Legends of NASCAR - Fireball Roberts Traditional Cache
EggSilent4: Thanks to all the finders! It was a fun run. Making room for something different.
Legends of NASCAR - Fireball Roberts
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This series is in honor of the legends of
the sport of NASCAR racing who have passed away. There is something
for everyone (the numbers hounds or the history buffs). The series
is meant to be done from east to west. Please park completely off
of the road and use caution at all times. Most weekends, there
isn't more than a handfull of cars along this road but 2 weekends a
year this becomes one of the largest cities in the
State!
Born in Tavares, Florida on January 20,
1929, Roberts didn’t get his nickname "Fireball" for being a
fast driver as some people think he did. He got it as a pitcher for
the Zellwood Mud Hens, an American Legion baseball team in Apopka,
Florida where he was raised. Thank goodness for the racing world,
baseball was never his primary interest. Racing was. Never would
anyone dream how prophetic his nickname was considering the
circumstances that took his life. He was quoted as saying, “I
fear fire the most!” after emerging uninjured from a grinding
crash at Charlotte, the same track that would take his life just
months later. He actually disliked the nickname and his friends
knew to call him by his middle name, Glenn. Other drivers, because
of his hard driving style, called him "Balls." Usually out of
listening range of course. Glenn's family moved to Daytona Beach in
1945. Later, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, but was discharged
after basic training of only 90 days due to an asthmatic condition.
1947 found him studying mechanical engineering at the University of
Florida, though he never graduated. Glenn would come home on the
weekends and raced on the local dirt tracks, honing his early
skills. That year in March he won his first Modified event at North
Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The racing bug had bit . . . hard.
During the 1964 May 24th World 600, Roberts was upbeat as he did
his usual joking and kidding with all the drivers. With a
uncharacteristic mediocre qualifying position in 11th place,
Robert's plan was to lay back and let the cars spread out and then
make a charge to the front, knowing it was a long race. True to his
style, he was most comfortable out front. On lap number 7,
something went terribly wrong. Ned Jarrett's and Junior Johnson's
cars collided between turns one and two and began spinning. Roberts
spun off turn two trying to avoid the accident and his Lavender
colored Holman-Moody # 22 Ford slammed backwards into an opening on
the inside retaining wall, exploded, flipped over and burst into
flames. There were no fuel cells or fire retardant suits in those
racing days and they only had a fire resistant solution they could
dip their driving uniforms into. It was thought Fireball was
allergic to the chemicals in the solution, but he very privately
suffered from an asthmatic condition and the chemicals affected his
breathing. Jarrett's car spun to a stop near Fireball's car that
was engulfed in flames. Jarrett rushed to and pulled Roberts from
his car as Fireball was screaming, "My God, Ned, help me! I'm on
fire!" With just a tee shirt for protection Roberts received second
and third degree burns over 80 percent of his body. He was
airlifted to Charlotte Memorial Hospital in extremely critical
condition. Good friends Jarrett & Johnson were most shaken by
the incident and it's said to have hastened the end to their
driving careers a short time later. THE ORDEAL . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . Glenn miraculously made it through the first few
days. Then he made it a week, then a couple more. It looked like
the crew cut, athletic, always smiling driver was going to beat all
odds and pull through this horrifying ordeal. It was only his
athletic regime of staying in shape that helped him sustain. But 36
days later, on Tuesday, June 30th, Glenn began to fade fast. He
contracted pneumonia, sepsis (blood poisoning), and a fever shot
his body temperature up to 104 degrees and he slipped into a coma
Wednesday night. Then, just 12 hours after things started turning
bad, at 7:13am in room 3305 at Charlotte Memorial Hospital on
Thursday, July 2, 1964, Glenn Fireball Roberts’ six week
struggle for life came to an end. The checkered flag dropped over
this fun loving, practical joker at the young age of 35 years old.
He was buried July 5th, 1964, at a funeral service that saw over a
thousand attend, in an above ground mausoleum in Bellevue Memorial
Gardens (now Daytona Memorial Park) in his adopted hometown of
Daytona Beach.
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