Q: I don’t think it’s right for NASCAR to be running a race in Mexico when they take away our good races here at Rockingham, North Wilkesboro and Darlington. What’s up with this kind of thinking at NASCAR offices?
A: I have to agree with NASCAR in its decision to move the sport of stock car racing forward through a strong diversity program. The more minority fans and drivers we have, be it Hispanic or African-American, the better.
I believe NASCAR’s choice to race in Mexico was a very sound decision, as Mexican race fans are some of the best in the world. The Busch Road Race attracted more than 90,000 fans, who cheered loudly for the “hometown” racers. It’s a fact of life that NASCAR is very good at marketing, and it is ready to tap into this huge, undeveloped market. Diversity is the key to NASCAR moving to the next rung on its ladder of success.
Q: You once wrote that Walter Cronkite, the retired CBS Evening News anchor, was a race driver before he went on to television fame. Can you give more information?
A: I’d be glad to. Walter Cronkite indeed was a race driver, and drove for Team Volvo from 1959 through 1961. Cronkite’s first race of note came in 1959 driving a Volvo PV444 in an eight-hour endurance race, dubbed “Little LeMans,” at Lime Rock, Conn. During the race, the Volvo’s windshield was damaged, and Cronkite could barely see well enough to make it back to the pits. He recalls the pit crew tried to smash the windshield out of the car with a sledgehammer, but couldn’t do it. That’s how tough the PV440 was.
After removing screws and the windshield housing, the crew removed the windshield, and Cronkite returned to the race. Surprisingly, he and co-driver John Christy won the B Division class and finished an impressive third overall.
Warren Donohue, who worked for Volvo in New Sales Development in the ’90s, was on Cronkite’s pit crew that day.
“Walter was a pretty good driver,” recalls Donohue. “A lot of the other drivers would really bust up the cars, but not him. What I remember most were the conditions in the pits. Walter would pull in and we would fill his fuel tank with open five-gallon buckets of gas through funnels. Let me tell you, that was not the safest situation I’ve ever worked in.”
Cronkite grew up in Houston and began racing in his early teens, because Texas had yet to incorporate any type of official driver’s license rules. He raced many different vehicles during his early racing career, and he and his friends would compete at an abandoned wooden board track.
Cronkite hung up his helmet in 1961 after 10 years of sanctioned competition. He attributes the move to a growing family and the demands of his new job as anchor of the CBS Evening News. He retired from the anchor desk in 1981, and was succeeded by Dan Rather.
Cronkite admits that racing cars was a great release for him, and said there was an amazing exhilaration and adrenaline high after a race.
