Some truths about danica Patrick and the good old days
6/27/2013
PattyKay
Lilley
I bid you welcome gentle readers. Many of you reading this are familiar with this writer's desire to reach the young fans of our sport and teach them about its history... not the distorted or abbreviated parts found on too many websites and TV programs purporting to be NASCAR these days, but the way it actually was back then. I was there; I watched the sport grow and become a part of the American way, just as I predicted it would many years ago. Contrary to what I've been told, one does not have to have driven a racecar or know how to build one in order to be competent to explain the roots from whence we came. It is not necessary to crawl into an oven to know it's hot in there. Most times, common sense can be trusted to spare us the consequences of disbelief.
There were good things about the "Good ol' days", to be sure, but there were also bad things, and those are what some folks have a very difficult time acknowledging. Two weeks ago, we discussed the word "hate" as it applies to NASCAR racing; today's topic is known as "Selective memory", and though it is a disease which anyone might contract, it is decidedly more prevalent in the elderly male population. Don't look at me; I've been vaccinated, enabling me to bring forth things long past with a clarity most old men can only envy... or wrongly dispute.
Like many fans or would-be fans today, recent events in my life and in the sport have caused me to take a more in-depth look at what I do and what I write. Long ago I realized that my gentle readers do not come so much for my opinion as they do for what they see as my wisdom. Would that I had more of the latter and less of the former. Much of what I offer is fact-based, but like any human, those opinions will and do sneak in when no one is looking. Last week, I wrote a very extensive article on road racing. That article received more compliments than anything I've written in many months. It was also one of the least read in that same time frame. So much for opinions.
In recent years, a certain short phrase has become so popular that I usually shy from using it, fearing only to sound trite because of its overuse. That little nugget is "Back in the day." It has always left me wanting to respond, "Back in what day?" It's a throwaway phrase, to be sure, probably intended as an abbreviation of back in the good old days, or something relatively close to that. Well, racing did have its good old days, or at least that's what we hear today from the Hot Stove League... the twenty-first century version of old men gathering 'round the wood stove at the local General Store to swap tales of sports and athletes gone or retired, but still remembered. The modern version, sometimes known as the Internet, has the same selective memory as did its predecessor, whereby the good is remembered and the bad is conveniently overlooked if not forgotten entirely.
So, how good were some of those "good ol' days" of racing? Many times, they were a lot of fun. It was a chance to get together with friends, watch a race, or maybe two or three, share some food and perhaps adult beverages and just generally have a great time on a weekend night. Young folks didn't mind much if the cars covered them with dirt and rubber marbles, as they knew it would wash clean after the second or third shower. Other times, they were actually quite boring, with most cars out of the race well before the end, either from mechanical failures or crashes. One or two cars at best finishing on the lead lap was the norm, and starting fields had no norm, ranging anywhere from maybe a half-dozen cars to 75 or 80. Still other times, the early races turned deadly, for both drivers and spectators.
Drivers raced in shirtsleeves, sometimes even in convertibles, with a lap belt the only consideration given to safety, and on tires that were never intended to handle the speeds and conditions to which they were subjected. Smokey Yunick described that as "The two booms." The first boom came when the tire blew. The second was when the car hit the wall. Sometimes, the driver survived... The "helmets" they wore served no purpose that I can conceive, being little leather things reminiscent of Snoopy doing his Red Baron imitation. They might have kept a driver's hair from blowing in his eyes.
That period in stock car racing history encompassed anywhere from the Beach races of the 1930s to the early 1960s. During that period, many men died behind the wheel of a racecar. Those deaths have somehow become glamorous to some, as the stories of how they happened have been retold countless times over the intervening years. Gentle readers, there is nothing whatsoever glamorous about death by automobile, and not all of those that died were behind the wheel. Many were innocent bystanders, in a grandstand or infield to watch the race of the day. The worst of those, to be sure, was that fateful day at Le Mans in 1955, when Pierre Levegh's car flew into the crowded grandstands, strewing parts and large pieces as it went and igniting a blazing inferno in its path. Levegh and 83 others lost their lives on that single day.
No, that wasn't the norm, thank God, and it didn't happen in stock cars, but it was one sharp dose of reality, reminding anyone paying attention that there were indeed, human beings in those cars... and those grandstands, not test dummies or cardboard cutouts. Both stock car racing and IndyCar racing had their fair share of deaths back then, with two of the most memorable happening in the same week. Glenn "Fireball" Roberts was horribly burned in a crash in the World 600 at Charlotte on May 24, 1964. His close friend Dave MacDonald and another Indy driver, Eddie Sachs, both died in a fiery conflagration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indy 500 on Memorial Day, May 30, 1964. Roberts succumbed to his burns some 40 days after his crash, on July 2, 1964.
