97-year old Vicki Wood leads the nostalgia parade along the old beach course in Daytona Beach. [Joe Jennings Photo]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It has been nearly six decades since there has been racing on Daytona’s famed beach, but to keep the memories alive, old-time drivers and car owners flock to Daytona Beach to take a nostalgic ride around the historic 4.1-mile course, of which half was on pavement and half on the beach.
With age catching up with many of the old-timers, only a few are around to enjoy their day in the sun but their family members and friends return each year to keep the memories alive. On a brisk afternoon this weekend, some four dozen historic cars and vintage racers took part in the slow-moving parade, which started and ended at the venerable North Turn Restaurant, site of the northern-most portion of the old course.
Leading the way were beach racers Russ Truelove and Vikki Wood, both in their 90s, along with personalities “Chocolate” Myers and Humpy Wheeler and a flock of others. A crowd of some 4,000 chilled spectators gathered along the route to view the parade and to talk with the participants before and after the annual event.
“I’ve been coming here since 1955,” said Wood, 97, who rides at head of field in a 1950s Ford Thunderbird. “I hold the record in speed runs on the beach with a high speed of 150.375 on the beach in 1959. I have always enjoyed these parades and also I enjoyed racing against men back in Michigan. They asked me to drive with them as they said I was better than many of the other men.”
Racing luminary Humpy Wheeler also drove in the parade. [Joe Jennings Photo]
Wheeler, the one-time leader of the Charlotte Motor Speedway and now working with operators of short tracks, stated, “I just love these old cars and they keep inviting me back, so I get to drive around this old beach course. That gets me excited, as the track was one of the best- ever built. It wasn’t a good track, but it was a very challenging one.
“Back in the day, a bunch of drivers came down from the mountains and they didn’t know how to swim, in case of trouble on the beach. That ocean scared the dickens out of them, so when they went down the backstretch, they were hoping not to end up in the water as the tide did different things to the beach.”
It took about an hour to complete the parade but the stories continued for hours on end.