Buddy Bakers Daytona

[Aero426]

Cotton is still mad about this.    Baker had the race in the bag.

[hemigeno]

Cotton is still mad about this.    Baker had the race in the bag.

Cotton himself told me what he did with that car after the wreck... and it was NOT turned into a showcar!!!!

[6bblgt]

Anyone have pics of the "show car" at other venues?  Cobo Hall '71?
In an effort to compare still pics to raceday pics to create/verify a timeline.
Here's a picture of the COG Buddy Baker #6 Daytona from the '69 National 500.  From AUTO RACING Jan. '70 pg 46.

10/12/69  National 500 (Charlotte Motor Speedway) -- #6 started 5th, finished 3rd, led 80 laps -- pole speed was 162.162mph

[Redbird]

I'm all for trying to keep dates, pictures and numbers straight up.

FWIW, the picture of the Owens/Baker Daytona on page 1 of this thread from the 1971 Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place would have been after the 1971 Detroit Auto Show. It doesn't bear on this discussion except that one can show the car was displayed there after Detroit. I'm sorry if I missed the picture of 1971 Detroit, if there was one. Was there one?

Dates of Chicago auto shows from "Worlds Greatest Auto Show-Celebrating a Century in Chicago":

1969 March 8-16, 1969
1970 February 21-March 1 1970
1971 February 20-28 1971

I don't have the dates of the Detroit auto Show in front of me.

Dates of 1970 Nascar races from "Forty years of Stock car Racing-Volume 3":

Feb. 19, 1970 125 Mile Qualifier#6 Baker/Owens  raced
Feb. 22 1970 Daytona 500  #6 Baker/Owens raced
March 1 1970 Richmond 500 Baker #6  not on list of qualifiers or finishers
March 8 1970 Carolina 500 # 6 Baker/Owens Raced

Again FWIW:

For the 1969 Detroit Auto Show you can find pictures of David Pearson's 427 Torino, Pete Hamilton Charger 500 and a Sox and Martin B-body car there on display.
For the 1970 Detroit auto Show you can find pictures of the David Pearson Torino Talledaga, Duster 1, Herbert Platt and George Montgomery cars there.
For the 1969 Chicago Auto Show You can find Pictures of the Duster 1 and Sox & Martin B-body car there.
For the 1970 Chicago auto Show you can find pictures of the Sox & Martin 'Cuda there.
For the 1970 New York Auto Show you can find pictures of the Don Grotheer 'Cuda there.

[Aero426]

Anyone have pics of the "show car" at other venues?  Cobo Hall '71?
In an effort to compare still pics to raceday pics to create/verify a timeline.
Here's a picture of the COG Buddy Baker #6 Daytona from the '69 National 500.  From AUTO RACING Jan. '70 pg 46.

10/12/69  National 500 (Charlotte Motor Speedway) -- #6 started 5th, finished 3rd, led 80 laps -- pole speed was 162.162mph

Greg Kwiatkowski who owns the #88 Daytona in the Detroit area has a color photo of the #6 show car (he says it appears the same as in Chicago) at that venue.  Hopefully he can find the photo in his piles of stuff.   Greg recalls that the Detroit Auto Show was in the fall (November of 1970), and not the spring of 1971.  

[tan top]

from Motor Trend Feb 1970...Texas 500 coverage...

these are good pictures !!    never seen that #6 with a wrecked front before 
lots of intresting stuff going on in this thread Guys ,   

[learical1]

Cotton is still mad about this.    Baker had the race in the bag.

Cotton himself told me what he did with that car after the wreck... and it was NOT turned into a showcar!!!!

Are you allowed to tell us what Cotton did with this car?  (Was Buddy still able to sit down afterwards?)

[therealmoparman]

💩

[6bblgt]

Outside Pole Position of the 1970 Daytona 500

from Canepa Design - 

http://www.canepacollection.com/detail-1969-dodge-charger-daytona-5111490.html

[Redbird]

If the 125 Mile qualifier for the Daytona 500 was on Feb. 19, 1970, the Daytona 500 was on Feb. 22 1970, the 1970 Chicago Auto Show was Feb. 21-March 1 1970, the picture previously shown on this thread of the 1970 Chicago Auto Show with the Owens/Baker car is in fact at that show-then either there were at least (2) #6 cars at one time or they had to shuttle the #6 car up to Chicago after cleaning it up for only part of the show. Getting a car into a crowded show for part of a show doesn't seem likely.

In regard to the 200.477 MPH, Larry Rathgeb's data sheets for the #88 car's speeds are shown on page 107 of Frank Moriarty's book "Supercars" and Buddy Baker is shown on page 108 with the #88 car and the chalk marked speed board showing 200.447. If the Baker/Owens car duplicated that exact speed, someone needs to be picking Lottery numbers too because they are just too lucky.

