We travelled a few hours up the road today to Mooresville, NC to the Memory Lane Museum to see the 5th Annual "Legends Helping Legends" event. They've been doing this to help out some of the race drivers from back in the day that have fallen on hard times with medical issues and the like–this year, the proceeds went to Harold Elliot, who had a stroke recently. If you don't know who Harold is, you've not been a NASCAR fan for very long–he built engines for the likes of Junior Johnson and Rusty Wallace. His engines took Darrell Waltrip to his 1981 Winston Cup Championship and Rusty Wallace to his Cup Championship in 1989.
In attendance today were drivers Ned Jarrett, Rex White, Donnie Allison, Harry Gant, Jim Vandiver, Jabe Thomas, Gene Hobby, Grey Smith, Brownie King, Lloyd Dane, Paul "Little Bud" Moore, and Elliot Forbes-Robinson; long-time Charlotte Observer reporter Tom Higgins; engine builders Waddell Wilson and Lou La Rosa; mechanics Paul Lewis, Slick Owens, and Don Johnson; and Mitze Moody, widow of Ralph Moody (the "Moody" part of "Holman/Moody"–if you ran Fords in the 1950s through the late 1960s, you ran HM equipment, period.), among others. Speaking with each of them was an absolute hoot–more on that later.
The thing that struck me was that these folks aren't getting any younger. Little Bud and EFR were perhaps the youngest of the group. These folks, like many war veterans, have stories to tell–historically important stories, and once they're gone, the stories are gone, too. If I were able, I would have sat down with guys like Grey Smith, Lloyd Dane, Brownie Smith, Jabe Robinson and talk racing for a while. The spotlight all too often gets placed (and deservedly so, I'll add) guys like Gentleman Ned, Harry Gant, or Waddell Wilson while the guys who ran in other series or parts of the country (Lloyd Dane ran on the West coast in the 1950s and '60s) and are largely unknown or become footnotes to history.
(A parallel to that for war veterans–Most people think World War Two consisted of Pearl Harbor, Midway, Normandy, and the Hiroshima attack. The "Island-Hopping" campaign in the Pacific and the Mediterranean Theater are relatively unknown. In World War I, the Western Front gets all the press, while Italy and the Middle East get ignored. And so on…)
So, if you have a chance to attend one of these events, do it. Go, talk to these guys. Most of them like telling stories as much as we love to hear them.
Some anecdotes:
Grey Smith–a Friday night short track and modified driver–had a selection of photos of the various machines he ran, you picked one and he signed it. I chose a photo of him cleaning the car after a heat race. He said "I liked to keep the equipment clean. Racing was fun, and you liked to give the fans a show–but I wanted them to know who was putting on the show, too." He went on to tell us that he would go to the track on Friday morning, run the heats and the features, then tow the car home (no hauler), then clean the car, tear down the motor, get a list of parts he needed to get, repair, or otherwise prepare, and he might get to sleep by Tuesday night. He was his crew, engine builder, chassis man, you name it.
Elliot Forbes-Robinson was very nice–he spoke with us for a little while, remarking how much he was enjoying himself. As a road racer/sports car guy, I guess he doesn't often attend the events with the NASCAR oval track guys. He was very much a gentleman. I've been a fan of his for a long time, more so now.
And, my favorite quote of the day–I told Ned Jarrett that we really missed listening to him call races these days (he was a booth commentator for years before the big TV deal in 2001). He replied, "Well, thanks. I enjoyed calling them but I let the young guys do that these days."
The museum itself has a nice collection, including the 1968 Ford Torino driven by A.J Foyt, Richard Petty's 1969 Ford Torino Talladega, a few of Rusty Wallace's machines, Bill Elliott's 1982 Thunderbird, and a whole lot more. The museum is about a mile west of I-77, Exit 36. If you're in Charlotte, stop on in.
Thanks for reading. Be good to one another. I bid you Peace.