Hilarious Charger 500 Photo Sequence |
These three photos are shared courtesy of Mr. Charlie Gray. For those of you not familiar with Charlie, he was the man in charge of the day to day operations of Ford's stock car program during the Aero Wars. The race was the 1969 USAC stock car race on the road course at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Al Unser won the race driving the Rudy Hoerr Charger 500, shown in the photos. Much to Mr. Gray's displeasure was the fact that Unser's gas cap had been left adrift, and no black flag was ever displayed. Charlie obtained these three photos and mailed them to Bill Taylor, competition director of the USAC stock car division., adding some colorful commentary in blue Flair marker. Below is the first photo addressed to Bill Taylor: |
More pointed commentary in photo #2 below. You can clearly see the wisp of fuel coming out the back. |
And the best for last: |
Well the rest of the story is that Al was never penalized and kept the win for Dodge. Many years later, Mr. Taylor happened across the photos and returned them to Charlie Gray with a nice note. Serious stuff then, but a good laugh today. Our thanks to Charlie for graciously sharing the photos. |
