do – race.

Corrie worked for Skoal Racing for six years before becoming part of Jeff Gordon's team at Hendrick Motorsports when it began. He also worked for the Truck Series team at Hendrick before trying to make it as a crew chief.

“One day I realized I was into this thing 20 years deep and had worked a ton at it,” Stott says. “I had never got to the big plateau of the big money. I decided that if I was going to keep working 14 to 16 hours seven days a week I needed to be building something for us.”

So he started Stott Classic Racing. The name, which is on the building, confused people. They thought he was running vintage cars or something. He's not going to spend money on a new sign, but the team's Web site has the new name of Corrie Stott Racing.

He had a sponsor for a partial ARCA schedule in 2007, but that went away after the season. To keep the team going he made seven start-and-park Nationwide runs last year.

“The first time we did I almost cried,” Corrie says. Ramo hates the idea. But Ramo also believes the gear and spring settings he raced on back in the early '70s will make Corrie's car go faster today. Reality can be harsh.

Without a sponsor, Corrie knows he's not going to get rich. “We just talk about trying to pay the light bill,” he says.

But he also knows when he comes in each day before daylight, he's worked hard for everything he sees when the lights come on.

“We're not fancy, but we try to earn respect in the garage and be as presentable as we can,” Corrie says. “I would like to have nice equipment because I know what that's like. But you have to have a budget for that.”

Corrie wants to run for first place, like any racer.

But that's not the race that's run on his end of the sport's economic scale. He's racing the bottom line, trying to go just a little bit faster than his checkbook reasonably should allow the car to go.

Since getting home from Las Vegas, Corrie Stott Racing has been preparing for Bristol, Tenn., this weekend. Stott has found another motor he hopes has some life in it.

He'll show up, hope Ponstein can make the show and take it from there.

The phone rang and the e-mail box had life in it after Vegas, Stott says. No sponsor has appeared to give him the money he needs, but what happened in Las Vegas fanned his hope.

“I have been on the edge of racing myself out of business,” Stott says. “Maybe I am wrong, but if we're not at the race track we'll get written off. People say they splashed in and splashed out and they're not here any more. I don't want to do that.

“We just want to carve out our little niche.”

Ray R. Nichels

In 1938, at the age of 15, Ray Nichels, went on the road as a midget car crew chief, racing at tracks across America. From 1938-1948, the drivers of the Ray Nichels prepared midgets (campaigned by his father Rudy Nichels) were Ted Duncan, Tony Bettenhausen, Johnnie Parsons, Paul Russo, Mike O'Halloran, and Ray Richards (All members of the Midget Racing Hall of Fame.)

Following his time midget racing, Nichels moved on to Indy cars and eventually participated in 12 Indianapolis 500 races, as a chief mechanic and crew chief. In those twelve 500's, Ray Nichels won one Pole (1957 w/Pat O'Connor), garnered two top-five finishes (a 3rd and a 5th w/Paul Goldsmith), and five top-ten finishes. Most notable of his top-ten finishes was the 9th place showing in the 1950 Indianapolis 500 of the Russo-Nichels Special. Paul Russo and Ray Nichels constructed this car in the basement of Russo's Hammond, Indiana home during the winter of 1949-1950. Qualifying in the 7th row, the Russo-Nichels Special captured the imagination of the American racing public by running with the leaders for much of the day, before the rain-shortened race ended at 345 miles. The Russo-Nichels Special soon became affectionately known as "Basement Bessie" as it was campaigned on the AAA Championship Trail during the 1950 season. In December, Nichels with Johnnie Parsons behind the wheel, won the first ever Indy car race at the newly built Darlington Raceway. On the season, Ray Nichels and Paul Russo and their hand-built "basement" creation missed the chance to win the National Championship only after a season-ending injury to Russo in the November AAA Indy car race in Phoenix.

