#16 - Ford Strikes Out - The 1966 Boycott
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06/14/2017 Matt McLaughlin |
(Editor’s Note) In 1997
- 1998, Matt McLaughlin penned a special Anthology of historical pieces in
honor of the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR entitled "50 Years of NASCAR
Racing." Matt has entrusted the entire collection, minus one or two that
were misfiled back then and cannot be salvaged, to my tender, loving care.
As NASCAR turns 70, the
Anthology itself will celebrate a 20th anniversary through 2018, and will run
again here on Race Fans Forever. As before, there is no record of which pieces
came first, so it will appear in the sequence presented earlier. Please, sit
back and enjoy as you take a journey back through the pages of history and
perhaps relive a memory or two.
As always, many thanks
to Matt, and God bless you my friend. ~PattyKay
With NASCAR still reeling from the devastating effects
of the 1965 Chrysler boycott, the last thing the beleaguered sanctioning body
needed was another year of racing with many of the big name drivers on the
sideline. But when NASCAR decided Ford's answer to the Hemi, the infamous Cammer 427, wasn't a production engine and disallowed it,
for the second time in two years, one of the major players in the sport took
their ball and went home.
The 1965 Chrysler boycott had led to dismal ticket
sales at most races and the race promoters suffered a financial blood bath.
Bill France Senior quietly found a way to back down and save as much face as
possible, allowing the Hemi engines to run, though requiring they be installed
in the full size cars, not the intermediate sized models on superspeedways.
Ford had enjoyed a banner year in 1965, their factory cars running roughshod
over what little competition they faced, and had no intention of letting the
Hemi challenge go unanswered.
Racing politics in those days normally had a company's
representatives approach NASCAR well in advance to discuss new engines before
trying to enter those power-plants in Grand National races. Ironically, Bill France
was holding a photo op at a Chrysler plant, having his picture taken beside an
assembly line stocked with production street Hemis to
prove it really was a stock power-plant, when a Ford spokesperson announced
that the factory teams would be utilizing the 427 SOHC engines on the big
tracks in 1966.
Rather than take on the challenge by himself, France
tried to put up a united front, approaching officials of the USAC stock car
sanctioning body to support his decision to ban the SOHC. In doing so he would
make it impossible for Ford to do as Chrysler had done and take their cars to
the rival sanctioning body's circuit. NASCAR and USAC issued a joint statement
saying that as the 427 SOHC engine was not a readily available production
engine it would not be legal to race. Ford was faced with the prospect of
either backing down or not racing in the high profile stock car leagues at all.
Recall, racing still helped sell a lot of cars in those days. Ford's response,
which made sense to a point, was that the racing program would build up public
demand for the engine and the cars would be produced at that time. NASCAR
wasn't buying it.
Ford fired the next volley, issuing a statement with
the opening of the 1966 season imminent and their plans thwarted, there was no way
they could have cars ready to compete in time, and would sit out the Riverside
opener and the Daytona 500 at Big Bill's track. At which point no doubt, Bill
probably reached for the Maalox and began banging his head against the desk
muttering, "Not again." A hasty meeting was set up with Ford and
officials from NASCAR and USAC. On Christmas day a joint press release was
issued stating Ford was going to remain active in stock car racing and would
indeed have cars at Riverside and Daytona. NASCAR gave Ford assurances once
their Cammer powered Galaxies were rolling off the
assembly line, the engine would be allowed in racing. And there was peace on
earth and good will to men. Very temporarily.
Dan Gurney won at Riverside in a Ford, but then, he
was perhaps the greatest road racer of the era and he probably could have won
in a VW too. Things didn't go well at Daytona for Ford. Mopars
swept both qualifying races and Richard Petty flat out dominated the Daytona
500 in his Plymouth. Things were not as lopsided as feared. In fact, Ford
entries placed second and fourth. Still, Ford was fuming. They quickly
shoehorned a couple detuned 427 SOHC engines into street cars, defanging them
with milder cams and carbs to keep the potent mill docile enough to survive a
trip to the grocery store and announced it was a production engine. One story I
have often heard involves Ford presenting pictures of 427 SOHC powered cars
sitting on the lots of 10 different dealerships. It was actually the same car,
repainted 10 times to make it look like there were more than one, and then
quickly sold to a drag racer to keep some dealership warranty department from
going bankrupt trying to keep the thing running.
France found himself backed into a corner. It was
obvious Ford would launch a boycott if he vetoed their running a
"production" engine, and equally likely Chrysler would launch another
boycott if he did. Rather than risk it, he punted, and put the question to the
FIA, the International sanctioning body of auto racing. In an attempt to find a
compromise, the FIA decided that the 427 SOHC engine would be allowed to race
but it would carry a weight handicap that amounted to about 425 pounds, to keep
competition equal. In a sop to Ford, the same decision allowed the
conventionally cammed 427 engine that had been the
workhorse of Ford's racing fleet to run a second four barrel carb to help it
run more competitively with the Hemis on the big
tracks. Ford was not appeased. With the tire problems already so severe, owing
to the awesome speeds, the weight penalty would have made a bad situation
worse. They fired a warning shot in response. There were to be three short
track races in the following five days. Ford announced they would not enter
their factory cars at those events. The decision seems rather curious, because
at the short tracks, where torque and not horsepower was required, those teams
would have run their old reliable conventional 427 engines anyway. On April
15th, while the series regulars were gathering at North Wilkesboro, Ford pulled
their teams and officially announced they were boycotting NASCAR events. Not
only would the Ford team cars not run, but Ford warned their drivers that their
lucrative factory contracts would be terminated immediately if they attempted
to run their own cars as independents, or drove another make of car. Those
affected included defending Grand National Champion Ned Jarrett, fan favorite
Fred Lorenzen, the recently reinstated Curtis Turner, the newly formed team of
Bobby Isaac driving for the recently retired Junior Johnson and hard charger
Cale Yarborough. The drivers accepted their fate with resignation, though Ned
Jarrett did go on record as saying, "We can't keep treating the spectators
the way we have the past couple of seasons."
