Fabulous images, some I've seen before, most not. It was certainly a "learning" experience for you. Glad you weren't already in Florida and maybe at the guys place when the deed went down.
If you watch the old films, you see the cars flipped a lot, especially on the turn at the end of the beach. I wonder what was the demise of Mad Dog? Warren
Since this is intended to be a Daytona Beach photo thread and I mentioned the Battlebirds, may as well add some photos. Ryan, here's your own entry on them from 2011: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=11368 Random selection of photos -
Louise Smith was a local lady who's husband ( Noah) ran a huge junkyard in Greenville,South Carolina She is known as the First Lady of NASCAR and was inducted in the Hall of Fame in She gained national notoriety in 1947 at the Daytona Beach and Road Course race, where, legend has it, Smith went to watch but ended up on the track. Entering her husband's new Ford coupe in the race, the "Barnstormer" wrecked and landed herself on the front page of newspapers across the country. She won an impressive 38 races across four divisions from 1947 to 1956, when she retired. She remained active in the racing world for nearly four more decades before her death in 2006 at age 89. I met her back in the early 70's and she was a hoot! HRP
That's a cool story/young guy memory of "the beach". It prompts me to recollect a 'young guy' story of my own. In 1962, my brother and I were on a road trip looping both coasts of Florida which included Daytona Beach. I'm not sure what the rules are now but in those days we could drive and park anywhere on the public beach. So we pick out our squatter's rights, one-day patch of beach real estate and I have on my brand new white swimming trunks bought especially for the trip. We have hardly any luggage so definitely 0 folding chairs or beach towels. So I'm parking my butt on what appeared to be white sand. Little did I know that I was actually practicing the ancient art of batik dye pattern because I wound up with a bunch of 2-bit sized, black spots of grease/oil on the hind end of the trunks. That was my "Welcome to Daytona" souvenir for the trip. More memories/reading material for extra credits......... We're doing the trip in my brothers '59 Corvette- We sleep in the Corvette maybe 6 times and get a motel maybe 3 times. We make $120 each last for 9 days- I can't recall what Florida town, but we meet 2 young ladies on a beach and they ask to drop them off somewhere and so my brother is driving and the girls are sitting on various parts of me in the top-down Corvette. Plus we get invited to a house party later that night- Somewhere, we stop at a tourist trap and drink all the orange juice we can for 10 cents- And more tourist traps to see alligators, monkeys and where old-time Tarzan movies were filmed- We buy gas for 19.9 cents a gallon more than once- The Atlantic surf will knock you down but the Gulf will lap at your ankles- The Everglades are very exotic for an hour but 7 hours later they are pretty boring- Corvettes attract police in Florida the same way they do back home, but we were blessed with "slow down" grace and no tickets-
Barney Oldfield racing the "Blitzen Benz" at Daytona Beach - 1910 original photograph by Richard H. LeSesne NOTE: The "Blitzen Benz" was built in France specifically to challenge the Stanley Steamer driven by Fred Marriott. This car with a 1,300 cubic inch engine boasting 8 inch pistons was difficult to drive and Victor Henery was unable to control the car to beat Marriott. It was later purchased by Ernest Moross for $14,000 and brought to Daytona Beach. On March 16, 1910, Barney Oldfield flew through the Measured Mile time traps for a new world record of 131.72 mph. Bob Burman and the "Blitzen Benz" at Daytona Beach - 1911 NOTE: Burnam set speed records for the mile (137.83 mph) and the kilometer (138.3 mph) on April 22, 1911.
Here's a decent article (from the February 25th 1957 issue of Sports Illustrated) about the '57 Daytona Speed Week event: ... and as a MOPAR fan, I'd be remiss not to point out that ... A '57 Chrysler 300 C Coupe ran the fastest MPH in the Stock Passenger Cars (Flying Mile) category: ... and the fastest MPH in the Stock Passenger Cars (Standing Mile Acceleration) category: HOT ROD Magazine's "SUDDENLY" '57 Plymouth: ... ran the fastest MPH in the Experimental Cars (Two-Way Flying Mile Average) category:
Chrysler 300 "letter cars" at Daytona Beach ... ... 1955 C-300s: ... 1956 300 Bs: ... 1957 300 Cs: ... 1960 300 F: ... and 1961 300 G:
Yeah, the hemi cars were fast but Pontiacs RULED class 6 and won the Datona race. I have a worked 57 Pontiac engine in my 34 coupe......love that engine!
Thanks for sharing that story Boss, your old man was street smart. Me and several HS buddies spent 3 spring breaks in a row (69, 70, 71) at Daytona. Back then it (and Fort Lauderdale) were the go-to spring break places. We were poor so we took my dad's '66 F-100 with pickup camper and camped at Port Orange, FL just a couple miles south. Campsite $2.00/night + extra $0.50/night for electricity. Split four or five ways. We also drove a buddy's '66 Olds 442 for beach cruising. Cruise up and down the beach, packed with teens and co-eds, spring break heaven. We obtained a key to the HS commissary and helped ourselves to the institutional-size cans of baked beans, pears, peaches, corn, lima beans, etc. We supplemented our diet with free stuff from the local 7/11. Our money was mostly spent on gas and beer. It's where we learned about weed
and as any 3 year old would let you know she’s in the movie Cars 3 ~just flipped back and read Ryan’s original post. Dang man, if you haven’t got enough stories for a book or at least another journal I’d be very surprised
Man, those photos are fantastic! Are they running half time on pavement, then turns and other half on sand?
Here's some beautiful color photos captured during the 1957 NASCAR races held on the beach: all images from Tom Burnside Photograph Collection
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