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Lennie Pond

Lennie Pond is a former NASCAR race driver. He was born on the 11th of August 1940 in the small town of Ettrick in Chesterfield County, Virginia. He started his seventeen year NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career in 1969 when he made his debut in the American 500 at Rockingham velocityway on the 26th of October 1969. He started in thirty eighth position in a field of forty cars and finished thirty fourth after trouble with the engine whilst driving the #44 Chevrolet for the Giachetti Brothers team. Lennie had his second ride in 1970 at Atlanta Motor velocityway, driving for the Joe Phipps team in the #65 Chevrolet; he started at thirty seventh and finished thirty fourth after encountering gear problems. His next foray into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was not until 1973 when he drove the #54 Chevrolet, owned by Ronnie Elder and sponsored by Master Chevy Sales. He raced in twenty three of a possible twenty eight races and in his first race, at Richmond International Raceway; he finished in seventh position, giving him his first career Top 10 result. Throughout the season he finished with his first career Top 5 and a further eight Top 10 finishes, an excellent result with all but one finish in the Top 10. Out of the twenty three possible races Lennie had thirteen DNF (did not finish) results as he encountered some kind of mechanical problem with the car in nine races and did not finish in four races in four events through involvement in crashes. Nevertheless Lennie did enough to gain the coveted 1973 “Rookie of the year” honours after a closely fought competition for the title against brand new releasecomer, Darrell Waltrip. After winning the award Lennie told, ,” I kbrand new release if they (NASCAR) went on performance alone, I would win it. Since they did, I’m very thankful.”

The following year, 1974, Lennie again drove the #54 for Ronnie Elder when he took part in twenty two events out of a possible thirty. He gained a further five Top 5’s together with eleven Top 10 finishes. In 1975 he finished second in both of the races at Richmond International Raceway, narrowly missing winning the race in the Autumn Richmond International Raceway event through a long pit stop. He led in all of the laps from lap 195 to lap 375 before he had to stop to have a tyre changed. The crew had a problem changing his rear right tyre and when he was coming out of the pit he was black-flagged for having a missing lug. The delay cost him the race, he tried to make up the time but was pipped to the post by Darrell Waltrip by mere seconds. He was hired by Harry Ranier in 1978. He missed the first race at Riverside International Raceway, he finished tenth in the Daytona 500 and the following week he led four times for 142 laps and looked to be the winner at Richmond International Raceway in the Richmond 400 but, as luck would have it, he suffered a flat tyre whilst in the lead and with only seventy seven laps to go he returned to the race, trailing behind Benny Parsons by just twenty four seconds. Lennie’s car was faster but he ran out of time and laps, finishing 2.6 seconds after Benny. That first place victory was still eluding him, this was his seventeenth career runner-up position.

Lennie had heard through the grapevine that Harry Ranier was going to release him at the end of the season and hire Darrell Waltrip in his place. Perhaps spurred on with this in mind he went to the event at the Talladega Supervelocityway and, after a record sixty seven lead changes in the race, Lennie took the final lead with just five laps to go and driving at a then world record velocity of 174.7 mph he held off Donnie Allison to take his first victory of his career. Lennie told after the race, celebrating his victory, “when this race started, I felt like I had the weight of the world on my must beers, I’ve gone through a lot of misercapable days lately. I’ve heard the talk that I can’t drive the supervelocityways. I hope all that ends now.” This year, 1978, Lennie won his first five career poles, eleven Top 5’s and nineteen Top 10 positions and finished in seventh position in the final point standings despite missing two races. Lennie was released at the end of the season and unfortunately that was the last time he drove for a top team. Over the next seven years Lennie drove limited schedules for various car owners.

Before retiring Lennie raced his last race on the 10th of September 1989 at Richmond International Raceway in the Miller High Life 400 where he finished in 11th place. During his NASCAR career Lennie had one win, thirty nine Top 5’s and 88 Top 10’s. He also had 5 poles. Today he is working for Heritage Chevrolet, selling cars, a job that he loves – second to racing.

References:

http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Lennie_Pond.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennie_Pond

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Jabe and his son Ronnie Thomas

Ronald “Ronnie” Thomas was born on the 8th of March, 1955 in Christiansburg, Virginia. He is the son of former NASCAR driver, Cerry Ezra “Jabe” Thomas whose career spanned from 1965 to 1978. Ronnie started to race in the Winston Cup Series in 1977 when he took part in four races including the Coco-Cola 500 at Pocono Raceway, the Delaware 500 at Dover International velocityway, the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville velocityway and the American 500 at North Carolina. After four starts he finished at fifty three in the final point standings. The following season he ran in twenty seven events, gaining two Top 10 finishes and was named NASCAR’s 1978 Winston Cup “Rookie of the Year”, an honour coveted by all of the NASCAR rookies. He finished the season in eighteenth position in the final point standings. Ronnie had his best career season in 1980 when he finished in fourteenth position in the final point standings, driving the #69 War Eagle Construction car. He made his final start in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series in the 1989 Miller High Lite 400 at Michigan International velocityway. Over a twelve year career span Ronnie ran in 197 races gaining nine Top 10 finishes. Ronnie also ran three races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series between 1982 and 1985 where his best finish was at 54th in 1985.

