About the   1971 Cyclone and   the 1954 Dodge Hauler

   I have followed NASCAR stock car racing since 1962 and have always wanted to own an authentic NASCAR racer, my own piece of racing history.  One evening in mid February 1997, I was watching a Daytona 500 pre-race story on ESPN.  It was a brief bio-background about a former racecar driver named Wendell Scott.  I knew of Wendell Scott and had watched him race in the 60's.  The story told of his racing roots, the hard luck, scraping enough money together to race, and how he was lucky to have survived a wreck at the Talladega Speedway in 1973.  A 24 car pileup during lap 12 of the race had taken out most of the front runners and Wendell Scott running towards the back.  The wreck marked the end his racing career and almost cost him his life.  Wendell was behind the wheel of the newest racecar he had ever owned, a 1971 Mercury Cyclone.   The 427 cubic inch engines that Wendell had been building for years were not keeping up with the newer Boss 429 engines used at Talladega in 1973.  The Woods Brothers loaned Wendell a Boss 429 for the Winston 500, but Wendell was never able the new motor up to speed, in fact Wendell's own 427 was quicker.

At the end of the story the narrator mentioned that his last racecar, the car involved in the Talladega wreck, was still behind his shop.  The TV displayed an image of a car resting in the weeds and trees, and most likely rusting even as the narrator spoke.   The entire story was a brief five or  ten minutes and I wondered who else was really listening to what the narrator had just said.   I immediately picked up the phone and dialed information.  After several phone calls, I reached a member of the Scott family and asked if the wrecked 1971 Mercury Cyclone racecar at the shop was for sale.   I was told that it was for sale and a 1954 Dodge racecar hauler was also available.  Arrangements were made, and within six months, I was the owner of an authentic NASCAR racer and car hauler. Click here for more pictures of the car and hauler. Click here, for more pictures of the car.

The Cyclone after some of the brush was cleared from around the car. As it appeared prior to the 1973 Winston 500 at Talladega Alabama.

    For those of you new to stock car racing, Wendell Scott was black, a one time moonshine delivery expert and taxi driver who just happened to love racing.  Wendell was the quintessential underdog, an independent racer without major sponsorship.  He never had new cars; in fact, most of his equipment was two or three years old, often discarded by the sports big names in favor of the latest factory equipment.  In spite of it all, he won the 1963 Jacksonville Florida 100 mile "Grand National" (now Winston Cup) race.  Wendell’s cars had visited the winner’s circle many times, but that was when the cars were driven by factory sponsored drivers such as Fred Lorenzen or Fireball Roberts, long before Wendell owned the cars.  All of his older cars were sold many years before and have been restored as the cars of previous drivers and are in museums.  To this date, no one has bothered to restore a car as Wendell Scott’s number 34.  This 1971 Mercury Cyclone may be the last surviving example of an authentic Wendell Scott racer.

Wendell’s race shop was in Danville, Virginia a section of the country known for hills.  His racecar hauler was a 1954 Dodge "Job Rated H" truck.  The trucks’ previous life was spent delivering tires for a local dealer. Wendell bought it and converted it into a racecar hauler.  After Wendell waved his magic welding torches over it, the truck had loading ramps, tire racks, and tool box shelves.  The hauler with a racecar on board was slow going up the Virginia and North Carolina hills, so Wendell took out  the old Dodge motor and stuck in a DeSoto Fire Dome V-8 Hemi.  "That motor would carry the racecar up hills at 100 miles an hour" according to Frank Scott, one of Wendell’s sons.  It served its purpose, it took the racecar and equipment to the track in a hurry, plus, it had character.

Wendell's 1954 Dodge racecar hauler. Street sign on Wendell Scott Drive in Danville, Va.

Wendell's youngest daughter, Sybil, put a white rose in the driver's seat of her father's car as the car was hauled away.

Wendell Scott died on December. 23, 1990, with much of the serious recognition of the impact he had on the sport coming only after his death.  The street on which he lived in Danville, Virginia was renamed Wendell Scott Drive in 1997.   The movie "Greased Lightning," filmed in 1977 and starring Richard Pryor as Wendell Scott, was a "Hollywood" biography about Wendell.     I am Joe Jordan and I am very fortunate to own these two vehicles.  Both are rusty, one is wrecked, but It's the history of the man that is still within these vehicles that make them worth saving.  You can see Wendell, the "independent racer" in the hauler, it's plain but functional.  The Scott family has told me many stories about the racing years, in fact, when you look at the hauler and squint your eyes, you can almost go back in time and see the stories for yourself.