7 replies to this topic

[MCS]

Cale Yarborough has sadly passed away.  I don't normally post these kind of notices, but he was the first NASCAR star for me.

 

https://abcnews.go.c...ry?id=106019855

[ensign14]

I confess I thought he'd died some time ago.  Once led a race for Herman Beam, arguably a greater achievement than his multiple titles and 500 wins.   Still winning in IROC into the late eighties.  RIP.

[TecnoRacing]

RIP Cale

 

I always really liked this anecdote involving Jenks (courtesy of Nigel Roebuck):

 

Although his cheif interest in the sport always lay with machinery - with engines above all - Jenks was fascinated by the genus racing driver in all it's forms, and if Grand Prix racing was obviously his first love, he was never one to denigrate other areas of the sport. One time, over breakfast in Long Beach, he saw someone coming into the room and urgently asked who he was. 'He's a racing driver, isn't he?' It was Cale Yarborough. 'Knew it!' said Jenks, triumphantly. 'Didn't know who he was, but I could tell he was a racing driver. Something about his walk, the look in his eyes...'

[LB]

RIP i was just after watching the 79 500 and thinking to myself wow most of them are still with us. Such a shame

[RS2000]

The programme he signed for me at the Richmond, Va GN race is in a box just behind me. I later watched him win his 3rd consecutive GN title at NCMS. He was polite to me but seemed unpopular with many GN fans (especially Petty fans) for doing too much winning around then.

For me it was an amazing introduction to the informality of the peak of NASCAR to see a local fan then call Junior Johnson over to discuss why he continued to use the Oldsmobile for CY on the short tracks rather than the Chevy Monte Carlo.

Edited by RS2000, 03 January 2024 - 16:44.

[70JesperOH]

Sad to hear of the departure of Cale Yarborough, as he was one of the first NASCAR drivers I knew about. Reading about NASCAR through the odd back ground article in various European magazines, the name of Yarborough was mentioned with Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and other well established stars, still active by the late 1980s. By then he was a part time driver and during the 1990s he became a car owner, having retired as a driver.

 

He was becoming a star during the late 1960s as a Ford factory driver, but when the blue oval, and later Mopar, quit NASCAR after the 1970 season, Yarborough became a single seater racer! This was a bit of a revelation for me, when I got internettet during the late 1990s and started to do some research, to discover that he joined the USAC Championship Trail for the 1971 and 1972 season. At least the single seaters turned left only, just like the taxi cabs he was used to.

 

Then there are a story I seem to remember as well about Cale piloting a small plane with a drugged grizzly bear in the back. Said bear woke up midflight and Yarborough, the only person on board, had to wrestle the animal. Don't remember if this is the story where he landed a plane on the main street of a small town, but that wouldn't hurt the story, true or not!

 

Jesper

[Jim Thurman]

I have a Cale Yarborough story. My brother took Friday off work and mom allowed me to skip school so we could go up for the entire weekend of activity at Riverside International Raceway. Obviously, Friday being a practice day, it was pretty casual and not so heavily attended. We wandered around the infield, stopping to watch at the turn 7 fence. While standing there, a friend of my brother's showed up around the turn 7 bend. He was an avid photographer and was busily setting up his equipment. We watched as a fellow wearing a checked shirt and jeans strolled up to him and could see the fellow talking to him. It was Cale Yarborough, there for IROC. My brother's friend was so pre-occupied with his camera that he never looked up. Not being rude to the fellow, just busy. After Cale left, we walked over and asked him about the guy that talked to him. He said: "I don't know, some guy with a southern accent." We asked what he said. "He said the weather looks really nice today. Seems you usually either burn up or freeze here. I saw it snow here once." He said he also asked him about his camera. We then told him, that guy was Cale Yarborough! 

Edited by Jim Thurman, 20 January 2024 - 00:14.

[Lemnpiper]

 My Cale Yarborough story is a bit more mundane.

 

 

  One year at Richmond  (1974?)  a bunch of us were in the inflield  and as the race wore down, decided to go get close to see the Victory lane celebration.   So as me and my brother were just behind  the pits enroute  we hear the wierdest squeal of tires  and then a very loud KERCHUNK of a crash. naturally we wondered what the heck had happened .

 

  So we get to the fence at Victory Lane and see Dave Marcis get the winners trophy and the saw the celebration.  After 10 minutes we decided to go see what the crash had been.  Low and behold there was Cale's car about 5 feet away from a Henrico  County fire engine with the race car's front end all smashed in.  The fire engine looked to have  a couple small scratches on it's bumper .

 

As i hear it they gave Cale a ticket  .  .

 

 

 

    Paul

Edited by Lemnpiper, 21 January 2024 - 20:22.