On Saturday & Sunday, August 30 & 31, historical legends of Indianapolis came to little Darlington, South Carolina. Along with vintage stock cars, sprint cars, midgets from back in the day, and legends of dirt modifieds this led to one huge weekend. On hand were legends such as David Pearson, Cotton Owens, Marvin Panch, Rex White, local dirt legend Dub Simpson and on and on…   

If this becomes an annual event it will become a “must see” for all car guys…it even included a car show that had quite a few interesting cars, not the least of which were Hemi cars, wing cars, GTO’s, Chevelles, Corvettes, etc…a great time was had by all…       

So Wednesday, August 27, I get a call from Dub Simpson (former NASCAR driver and local dirt hot shoe from the Don Duncan era, mid 60’s to mid 70’s) asking me if I wanted to tag along with he, Charlie Craig (NASCAR memorabilia collector) and Kim Haynes (RACEtorations, specializing in restoring vintage era stock cars) on Saturday to Darlington to hang out with the guys…

After thinking about this for, oh, 2 seconds I say why not…could be very interesting. I call Lee Holman to see if he’s going and sure enough he’s headed in that direction with his famous 427 ’64 Fairlane in tow…read plenty of photo ops…

I will post more stories about that day and the historical cars and drivers that I met, but this is the first story because it writes itself…Just seeing Dub interact with all the guys (Rex White, Marvin Panch, Cotton Owens and Neil Castles) was a story in itself, supported by former historical cars that each guy drove “back in the day”…

Charlie Craig, Neil Castles and Dub Simpson
Dub eyeballing his former Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo on jack stands because of a wheel cylinder issue, just goes to show you, the more things change the more they stay the same…sigh…
A Lee Petty rendition of one of his famous cars
The Cotton Owens Dodge Charger, and it has a Hemi
The lavender 63 Holman Moody/Fireball Ford
Smokey Yunick prepared, Marvin Panch driven Pontiac
The legend…the Kings most successful car
Freddie was used to this back in the day

Bruce Kepley, Monroe, NC