Nichels then toiled as chief mechanic for Johnnie Parsons' entries in the 1953 and 1954 Indy 500 races. In June of 1954, Ray Nichels joined the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company as its chief mechanic for all race tire testing. In their first test together, he and driver Sam Hanks teamed up to set a new world's closed-course speed record of 182.554 mph at Chrysler Corporation's newly built Chelsea, Michigan proving grounds in a Nichels prepared Chrysler Hemi-powered Kurtis-Kraft roadster. It would be the first of many world speed records that Nichels and his cars would set over the next 20 years.

In 1957, Ray Nichels and Indiana-based Nichels Engineering won the pole (w/Banjo Matthews) and won the race (w/Cotton Owens) at the NASCAR Grand National Beach Race at Daytona. Two months later, Nichels traveled to Monza, Italy on behalf of Firestone, and set a series of world speed records on the world's highest-banked oval with driver Pat O'Connor behind the wheel of the Chrysler Hemi-powered Kurtis-Kraft roadster. Nichels and O'Connor then returned to the United States where they won the Pole position for the world's most important race, the Indianapolis 500. It is believed Ray Nichels remains to be the only mechanic to ever win the pole at both Daytona and Indianapolis in the same year.

With his 1957 Daytona win, Nichels expanded his stock car racing business becoming the "house" racecar builder for Pontiac from 1956-1963. Working directly for Pontiac Gen. Mgr. Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen, Nichels managed Pontiac's involvement in stock car racing from his operations in Highland, Indiana. By 1961, under Nichels' guidance, Pontiac dominated American stock car racing. Nichels Engineering driver, Paul Goldsmith captured the USAC National Championship with 10 wins, 7 poles and 16 top-five finishes in 19 races. Overall Pontiac performance in USAC was 14 wins, 10 poles and 38 top-five finishes in 22 races. In NASCAR, overall Pontiac performance was 30 wins in 52 races. In 1962, Pontiac's dominance under Nichels became even further evident as Nichels and Goldsmith won their 2nd consecutive USAC National Championship with 8 wins, 6 poles and 15 top-five finishes in 20 races. Overall Pontiac performance in USAC was 10 wins, 10 poles and 34 top-five finishes in 22 races. Four Nichels Engineering drivers (Goldsmith, A.J. Foyt, Rodger Ward, and Len Sutton) finished in the seasons Top Ten. In NASCAR, overall Pontiac performance was 22 wins in 53 races, with Joe Weatherly winning the National Championship driving a Nichels Engineering built, Bud Moore prepped Pontiac.

In 1961, Nichels Engineering prepared and ran two 1962 Pontiac Catalinas, setting one lap, 500 mile and 24 hour world stock car speed and endurance records at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Darlington Raceway. The Nichels Engineering driving team consisted of Rodger Ward, Paul Goldsmith, Len Sutton, Fireball Roberts, Joe Weatherly and Marvin Panch. Nichels mechanics for these historic speed and endurance runs were Ray Nichels, Dale "Tiny" Worley, Bud Moore, Cotton Owens and Smokey Yunick.

In 1963, Nichels and driver Paul Goldsmith delivered one of the most lopsided victories in Daytona Speed Weeks history, in the Challenge Cup 250, when Goldsmith piloted the Nichels Engineering #50 Super Duty 421 Pontiac LeMans to victory, beating 2nd place finisher A.J. Foyt by over 5 miles.

Later in 1963, Ray Nichels and Nichels Engineering became the "house" racecar builder for all of Chrysler Corporation. Nichels role with Chrysler was identical to his with Pontiac. Working for Ronney Householder, Nichels was commissioned to build the fastest and safest stock cars in the business, disseminate racing knowledge and design technology to all Chrysler teams in support of their collective racing efforts. Working with legendary stock car racers Cotton Owens, Ray Fox, Harry Hyde, Norm Nelson, and Petty Enterprises, Nichels Engineering did just that. It is no coincidence that the most prolific period in Chrysler stock car racing history was 1964-1970. Nichels Engineering-built stock cars won national stock car championships in USAC, NASCAR, ARCA and IMCA, several years running, setting speed records at tracks across America.

