PART TWO "COTTON" OWENS"
{ 1 }. - Today, May 10, 2012, Everett "Cotton" Owens was laid to rest in a private ceremony in his hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina. He died last Thursday, age 88, after a long battle with lung cancer just two weeks after an announcement that he would be inducted into the NASCAR HALL of FAME in the 2013 class. Newspapers everywhere are carrying the same message "Cotton" Owens was inducted into the National Motorsports press Association's Hall of Fame in 1970, named one of NASCAR'S 50 greatest drivers in 1998 and in 2013 he will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
PART ONE
Driving Like Petty
# 1 > It was getting near my birthday and my wife had not said anything. Usually, she starts planning a long time in advance. I finally broke down and said, "Baby, what are we doing for my birthday?" She tried to evade the question. I kept reminding her.
"Well if you have to know, your birthday is already planned," Johnnie finally admitted what she had planned. I said, "Tell me about it." I couldn't wait. "You'll have to wait and see," she vaguely replied.
# 2 > The day was getting close. She finally broke down and said, "We are going to Orlando, Florida." At first, she didn't say why. I tried not to pry. We have many friends in Orlando. Then, she broke the news. I have bought you a ticket to go to the Richard Petty Driving School at Disney World. I was elated. I was a die hard race fan. In the early sixties, my brother Jerry and I went to most all NASCAR races. At that time NASCAR only had tracks in the Southeast. We must have hit all of them. Many times we would go a day early and spend the night in the infield.
# 3 > Boy that was the good ole days. Jerry had a one-ton, stake body truck and had built sides and a top out of ply wood, especially so we could see the races. During the race we got on top so we could see over the other vehicles. It was great! Many times we saw celebrities like Chester and Doc from Gun Smoke TV show. I can still smell the bar-b-cue cooking over the charcoal fires. Most people stayed awake all night, drinking and telling stories of how it used to be.
# 4 > The loud parties were continuous, starting several days before the race until it was over. The activities in Darlington started a week before race day. The highway in front of the speedway was lined with vendors, selling everything you can imagine. Daytona was pretty much the same way. In the early days, we were premitted to go into the pits and mingle with the drivers and crew. They didn't have all the restrictions they have now.
# 5 > The sound of the engines roaring put chill bumps on my body. If only I could drive one of those cars. During the winter months when we had snow and ice, I would practice in parking lots, sliding into a turn. I actually got pretty good. One winter the skill came in handy. I was traveling down I-85 with snow on the roads when my truck went into a spin. I was able to turn my steering wheel in the direction of the skid and keep the vehicle under control.
# 6 > My uncle, Leroy Turner, was a driver on small, dirt tracts. Many times when he went to the big races, he wanted me to go and drive his car for him. Once in Darlington, when we left the race Leroy drove around the tract once before leaving. That was a thrill. It was the first race at the tract. I still remember Buck Baker won driving an Indy type car. I think Bristol was my favorite tract. It was short and you could see everything that was going on. That's when the seating consisted of a few splintery wooden bleachers. No one ever heard of condo or box seats like they have now.
Old Timers in Racing
My cousin, Dean Turner was also getting old enough to learn to drive. Sometimes he would take a car load of us guys to the Carolina Speedway, dirt tract in Spartanburg, South Carolina and drive a few laps. This is the track where Bud Moore spent many Saturdays. Bud and Cotton Owens drove cars built by Graham Padget.
# 7 > Padget had a garage just big enough to work on two cars at a time. I spent many hours around the garage, listening to jokes and smelling the alcohol. Most times you couldn't tell if it was coming from the cars or the drivers. Padget was one of the early car builders who never got recognition for his skills. On the dirt tracks in the Carolinas, his cars won many races. Dean later worked for Cotton Owens, helping build the number six car for David Pearson. He became one of Cotton's top mechanics. They had a winning team, with David's winnings going up the ladder with NASCAR. Dean developed a liver disease and died at an early age. Recently, Cotton told me stills feels guilty for not trying to stop Dean's drinking, which led to his liver problems. Dean was a dare-devil driver on the road. I was near his home late one afternoon. I saw a car coming toward me making a left turn. Suddenly there were sparks flying everywhere. I got there in time to see Dean and his friends climbing out the window of his 1939 Ford. The car was still bottom up. They were all laughing and unhurt, except for the car. It didn't bother him. He said, "Now I will make it a race car. Bud Moore and Cotton Owens both went on to having their own shops building cars for some of the best drivers in the business.
# 8 > Richard Petty was my first racing hero. About the same time David Pearson came along and established his own fame. At that time, I had moved away for a while and missed most of David's early dirt track racing.I did see some races where Richard and David raced at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway. It was a pleasure to see way David slide into the turns on the dirt track. He has a style that was never matched by the other drives. Probably, Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough came closer than all the other drives.Daivd Pearson was known as the Siver Fox. I was told that the way he acquired that title was when Petty was leading Pearson by a small margin, near the end of the race, Pearson pulled a trick on Petty. He shut his engine off, like it was blown. Petty thought he had won the race and slacked off to save the engine. Pearson re-started his engine that shot passed petty to take the checkered flag. Once in the early days at Darlington, Cale Yarborough wrecked and went into the air and over the fence. Later, he said, "That minute and a half was the longest time period of my life."
# 9 > In the early 60s, I was in the business of manufacturing and selling auto polish. I contracted with David Pearson to endorse the product. Many times when they were trying to dry the track, Jerry and I got into his big truck and rode around the track. It gave me a chance to promote the car polish. Drag racing was a big sport in Spartanburg in the 50s and 60s. Paul Clayton operated one of the most popular tracks in the Southeast. Cotten Owens built a dragster using a Dodge station wagon. It was known as the Cotten Picker. The Cotton Picker could out-run anything in its class. Recently, I tried to get some pictures of the Cotton Picker from Cotton and he told me there are no pictures available. When they stopped driving the Cotton Picker, Chrysler Cororation, who was the sponsor, confiscated all photos. He said no one ever knew the reason for their action.
# 10 > These were the days, just after the beginning of NASCAR. Some of the early drivers learn to drive fast by hauling moonshine whiskey through the mountains of North and South Carolina. Spartanburg, South Carolina was the hub of racing which led to the forming of NASCAR. It's well known that the track that was built in Taalladega, Alabama, was originally proposed to be built in Spartanburg. Some of the so-called leaders couldn't see the vision and let it slip through their fingers. Joe Littlejohn, a Spatanburg promoter work very hard to get it passed, but his efforts were in vain. Spartanburg could have been the racing city that went to Mooresville, North Carolina. Joe Littlejohn was also a driver. Once he said, "If I don't win the Daytona 500 this year, I will eat the tire off my car." He didn't win. I could hardly wait until Monday morning to see the paper to see what he would do. It showed a picture of him with a toy race car with Krispy Cream donuts for tires and he was eating them off the car. As I said earlier, Joe was a promoter and a good one.
# 11 > Ralph Earnhardt was known as one of the hardest chargers of the old school racers and respected by the drivers and car owners alike, Ralph was considered the epitome of a true race car driver. Foregoing the travel demands of the NASCAR circuit, Ralph chose to race primarily on the NC short tracks around home__allowing him to focus his attention on his race cars and family__although not particularly in that order. He mastered these short tracks compiling hundreds of victories and countless state and track championships winning the Sportsman division championship in 1956. When the opportunity arose, Ralph participated in Grand National ( now Spirit Cup ) events driving for such notable car builders as Cotton Owners, Petty Engineering and Pete DePaolo racing. Racing a limited NASCAR Grand National schedule in 1961, Ralph Earnhardt finished in the top 10 seven of eight races he run during the season.
# 12 > His car building skills were known throughout the racing circuit. As an innovator of the sport, Ralph Earnhardt was the first car builder/driver to understand the use tire stagger, developed the capability to adjust the amount of bite in his race cars as well as standardizing crash bars on the driver side door. His innovations and racing ability has been recognized throughout the years, Between competing in the Modified, Sportsman and Grand National series, Ralph won over 350 races as well as holding the track championship at seven different racing venues during his racing career. Sadly, the racing community lost Ralph Earnhardt to a heart attack in 1973 while working on one of his race cars.
# 13 > In 1989, Ralph Earnhardt was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association's Hall of Fame at Darlington ( S.C. ) Raceway. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Alabama in 1997 and was voted as one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998. Another old timer in dirt track racing was Ned Jarrett. I met Ned in Greenville, South Carolina, in the eearly 60s He was in a business venture and I approached him about some advice in what I was doing. Ned is a Southern gentleman, but his laid back ways never hindered him in racing competition. He became the spokeman and announcer for radio and TV for NASCAR races for many years before retiring. Years later in my life, Talladega, I rode around the track in a van. The driver stopped and asked if we would like to walk up the track. We were on the third turn which was banked at 31 degrees. Most refused to try it. I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I made it to the top and grabbed hold of the leaning concrete wall. When I looked around, I almost passed out. I actually slid back down the track on my bottom, but it was worth it.
Back To the Birthday
I got so excited here I almost forgot about my birthday. When time came for us to leave for Orlando, I was really getting excited. I could hardly wait. In my mind, I could hear the roaring of those engines and smell the racing fuel. In the early days, the cars ran on a high octane gasoline. It contained a lot of alcohol.
# 14 > The track was located at Walt Disney, just behind the magic kingdom parking lot. We got a motel as near to the entrance of Disney World as we could. We got there a day early. It was all I could do to wait another day. Race day is finally here. I got up early, even though I didn't have to be there until 11:00. I wanted to go on and see the track. I was disappointed. Johnnie was sick and couldn't go with me. I had canceled many events when she was sick, but not this one. That's the way she wanted it. She said, "You go on and have a good time, I'll be alright till you get back." Driving down to the track, I was afraid it might be called off. The wind was blowing pretty hard. Today, I am going to "Drive like Petty." I was remembering Petty's driving record. He won 200 races. Actually, I am two years old than Richard. I remembered his driving record well. He spent 32 years as a driver, winning approximately eight million dollars. In the early days, drivers sometimes didn't earn enough to pay their expenses. Today, a driver can earn more in a single season than Petty did during all his personal driving career. The most Petty earned at a single race was winning the Daytona 500 in 1981, he got 90,000,00.
15. - A little recap of Petty's career:
Won 200 of 1,185 NASCAR Winston Cup
races entered.
Career winnings of $7,755,409.
Won 7 WCS Championships: 1964, 67, 71, 72, 74, 75, 79.
Won prize money in six figures 25 different times.
Winston Cup Series Rookie of the Year,
Driver of the Year, 1971.
Inducted into North Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame, 1973.
Most Popular Winston Cup Series Drive: 1962, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978.
Petty became the sport's first million dollar driver after the Dixie 500 on August 1, 1971 in Atlanta, Ga.
1,185 races entered.
158 second place finishes, 550 top 5 finishes, 693 top 10 finishes.
Seven Daytona 500 victories - ( 1964, 66, 71, 73, 74, 79, 81 ).
Seven Carolina 500 victories - ( 1967, 70, 71, 74, 76, 77, 83 ).
There were times that Dean Turner and his buddy, "Pickle Deal" drove a car to Daytona with the back seat filled with racing tires. When they got to the track, they changed the tires so they could race and later changed them back to drive home.
16. - I remember one team owner, Elmo Henderson, saying, that he had a good finish, but didn't earn enough to cover his gas. I guess a classic example is Wendell Scott. His wife was one of the crew. Many times he stopped with a flat tire and got out of the car and helped his wife to change the tire. Scott didn't get the credit he deserved until after his death. In 1963, he won at Jacksonville, Florida and by the time white racing officials decided to award Scott his winning trophy, the track was conveniently deserted. I remembered Tiny Lund, one of the favorite drivers back then. Lund received the Carnegie Medal of Honor for heroism when he pulled fellow driver and friend Marvin Panch from a burning sports car at Daytona in February, 1963. Since he was not able to compete, Panch convinced the Woods brothers to let Tiny drive his Ford in the Daytona 500. Lund won the race at an average speed of 151.566 mph on a single set of tires! Later that year, he would win another premier race...the 500 mile Modified Sportsman race in Atlanta.
17. - Lund would go on to win two other NASCAR Grand National events: on April 28th, 1965, he won the rain-shortened 100 mile event at the old Columbia, S. Carolina Speedway. He has qualified Lyle Stelter's year-old-Ford in fourth place, and ran among the leaders all evening. On June 15, 1966, he outlasted the Factory drivers to win Beltsville, MD. He started 7th, and took the lead on lap 71 when Richard Petty blew his engine. Lund led the balance of the race. I got the track early. While I waited I waited my turn, I watched the other drivers practicing. In a little while they called my name along with several others. Although I had looked forward for this day, I was beginning to get a little shaky. We went into the briefing room and listen to some safety instructions. After a short while, they said "Put on a uniform." Boy, imagine, me, wearing a wearing a regular racing uniform. We went to the starting line and got some more instructions.
18. Then, it's was time to get inside a Richard Petty race car. Sliding in through the window and getting buckled in gave me a feeling that words cannot express. After watching these guys on Saturdays and Sundays at the big tracks, I was honored to sit inside one of their cars. I was so over-whelmed with joy. I felt like crying, but I just kept a big smile on my face. The first lap around the track was a little slow. That was to get us used to the car and the feeling of actually driving a race car. Here I was a fan, now in command of 600 horsepower. Each lap got a little faster. I could feel the G-forces building up in body as the speed increased. There was a lead car in front of us that controlled our speed. Going around a one mile track at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour, I thought my heart would stop beating. The flagman kept waving the flag to keep up the pace. Imagine going down the highway at over 100 miles an hour. The power poles just flipped by.
19. Going into a turn and reducing speed was an interesting experience. Most times, it was not necessary to use the brakes. The cars were geared so that when letting off the accelerator was like putting on brakes. Then hitting the long stretches the 600 horse power would bring your speed back very quickly. On the tenth lap, the lead car let us show what we could do. It was like the car was sailing in the wind. A slight touch of the steering wheel made a huge change in direction. It felt like we were riding about two feet above the track. I get excited all over again, just writing about it. I finished with an average speed of a little more than 126 miles an hour. What a great experience. I had been 115 miles an hour on a straight road, but the feeling of going even higher than 126, on the front and back stretch was a once in a life-time experience.
{ 20 }. - Getting out of the car, with photographers and fans milling around put an added touch to the experience. We posed by the cars for more photos. Then, we were invited to the photo stand to get our pictures. I guess they were good sales people. The man looking at me said, "I didn't know Bob Hope was a race car driver." I said, "What do you mean?" He showed me my pictures and said, "This is a perfect likeness to Bob Hope." I could hardly wait to tell Johnnie about my joy of driving the number 43, Petty car. She was excited for me. The feeling lingered for a long time. Even though it has been many years since that day, I still get excited thinking about it. I had my picture made into a sports collector card. I have shown the picture to some that really believed it was Bob Hope. Johnny died in the year 2000. My present wife, Fran, and I went to Disney years later and Fran had the experience of riding around the track with a professional driver. She remembers the speeds getting above 140 miles an hour. She, being a NASCAR fan, really enjoyed the experience.