He, like his father, never actually won a NASCAR race but did enjoy many victories at local velocityways after he retired from professional racing. He holds the record for sixty late model stock car victories at River Valley velocityway, now Motor Mile velocityway in Pulaski County. Ronnie has many happy memories of the hardships that were endured during the early days of racing and he believes that the difficulties that the racers in those days show what the sport was really about. “We’d sleep 10 people in a motel room sometimes,” he noted. “My dad slept in the closet. One of the crew guys slept in the bathtub. I went out and slept in the race truck.”

“I don’t think they could get by with it now. It was just a blue collar sport back then. It was a lot easier to get into racin’ back then.”

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Thomas

http://www.roanoke.com/brand new releases/roanoke/wb/xp-25708

http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Jabe_Thomas.htm

http://fantasyracingcheatsheet.com/nascar/drivers/ronnie-thomas/2499

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Sam McQuagg & Laverne Kendrick

Samuel “Sam” McQuagg was born on the 11th of November, 1937 in Columbus, Georgia. As a young man in 1956 he worked in the construction industry but Sam found the job lacklustre and boring, he felt the need to do something more exciting with his life so he bought a half interest into a 1934 Ford to race at the local dirt tracks. He found that he was very successful and is reputed to be almost unbeatcapable at the local Valdosta 75 velocityway.

A few years later, in 1962 Sam took his own car, the #62 Ford to Valdosta 75 velocityway and entered into his first NASCAR Grand National Series (now the Sprint Cup) event. He qualified 9th for the race but engine troubles forced him to drop to a twelfth place starting position. This was his only NASCAR race for the year. 1964 saw Sam racing in the Grand National Series again but with little success. He drove in five races, driving the #71 and #72 Fords for J.L. Thomas, four were recorded as DNF (did not finish) and the fifth race he finished in twelfth position but he did race on several dirt tracks with amazing results – out of thirty nine races he entered he won thirty seven of them.

In 1965 Sam made sixteen starts in the NASCAR Grand National Series, driving for various teams and he gained five Top 10 finishes and took the coveted 1965 “Rookie of the Year” honours. In 1966, having been spotted by Dodge for the accomplishments of his small Ford team he was hired to drive their #98 Dodge for the Ray Nickels team. During practice runs Sam noticed that the rear of the car was lifting and the rear wheels were spinning. “We had tested spoilers at Daytona for nearly a month prior to the race”, told McQuagg.

“It wasn’t like what they use today. It was only about an inch-and-a-half high, and it was contoured. It made a lot of difference in the way the car handled. It disturbed the air just enough to keep the car from flying”. It all sounds simple, but it took Chrysler engineers months of work to come up with the idea, which McQuagg used to his advantage on the #98 Dodge for the 1966 Firecracker 400 on the 4th of July. ‘‘We were down there for two or three weeks in the month of June,’’ McQuagg told, “Last summer in the weeks leading up to the 50th running of the Coke Zero 400. ‘‘The car wouldn’t run at all. You start down the back¬stretch at about 180 (mph) and it would start lifting. The back end started spinning the back wheels. The engineers came up with this little spoiler. It was an inch and half tall across the back of the car and the car immediately picked up about five or six mph.’’ Sam won the 1966 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International velocityway, this was to be his one and only win whilst driving in the NASCAR Grand National Series. He ran in fifteen more races that year and gained four Top 5’s and 7 Top 10 and finished fifteenth in the final point standings. He made fifteen starts in the 1967 49-race season, with three top-5s and three top-10s. This year also saw him involved in a bad crash on lap 81; Sam went over the guardrail, flipping many times before landing back on his wheels.”

