From the archives...

Long shadow of the man in black Feb ’11

A new Amazon documentary on late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt has shone a light on a man celebrated and, at times, reviled in equal measure. From stock car racing’s North Carolina heartland, ‘The Man in Black’ aka ‘The Intimidator’ simultaneously made himself a villain for some due to habitually putting rivals into the wall.

Featuring captivating archive footage and interviews by those close to him, Earnhardt has been produced by his racing-driver-turned-burgeoning-media-mogul son Dale Jr. It’s the most-compelling on-screen motor sport production since 2010’s Senna.

Gordon Kirby’s February 2011 archive piece further illustrates a racer who could be both straightforward and enigmatic – worthy of his macho moniker but vulnerable at times too.

Earnhardt’s father Ralph was a successful driver on NASCAR’s lower rungs, but Dale made his first one-off appearance in the sport’s top Cup tier in 1975 at the age of 24, and four years later was a full-time fixture in the championship. It hadn’t been an easy ride though. By the time his stock car career had momentum, he’d already got through two marriages, leaving three children behind – racing always came first.

“I was borrowing $500 at a time on 90-day notes from the bank just to race,” Earnhardt is quoted by Kirby. “Racing cost me my second marriage, because of the things I took away from my family. We didn’t have money to buy groceries. We should have been on welfare.”

It was this uncompromising pursuit of his racing dream that would help get him there. He took a race win in his first full NASCAR Cup season, and by the next he was champion.

It was a move to the Richard Childress team that saw the driver really hit his stride. The potent pairing would win six titles across eight years, from 1986 to 1994, with Earnhardt building a business empire and starting his own team towards the end of the ’90s.

The hardest man in the field would tragically lose his life at the 2001 Daytona 500, a race in which he had little luck. The crash came on the last lap of a contest Earnhardt’s drivers, Michael Waltrip and Dale Jr, would take a 1-2 in. It’s the latter who’s helping to keep his legacy alive today.

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On this month… Aintree odour, Brits abroad and Moss’s C 

Factory Flaws 

August 1957
Do we look back at Aintree with rose-tinted specs? Jenks needed something rose-scented at the British GP: “Oh dear, the smell from the nearby factories!” Meanwhile in the Le Mans 24 Hours we bemoan an Ecurie Ecosse 1-2. “Bagpipe music made one long for an Italian win.”

Small World

August 1971
In France for a rally, our Gerry Phillips checks reservations at his hotel to see who’d booked a room for the French GP. ‘Jenkinson’ is seen. “Un petit Anglais avec barbe,” say staff. The Gallic theme continues with a Citroën GS test: “Car of the Year but you have to ask which year?”

Buzzer Round  

August 2008
Stirling Moss drives his 1952 disc-brake pioneer C-type Jag. “She’s such a lady,” he enthuses. Keke Rosberg eschews solids in our Lunch With…, opting for a double espresso. He recalls being 1982 F1 world champion: “I went from zero to hero. I was even on A Question of Sport.”