12 replies to this topic

[AyePirate]

I read in a recent thread about Jo Schlesser http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=23807
that several Europeans (Schlesser, Jimmy Clark, Jackie Oliver, etc.)
dabbled in NASCAR back in the sixties.
Rather than take that thread off topic, I decided to start a new one.

The idea of a guy like Jo running around the NASCAR circuit
strikes me as a potentially humorous "Fish Out of Water"
scenario. The phrase, "You ain't from 'round here are you
boy?" comes to mind. So guys enlighten me about this little
known chapter in history

[Jonathan]

Hmmm In the mid sixties I think I recall both Jimmy Clark & Innes Ireland doing stockers. Innes hated the standard setup for ovals (way to much understeer for his liking), and talked his team into making some changes (at Darlington ? Daytona ? I dunno) that allowed his to run real fast with just a wee bit of oversteer.

I think someone took him aside & explained to him that he might be fast like that but he couldnt run that way... Get someone down low shadowing your quarter pannel, and you will loose your grip & be heading for the wall.

I dont think he ran well.

I recall Ronnie Peterson first time out at Daytona in the 1974 IROC Camaro series (Not NASCAR but the name set of rules apply) and he put the car on Pole in very impressive fashion. In races however about all he could do was ~ sixth or seventh (often drafting with Richard Petty).

Oh and I do recall Jochen Maas stuffing an IROC Camaro into an infield wall somewhere...

Seriously NASCAR has its own set of driving styles that dont really reward the best drivers (as we know them in F1) all that much. Patience, anticipation, and a sixth sense regarding rules of Drafting are really critical to ones success in NASCAR. This skills often times take years to develope and have little to do with the skills required for F1...

[Joe Fan]

Jonathan, if memory serves me correct, Ronnie Peterson did not win the pole for that IROC race by virtue of on-track performance. I think they drew starting positions out of a hat for the first race, which comically he drew the pole position even though he had never driven an oval.

Jim Clark, Innes Ireland, Vic Elford, and Rolf Stommelon all have competed in NASCAR at one time or another, making very little impact. Incidentally, Jochen Rindt was a standby relief driver for Jim Clark in his 1967 Rockingham start. I don't know if they thought that he was too smallish to make the full 500 laps or not but Rindt never got a chance behind the wheel because Jim's car retired before the halfway point. If memory serves me correct, he had worked his way up to 11th before the engine blew in his Holman and Moody Ford. Both Clark and Rindt were both on their way back to Europe after the season-ending Mexican Grand Prix.

I will have to jog my memory as there might be a few more one-timers that I have forgotten about. Pedro Rodriguez competed in a few select NASCAR races for several years in the 1960's but he was not a European. The driver who did the best of the above was Quick Vic Elford who managed a top ten in one of the Daytona 500's in the early 70's.

[Darren Galpin]

In 1990 Martin "Billy Bob" Brundle raced in IROC, finishing 3rd in the series. He won a race, and was leading series until Dale Earnhardt put him into a wall.

[Joe Fan]

Originally posted by Darren Galpin
In 1990 Martin "Billy Bob" Brundle raced in IROC, finishing 3rd in the series. He won a race, and was leading series until Dale Earnhardt put him into a wall.

Not exactly true. He was leading the points going into the last race and started on the pole but got tangled up with Rusty Wallace, not Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt led from start to finish in the race and won the championship. See:http://www.irocracin...990-history.htm

[Darren Galpin]

Hmmm... I can remember reading an interview in Autosport a few years ago with Brundle about this, and he seemed sure it was Earnhardt, and that taught him why they called him the Intimidator.

[Joe Fan]

Earnhardt has never been shy about using the chrome horn but I don't ever remember him purposedly taking anyone out in an IROC race. Maybe he let Brundle know he was there a few times but even the open wheel guys are now bump drafting on the high speed oval races I have seen lately.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by AyePirate
I read in a recent thread about Jo Schlesser http://www.atlasf1.c...&threadid=23807
that several Europeans (Schlesser, Jimmy Clark, Jackie Oliver, etc.)
dabbled in NASCAR back in the sixties.
Rather than take that thread off topic, I decided to start a new one.

The idea of a guy like Jo running around the NASCAR circuit
strikes me as a potentially humorous "Fish Out of Water"
scenario. The phrase, "You ain't from 'round here are you
boy?" comes to mind. So guys enlighten me about this little
known chapter in history

Rolf Stommelen drove a second Wood Brothers prepared entry at Talladega and qualified quite well under the circumstances (I don't have the info handy, but it was something like 16th or 17th in a 50 car field). Richard Petty was quoted as saying he was impressed.

Off the top of my head, I don't recall some of the other performances. I'll have to check and get back to you.

For that matter, I'm sure I'm forgetting some other drivers as well.


Jim Thurman

[Criceto]

Autosport did quote Martin Brundle as saying that he asked Dale Earnhardt what advice he could give him about racing in IROC.

Dale's reply? "Remember you have children..."


I seem to recall at one of the very few IROC races ever televised in Britain, that Derek Bell was on the receiving end of some boisterous tactics, and ended up in the wall. Anyone remember which year/track that was?

[david_martin]

Jackie Oliver was mentioned. IIRC, Jackie was invited to to drive in NASCAR in 1972 because of politics over sactioning and securing international status for NASCAR events. In order for NASCAR to receive FISA's blessing as an international event they needed at least one FISA licensed, non-american driver competing in the series. Oliver, being between F1 seats was approached and subesquently drove 7 races for the Junie Donlavey Ford team, with a highest finish of 4th at Dover.

[FLB]

Brundle was shoved in the grass during the final 1990 IROC race at Chralotte by Rusty Wallace. He spun the car, kept it off the wall, but called it a day.

He'd seen enough.

[mhferrari]

Well, Mario Andretti, who was born in Italy, won the Daytona 500.

[Yelnats]

I watched one of Ronnie Petersons forays into IROC with great interest, being a CAN-AM, CART and F1 fan at the time. Ronnie, I recall, ran some impossibly low lines that put him well up in the corners but "The good old boys" hung him out to dry on the straights when they refused to draft off him causing him to fall back off the lead a few times.

But he never stopped trying and seemed to lve it!