1972 Dick Brooks Plymouth, 73 Talladega 500 winner

[MarkJ]

[Lefturns75]

Hey Super, this has got to be that Plymouth you started some time back.  Really nice save on this old dog kit!!   I have to admit, I do not even remember this car from that era and cant say I have even seen a photo of it before.  Know any backstory or the car?  What's the story of Mickey Rat on the hood?  Another super save and build here, I would love to eyeball your collection of these things, it has to be pretty impressive by now.  I wish you had your build thread here somewhere, I would love to see what you went through to get it to this stage.  Whats your next project gonna be?  And build on Super, build on. 

[Michael F]

Beautiful !!!!

What a nice car !!   

[Dirtman]

Very cool!

Rett

[MarkJ]

Hey Super, this has got to be that Plymouth you started some time back.  Really nice save on this old dog kit!!   I have to admit, I do not even remember this car from that era and cant say I have even seen a photo of it before.  Know any backstory or the car?  What's the story of Mickey Rat on the hood?  Another super save and build here, I would love to eyeball your collection of these things, it has to be pretty impressive by now.  I wish you had your build thread here somewhere, I would love to see what you went through to get it to this stage.  Whats your next project gonna be?  And build on Super, build on.

Thanks, George.  This is the 72 Plymouth that Dick Brooks drove to the victory at the 1973 Talladega 500. I always wanted to build this model but could not find a kit. A couple of months ago I found a 71 Richard Petty build that I  had done 45 years ago, so I decided to repurpose the model into this one. There are several noteworthy things about this car that make it very interesting. It was the only car that Brooks ever won in, in the cup series. It was the last Plymouth to win a cup race. It was the last car that Pete Hamilton drove before he ended his cup career. I got to see this car run in person at the 1972  Texas 500.  Gordon Johncock drove it that day.  Jimmy Crawford and his brother owned this car and he drove it the most  when it ran. He was an Eastern Airlines pilot when he wasn't racing the car. I listened to the broadcast of the 1973 Talladega 500 from a small transistor radio while helping my wife prepare her very first classroom  in the city that Nolan Ryan grew up in. We had just gotten married the May before the race was run in August. I couldn't believe my ears when he ended up winning the race, beating some pretty stiff competition that day. I read that the Crawford brothers had modified the intake manifold to make it work better with the restrictor plate, and that is why he was able to compete with the more highly funded teams. If anybody knows why Mickey Mouse was on the hood please share it. I could not find the reason it was there. One other thing, the reason Brooks name is not on the car is because he only signed on to drive it the Friday before the Sunday race, and I guess they didn't have time to put it on the car. Thanks for looking.


If you want to see how the build came together click on the link below.

http://cs.scaleautomag.com/sca/modeling_subjects/f/31/t/129905.aspx

 

[MarkJ]

I think that this was a loaner car that Brooks won with. He must have even had some loaner crew members as you can see a Joe Frasson guy helping during a pit stop in that race. Regardless, this is a really well done rendition of the car Mark, super job! You have really got these down to a science and it shows!

Thanks, David, I'm not sure about the pit crew but like you said I think Joe Frasson and The Crawford brothers shared the same pit crew. They might be some kind of team because Frasson's charger also had stars on the roof like this car had. Another thing I forgot to mention in the back story above is that Brooks Plymouth overheated a lot during the race and he was always having to back off to keep the engine together. Because of the many caution flags in the race he never became laps down and was always able to catch up. By having to slow down so much he had a much fresher engine at the end of the race and was able to beat Buddy Baker and David Pearson by 7.2 seconds at the end of the race. So he did not inherit a win like James Hylton had done the year before because all the big names had blown or crashed out or had mechanical problems.

[Bob P.]

Excellent build Mark and thanks everyone for the history lesson.

Bob

[Lefturns75]

Mark, if Pete Hamilton drove that car at one time does it make it the former Cotton Owens #6 from around 71 or so?  After his big Daytona wing car win I dont remember hearing much about him even though I read every Stock Car Racing Mag back then.  Last time I remember seeing him was in the early 70's when the short track guys were giving him a beating while running one of those kit car things.  I think I read more press about Brooks than Hamilton anyway but this whole thing escapes me even though I am sure I read about it back then.  Gotta dig out my old SCR's and get my brain back in line. 

[Tom Birky]

Wow nice rebuild! What an obscure subject, but great David vs. Goliath story on that day. Well done and I bet you've got the only one Mark!  Thanks for posting all the pics. Everyone here appreciates your work and eye for detail.

tom

[sentsat71]

WOW!!
That is a great build/rebuild!!!

Like the others have stated, this is the first time I've ever seen this car....

Probably listened to the race on MRN which a Los Angeles radio station carried until around 1980, when they became the radio station for the LA Lakers
By this time, I had let my subscription to SCR lapse....don't think I ever re-subscribed again, but not 100% on that......

[MarkJ]

From https://fantasynascarracin.yolasite.com/b.php

"The highlight of Brooks's career came at the Talladega 500 when he drove the Plymouth of Jimmy Crawford to an unexpected victory.  Brooks wasn't even supposed to drive Crawford's Plymouth, but after officials ruled that Crawford did not have enough experience on the big speedway, Brooks took over the ride.  The car was #22 and had Mickey Mouse on the hood.  The story behind Mickey Mouse on the hood was a comment made by Bill France stating that they were a "Mickey Mouse race team", so they put Mickey on the hood.  Brooks would pull off the starting grid in 24th place.  He would work his way to the front and take the lead for the first time on lap 49.   It was an exciting race as there was 64 lead changes.  The most laps in a row any driver lead was nine; all the way up to lap 157 when David Pearson led 12 in succession.  On 44 occasions where a lead change occured, the leader would lead 3 laps or less.  Brooks would take the lead on lap 181 and head the field for the final eight laps to get the win."

Thanks, David. I don't know where you found it but I'm sure glad you did. I had zero luck finding out the reason for mickey.

[MarkJ]

Mark, if Pete Hamilton drove that car at one time does it make it the former Cotton Owens #6 from around 71 or so?  After his big Daytona wing car win I dont remember hearing much about him even though I read every Stock Car Racing Mag back then.  Last time I remember seeing him was in the early 70's when the short track guys were giving him a beating while running one of those kit car things.  I think I read more press about Brooks than Hamilton anyway but this whole thing escapes me even though I am sure I read about it back then.  Gotta dig out my old SCR's and get my brain back in line.

George, Its possible that the Crawford brothers might have purchased the car from Owens but I have no idea if that is true. When Hamilton drove the car it was the 22 with a different sponsor on it but he was clearly driving it for the Crawford brothers.

[MarkJ]

George, you asked me about my next build. Well I need some help from you or David or anybody who is good at deciphering old decals from blurry images. I have found all the decals for my next build except this one. It was used in 1978 but very few cars had it on their front fenders. If anybody knows what it is or has a clearer image of it in color , I think its blue and yellow, the image below is from a black and white photo, I would really appreciate it.





GO ON TO NEXT PAGE>>>>>>

[MarkJ]

here is the decal in color.

[Lefturns75]

Thats a tall order Super.  Since you keep your builds identity a secret until the last, you might give us a hint as to what the car ran----Nascar, short track, usac, local and maybe what part of the country or maybe what make of car.  Somewhere, I have seen the logo or the left of the sticker but for the life of me I have no clue.