Ray Nichels and Nichels Engineering won three (3) National Stock Car Championships in USAC. Paul Goldsmith and Ray Nichels combined to win titles in 1961 and 1962. Then in 1967, Nichels and all-time winningest USAC Stock car driver Don White teamed-up for the USAC national championship.

In 13 years of NASCAR competition, Nichels Engineering campaigned cars raced 223 times, garnering 89 top-ten finishes, 62 top-five finishes, 12 Poles and 11 victories. Nichels Engineering was a winner at tracks such as Daytona, Bristol, Rockingham, Michigan, and Talladega. Nichels also won NASCAR pole positions at Daytona, Talladega, Charlotte, Rockingham, Darlington, Michigan, and Riverside.

Nichels Engineering was a seven (7) time NASCAR winner at Daytona from 1957-1970. Winning drivers were Cotton Owens, Bobby Isaac, Paul Goldsmith (2), AJ Foyt, Sam McQuagg and Charlie Glotzbach.

The list of drivers who piloted cars built by and/or campaigned by Ray Nichels and Nichels Engineering is synonymous with American racing excellence ... they are Bobby Isaac, A.J. Foyt, David Pearson, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Roger Penske, Paul Goldsmith, Rodger Ward, Don White, Tony Bettenhausen, Richard Petty, Dan Gurney, Junior Johnson, Buddy Baker, Bobby Allison, Gordon Johncock, Pat O'Connor, Paul Russo, Mario Andretti, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Jim Hurtubise, Fred Lorenzen, Charlie Glotzbach, Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, Joe Weatherly, Marvin Panch, Cotton Owens, Banjo Matthews, Sam McQuagg, Joe Leonard, Len Sutton, Darel Dieringer, Troy Ruttman, Dave Marcis, Richard Brickhouse, Ramo Stott, Ernie Derr, Jimmy Pardue, James Hylton, Butch Hartman, Roger McCluskey, Bobby Johns, Ray Elder, Norm Nelson, Lloyd Ruby, Arnie Beswick and Ronnie Sox.

On April 25th, 1996, Ray Nichels was inducted into Mechanics Hall of Fame within the International Motorsports Hall of Fame located in Talladega, Alabama. On the same day, Indiana Governor, Evan Bayh, awarded Ray Nichels the "Sagamore of the Wabash," the highest distinguished service honor bestowed upon an Indiana citizen by its governor.

Dick Hutcherson
November 30, 1931 - November 6, 2005
Keokuk, Iowa

Former NASCAR Driver Dick Hutcherson Dies

November 9, 2005

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Former NASCAR driver Dick Hutcherson, who won 14 races in 103 starts in the 1960s, has died at the age of 73.

Hutcherson died Sunday, when he suffered a fatal heart attack while traveling from Florida to North Carolina. He died at the Providence Hospital in Columbia, S.C.

He joined NASCAR in 1964 after racing late models in the Midwest for almost a decade. He finished second in his second career start, then joined the Charlotte-based Holman-Moody team, for which he ran 52 races in 1965.

Later, he served as crew chief for David Pearson in championship seasons of 1968 and 1969, then returned to Holman-Moody as general manager.

In 1971, he and Eddie Pagan formed Hutcherson-Pagan, building race cars used by drivers such as Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt.

Hutcherson-Pagan still supplies parts to race teams with a truck that serves as a rolling warehouse at tracks.

Survivors include his wife, Brenda Daugherty Hutcherson; son, Richard "Ricky" L. Hutcherson and wife, Heather, of Gainesville, Fla.; and daughters, Sherry H. Dorothy of Huntersville, and Cindy H. Adams of Keokuk, Iowa.

A funeral was scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at Raymer Funeral Home. Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Comers Rock Cemetery in Elk Creek, Va.