[70Sbird]

This is a great comprehensive story of the car...

http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?SaleCode=RW09&CarID=r081&fc=0


Owens and Baker started 1970 off strong, starting their Daytona qualifying race from the pole and finishing second to Charlie Glotzbach but an ignition problem put them out of the 500 itself. Problems dogged them at Rockingham and Atlanta but Baker in the #6 Charger Daytona were the class of the field in the Alabama 500 at Talladega on April 12, leading 101 laps until a spin and a fire put them out of the race.

It was in this race as Baker was leading the field that he accomplished the feat which will forever make this car famous: recording the first NASCAR race lap at over 200 mph.



The accomplishment was heavily promoted by Chrysler, even more than the continuing successes of the Chargers and Superbirds, because it was a singular accomplishment. It led inevitably to another of Bill France's competition building innovations, the carburetor restrictor plate, which has forever limited superspeedway speeds to well below 200 mph.

Baker drove Owens' #6 Charger Daytona to a second place finish in the Firecracker 400 at Daytona in July, to fourth at Atlanta in August, sixth in Michigan on August 16, fifth at the Talladega 500 August 23.

With this car Baker then won the Southern 500 at Darlington on September 7 by a lap over second place Bobby Isaac. On the same weekend Cotton Owens was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame at Darlington.

it is this post that you (therealmoparman) said is a "great comprehensive story" that infers this to be the car raced in Daytona and a 200+ mph run.

[6bblgt]

Here's a couple of pictures of the COG Buddy Baker #6 Daytona from the '69 Texas 500.  From AUTO RACING Mar. '70 pgs 39 & 41.

12/7/69  Texas 500 (Texas World Speedway) --  #6 started 1st, finished 8th after a crash -- pole speed was 176.284mph

[pettybird]

I don't know enough about the NASCAR cars, but would this have been built at Nichels or COG?  I mean from body in white to race chassis...  

Did COG number their chassis like Nichels did?  

What is this car's number?

Does anyone know if there are serial numbers on the trunk gutter of the car currently in question?  Like, might it have started as a street car somewhere, or did it start off as a body in white?  

[6bblgt]

The Dodge Boys - 1970

[learical1]

http://onebadwheel.com/nascar/200-mph-qualifying-runs/

"Baker was the first person to eclipse the 200 mph mark. His fastest lap during that testing session in his winged Dodge Daytona was 200.447 mph. Five months later, along came the restrictor plate for races at Talladega.

It was 12 years later that Benny Parsons became the first NASCAR driver to top the 200 mph mark in an official qualifying run. His Pontiac won the pole for the Winston 500 at Talladega on May 2, 1982 with a speed of 200.176 mph."

Don't know how trustworthy a website onebadwheel.com is.

[therealmoparman]

💩

[therealmoparman]

💩

[Redbird]

The picture on page 1 of this post of the 1971 Chicago Auto Show shows 1971 model cars around the #6 Daytona. The pictures on page 3 of this post show 1970 model year cars around the #6 Daytona. No car company displays their showroom 1970 cars for customers out when they have 1971 new cars to sell.

[Aero426]

The date on the Chicago show must be wrong. It has to be 1971.

1971 February 20-28 1971

It cannot be 1971 with all these 1970 new cars being shown.  

[6bblgt]

I don't know the lead time for contributions to Auto Racing in 1970, but there is a the Dodge Chargers column in every issue.
from February 1970:

[6bblgt]

from June 1970:

[6bblgt]

Here's a picture of the COG Buddy Baker #6 Daytona from the '70 Atlanta 500.  From AUTO RACING Jul. '70 pg 17.

3/29/70  Atlanta 500 (Atlanta International Raceway) --  #6 started 3rd, finished 20th (ignition) led 88 laps -- pole speed was 159.929 mph

http://racing-reference.info/race?id=1970-08&series=W

This isn't claimed to be the Canepa car, where is it today/what did it become?

& it looks like a single #6 was used on the nose in '69 & dual numbers in '70  

[6bblgt]

Here's a picture of the COG Buddy Baker #6 Daytona from the '70 Alabama 500.  From AUTO RACING Jul. '70 pg 41.

Bobby Isaac, who had won the pole position with a record shattering speed of 199.658, finished second almost a full lap back.

4/12/70  Alabama 500 (Alabama International Motor Speedway) --  #6 started 5th, finished 12th (spin/fire) led 101 laps -- pole speed was 199.658 mph

http://racing-reference.info/race?id=1970-10&series=W

A couple of clearer shots of the "spin/fire" appear earlier in this thread.  

[nascarxx29]

Still looking for more archive type pictures

[6bblgt]

Here's a picture of the COG Buddy Baker #6 Daytona from the '70 Rebel 400.  From AUTO RACING Aug. '70 pg 44.

5/9/70  Rebel 400 (Darlington Raceway) --  #6 started 6th, finished 15th (engine) -- pole speed was 153.822 mph

http://racing-reference.info/race?id=1970-13&series=W