5 MORE Lesser-Known but Awesome Racing Stories
5 MORE Lesser-Known but Awesome Racing Stories
By Brian Cotnoir
Every now and then we come across legends of racing
greats. You may have heard some of
these stories before if you’re a diehard racing fan, but if you’re a casual
racing fan or only follow one specific racing series you may be surprised to
find out some of these facts, and if you missed my first article, be sure to
check out the link at the bottom of this post.
1.) Richard
Petty in Car Number…6(?!)
Most racecar drivers are associated with a
number. Dale Earnhardt, and #3, Jeff
Gordon and #24, AJ Foyt and #14, Lewis Hamilton and #44, and of course the
King, Richard Petty, drove car #43. But
in 1986, he did the unthinkable, when he drove in the Coca-Cola 600 behind the
wheel of a lime-green #6 car.
Now it is true, early in his career Petty would
sometimes drive a car #41 or #42 (cars that were normally run by his father Lee
or his brother Maurice), but why in the world would Petty drive car #6 for just
one race? Well you see Petty had wrecked
his primary race car in practice and was not allowed to qualify in his back-up
car. Petty’s team ended up buying D.K.
Ulrich’s #6 car and plastered STP stickers on the car. Richard Petty wound up finishing 38th
in the race after suffering from engine failure. To my knowledge, this is the only time
Richard Petty ever ran a car in his career that did not feature Petty Blue and/or
STP Orange.
2.) Chad McCumbee, racecar driver turned actor.
Chad McCumbee, like many kids in North Carolina had
dreams of growing up to be a racecar driver.
He won the Championship in Allison Legacy Series, and had made a handful
of starts in the ARCA series…then something truly bizarre happened. The television network ESPN made a
made-for-TV Bio-pic about the life of NASCAR Legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. starring
Barry Peppers as Earnhadt. McCumbee
wound up being cast as Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the film.
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| McCumbee as Dale Jr. |
This is bizarre, because in “Days of Thunder” you had no clue that Greg Sacks and Bobby Hamilton were really driving Cole Trickle and Rowdy Burns cars, because they never appeared on film or said any lines, but McCumbee actually had some lines in the film! McCumbee would eventually go on to race in NASCAR, he ran full-time in the Truck Series for 4 seasons, and even made select starts in the Cup Series, but never found much success. He narrowly won a truck race a Charlotte in 2008, but lost to Matt Crafton (who scored his 1st career victory in the Truck Series).
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| McCumbee's most well known Truck & Sponsorship |
3.) Nigel Mansell’s too fat to fit into his car
After a dominate 1992 season that saw Mansell win
his first Formula 1 Championship while driving for Williams, he headed over to
America where he’d dominate the IndyCar Series and win the drivers’
championship there as a “rookie”. However,
during the 1994 season he returned to the Williams to fill in part-time for the
late Ayrton Senna who died after a wreck at Imola earlier in the
year. Mansell would win the season
finale race in Australia; his 31st, and what would ultimately be,
his final victory in F1. Now all Mansell
had left to do was walk off into the sunset knowing that he won in his last
ever Formula 1 start.
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| Why Can't you just let us have nice things, Nigel? |
…Unfortunately that’s not what happened. Mansell would sign a deal to drive for McLaren in 1995, but when it came for the opening round in Brazil, Mansell wasn’t there. He also wasn’t at the following round in Argentina because he uhh…..couldn’t fit in the car that McLaren had built. McLaren had to put Mark Blundell in the car for the opening two rounds of the season, and he would make his debut with the team at the San Marino Grand Prix, where after colliding with Jordan’s Eddie Irvine, Mansell only managed to finish 10th. The next round in Spain didn’t fare much better for Mansell he retired from the race and shockingly retired from F1 all together calling the McLaren Formula 1 car un-drivable!
4.) Louis
Rosier & Eddie Hall, both set records at the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1950 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans saw two
unbreakable records. The race was won by
Frenchmen Louis Rosier and his son Jean-Louis.
The Father-Son duo not only won the race, but Louis ran all, but two
laps on the track, and won the race by a whole lap over his next closest
competitor. In all Rosier was behind the
wheel for 23 Hours 15 minutes and 17 seconds of the 24 Hour Race.
Even more impressive was Briton Edward “Eddie” Hall
ran the entire 24 Hours by himself and finished 8th overall! Hall is still the only driver to run the
entire 24 hours by himself, and with strict regulations on how much every
driver on a team is supposed to drive, neither one of these records will ever
be broken!
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| How do you make it 24 Hours without a bathroom break? |
5.) Lake Speed beat Ayrton Senna
Every Formula 1 fan knows the name Ayrton Senna;
three-time Formula 1 World Drivers Champion, 41 career wins, and regarded by
many as the greatest Formula 1 driver of All-Time. NASCAR fans are probably familiar with name
Lake Speed: a country boy from the Mississippi, who had one of the coolest
name’s in racing and drove for some midfield teams in the 1980’s and
1990’s. Lake Speed had only 1 career
race win in the NASCAR Cup Series and never finished better than 17th
in the Final Points Standings. So what
do these two drivers have in common?
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| Lake Speed in Kart #68 |
In 1978 both of these drivers competed in the World Karting Championship, the most prestigious go-kart race in the world, in Le Mans France. Speed, who was 30 at the time, won the World Karting Championship, and is so far the only American driver to win the World Karting Championship. Ayrton Senna, who was 18 at the time, finished 6th place. It’s amazing to think that these two drivers who had polar-opposite careers raced against each other on the same track, and that Lake Speed was able to beat the great Ayrton Senna.
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| A Future Great |
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