The 1974 race at Daytona was called the Permatex 200 Modified Road Race for Stock Cars. To slow the cars down, the Modifieds drove part of the Daytona track and part of the infield road course.
KT is correct that this was prior to the offset change that Modifieds went through and most of the cars had a stock production frame, most with the engine and drive train centered, but a few with engine and drive train offset four inches to the left side.
The aero packages for the most part were home built trial-and-error changes the teams made at Daytona when they copied or got advice from some of the then Winston Cup people. I spoke with some of the drivers that I knew after practice and they said they had to slow down on the big track because the cars were starting to lift from the high speeds.
Maynard Troyer was on the pole driving a 1974 Mustang II with a speed of 110.776 MPH. Ray Hendrick was outside in a full bodied '69 Camaro at 110.432 MPH. Paul Newman, the Actor, driving a Hop Harrington Pinto was in the race and this was the early stage of his career as a racer. Jack Duffy drove his 1936 Chevrolet Coupe and qualified at 98.873 MPH. Interestingly, he was not the slowest qualifier as Bobby Fleming drove a '72 Camaro and qualified at 86.856 MPH. Quite a spread in speeds from fastest to slowest.
I watched the race from the infield where the cars came off the speedway and most of the field had a hard time getting slowed down coming from the high speed on the high banks of the track to the sharp turns of the road course. Brake technology for Modifieds was not where it is today. Some of the dirt track racers felt right at home. Spin City would be the best way to describe how the cars turned onto the road course.
At the end of the first lap, the cars were so spread out that it was like watching traffic on an Interstate highway. Most of the Modified fans, me included, quickly came to realize that this was not the venue for close quarter lead swapping racing that we were used to on the short tracks. That aside, it was great to see the Northeast Modifieds get some recognition at the famous Daytona track and it may have helped some of the drivers careers. Guy by the name of Geoff Bodine started the race in fifth behind some guy named Richie Evans….
As I recall, attrition was high due to motors that expired, brakes that quit braking, transmissions that quit transmissioning and wrecks on the road course. I’m not sure who won the race but it seems like Bobby Allison or Neil Bonnett had a road course car that gave them an unfair advantage in the race. I was pulling for Jack Duffy in the Coupe and when he dropped out; I went to the garage and hung out with Paul Newman….
Regards,
Moselli (Richie)
