F1Weekly Podcast # 1025

Play Podcast: 01-02-24f1weekly1025mp3

NASIR AND THE HOST WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!  UNFORTUNATELY THE YEAR ENDED WITH THE PASSING OF GIL DE FERRAN AND, WE LOST NASCAR LEGEND CALE YARBOROUGH! MORE MOTORSPORTS HISTORY AND OF COURSE THIS WEEK’S INTERVIEW, INDY 500 WINNER GIL DE FERRAN RECORDED AT LAGUNA SECA 2008.

“Somehow, I knew there had to be a better way to make a living than digging around in the dirt and picking tobacco worms off leaves by hand,” Yarborough said in 1988…

Yarborough caught the eye of Darlington track president and general manager Bob Colvin at a soap-box derby race. He encouraged the young driver to make his Cup Series debut there in the 1957 Southern 500 as a teenager. He finished 42nd in the 50-car field, but not before drawing the ire of NASCAR officials for not meeting the era’s minimum age requirement of 20 years old. Yarborough fibbed on his license application, telling race organizers he was 21. His No. 30 Pontiac was flagged off the track after the ruse was uncovered, and officials realized that Yarborough and not team owner Bob Weatherly was behind the wheel.

His career looked bleak early on as he struggled to find a competitive ride. Yarborough took on jobs in logging and turkey farming to make ends meet and support his wife, Betty Jo, who he married at age 22. His prospects rose with his association with Ford and team owner Banjo Matthews in the mid-1960s. “Banjo helped me a lot,” Yarbrough said of the legendary car builder who provided his big break. “He gave me the first real good ride that I had.”

He scored his first Cup Series win at Valdosta, Georgia, while driving part-time for Kenny Myler in 1965, but Yarborough’s career became more established when he signed with the Wood Brothers three years later. Yarborough scored his first Daytona 500 win in 1968, edging Lee Roy Yarbrough by 50 feet. Months later, he added a victory in the Southern 500 at Darlington that he still held in high regard after his retirement.