Photo by numbers....

[Frasson118]

Dick Anderson in a very cool Camaro. Track looks like maybe Golden Gate???

[Frasson118]

One of my favorites, Dave Blaney. He never seemed to get a good break, with a decent car. Now he is stuck as a "start & park" driver. What a shame, because he really does have a boat load of talent.

[Jim Fenton]

Sorry Jerry but I’m stepping back a few numbers to throw someone in that I thought was worth mentioning.

Here is the #92, 1971 Mercury Carling Black Label Special of the 1972 NASCAR Rookie of the Year Larry Smith.

Smith had acquired the Carling sponsorship in 1973 after winning ROY honors in 72’. However, he was having a miserable year in 1973 and was still trying to turn it around in August when he entered the Talladega 500. He spun the car on the 14th lap of that race and hit the wall in Turn 1.

According to witnesses it was a relatively light hit and his car suffered only minor damage which the crew was prepared to repair and get back out on the track when much to everyone’s surprise; the 31-year old driver was pronounced dead at the infield care center.

It was rumored, but never substantiated, that Smith had removed the inner-liner out of his helmet because it had been bothering him for some time. However this fatality still remains one of the strangest in NASCAR history.

[Jim Fenton]

Another not-so-familiar driver associated with the #92 in NASCAR history is Skip Manning.

Manning was NASCAR’s 1976 ROY. He competed in 79 Cup events between 1975 and 1979 with his best finish being 3rd at the 1977 Talladega 500.

Here he is shown in that race leading the #1 Hawaiian Tropic Chevy of Donnie Allison which he had done most of the day and was poised to win when his engine went up in smoke in the final laps.

Darrell Waltrip, driving in relief for Allison late in the race took the lead away from Manning with six laps to go. Allison got credit for the win and Manning coasted across in third.



Here is Manning shown in the 1977 Darlington Rebel 500 behind the #5 Neil Bonnett and the then newcomer Ricky Rudd in the family-owned, unsponsored #22. In spite of fairly consistent top-ten finishes (he finished 8th in this race) Manning lost his ride later this season with Billy Hagan to another up coming hot-shoe out of Corpus Christie Texas, Terry Labonte.



Here is rookie Terry Labonte in his first showing later that year in the #92 Billy Hagan ride at the Darlington Southern 500. Labonte turned a lot of heads in his Cup debut finishing fourth at the most wicked track on the circuit in his very first outing.

[Jimmy McKinley]

Jerry, that is in fact the 'Gate in that pic of Anderson, and is probably 1975 or '76. Looks like Ernie Bass' Chevelle #28 (blue and white car on the trailer) and Billy Barnwell's yellow Chevelle behind Anderson. I wanna say that this was probably Dickie's last white car; I have a pic of a white Chevelle from about '73 at Palm Beach.

[ancrdave]

The picture of Dickie's car was one I took at the 1976 Governor's Cup... It was the last white car he drove...
I was also at Talladega the day Larry Smith was killed and that car was not badly damaged at all... It was also the same day that Bobby Issac got out of his car during the race because he was hearing "voices" telling him to quit....

[Frasson118]

I only met Terry Labonte once, but I asked him this question:

"Did you ever get a chance to thank Skip Manning for getting fired?"

He looked up from the table, got a little smile on his face, and said "No, I never did".

I knew right there that he knew just what I was talking about, and I felt good about asking a question that he had probably never heard before in his life!

[Jim Fenton]

I only met Terry Labonte once, but I asked him this question:

"Did you ever get a chance to thank Skip Manning for getting fired?"

He looked up from the table, got a little smile on his face, and said "No, I never did".

I knew right there that he knew just what I was talking about, and I felt good about asking a question that he had probably never heard before in his life!

WOW that's a pretty neat piece of personal race-related history man!

I never got to rub shoulders with too many drivers up at that level myself.

KEWL!

[Jim Fenton]

Staying with numbers in the low 90’s, here is a pretty fast Tornado from back in the day (at least back in my day) at the Gate. This is the #91 Chevy of Bill McCormick.

McCormick and I weren’t exactly on each other’s Christmas Card list back then so I don’t really know much about the guy except to say that not only did his racer always look good sporting a cool paint job (I believe he owned & operated a body shop at the time) but I remember he was always fast and was a contender every week.

This first shot is a pic out of my collection and had to be in 1967 at the Gate because that’s yours truly in the 4-Jr underneath him in the corner. That is the first car I owned (the 4-Jr.) and started driving in that year.



