1961 - For Ken (apttyfn)

[pmossberg]

1961 had it's ups and downs.

Here's a shot of Richard and his 1961 Plymouth, after winning the pole at the World 600 at Charlotte:



A serious wreck at the 1961 Daytona 500 pretty much ended Lee's racing career. He came back from this, but only raced six more times. Richard was in the care center at the time, having had his own wreck. He left the care center to go to the scene of his dad's accident.

Just before and during the wreck:



Here is a shot of the accident, all you can see is the underside of Lee's car:



Here is Beauchamp's car after the wreck:



A video clip of the accident is at:

www.youtube.com/user/YoSony2#p/a/f/0/nx-wHYgg-b0

Sorry about that stupid animation that loads when you click above. Over in the favorites is the link to the real video. The url does not change. If I find a url that goes straight to the Lee video, I will replace the above link.

It is wonderful, that even with the "primitive" safety devices of the early 1960s. Lee and Johnny survived this to race again.

[butch442]

WOW

[pmossberg]

Here's a recap of the entire afternoon from allpar.com

www.allpar.com/racing/petty-plymouth-racing.html

The qualification runs for the 1961 Daytona 500 saw some odd coincidences that did not bode well for the Petty men personally or the organization overall.

There are two forty lap qualification races to get into the 500. Richard Petty in # 43 was in the first qualification race. Richard completed 39 laps. Going into the 40th and final lap, entering turn 1, Richard tangled with Junior Johnson in a Pontiac. Junior swerved when a tire blew. Frantically trying to avoid the spinning car, Richard angled towards the infield on the inside of the track. Junior's car was gyrating wildly, and it slammed into Richard's Plymouth on the right, rear corner. It immediately turned #43's nose towards the outside guard rail. At that point, Richard became just a passenger as dynamic forces took control. #43 slammed head on into the heavily reinforced guard rail. Turning about 35 degrees to the left, it mounted the rail and rode along on top of it, for a couple hundred yards. With the front and outside right tires out of contact with the pavement, the brakes did nothing to slow the car down. In the blink of an eye, air caught the front end, suddenly lifting the car, whereby #43 was catapulted upwards, flying out over 200 feet into the parking lot, where it slammed devastatingly onto the ground.

Young Richard was extremely fortunate. He hastily crawled out of the wreck, having sustained only a small cut. In his haste to get away, he turned his ankle, causing it to be tender and painful. Checked out by medical personnel, he hobbled back to the Petty Pits.

Lee was about to get going in the second 40 lap (100 miles!) qualifying event in #42, when Richard began to experience much pain in his eyes. Rushed back to the infield medical center, it was discovered he had hundreds of tiny glass particles in them. Removing the glass bits took some time, and just as Richard stepped out the medical care center, he heard the announcement that the second race had completed the 39th lap, with just one more to go. Right at that moment, he heard a terrible sound of a collision. Looking to the first turn, in almost the same spot that he had gone off the track, he saw John Beauchamp's '61 Chevrolet and Lee's #42 Plymouth airborne, tangled together. When they both hit the outside guard rail, it slung both cars high into the air. Bad ankle or not, Richard ran as fast as he could to the spot where #42 lay in a tangled, crumpled mass of twisted metal. It was only just a few feet away from Richard's earlier crash site.

Seeing the crash site as he looked at the wrecked Plymouth, Richard first thought that his father was dead. He certainly seemed to be, at first. Yet, he clung to life. There is no explanation for Lee being able to survive the devastating trauma and injury to his body other than sheer will power to survive.

It took a long time to cut Lee out of the wreck. There were no helicopter air care units in 1960, so a quickly assembled cadre of various police units at the track gave the ambulance a 100 mile an hour, screaming escort to the Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach. Fortunately, there were was a trauma trained doctor on duty. Richard believed that he had witnessed his father's last ride.

Lee Petty had previously been voted as the most popular driver in NASCAR several times. Word of his awful crash spread quickly through the Daytona Beach community. When the police and ambulance arrived at Halifax Hospital, a large crowd of well wishers had already gathered. A watch was established at the hospital by members of the Petty family. A group of the well wishers established their own watch both outside, and inside, the hospital lobby. This impromptu group rotated watch duties and stayed until Lee was able to leave and travel to his home for long months of rehabilitation. Even with the terrible specter of Lee lying near death inside, one of the members of the Petty family came out daily to express their gratitude. It was touching and it went a very long way to establishing the Petty clan as a class act, with or without NASCAR recognition.

At first, Lee slipped in and out of consciousness. Each lapse sent a terrible sense of immediate loss through the family. Yet, Lee showed small signs of rallying. He suddenly began demanding that Richard and Maurice be at the hospital. Fighting off another lapse of unconsciousness until both of them got there, Lee then dictated that they get back to the shop at Level Cross and get busy putting the cars back together for the rest of the season. After he had made the order, he seemed to gain strength. He then became convinced that he would be back racing within a week. That was a good sign, but it was not meant to happen. Lee's racing career was over. He just did not know it then. It would take months of rehabilitation for him to fend for himself, let alone apply the skills needed to pilot a race car.

Hastening to follow their Father's directions, Richard, Maurice and Dale went back to Level Cross. They rebuilt both '61 Plymouth cars. It marked the first time that specialization was considered. One car was for the short tracks, and the other for the big, long high speed runs.

Richard drove both under the number 43, not wishing to compromise any of his Father's recognition that he had gained with #42. Of the 47 race schedule, Richard competed in 41. He ended up the 1961 season 8th place in Grand National points. While not extremely prosperous, it did keep the shop open while providing wages for all that were involved. It was a great effort. It tested Richard Petty for certain, because now, the whole organization rested squarely on the decisions he made. Lee Petty was no longer able to be involved.

[apttyfn]

Thanks, I appreciate that.

[songsmith1950]

The 61 Plymouth was one of the strangest cars ever built, but I even liked it.
Just want to say thanks Paul for all you are doing here, you surely do keep us up and running!

[ricklou]

Nice spread Paul. I have not seen the first two pics in this one untill you posted them here.

I wonder if Beauchamp was thinking about losing the 1959 "500" when this wreck happened. Just a thought but I think that he took Lee out.

Both of them were lucky to survice that one.

[pmossberg]

Thanks Rick.

Has anyone seen a film clip that catches Lee and Johnny before the initial contact? In the clips I've seen, Johnny is already glued to Lee's bumper. So it is hard to tell how the contact initiated.

[apttyfn]

The angle at which Lees car is headed looks a lot like Dale Srs wreck

[apttyfn]

Almost at the same place on the track to