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Dearborn, Mich. — At the Wood Brothers’ museum in Stuart, Va, is a great photo. Okay, at the Wood Brothers’ museum in Stuart, Va, are a whole bunch of cool photos—and other things—but this is about one specific photo.
And none of the Wood Brothers or their cars are in it. And it’s really not at a race track.
The black-and-white photo was taken nearly 50 years ago and it shows a famous driver from a famous racing family at a famous racing venue.
Again, it has nothing to do with the Wood Brothers or the No. 21 or a NASCAR track.
It’s a photo of Louis Unser competin’ in the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb in the early 1960s. His car is driftin’ through a corner—on a, uh, mountain and there is no guardrail. It’s just a great, great photo, and really captures the essence of the event. It turns out that the Woods and Louis Unser—yes, of that Unser family—were friends.
The Woods—who have done just about everything there is to do in auto racin’, includin’ winnin’ the ’63 NASCAR owners’ championship and pretty much every race David Pearson entered in the early and mid-’70s, and pittin’ the 1965 Indianapolis 500-winnin’ Ford of Jimmy Clark—have never run at Pike’s Peak, but it turns out that their good friend was one of the best ever there.
And, later this summer, a Ford will be right in the middle of the second-oldest auto race in the country when the Olsberg Motor Sport Evolution team from Sweden will campaign two Ford Fiestas in the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb on July 19. Andreas Eriksson, a four-time Swedish rally champion, and Marcos Grönholm, a two-time World Rally champion, will be the drivers.
The Sparkster is hearin’ that the team is lookin’ to become the first to break the 10-minute barrier on the 12.4-mile, 156-turn pavement-and-gravel course.
Let the Sparkster repeat that: 12.4-mile, 156-turn pavement-and-gravel course.
How do you set up for that? Use notes from Watkins Glen? And the old Daytona beach course?
And, less than 10 minutes would be less than half of the time that was needed to win the very first event back in 1916.
That race will mark the first time anyone in the United States will get a chance to see the racin’ version of the new Ford Fiesta, whose production counterpart is expected to reach showrooms in 2010.
THE BILL(ING) WAS CORRECT
The Coca-Cola 600 is billed as the longest race in NASCAR. It starts durin’ the day and ends at night.
This year, it ended Monday night.
Rain pushed it back one day, from Sunday to Monday, and more rain delayed it and then eventually shortened it to slightly more than halfway, which, in NASCAR, means, “We’re done here.”
And when it was over, most of the competitors were truly done. It was a long, long day.
And, like one of the other big, big races of the year, the Daytona 500, weather strategy figured into it. Unlike the Daytona 500, a Ford was not in the lead when it was finally declared over.
Still, there were some good finishes for Ford drivers. Carl Edwards was first off pit road in the final pit stop just before the final rain and ended up fourth. That was good enough to move him up one spot, to 11th, in the standings.
Matt Kenseth, who won that rain-shortened Daytona 500, finished 10th in the 600 Minus 173, showin’ that rain or shine he is Ol’ Steady Matty.
Bobby Labonte was 12th. And Bill Elliott, in the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Fusion and makin’ the 800th start of his incredible career, qualified 10th and finished 15th.
All in all, not a bad couple of rain-soaked days.
Plus, the long race and the added time make for good practice for the next two long races—at Dover and Pocono.
The Biff, Greg Biffle, won at Dover last fall, to complete the first-ever Chase-openin’ back-to-backer after winnin’ the previous week at New Hampshire. At Dover, The Biff finished led his teammates Kenseth and Edwards across the finish line in a 1-2-3 Ford finish, so perhaps that long dry spell—uh, victories and not rain—will finally end this weekend. Jack Roush, by the way, has eight victories at Dover, second on the track’s all-time list, one ahead of the Wood Brothers and two back of Rick Hendrick.
1,000 FEET, NO TURNS
The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series resumes this weekend at Heartland Park Topeka, where John Force won a year ago. That was the 126th win of Force’s unbelievable career, and his first since his ’07 season-endin’ wreck at Dallas. That win also pushed Force’s consecutive-seasons-with-at-least-one-victory streak to 22.
He’s still lookin’ to stretch that to 23; Topeka would again be a good place—in addition to last year, he also won there in ’05, ’00, ’99, ’97, ’96, ’96 again, ’94 and ’93. Those nine wins in the heartland? Yep, more than twice as many as the next Funny Car driver on the list.
While wonderin’ what in racin’ the Wood Brothers haven’t done, the Sparkster went through this week’s mailbag.
Hey, Sparky:
I’ve been waiting for this part of the season all year long. After months racing now and then, the NHRA be racing three straight weekends. How do the drivers feel about that?
Lawrence,
Kansas
Well, Lawrence, the Sparkster can tell you that at least one Ford Racing Funny Car driver is really lookin’ forward to the next three weekends, which will see racin’ in Topeka, Joliet and Englishtown. Bob Tasca, who earlier this year earned his first-ever series victory, said earlier this week that he believes this stretch will go a very long way in determinin’ who the very best are goin’ to be for the rest of the season. Tasca is currently eighth, but has his sights set on at least the top five.
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