Ok, here goes. On April 12, 1970 Pete Hamilton won the Alabama 500 at Talladega on Sunday. The following weekend the Gwyn Staley Memorial was won by Richard Petty in a snooze fest. This race was moved up to Saturday April 18th to compensate for ABC live coverage....so, no Sunday race. Heres where it gets a little screwy so be patient with me. The next scheduled race was the following Sunday at Martinsville for the Virginia 500 on April 26th. This race was rained out and re-scheduled for Sunday, May 2nd. In between the rain out and new re-scheduled Virginia 500 was a little race in Columbia SC on Thursday, April 30...the Columbia 200. So, Richard won the Gwyn Staley getting ready for the Virginia 500 when the rain out occurred. Virginia 500 was rescheduled and the Columbia race was in between all the while PE was prepping their Superbird for the ill-fated Rebel 400 May 9. So, what to do.....? The King called Mr Don Robertson of the Star City Body Shop team and asked an old business friend if they could work out a deal where Richard could rent his old Roadrunner that Star City had purchased, put his set-up and engine in and run it at the Thursday Columbia race because (it is,my understanding) that PE only had the 70 RR (that The King crashed at darlington in) and the new Superbird. This was a smaller race so this seemed pretty smart. Get your your own cars ready for the big ones and rent one for the smaller race. My buddy and then crew chief, Jimmy Cox, was just pulling the the tape off of a beautiful new paint job when Don told him they were going to rent their new ride out. So, long story short Star City showed up with their Poppy Red and gold #25 and their B4 blue and gold Star city RR. The Petty took this car and put all their vitals in it including the trademark 43s, ran the race, won, took the points, split the money, left Jabe and the boys shocks, the set up and the trophy (Im not sure about the engine). That following Saturday the rained out Virginia 500 was....rained out. The next race was the Rebel 400 at darlington. If I am correct Richard wrecked the Superbird and had to go the 70 RR where he had that terrible wreck. This Amt kit represents the Petty/Star city effort on dirt in Columbia. This model was built per Jimmy Coxs almost photographic memory and from friends recollections that were at the race. Im sorry about the lack of photo quality its all I have. This model is in my friend Ronnie Thomas museum next to the trophy. Sorry so long
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 05:15:30 +0000
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