Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Don’t Let Off ‘Til You Get to the Gate

A couple of different recent things reminded me of this story. One was a story of how Darlington Raceway attempted to honor the 2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees by putting their photos on the race tickets. That was a nice idea, except they used a photo of Bud Moore the race car driver (known in his driving days as Little Bud) instead of Bud Moore the war hero.

The other thing that reminded me was a photo I saw on the Fairgrounds Facebook page of the actual car taken on the day of the story.

A little background info first. In 1980 Lake Speed made the decision to make the gigantic leap from karts to Cup. He decided to do it on his own. I had already known him about 15 years through karting, so I offered any help I might provide. He had a couple of guys working on the car in the shop, but no pit crew, so three guys from Nashville and I became Lake’s crew.

He hired former driver (with 7 Cup wins) Darel Dieringer to be team manager.

In 1964 Dieringer was driving for Bud Moore, who had won the championship the previous year with Joe Weatherly. Dieringer was to be Weatherly’s teammate for the ’64 season, but Weatherly was tragically killed at Riverside.

Now that you’re up to speed on the background here’s where it all ties together. Dieringer told this story one night at dinner during the 1980 season.

On August 2, 1964 the Grand National cars rolled into town for the Nashville 400. Imagine a typical hot August day in Nashville. The cars were practicing for the 400, but Dieringer wasn’t happy with the way his Mercury was handling. He would complain to Moore, the crew would make adjustments, Dieringer would practice some more, but he still wasn’t happy.

After a couple of adjustments, Moore suggested the problem might not be with the car, but instead with the driver. Moore told Dieringer the car would handle the banked turns just fine if Darel would, “Drive to the gate before he let off the throttle.”

Another explanation is due here. The half-mile track didn’t have a tunnel. To get into the infield, you either had to cross at turn one as you still do now, or if you went to the sign-in booth behind the backstraight you followed a road parallel to the backstraight and entered the track at a crossover gate near the end of the backstraight just before turn three.

So the guy who had won the NASCAR Grand National points championship the previous year as car owner and chief mechanic was strongly suggesting to his driver that in order to turn a quick lap at Nashville he shouldn’t let off the gas until he got to the crossover gate near the end of the backstraight.

Being a fairly smart driver and knowing who signed his paycheck, Dieringer said he would oblige. He crawled back into his #16 Mercury, gave an extra tug on the belts (thinking they were about to be used), and headed out for more practice.

After warming up a couple of laps, Dieringer came off turn two and headed down the backstraight. Sure enough, following his boss’s orders, he stayed in the throttle until he reached the gate. 

As you might guess, he never made it to turn four.

The wrecker towed the Mercury with the badly damaged front end back to the pits. Darel said he was happy to report to Moore that he had followed orders and indeed, “Drove it to the gate, just like you said.”

Remember, it was a hot August day. The crew went to work repairing the car. Dieringer went to his rental car, got in turned on the air conditioner, and relaxed in the comfort of a nice cool car.

He said he’d regularly check on the progress of the repairs. About every ten minutes he’d honk the horn, roll down the window, and ask Bud, “Hey. You got that car ready for me to drive to the gate again?”

And if you’re wondering, Dieringer did finish 6th in the race the next day.

To give a perspective of where the gate was located, here's how the gate looked from the stands. It's the opening between the Pure sign and the Chevyland billboard. 




This Fred Marchman photo shows the entrance road from Craighead across the bridge past the pit sign in booth, along the backstraight to where it entered the track.



2 comments:

  1. I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THE CARS ENTERING THE TRACK FROM THE BACK STRAIGHTAWAY!DID THEY WORK ON THE CARS OUTSIDE THE TRACK IN THOSE DAYS? I ALWAYS THOUGHT THE CARS WERE WORKED ON AND MAINTAINED INSIDE THE TRACK.???

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  2. They did always pit the cars in the "lower pit" outside turn three of the quarter mile, but the sign-in booth was just across the bridge just as it was in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Until they expanded the pits outside the track. After the crews signed in at the booth they would drive up the little road and enter the track through the gate at the end of the backstretch and drive around the track almost to turn 4 of the quarter mile.

    That wasn't a problem when they were racing on the quarter-mile, but when they were racing on the half-mile, obviously all track activity had to be stopped to get cars and tow vehicles in and out of the pits.

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