This second shot of McCormick involved in a skirmish with three other unidentified Tornados at the Gate is out of the 1970 Golden Gate Speedway program.

[Frasson118]

Terry Labonte in a Billy Hagan-owned Cup car. The color doesn't match anything I'd seen in person, but it may be a different/special paint scheme.

[Frasson118]

Hall of Fame Midget standout, Mel Kenyon.

[Frasson118]

Son of Sterling, Grandson of Coo Coo, this is Steadman Marlin, the latest in the line of racing Marlin's from Columbia, TN.

The car itself is owned by the Sadler Brothers (Earl & Check, not Elliott & Hermie), out of Johnson City TN. The Sadlers have had a bunch of racers behind the wheel of their cars over the years, including future-Cup racers Jeremy Mayfield and Casey Atwood. They mainly fielded ARCA class cars, but entered a bunch of Cup races to boot, including a Texaco Diesel sponsored car. Nascar rules didn't allow Gasoline sponsors on the cars because of their deal with Unocal 76, so the Sadlers ran a Diesel-sponsored car. Nascar didn't like the attempt at dodging around the rules, and the Texaco Diesel sponsorship disappeared.

The family business for them is hauling fuel to gas stations and other distribution points, so they had an "in" with the Texaco folks.

[ancrdave]

Jack Cook and Chip Crider at NSS in 1979...

[Jim Fenton]

Sorry guys, I know you’re running way ahead of me here but please bear with me while I remain stuck in the low 90’s car number-wise for another entry. I promise I’ll catch up shortly.

Just like my reverence for “The Greatest Generation” that provided the freedom we enjoy today, I also revere the original racers from back in the day (as if you can’t tell) that helped start it all.

Comes now probably the most respected driver of old that was ever associated with the #92, Herb Thomas.

Thomas’s career spanned 13 years from 1949 (NASCAR’s first race at Charlotte) to 1962, his last race at North Wilkesboro which was just a cursory attempt.

Although Thomas drove a myriad of auto makes during his career, including a short stint in the eccentric Carl Kiekhaefer’s “Full Jewelled” Chryslers, he’s best known for the four years he spent campaigning the Smokey Yunick prepared “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” from 1951 to 1955.

Here he is shown in March of 1953 at the Harnett Speedway, a ½-mile dirt track in Spring Lake, NC. He led all 200-laps of this race to take his 17th career win and became NASCAR’s all-time Grand National race winner in this event. He held this distinction until Lee Petty surpassed his 48 wins in 1960.



Here he is shown later in the same year racing in NASCAR’s Grand National Western tour throughout
Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Thomas won two of these three races and finished
second in the third race which turned out to be NASCAR’s first and last visit to those three states.



Here is Thomas in his #92 Buick starting on the pole in the NASCAR Grand National event on the dirt at Charlotte Speedway in May, 1955. As shown in the second shot below, he hooked a rut on the 42nd lap of this 100-mile event which sent him rolling over several times off the turn. The two-time NASCAR champion was tossed from the car receiving severe injuries including a badly broken leg, a broken shoulder, a lacerated arm, a concussion and several bruises.



Here is Thomas shown in his Smokey Yunik #92 Motoramic Chevy during the closing stages of the
Sixth annual Southern 500 at Darlington in September of the same year. In only his third start since
his injuries suffered at Charlotte, Thomas took the lead late in the event and went on to win.
As indicated in the second shot here, this was a very popular win whereas NASCAR could not hold back
the jubilant mass of fans surrounding his car when he pulled around onto the front stretch after the win.



Thomas continued as an owner in 1956 and beyond but curtailed his driving to just a few events after
Being critically injured at another race in Shelby, NC in the final stages of the 56’ season.

Here is a Herb Thomas owned #92 Pontiac sitting twisted and deformed after a horrendous wreck
In the early laps of the Southern 500 in September, 1957. The car was piloted that day by Fonty Flock
who spun on the back-stretch ending up facing traffic at the entrance to turn 3.

Both Paul Goldsmith and Bobby Meyers plowed full bore into the idle Pontiac.

Goldsmith and Flock suffered severe injuries. Meyers was killed.

Flock announced his retirement from his hospital bed shortly after the wreck.

[ModelCarMan]

Will Cagle

Here's Will Cagle in Anderson's #97 Chevelle for the Governor's Cup race at the Gate in 1975 or 76 I believe??????