Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia is a theme park developed by Anheuser-Busch and opened in May of 1975. In August 1977, to help generate publicity for the park Richard Petty was brought in for a PR Day. He was presented to the media at their Le Mans Raceway which was a kids ride. I had accompanied veteran NASCAR beat writers Randy Hallman and Al Pearce to the event. They recognized, before the Busch Gardens PR staff did, the best angle for the event and started looking around to see if one of the cars in the ride had Petty's number 43 on it. When one was found Petty was quickly put behind the wheel. Then it was my turn. I was able to get Richard and his famous smile in that 43 car with a background of the ride cars filled with kids and their parents and grandparents as it would look on a normal day at the park. This photo led the Richmond News Leader's coverage of the event in their Sports section the next day. Another friend, Mitch Koppleman who ran the Richmond United Press International photo bureau at that time, called and asked if he could put the photo out on the UPI wire service. He later told me that the image had gone nationally and had run in 800 newspapers across the United States.
Richard Petty connects his radio to his helmet just before the start of the 1979 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Petty would start second and finish second that day. He would win five races and his final Winston Cup Championship in 1979. This photo appeared in the book, "50 First Victories - Nascar Drivers' Breakthrough Wins," by Al Pearce and Mike Hembree and on the cover of "Richard Petty: Images of the King," by Ben Blake and Dick Conway.
Neil Bonnett and Bill Elliott would dominate the last 100 laps in the 1982 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in these boxy Ford Thunderbirds. Bonnett would win by two car lengths over Elliott taking his final lead with thirteen laps to go. They would be the only cars on the lead lap at the end of the 400-lap race. This was Elliott's second career second place finish in his winless Winston Cup career to date. He would run second six more times until finally breaking through with that first Winston Cup win at Riverside International Raceway November 20, 1983, in the last race on that years NASCAR Winston Cup schedule. This was the lead photo in Autoweek's coverage of the 1982 World 600. A prominent NASCAR sponsor representative at that time asked to buy a copy of this photo shortly after seeing it in Autoweek. I made the print and mounted it on a nice matt, then had it signed by both Neil and Bill before I delivered it to him. I wish I had got them to sign another one for me.
