A Legendary Story told by Mike Hembree
A Blacktop Book Report
I’m a fan. A fan of racing and always the good race. I never had a specific driver or team to root for. I rooted for the excitement of a grill to rear bumper race and the sweeping pass no matter if it was the last lap of the leaders or the middle of the race between 10th and 11th. It was all fun and exciting.
Like this book. Petty vs. Pearson by NASCAR veteran writer Mike Hembree for Motorbooks. The pages in black and white fill my mind with the color and spectacle of 1960’s through the 80’s racing action. At times you can smell the rubber and hear the roar. So much so, in just the Preface of the book, I had to go online and see if I can find a video of that last lap of the 1976 Daytona 500 when the two swapped paint and ended the race in a crash! I found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AibV8_0USBA
Mike has a great way of weaving stories told by NASCAR contemporaries who worked with, raced against and even (in the last chapter) those who were their biggest fans.
Of course I have heard the names and knew the rivalry to a point, but the significance of this rivalry of two Carolina boys is what is featured in these first few pages. Their (usually friendly) competition soared not only NASCAR as a viable sport but also the auto industry as this was the boom of the Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday approach. So much so, that when Petty announced he was leaving Plymouth to race for Ford he was called “The Benedict Arnold of Racing” by many fans. Plymouth owners would reject Petty and stick with the brand over the personality.
Today I just finished the first two chapters which were historical (and at times hysterical) accounts of the two. First we hear from Petty’s family and upbringing as a farming family who’s patriarch Lee saw that racing could bring more money in to feed the family than with farming. Then we get accounts of a young David Pearson climbing trees around the fairgrounds to get a free view of the early dirt track racing. He knew he wanted to be a driver after working in garages around the area and was very adept at the task. He ended up driving other owners cars and while on vacation, Harley Hill told David he could drive his car in area races. David took this opportunity and won every race. When the Hill family returned, David gave Harley an envelope with the winnings in it.
Chapter 5 tells stories of the opening races at the new Daytona International Speedway in 1959. Cale Yarborough stated “You don’t drive here, you aim.” Referring about the high banked turns. The first Daytona 500 with a crowd of 41,000 fans, ended in a photo finish as Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp crossed the finish line three wide with lapped Joe Weatherly. The track announced Beauchamp as the winner, but three days later Bill France declared Petty the winner with the purse, from a photo finish revealed after the race. Petty was a couple of feet ahead of Beauchamp in the iconic photo.
Pearson drove in the second 500 and recalls a time when he stuck his arm out to slow the car down like he did on short tracks, but the wind snapped his arm back and hit the quarter panel! “I never did stick my arm out the window, no more.” He reports.
Again, I went online. I wanted to hear Pearson’s voice, so I did a search for Pearson Interview and found this 1984 interview on TNN’s The Great Drivers program. Brock Yates goes out to his house and talks about his life as a racer and the acreage he has in North Carolina. Quite fun.
That’s exactly what this book does. It shares the stories that some may know or, like me, hears for the first time. Making it a difficult book to put down. A quick read for sure and entertaining to say the least.
This book could easily be made into a movie in the vain of “Ford v Ferrari”. That would be a great idea.