Services pending for NASCAR racer and car builder Dick Hutcherson, 73 By DAVID POOLE The Charlotte Observer

Dick Hutcherson, who won 14 races in 103 starts in NASCAR's top series in the 1960s, died Sunday at age 73. Hutcherson was traveling back to North Carolina from Florida when he suffered a fatal heart attack near Columbia. Funeral arrangements have still not been announced.

Hutcherson was born in Keokuk, Iowa, and raced late models in the Midwest for nearly a decade before coming to NASCAR in 1964. He finished second in his second career start, at Occoneechee Speedway, and the next season joined the powerhouse Holman-Moody team that was based in Charlotte.

He ran 52 races in 1965, winning for the first time at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and adding eight more victories that year on his way to a second-place finish in the points standings. He won three more races for Holman-Moody the next year and two more in cars owned by Bondy Long in 1967.

Hutcherson served as crew chief for David Pearson in Pearson's championship seasons in 1968 and 1969, then became general manager for Holman-Moody. In late 1971, he and Eddie Pagan formed Hutcherson-Pagan and started building race cars used by such drivers as Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt.

Hutcherson-Pagan still supplies parts to race teams with a truck that serves as a rolling warehouse at the track each weekend

Ronnie Bucknum and NASCAR regular, Dick Hutcherson, teamed up to drive the #5 Holman Moody-entered Mk II. Bucknum had been to Le Mans the year prior, driving the Scuderia Filipinetti GT40. Hutcherson had plenty of miles under his belt since Ford had hired their NASCAR drivers to help test the Mk IIs reliability. However, the American had never raced in the rain... and the Le Mans 24 Hours is rarely a dry event from start to finish.

Right from the start, Bucknum pushed the pace. The #5 car moved steadily up the field from ninth to third in the first hour. He held his own amongst the race leaders, moving up to and spending a good deal of time right behind the leading #7 Mk II of Graham Hill. As the race progressed, the American duo held their own. However, when the rain began to fall on Hutcherson he immediately wanted out of the car! John Holman urged him to just take it easy and 'just keep it on the road, Hutch.' Running down the Mulsanne at over 200mph... in the rain... at night... he wondered what he was doing, risking life and limb!

As night turned to day, the #5 Holman Moody entry was sitting pretty. Twelve laps behind the Miles/Hulme and McLaren/Amon cars and nine laps ahead of the fourth place Porsche, the team knew they only had to endure the final hours. And so they did, flying in formation with their Ford teammates during the final laps to round out a 1-2-3 photo finish!

Dick Hutcherson - Ford factory driver, multiple NASCAR race winner, finished 2nd in NASCAR points in 1965, 3rd in 1966, 3rd place at Lemans 1966. Crew chief for David Pearson's Torino and Talladega championship seasons of 1968 and 1969.

Speedway - Movie

This Elvis movie was about stock car racing at the famed Charlotte Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina, where location race scenes were filmed. Participating in the movie were several champion professional NASCAR racers including: Richard Petty, Buddy Baker, Cale Yarborough, Tiny Lund, Dick Hutcherson, G. C. Spencer, and Roy Mayne who played themselves. Sandy Reed, a professional race announcer, played the announcer for "Speedway." Christopher West, who played Billie Jo, was the reigning Queen of Laguna-Seca Sport Car Races at the time.

Among the many stunt drivers used for this film were: Bob Harris, whose credits include "Bonnie and Clyde", "Bullitt", "Magnum Force" and "The Gumball Rally." Courtney Brown, who worked on such films as "Thunderball," "Porky's" and "Ace Ventura- Pet Detective." Bud Ekins, who specialized in motorcycle stunts including some for "The Great Escape," "Then Came Bronson" and "CHiPs." Max Balchowsky who also provided stunt work for "Viva Las Vegas," "Grand Prix," "Bullit" and "The Deer Hunter."

"Speedway" premiered in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 12, 1968. It was #40 on Variety's movie list for the year of 1968.

 

 

 

Back to Top