Memories From the Strip - Stay Away From Hog Wire Fences

This past weekend, my family and I enjoyed a trip down memory lane as we attended the Warner Robins Dragway Reunion. We all met at the starting line and walked the track listening to stories of the good old days. It's a shame to see one of my favorite tracks of all time sitting in the woods in ruins but we had a wonderful time reminiscing.  The reunion ended with a race at Silver Dollar Raceway. While walking through the pits I noticed this replica of Richard Petty's Plymouth Barracuda Drag Car. The car is owned by Mike Brooks and is a really sharp car. As I stood there looking at this car and speaking with the owner, I remembered the day of Richard Petty's accident in Dallas, Georgia.



In 1965, some friends and I were watching drag racing at Southeastern International Dragway, located in Dallas, Georgia. There were a lot of race cars and spectators there.  There must of been around 20,000 people there that day. It was Sunday, February 28th, and Richard Petty in his Plymouth Barracuda was match racing against Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick in his Pontiac GTO.

I was standing on the left side of the track, which I believe was the pits at that time. I don't know if the cars were called Funny Cars as of yet, Petty's car was metal with working doors, they might have been classed as S/FX or A/FX still, I'm not sure. When they left the starting line, I would say about 300 feet out, Petty's car broke the front left spindle sending the car into an immediate left turn. There was a small dirt embankment on the edge of the track with a hog wire fence like most tracks had back then, not much protection to say the least. When Richard's car hit the embankment, it launched his car into the air like a ramp. I was propped up with my hand on someones motorcycle standing on my toes trying to see over the crowd which must have been 5 or more people thick.  I heard a strange noise and saw a big blue flash in the air, it was Petty's car coming down on us. Just as I stepped away, his car plowed that motorcycle with a few people into the ground. I was the first person to get to Petty's door handle when someone yelled to get away from the car, "It's going to explode", they said. The car didn't explode, Richard got out of the car with minor injuries thankfully.

There were quite a few people laying on the ground bleeding and screaming. An 8 year old boy was sitting on his father's shoulders and was hit by the front wheel that had broken off of Petty's car and was killed. It was one of those days I will never forget!

That is why after I met my girlfriend, who is now my wife, we started standing as close to the starting line as possible. Especially at tracks with hog wire fences!