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WELCOME TO...
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g Talladega Nights: White Knuckles and Restrictor Plates g
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Welcome back my good friends and fellow tailgaters! Once again, it is time to drop the old tailgate and hunker down around the grill. So make yourself comfortable as I throw a couple ribs on the old hibachi. While you’re at it, you could toss me a Yuengling!
“While those ribs are cooking, I don’t know if I ever mentioned…”
Down in the state of Alabama there was a nondescript stretch of land perfectly suited for soybean farming. The vacant tract was situated next to a couple of abandoned airport runways. You are probably wondering what you could do with piece of land like this.
How about constructing what is NASCAR’s biggest, fastest and most competitive super speedway?
This lonely piece of property became the Talladega Superspeedway. Each year, this track provides 500 miles of white-knuckle racing and when a driver makes the smallest of mistakes at 190+ M.P.H., he could easily become part of the “Big One!”
Back in the late 1960’s, Anniston insurance executive Bill Ward, a former race car driver and racing fan, helped William H.G. France find some land in Alabama. It began as a casual conversation between Ward and France as they were in Daytona. Ward told France about a perfect place to build the prolific raceway. It was on the north side of Talladega County near an airport that the U.S. Government had sold to the city of Talladega after World War II. Talladega had access to a major interstate, (I-20) with a potential population base of at least 20 million people within its surrounding 300 miles. Plus everyone knew that Alabama was ripe for racing!
Mr. Ward set up a meeting with the then-Talladega Mayor James Hardwick and some other city officials in a restaurant in Anniston in 1966. France persuaded the group into considering the idea of building a major track on the proposed site. Good old Bill took the suits on a field trip to the “Firecracker 400” down in Daytona. The town officials were sold!
“Ain’t nobody said it was gonna be easy…”
France would be the guiding force for construction on the 2,000-acre site, which began on May 23, 1968. As might be expected, there were some obstacles to the startup of the raceway, financing being a major factor. But it would take only a little more than a year for the first race to be held. The “Bama 400 Grand Touring” race was held on September 13, 1969. Ken Rush drove his Camaro to victory land. The very next day, the first Grand National (NASCAR NEXTEL Cup) event was held. It was called the Talladega 500, now known as the UAW-Ford 500. Richard Brickhouse edged out Jim Vandiver and Ramo Stott. That victory was the start of many surprising winners at Talladega.
Another problem encountered was the practice and qualifying speeds. They were very high! Charlie Glotzback won the pole with 199.466 M.P.H.! This presented a strange dilemma for the tire companies. As hard as they tried, they could not come up with a compound of rubber that would hold up for so many laps. The Professional Drivers Association (PDA), led by Richard Petty, declared the situation unsafe and left the track on Saturday to boycott the track’s first weekend.
Now France knew that thousands of fans had traveled great distances to see the race and decided the race must go on. He would use the drivers that decided not to participate in the boycott, in addition to some of those who raced the previous day. The race ran the full 500 miles without incident. Richard Brickhouse won the inaugural event. The PDA dissolved a couple of years later.
“It’s a place to establish records and make careers”
It did not take long for the track to become known for unprecedented speeds and heated competition. The marriage of both factors gave birth to many successful careers! Talladega became known as the place to set records and post the fastest speeds on the circuit. After Brickhouse’s initial victory, the line of succession contained a “Who’s who” of NASCAR. Dave Pearson became the first three-time winner at Talladega by capturing the 1972, 1973 and 1974 spring events. Buddy Baker would also become a three-time winner. Other members of this illustrious club include Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison and Jeff Gordon.
Vital Statistics
Talladega is 2.66 miles long. It is four lanes wide and is banked at 33 degrees on each end, with 18-degree banking in the tri-oval. This layout has produced some of the fastest and most competitive racing in history. The backstretch is nearly 4,000 feet long and stock cars have reached speeds in excess of 220 miles per hour in competition.
“The Home of the Restrictor Plate”
Because of its alarmingly high speeds that seem to invite danger, NASCAR came up with the restrictor plate. Talladega is one of two tracks on the NASCAR circuit that forces racing teams to run a restrictor plate to limit the engine horsepower. The plate limits the top speed of the cars. Unfortunately a side effect of the plates is that it also increases the importance of aerodynamics such that two cars running together are much faster than one by itself. This in turn results in a long pack of cars navigating the track only inches a part!
The restrictor plate is a thin aluminum plate that fits between the carburetor and intake manifold. This plate limits the amount of air that can enter the engine; less air equals less horsepower and slower, hopefully safer races.
On May 3, 1987, Alabama native Davey Allison celebrated his first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup career win in front of his hometown fans. His father Bobby, the defending champion was involved in a frightful accident that resulted in the implementation of the restrictor plate. A chained link fence saved hundreds of fatalities. The average speed that day was 207.049 m.p.h.
You know, back when I started driving back in the 1970s, I drove a 1967 Firebird equipped with “four on the floor” and an “overhead cam.” I kind of wished someone would have insisted that I drive with such a plate! It sure would have saved me from writing checks out to the local municipal court. Then again, I might not have set my personal best of three speeding tickets in three months!
“One of the greatest 1-2-3 finishes in the track’s history!”
One of the greatest finishes in Talladega history occurred at the conclusion of the 1981 UAW-Ford 500. Rookie Ron Bouchard passed both Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte in the final 500 yards to win by less than a foot over Waltrip and two feet over Labonte.
While Waltrip and Labonte have become household names among NASCAR fans, Bouchard was not. Ron was described as hash brown looking man who just plain “out witted the grits” with the help of some of the “good old boys” to win his first NASCAR stockcar race. The 32-year old Bouchard’s day job was a furniture truck driver from Fitchburg, Massachusetts. One of the good old boys that helped him with advice was none other than Buddy Baker! He knew a thing or two about the Alabama speedway.
Bouchard was running in third on the last lap behind Waltrip and Labonte going into the final stretch. When Labonte went high, Bouchard immediately dropped to the bottom. When Waltrip finally notices the rookie’s maneuver, it was too late, because Bouchard whizzed by him.
Bouchard was quoted as saying that he looked over at Waltrip when they crossed the finish line and Darrel looked happy for him. Well, I am not sure how true that was, but Darrel did say, “Labonte and I got to racing each other and completely forgot about old Ron Bouchard.”
On October 15, 2000, the final Winston 500 was run at Talladega, ending a 30-year sponsorship, which is considered to be the longest running relationship at this time.
“Well those ribs look just about ready. Let’s get our fingers gooey!”
Until next month’s musing, remember to practice safe tailgating!
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