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Smokey's Talladega

 
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Bobby The Cabdriver



Joined: 19 Oct 2018
Posts: 388
Location: " Keep Austin Weird?"ugh...

PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 1:05 am    Post subject: Smokey's Talladega Reply with quote

I am in the midst of a very hot and heated debate under the topic name of "long time fan finally joins"about Petty Enterprises rule bending cars from 1970 . Most of us know Smokey Yunick was a legend of innovation and reading between the lines of the NASCAR rule book and was a major thorn in the side of Big Bill France for many years.By the time 1969 or 70 rolled around Smokey had enough with fighting the powers-that-be and the last car that he bought to Daytona Speedweeks was a Talladega which you could be sure wasn't an off-the-shelf Holman & Moody car.I cannot recall ever reading anyting about this car in fact my first knowledge of the car was when Carrera released it as a 1/32 scale slot car about 15 years ago.Who can tell us,out of all the Ford experts on here,about Smokey's last NASCAR entry?
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C5HM



Joined: 31 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 6:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The car (singular) was delivered to Smokey by H&M (as were all Fomoco team cars during the factory period). Smokey was not happy with the car and called it the "tallest" Talladega ever built (suggesting that John Holman...no friend to Yunick) had purposely issued him an aerodynamic dud). The car was later sold to Maynard Troyer (after Ford got out of racing) and was very famously rolled into a steaming heap of bent metal as a regular nose Torino in 1971 at Daytona.
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Tom M.
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Joined: 01 Feb 2018
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 9:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bunkie Knudsen had been a friend and patron of Smokey's since the late '50s Pontiac days. When Bunkie left GM to run Ford he signed Smokey to run a Ford in selected races in NASCAR. Smokey had long since lost interest in racing in NASCAR for any purpose other than to do things that elevated Bill France's blood pressure but Bunkie was okay with Smokey doing a few races then taking the late spring and most of the summer off to do Indy and then spend the summer at his gold mine in South America.

The Talladega wasn't Smokey's last entry in NASCAR, however. That would be his Grand American Mustang which was entered in the Saturday 400 mile race at Talladega the day before the famous Boycott Race in September of 1969. Bunkie had been fired by HFII a couple of weeks prior to that race but Smokey already had the car prepared and I think he was just curious about the new track so he went. Journeyman racer Bunkie Blackburn who had driven one-off entries for Smokey at Daytona in the past was tapped to drive the Mustang, which sat on the pole and had a two lap lead (a more impressive feat than when Bill Elliott unlapped himself almost two full laps in '85, I was at both races) when a rocker arm broke to sideline the car.
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Bobby The Cabdriver



Joined: 19 Oct 2018
Posts: 388
Location: " Keep Austin Weird?"ugh...

PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 10:05 am    Post subject: Smokey's Talladega Reply with quote

You mean like 7 Pistons getting shipped from Randleman to Hueytown?
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C5HM



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PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 10:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tom, Smokey told me once that the only reason he ran at Talladega with the Mustang was as a favor to Knudsen. Per Smokey, Knudsen's Dad (also an automotive muckety muck) was being inducted into the IMSHOF's, first class.
Bunkey wanted a Ford car to be in attendance due to the boycott......Not sure if that part of the story is true or not. With Smokey, you never could tell. As Smokey was telling me that story he got up, went into the shop (we were in his office) and came back with a Ford rocker that had a push rod sticking through it. He said the reason the Mustang DNFed was poorly heat treated rockers.
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