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ON THE SAND, ON THE POLE: Buck Baker awaits the start of the 1951 Daytona Beach-
Road Sportsman race. Baker drove the Relic to the pole with a speed of 100.139 and led the
first twelve laps until a fuel pump malfunction ended both his and The Relic's day.
There can only be one: The oldest original NASCAR racer on the planet.
And this is it: The Roarin' Relic, a 1949 Oldsmobile Modified Division Stock Car, a
classification that allowed innovative mechanics and engineers to maximize speed thru
the use of “souped up” engines utilizing special cams and such, including the first use of
AIR LIFT shocks..
This Chariot of Champions, now celebrating its seventh decade, dates back to the very
origins of organized racing, when sand and saltwater spray predated super-speedways,
when the dust of southern bullrings paved the way for the more modern asphalt
raceways to come.
And the roster of notable drivers to have wheeled this Alpha Dawg throwback thru the
READY TO ROAR! Lee Petty at Daytona. Petty drove the Roarin' Relic in
the 1959 and 1960 Modified-Sportsman races at Daytona.
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years is beyond impressive, including NASCAR Hall of Famers and champions Buck Baker
and Lee Petty, as well as widely esteemed drivers such as Bill Blair, Darel Dieringer, Gene
Darrah, and Paul Goldsmith — whom legendary mechanic Smokey Yunick once called “the
best pure racer” he'd ever seen.
Built by owner
Bobby Griffin to
run the NASCAR
Sportsman
Division race on
Daytona Beach
in 1951 with
Buck Baker
behind the
wheel, The
Roarin' Relic
still sports the
original dents
and scars—
even dimples
along the roof
from roll-overs
—from its last
battles, and
showing signs
of body repair,
this true
treasure
"GOLDY": Paul Goldsmith stands alongside the Roarin' Relic just prior to a remains original
race on the old Daytona Beach-Road Course, 1958. in every sense
of the word,
with the only minor modern modifications made to ensure safety and reliability. (Rumor
holds that a good solid kick will still render a few grains of circa-1951 Daytona Beach
sand from underneath this beast from the past.)
And its accomplishments became so
legendary over the following decade,
its durability and versatility so
profound, on tracks ranging from the
sands of Daytona Beach, to
southeastern dirt tracks, to its later
years proving its mettle on tracks in
the Northeast and Midwest, that The
Roarin' Relic was honored by being
the very first car enshrined into the
Joe Weatherly Stock Car Racing
Museum at Darlington Raceway upon
its completion and opening in 1965.
Just a few of those accomplishments
include:
BACK-TO-BACK DAYTONA GRAND
Goldsmith on Daytona Beach-Road Course, 1958 NATIONAL WINS!
In 1958 and 1959, both Paul Goldsmith and Lee Petty finished fifth in the Saturday
Modified – Sportsman Races, driving The Roarin' Relic. Then both went on to win the
Daytona Grand National races that followed. In 1958, Goldsmith won the LAST Grand
National Daytona Beach-Road Race actually run on the 4.1 mile beach-road course, while
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Petty won the FIRST Grand National race run in 1959 on the newly-constructed 2.5 mile
asphalt Daytona International Speedway.
1951 Daytona Sportsman Beach-Road Race: Buck Baker won the pole in the first
race entered by The Relic with a speed of 100.139 m.p.h., and led the first twelve laps
until a fuel pump malfunction sidelined him.
1952 Darlington Modified-Sportsman Race: Gene Darrah qualified ninth and ran a
solid race before finishing 19th. at the Newly-constructed Darlington International
Raceway.
Darel Dieringer at Daytona, 1961 Lee Petty confers with son Richard at Daytona, 1960
1959 Daytona Modified-Sportsman Race: Lee Petty took over the cockpit to wheel
The Roarin' Relic to a seventh-place finish after qualifying at a speed of 141.376 m.p.h.
1960 Daytona Modified-Sportsman Race: Lee Petty returned to the driver's seat for a
second year to wheel The Roarin' Relic to a seventh-place finish.
1961 Daytona Modified-Sportsman Race: Darel Dieringer drove The Relic in its final
major race, finishing twenty-third and capping off a decade of historic racing for The
READY TO RACE! A group of drivers join Hall of Famer Buck Baker (center,
in white) as they prepare to race along the Daytona Beach-Road Course.
Roarin' Relic.
Following its full-decade of on-track excitement during the historic 1950's of stock car
racing, The Roarin' Relic took a couple years off before being resurrected by Mr. Bob
Pemberton of the AIR LIFT Corporation in honor of it being one of the first to use AIR LIFT
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products in competition, being repainted in its original colors and raced on tracks across
the north and Midwest for several years before The Relic's fitting retirement into the
Darlington museum in 1965.
AT SPEED: The Roarin' Relic at the Goodwood IN HONOR: On display at the NASCAR Hall
Festival of Speed, 2009. of Fame to celebrate Buck's induction.