Those examples were chosen because your writer shared friendships with both Pam Trivette, the daughter of Glenn Roberts and Sherry MacDonald, wife and widow of Dave MacDonald. Sadly, Pam left this world far too soon back in 2009. Sherry remains one of my best friends and I love that lady so very much. Maybe because of that, perhaps I look at it differently than someone uninvolved, but a life is a life, regardless if the person losing it is known or unknown to us. I find it most difficult to look back on deaths such as those and think of that as the "Good ol' days." And yes, gentle readers, although some hate to admit it, deaths were the norm at that time, but I'm sure no driver ever thought when climbing into his racecar that he might be the one not going home that night. They were, for the most part, young men, with everything to live for, and youth always sees itself as indestructible and eternal. The survivors... the old men looking back in time, still want to be those young men, so they deny the cold reality and see only the great fun and conviviality of the time. We call that "Human nature."
It is also human nature I guess, for men to make jokes about women drivers, and heaven knows, no one woman has suffered more of those in recent times than Danica Patrick. Along with hearing constant put-downs of that little girl, we also hear comparison after comparison to any and all of the women drivers of yesteryear. Everyone reading this knows Danica's record in Nationwide and in Cup. To date, it has not been stellar, but it has easily surpassed many of the male drivers that have attempted to make the switch from open wheel cars to stock cars. She does have one win and seven podium finishes to her credit in IndyCar, and what I find most impressive is her seven races at the storied Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with six finishes in the top-10. A crash in 2008 relegated her to 22nd place in the seventh. I'd say her record of performance in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" is most certainly not only competitive but downright impressive!
Now, let's take a look at the records of some of those warmly remembered and constantly mentioned ladies of racing "back in the day."
Ethel Flock Mobley, sister of Bob, Fonty and Tim Flock, is lauded long and loud for having been an integral part of that racing family. In truth, Ethel ran only two races at the Strictly Stock/Grand National level, both in 1949. She finished 11th on the Beach & Road course at Daytona and took home $50 for her efforts. Later that year, she started 42nd at Langhorne and finished 44th. As Porky Pig was fond of saying... That's all folks.
Louise Smith, she of whom so many wonderful tales are told, had a bit more of a career than did Ethel. (And yes gentlemen, it is spelled Ethel, not Ethyl. Though tying her to a gasoline additive is certainly clever, it is indeed incorrect) Louise ran in eleven races in the years 1949, 1950 and 1952. Her best finish was 16th at Langhorne in 1949... yes, the same race where Ethel finished 44th... Louise was 25 laps behind the leader. Her lifetime earnings came to $185.
Sara Christian ran a total of seven races in 1949 and 1950, though she outdid the other gals a bit. She too was in that race at Langhorne, and managed to finish 6th... but still 10 laps down to the lead-lap finishers, Curtis Turner and Bob Flock. (I told you there weren't many around on the lead lap "back in the day") Ah, but that was not Sara's best finish. That came later that same year when she finished 5th in Pittsburgh... again 10 laps down to winner Lee Petty. Her career earnings totaled $810.
Janet Guthrie came along in a different era, some 30 years later, running 33 races in the years of 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1980. All told, she scored 5 top-10s for a career earnings total of $79,409.
I also have figures for Patty Moise and Shawna Robinson, but they are just more of the same and redundancy is not my aim nor is it what you came to read. I am quite sure that each of the ladies I've outlined was lovely in her own right and a delight to know. What they were not, however, was competitive racers at the top level of NASCAR. Feel free to take offense if you choose, but it is abundantly clear that the lady racing today, Danica Patrick, will by the end of this season, if she has not already, easily outdo each and every stat set forth by the ladies of yesteryear.
Once again, selective memory must take a back seat to cold, hard facts. You don't have to like Danica Patrick, but you do have to give credit where it's due. Blustering on about being "sure" that her pole in this year's Daytona 500 was somehow mysteriously "rigged" by NASCAR evinces a level of ignorance on a par with a tree stump. She won it fair and square. Deal with it! One other woman has won a pole in any of NASCAR's upper divisions. That was Shawna Robinson, in a Busch race at Atlanta in 1994. She finished 36th... with a little help from her "friends." Danica finished 8th at Daytona. Facts, after all, are just that... facts.
Please don't misunderstand. I enjoy talking about and telling stories about the days of old as much as anyone, but I tell them to educate, and I check my facts before the telling. I'd wager that if we were able to get Mr. Helton into this conversation, he'd tell you that NASCAR would far prefer the truth to a bunch of misremembered half-truths, which serve to do nothing but confuse. Truth has always been my ally, and one cannot go wrong with truth on her side. No brag; just fact.
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay
