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From Arlington, MN to Darlington SC
By Jim Heiland
September 25 to September 27 was the second annual
Darlington Historic Racing Festival.
Chris and I packed up the motor home and 70
Nova Stock Car and headed south.
From Arlington to Darlington is 1404 one way.
We had a very nice trip stopping to visit my son Tim and his
friend Amy, in Waynesville NC. Also hooked up with an
old Navy buddy in Columbia SC. Had not seen him in
45 years. 45 years and 45 pounds does make a difference.
Darlington Raceway was behond my expections.
The track is a 1.37 egg shaped oval. It was the first
of the super speedways built for NASCAR races back in the 50's.
Lots of history there. We were treated like kings.
Chris Browning and his crew did a great job.
There were lots of volunteers working too. My hats off to them.
Friday was check in and car inspection. There tech guys didn't miss a
thing. Safety was really stressed. Friday night was a welcome dinner,
what a spread, and good. After the dinners we were treated to an
interview of Jr. Johnson, followed by a Q&A session. Jr told lots of
storys of the good old days and about some of his drivers.
Saturday morning was a really good drivers meeting.
They didn't leave a stone unturned.
Saturday and Sunday they had interviews and
Q&A sessions with Ned Jarrett, David Pearson,
Donnie Allison, Humpy Wheeler, Bondy Long and Bud Moore.
Now there is some history.
Then it was to the cars and get ready for track time.
There were 6 groups of cars and each group got
20 minutes on the track, morning and afternoon.
All in all we had 4 sessions on the track which amounted
to about 100 miles on the Darlington track.
What a thrill to drive that track. The straight aways are long,
turns go on for ever and the banking is steep. The tech inspector
said go as fast as you want, and I did. I know the
car was more capable than the driver.
Sunday I mounted my GPS in the car to see how fast I was going.
I also mounted my camcorder to the head rest on my seat.
Got about 10 minutes of in-car racing before the battery went dead.
Was great to hook up with some of the people I met in Zephyrhills FL.
DAARA Pres Bill Wendt and Jimmy Jeep Knapp were some of the volunteers.
Also Brennen Lewis and his Dad Ronnie from ILL were racing too.
Brennen is the Pres of the Grand National Vintage groug from WI-ILL
Then we pitted near Gary Mitidiero, his wife Mary and son Tony.
They are from Chicago and we raced together at the Wisc Dell
this summer. Also really great people. Gary and Tony took turns
driving his 57 Chev and they drove fast!
Gary sent me an email with his story and lots of pictures.
I will try to post it here too.
There were just about any kind of race car you can imagine.
From Indy Cars to old coupes, east coast mods, sprints,
midgets stock cars, old and new.
We were pitted next to Sam Beam and his dad Alex. They
had a cute old midget with a Ford 60 V8.
They also own the Memory Lane Auto Museum
in Mooresvill NC, very nice people.
www.memorylaneautomuesum.com
All in all it was a great time, good Lord willing we will do
it again next year.
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