Early 60s Fords at Daytona

raceron1120

raceron1120

Well-known member
I found these pictures on LIFE's online archives, some great shots of some of NASCAR's stars from the '63 Daytona 500. Thought they'd be appropriate, being it's speedweeks.

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photos: LIFE online archives​
 
Great pics Ron. I can remember watching some of those 63 Fords racing on TV back in the day. I like that last shot with the Plymouth bringing up the rear of the pack. That was real stock car racing w/cars you could buy off the showroom floor.
 
The #0 is Dan Gurney, #11 is Ned Jarrett. And that Plymouth bringing up the rear is #43 Richard Petty. And yes John you're correct, Fred Lorenzen in the #28.

#21 Tiny Lund won the race, top 5 finishers were Fords - 2nd was Lorenzen, 3d - Jarrett, 4th - #29 Nelson Stacey, 5th - Gurney. Petty finished in 6th place.

The Mercurys in the race were #14 Troy Ruttman (finished 12th), #15 Parnelli Jones (15th), #26 Darel Dierenger (16th - won $675!), and others farther back.
 
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Is that Richard petty in frame three in the Plymouth ? I can barely make out a 4 on the roof, but can't tell if it's 43. I'm thinking it has to be him.
 
Too bad we can't go back to those days,when you "run what you brung" and the cars were not all cookie cutter clones drowned in tons of rules.
 
1956 Daytona Beach race:
56MercDaytonBeach.jpg

A couple more pics from LIFE's online archives of the '63 Daytona 500​
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Tiny in Winner's Circle​
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Below are pics of one of my favorites - David Pearson. I went to my first NASCAR race in '72 at Darlington while in the Air Force at Shaw AFB. Pearson won it. Afterwards, I remember Petty sitting on the tailgate of a pickup in the infield signing autographs for fans, couldn't find Pearson.

Pearson in the '68 Torino #17
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​
And pretty sure this is him again in '73 - probably at Riverside?​
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JeffB2 said:
Too bad we can't go back to those days,when you "run what you brung" and the cars were not all cookie cutter clones drowned in tons of rules.
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Next year's cars should at least look a bit more like their production counterparts, but it'll never be like it used to was. This year's shootout was kind of exciting though. Like him or not Kyle is a racer. 2 wrecks that didn't happen and he still beats Stewart ? ?
 
Great pics! As a young boy, I was a hugh fan of Ned Jarrett and wrote a fan letter to him asking for his autograph. He responded with a large autographed color postcard picture of his blue #11 1964 Ford. The next year he sent the same type of picture of his new 1965 race car. I framed those treasured pics and hung them on the wall above my HO slot car track. Good memories!

Jim
 
The Hot Rod Grille said:
Great pics! As a young boy, I was a hugh fan of Ned Jarrett and wrote a fan letter to him asking for his autograph. He responded with a large autographed color postcard picture of his blue #11 1964 Ford. The next year he sent the same type of picture of his new 1965 race car. I framed those treasured pics and hung them on the wall above my HO slot car track. Good memories! Jim
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How cool is that!

I've met Ned a few times, most recently was a few years ago when he and Dale (was driving the #88 TBird at the time) were at Ford Headquarters in Dearborn. He is a class act, always has been.
 
I could not agree more with jeffb2. Racin is not much fun anymore and the more NACAR (no stock) screws around with it the worse it seems to get. Leave it alone already and let em have at it !
 
Thanks, Ron, got that pic of Fast Freddie in the archives. Called him out of the blue about 6-7 years ago, inquiring about him signing the tri-power lid and glove box door from my '60 Starliner. He got all excited and told me to bring the whole car to Chicago, and he'd sign it. Seems he ran his first year ( rookie of the year) in a '60 'liner, then moved up I think to H-M in '61. Hear he's not doing so well now. Class guy.
 
If you want to see more of these, watch the movie from 1965, "Redline 7000" I watched it the other night on NetFlix. Lots of actual nascar scenes with 63 1/2 and 64 Galaxies, as well as an actual Cobra Daytona coupe being driven in the movie
 
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