A Busy Racing Weekend and Then…
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It is with heavy hearts that everyone here at
Race Fans Forever mourns the passing of racing’s Silver Fox, David Pearson. We
humbly offer prayers and condolences to his family and friends. David was an
institution; one of the building blocks upon which stock car racing was built.
Rest in peace dear man. Your earthly race has been run and Heaven’s Raceway
awaits you. Godspeed and God bless.
I bid
you welcome gentle readers, and as always that includes our assigned reader of
all things NASCAR on this rather dreary grey day in the hills of North Georgia.
It’s Tuesday morning as I pull up to the keyboard, only to find I have nothing
much to say, or to be more precise, I’m afraid to type much as tomorrow it all
might become moot… again.
At that
point I closed the keyboard and it’s now well past noon on Wednesday and so
far… no second shoe. In last week’s
column, I introduced you all to a young racer that has captured my
attention and heart… Trevor Rizzo. This past Saturday he competed in the Myrtle
Beach 250, as mentioned. I am so very proud to say that he finished 10th
in that event and now has sights set on the culmination of this year’s racing,
the Myrtle Beach 400. For those readers on Twitter, he is @_TrevorRizzo.
It would be so nice if some of you were to stop by and wish him well this
weekend.
I do
have a “Highlights” segment from YouTube where you can see bits of the races last
Saturday. As far as I can find, there is no live stream of the action either
weekend, and that’s a shame.
If anyone
should discover a live stream, please let the old gal know as I’d love to watch
it as it happens.
Trevor’s Late Model
But
Patty, why aren’t you talking about all the goings-on at Homestead this
weekend? Because, like Rhett Butler, quite frankly I don’t give a …hoot! As
long as Big Daddy NASCAR continues to play fast and loose with the points,
making them up as they go along over the final ten races, we here on Race Fans
Forever crown our own Champion… the guy leading the points after race 26, which
is the last time we see honest earned points. This year, it was Kyle Busch in
the lead after Indianapolis, and as such, he is recognized as our Champion. The
final ten races are just for fun, which actually is the best way to enjoy any
race… on its own merits and points don’t matter.
And
then… there is the departure from this world of David Pearson. It’s seldom that
I’m at a loss for words, but what can one say about that? We have lost the
best, and that hurts. Yes, I know there are arguments for Petty, Earnhardt and
Johnson, but overall the stats support Pearson’s claim to the title of GOAT.
Hundreds of articles have already been written, some by the very best writers
the sport has to offer. Tuesday evening, I was happy to post on my website the
article I was sure would be coming. It came and I wasn’t disappointed.
This
will take you to the
website of The Wood Brothers, and there you will find everything I’d
like to say, said by all the right people. You’ll hear the thoughts of two
generations of the Wood family as they talk about David Pearson, all he meant
to their entire family and how much they feel they have lost with his passing. Several
years ago, I was asked by a close friend of Cecil Gordon’s to write a eulogy
for him at his passing. I didn’t know Cecil personally, which posed a problem.
Rather than read about him and pass along someone else’s reconstructed words
and thoughts, I framed an entire article consisting mainly of posts about him
made on the website where I was writing at that time. In much the same way,
this passes along the thoughts and words of the Wood family. Of everything I’ve
read, this one is far and away the best because of the love it carries with it.
Rest in
Peace David. You will be missed perhaps more than you ever knew.
And
with that, it’s time for our Classic Country Closeout and this week we’re going
way back… to 1949, when the Grand Ole Opry was still a radio show without
pictures. The host on this one is Clyde Julian “Red” Foley and one of the
guests is Hank Williams, the original. Gentle readers, Country gets no better
than that. Please enjoy…
Be well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling.
It looks so good on you!
~PattyKay 