February 24 - This day in Petty history

[pettycash]

1961 - Richard and Lee both wreck in separate twin 100 mile qualifying races for the Daytona 500. Lee is seriously injured, and his career is, for all intent and purposes, ended.

[ricklou]

I believe that Beauchamp took Lee out intentionaly with this one but he took a ride also. Case, there is a probably a You Tube video of that wreck, can you post it ?

Maybe it was just one of them racin deals ....yeah right. just like Earnhardt didn't Waltrip into the fence at Richmond in "86".

[pmossberg]

The link to the you tube video is in this thread about Lee and John Beauchamp's accident:

richardpettyfans.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=paul&thread=750&page=1

As noted in that thread, it seems the only available videos don't show te real start of the accident. They all seem to start with Beauchamp already glued to Lee's bumper.

[pmossberg]

I can't verify the accuracy, but this article states that Lee and Beauchamp collided while trying to avoid another driver who had gone into a spin:

sports.jrank.org/pages/3714/Petty-Lee-First-Daytona-500.html