Bill France made mistakes, but one reason he was able
to be so successful in his life and times was he learned from the mistakes he
made. During the Chrysler boycott, France had had his hand forced, out of fear
that the track owners and promoters would defect to USAC and that rival
sanctioning body would gain a foothold in France's Southeastern turf, and
pre-empt NASCAR as the premiere stock car sanctioning body. Faced with a
similar crisis, France called a meeting of all the track owners the next day to
discuss what was happening and possible solutions. During that meeting, the
track owners decided to put up a solid front with France against Ford, hoping
to end once and for all the financial blackmail the auto companies were
threatening them with. Clay Earles, founder of Martinsville, sighed and said,
"We might as well plow up our race tracks and plant them with vegetable
crops if we can't get some assurance the top drivers will compete in Grand
National events." NASCAR and the promoters launched a PR campaign to convince
the fans that Ford was the bad guy in the confrontation and turn public opinion
against them... which of course, didn't help Ford sell many cars.
The success of some independent drivers who kept
campaigning their Fords, particularly Tom Pistone, was another public relations
disaster for Ford. While hopelessly outclassed on the big tracks, on the short
tracks that still made up a bulk of the season at that point, Pistone was
running well in a two year old Ford with the conventional engine. At
Martinsville, Pistone roared from 20th to fifth in the first ten laps, and was
clearly the class of the field. He led for a long period but finally succumbed
to engine failure. Of course, people were wondering if a perpetually broke
independent could build a competitive car, why couldn't Ford and all their vast
resources, build them as well? Pistone in fact, tried to buy one of those 427
SOHC engines and run it with the weight handicap, but despite the fact the
engine had been listed as a production piece for five months, he was unable to
locate one.
The death knell for Ford's boycott came when their
name drivers began defecting, choosing to end their factory support and go back
to racing. Curtis Turner was first to announce he was returning to the tracks,
citing his age, and the fact he didn't have that much time left in his career.
He made a deal with Smokey Yunick to drive a Chevrolet for the legendary
mechanic, starting in late April. With Turner back on the track, Marvin Panch announced he was leaving Ford as well and driving a
team car for Petty Engineering. He won the World 600 that year in the Petty
Plymouth, with relief help from the King himself. Days later, Ned Jarrett
announced he too would resume driving, in an independent Ford owned by Henley
Gray. Once again Jarrett cited his concern for the fans, saying it wasn't fair
that for a second year in the row they didn't have the opportunity to watch the
Grand National Champion defend his title. The operation never gelled and Ned
Jarrett won no races that year after returning to the track. That, and the ugly
political side of racing, probably played a part in his decision to retire at
the end of 1966.
Fred Lorenzen was the last of the notable hold outs,
but France could see the tide was going against Ford and made a few concessions
to get Fred back on the track, and in a Ford. The car prepared for Lorenzen by
Junior Johnson for the August 7th race at Atlanta, was the infamous Yellow
Banana, about the most blatantly illegal car ever to race in a Grand National
race, which is saying something. The car was lowered, the roof was chopped and
the rear deck area was bent up into a crude rear spoiler. It looked about as
much like a production Ford Galaxie as my Granny looks like Heather Locklear,
and yet it sailed through NASCAR tech inspection without a problem, to the
anguished howls of other drivers and car owners. Similarly, the almost as
illegal and infamous 7/8th scale Chevelle Smokey Yunick prepared for Curtis
Turner without so much as a glance at the rules book, breezed right on through
as well. France had decided to force Ford's hand. Their name drivers were back.
There were Fords back on the track. The boycott was a dismal failure and Ford
looked petty for continuing to hold out. (And I don't mean Richard.)
The Yellow Banana caused its fair share of headaches.
Other track promoters said flat out, that little space ship wasn't going to run
on their tracks no matter how much NASCAR wanted Fords out there. They feared
Chrysler's response and an end to stock car racing as it had been all those
years... cars that at least resembled what the race fans had parked in their
driveways... one of the appeals of the sport. France told everyone to calm
down. He admitted the rules had been "bent" at Atlanta and said that
Junior had been instructed to retire the Yellow Banana. France's ploy had
worked, and at the next race in Columbia South Carolina, with minimal comment
by the company, the factory Fords returned to the track. The boycott was over;
Bill France regained the prestige he had lost by buckling to Chrysler's boycott
the previous year, and put the auto manufacturers on noticed, while it was
their ball, and they could take it home if they chose, NASCAR owned the playing
field.
AFTERMATH- Despite their supposedly uncompetitive
cars, Ford won 6 of the 12 races on the schedule after returning, to Dodge's 5,
with Bobby Allison sneaking in one win in an independent Chevy. On the
superspeedways, where Ford had claimed the real disadvantage lay, Fords won at
Rockingham and Darlington, while LeeRoy Yarbrough won Charlotte in a Dodge. At
the beginning of the 1967 season Chrysler once again threatened a boycott,
citing new cylinder heads and an intake manifold the Fords were allowed to run.
Chrysler's drivers put their foot down and said with or without factory support
they would keep racing and would not participate in the boycott. Chrysler
wisely backed down. As it turned out, Richard Petty went on to win 27 victories
that season in his "un-competitive" Plymouth.
*Matt can no longer
field comments or email at Race Fans Forever. If you have comments or
questions, please leave them below and I’ll do my best to supply answers.
~PattyKay Lilley, Senior Editor.