Richard Pettys wreck at Darlington 1970

[tan top]

  seen a few second clip of  this before   , but  cant recall seeing this particular coverage 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlFLnFc79bI&feature=related

[TruckDriver]

I seen it before, just not that interveiw

[Aero426]

Footage looks like it is from the Petty Blue DVD. 

[moparstuart]

wow he took that wall out

[Aero426]

Note the rear suspension on the car is trick.    I'd love to see a close up of it.   It has some kind of trailing arms on it.

[Cooter]

Along those lines....

A close friend here ran with #21 Wood Bros. crew and one night they stopped off at a truck stop for food and once back on the road, they heard what sounded like thunder. They began to look around and noticed it wasn't thunder, but the car onthe trialer running. Wondering what happened, they pulled over and found a vagrant sitting in the car and when he got cold, he figured he'd fire the car to keep warm....

King Richard had a car that won the race with an illeagal engine. When tech caught it, back then, you ran the same engine in the next car at next race. Tech told King that if he was thinking on running that engine, he better think again as it was illeagal. The king said "oh no, I'm not gonna run that engine next. I ran that one before you caught it in the first race"...

[tan top]

Note the rear suspension on the car is trick.    I'd love to see a close up of it.   It has some kind of trailing arms on it.

yeah i was thinking the same , every time i see it roll over !! whats with that set up   

Along those lines....

A close friend here ran with #21 Wood Bros. crew and one night they stopped off at a truck stop for food and once back on the road, they heard what sounded like thunder. They began to look around and noticed it wasn't thunder, but the car onthe trialer running. Wondering what happened, they pulled over and found a vagrant sitting in the car and when he got cold, he figured he'd fire the car to keep warm....

King Richard had a car that won the race with an illeagal engine. When tech caught it, back then, you ran the same engine in the next car at next race. Tech told King that if he was thinking on running that engine, he better think again as it was illeagal. The king said "oh no, I'm not gonna run that engine next. I ran that one before you caught it in the first race"...

interesting stuff , thanks for sharing

[Aero426]

After the wreck, the Darlington car was stripped out and put out to pasture behind the shop.

[Aero426]

Photographic evidence suggests that the Darlington wreck was rebuilt into a Superbird in the mid-70's.   Richard had his guys repair the car and hang new metal on it.  The story is that Richard traded it for a backhoe and bulldozer.

[Mike DC]

Why did they rebuild a wrecked Petty chassis into a 'Bird in the mid-70s?

[Aero426]

Why did they rebuild a wrecked Petty chassis into a 'Bird in the mid-70s?

Because Richard had a buddy who wanted to own a Petty Superbird, and there were no other 1970 type chassis available on site.   The two original Superbirds had been sold off and were long gone.    The replacement short track '70 Road Runner had hung aroung and had already been converted into the trophy room Superbird.   

Steve Hmiel has said that he and Richie Barsz rebuilt a car from "out back of the shop" (the wreck), and that for the most part, it was no big deal.    They stripped off the old body,  straightened and squared it up as best they could.    Photos show a street car body with a little EV2 paint left on it, replacing the outer shell.   The nose, wing, fenders, etc were all NOS sheet metal. 

[Mike DC]

Yet another '66-70 chassis becomes a wing car in its old age.