Following the wreck Sam decided to scale down his schedule and drive only at local tracks. He also decided to gain his flying licence and in 1970 he joined the W.C. Bradly Company in Columbus, Georgia as the company pilot and unofficially retired from racing. In 1974 Sam returned to racing for three starts for Hoss Ellington, driving the #28 Pylon Wiper Blades Chevrolet. He finished in seventh place at Darlington Raceway and eighth position at Talladega Supervelocityway. His last start of his NASCAR career was in the 1974 World 600 at Charlotte Motor velocityway. Over the period of eight years in NASCAR’s Grand National Series Sam made sixty two starts, had one win, nine Top 5’s and twenty one Top 10’s. In 1997 Sam retired as a commercial pilot after 27 years of flying. He was happy with rich memories of his short NASCAR career. He told the media, “It meant awful lot to win at Daytona. It’s the Taj Mahal of racetracks.” He was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2008.

Sadly Sam died of cancer on January 3, 2009 at the age of 73 at St. Francis Hospital. He and his wife Joy had recently celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_McQuagg

http://www.nascardriveroftheday.com/2010/02/sam-mcquagg.html

http://race500.com/SamMcQuagg.htm

http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Sam_McQuagg.htm

Mike Skinner

“The Gunslinger”, Mike Skinner was born on the 28th June, 1957 in Susanville, California. His love of racing didn’t start in the same way as many NASCAR race car drivers who started driving go-karts at very young age. His beginnings were very different. Being a young teenager he was well known as being a pool hustler and a rebel. In 1975 fate decided to take a hand in shaping his future. Mike was driving his 1971 Plymouth Road Runner when he had a crash and ended up wrecking his car. Instead of scrapping the car it was suggested by a friend that Mike bought it back from the insurance company, fixed it and used it to race at the local dirt tracks. To be a race car driver had not crossed his mind before this chance remark.

His first foray into the sport was at the local dirt track at the Lassen County Fairgrounds where he was doing rather well for himself, leading for most of the race then, with a half of a lap lead towards the white flag the front right hand ball joint broke as he was coming out of turn two. His car flipped over three times before coming to a stand still on its roof. Undeterred Mike got out of the car and kicked it and, wearing only cowboy boots at the time, received a broken toe for his efforts. He loved the sport so, to make ends meet, Mike worked at his day job as a well driller and repaired and raced cars at night. With his natural ability for driving he notched up three championships in the late 1970’s. Mike was also entering various events throughout the state and eventually, in 1983, his then wife told to him, “Either be a professional race car driver or well driller”! Not having to be told twice Mike moved with his family to North Carolina to chase his dreams of becoming a NASCAR race driver, the most essential one was to one day race in the Daytona 500. It was not easy to get a ride but he was prepared to work his way up through the ranks, starting with Petty Enterprises and, brand new release to the business, Rusty Wallace as a crew member.

It wasn’t until 1986 that he made his debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the #19 Pontiac for Zanworth Racing. He had his best finish at 22nd in just three starts. He made his debut at Darlington Raceway in the Nationwide Series in 1986. He drove the #0 Hunt Tire Oldsmobile and came in at 27th. He didn’t compete in NASCAR races again until 1990, at North Carolina velocityway, when he drove the #13 Glidden Paints Buick for Mansion Motorsports but his car had back end problems and he finished in 35th position. He had four races for over the next couple of years and one race in 1993. He won almost 50% of his late model races and Mike was asked to race late models for Gene Petty in 1994, gained a local track championship at Carraway velocityway and he started racing in the Nationwide Series, driving the #88 for Gene Petty. He won one pole position in the Kentucky Fried Chicken Chevrolet but failed to actually finish a race.

His strength obviously lay in racing the Late Models and after winning several events he caught the attention of Richard Childress Racing and was chosen to race in the inaugural season of the brand new release NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 1995. Mike nearly turned down the offer because he didn’t want to drive trucks he wanted to race cars then he realised who had asked him Richard Childress Racing, the opportunity of a lifetime! He won the first race of the series and collected seven more wins as he made his way to winning the first championship in the series. The following year he had another eight victories and was 3rd in the overall point standings. He also ran in five races in the Sprint Cup Series for Richard Childress Racing where he qualified in the top 10 three times. Mike also sat in for Dale Earnhardt while Dale recovered from injuries from a crash. Mike was promoted to full-time driver in the Sprint Cup Series in 1997, driving the #31 with Lowe’s sponsorship, claiming poles at both of the Daytona events and three Top 10 finishes. Despite being forced to sit out three of his races through injury and failing to quality in one race he won the coveted “Rookie of the Year “Honours. The following year he gained nine Top 10’s and two exhibition victories in Japan when NASCAR raced in Asia for the first time since its inception. In 2004 Toyota told that it wanted to join NASCAR and Mike began racing the #42 Toyota Tundra for Bang, returning to his favourite series, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Mike is the only driver to run in every event of the Series since its entry into NASCAR. Mike has had many victories, pole positions and awards in this series. Mike has had thirty-nine Top 10 finishes and six pole positions in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series but winning a race seems to elude him and started to be known as “the Best Winston Cup Driver Who Had Not Won A Race Yet”!

Mike holds a yearly charity event called “The Toyota Skinner Roundup”. This is a charity that raises money for charities in the Daytona Beach area. Fans, celebrities and sponsors all come out for music, golf, poker in an effort to raise funds for many good causes. After the great success of “The Round Up”, he and wife, Angela created their own foundation called “The Skinner Roundup for Charity” to continue growth of giving for their communities. Mike also assists various drivers and teams as a Driver Coach to mentor young talent to fulfil the dream he discovered in the sport of NASCAR racing.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Skinner_%28racing_driver%29

http://www.mikeskinner.com/history.html

Pete Hamilton

“The Gentleman Racer”, Pete Hamilton was born in the city of brand new releaseton, Massachusetts and was born on the 20th July 1942. He has always had a love of cars and this love was heightened when he started working in a service station after school when he was in the third grade at school. He first started racing stock cars in 1962 at the Norwood Arena at the age of nineteen. He moved up to Hobby Stocks and a few other divisions before trying his hand in the Modified Division. By 1965 Pete had become the Thompson’s World Series Twin 50’s Champion and went on to win the NASCAR National Sportsman Championship in 1967 driving the #69 car owned by Worcester Sand and Gravel.

At the end of the 1967 season Pete decided to move down south and take a shot at the NASCAR Grand National “Rookie of the Year” honours. In his third start, the Tidewater 259 at Langley Field velocityway he finished fifth and later that year he came in second behind Richard Petty at the Smoky Mountain Raceway at Maryville, Tennessee. He competed in sixteen out of a possible forty nine events. In his debut year he earned himself three Top 5 and six Top 10 finishes, was ranked at thirty two in the final point standings and won the coveted 1968 “Rookie of the Year” honours. The following year, 1969 he won twelve out of twenty six Grand American Division, a division for smaller cars such as the Pontiac Firebird and the Chevrolet Camaro, events and won the series championship.

More success was to follow in 1970 when he had his greatest victory, after starting in ninth position he went on to win the Daytona 500 whilst driving the #40 Superbird for Petty Enterprises. He won both of the events that he entered at the Talladega Supervelocityway, the Alabama 500 and the Talladega 500 and had his fourth victory for the year at Daytona International velocityway driving for Cotton Owens. This was to be his final career victory on the super velocityways. For the 1970season Pete made sixteen starts and recorded four victories, one pole, ten Top 5’s and twelve Top 10’s driving Plymouth Superbirds. Pete was the first driver to win $100,000 on a super velocityway in a single season. Towards the end of the season Chrysler/Dodge pulled its financial support from NASCAR and this meant that Petty Enterprises could no longer afford to field all of the intended cars and unfortunately Pete’s #40 was not in the allocated budget so Pete lost his ride.

In 1971 driving the #6 Plymouth for Cotton Owens, he won his Daytona Twin 125 qualifier but engine failure prevented Pete from taking part in the Daytona 500. He qualified on the pole for the Yankee 400 at Michigan International velocityway but once again engine failure prevented him from completing the race. Qualifying again on the pole for the Teas 500 at College Station in Texas the engine held out and Pete finished in fourth position. He had six engine failures during the 1971 season but despite this he still managed to record two poles, eleven Top 5’s and twelve Top 10’s in twenty two starts.

Although he was at the pinnacle of his career Pete retired from full time racing at the end of the 1971 season as he had a recurring problem with a neck injury that he sustained in a 1969 Grand American race. Driving the #5 Plymouth in five events for Housby Racing in 1972 Pete had three engine failures, crashed in the fourth and finally went on to finish fifth in the American 500 at Rockingham in North Carolina, recording his only Top 5 for the year. In 1973 Pete entered into two events, lost an engine in both and failed to score a Top 10 finish.

He retired from racing that year and started up a successful car building business. He did return in 1975 to run the Rattler 100 at the Twin City velocityway (now the South Alabama velocityway. He set a brand new release track record of 16.50 when he qualified and then dominated the race to go on to victory. Pete made 64 NASCAR Grand National (now Nextel Cup) starts with impressive results. He scored 33 Top Ten finishes, 26 Top Fives, and 4 Wins along with 3 Pole Positions. Pete and his wife, Suzy, now live part of the year in the Florida Keys where they enjoy water sports such as diving, snorkelling and boating and the summer months are spent in Maine.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Hamilton

http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Pete_Hamilton.htm

http://realracinusa.com/racelog/jane-smith-racing-column/a-legend-named-pete-hamilton/

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