YOU WERE A LUCKY FELLOW KEITH,
MEETING HIM WAS ONE OF MY UNFULFILLED LIFELONG DREAMS.
TRULY IT IS A SAD DAY........
Personally I considered Smokey to be what I'd call the #1 Workingman's
thinking mechanic there ever was...... PRACTICAL seemed to be his middle
name. I've loved some of the stories of lore I've read in the past about
Smokey. None of which I can put my hands on at the moment, ....but my
favorite was the one about the fuel line in the Black and Gold '66 396
NASCAR Chevelle that Curtis Turner drove for him ( boy theres another
story; -for another time....)
(yes, the Chevelle they all swore up and down was "7/8 scale"...)
Anyway it seems NASCAR stated that fuel tanks could only be "so big" but
they neglected to address the size of the allowable fuel lines -so Smokey
did. I heard tell it held 6 gallons and was about 4" in diameter! Gawd
what a legend! Smokey was the master of using smoke and mirrors to go fast.
( maybe that's where his nickname Smokey came from....do ya suppose ?
....naw, could it ?)
GOD must be needin' an awful good mechanic to fix something upthere this
week....... -thats all I can say.
R.I.P. Smokey, GOD Bless you. -DOUG ANDERSON, up in "south NuYawk"
*************** and that's th' truth ****************
.....IF anyone else has a Smokey story they'd like to share, let's
celebrate his life for him here. He was "The MAN"
******************************************************
From: "Keith Turk" <kturk@ala.net>
To: "John Beckett" <landspeedracer@email.msn.com>,
Re: Smokey Yunick
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001
I had the Pleasure of Meeting him at the induction ceremony a couple of
times... All he wanted to chat about where Helicopters.... which was fine
with me.... he wanted my opinion on the Apache and honestly listened
intently....( or his hearing aids were turned down ) He Dragged Bobby
Allison over to hear what we were chatting about.... and we had a Great 15
min conversation....
Next time he wanted to hear about Rotary wing Aerodynamic's .... again the
guy listened with all his soul..... we kinda tagged around in the lobby
going over this and that.... he kept saying how much he wanted to see all
this on a chock board.... amazingly to me he was serious... I guess he was
just another guy with the same interests....
I was reading his book this morning checking out his thoughts on Crank end
play.... Then I heard this.... bummer
Keith ( I feel Honored to have met him...)
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Beckett" <landspeedracer@email.msn.com>
To: "Land Speed List" <land-speed@autox.team.net>; "Land Speed list - 2"
<land-speed@landracing.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 1:50 PM
Subject: Smokey Yunick
> Sad News: Legendary racing mechanic Henry "Smokey" Yunick passed away
this
> morning at his home after a yearlong battle with leukemia. The 77 year
old
> mechanic, who was born in Tennessee, settled at Daytona Beach in 1946
after
> serving as a bomber pilot with the Air Force during World War II. His
first
> glimpse of Daytona Beach was from the pilot seat of a B-17 bomber plane.
> After one look, he decided to call this area home once his tour of
service
> was complete. In 1947 he opened an automobile repair shop on Beach Street
> that he dubbed "The Best Damn Garage In Town." He closed the garage to
the
> public in the mid-1980s but continued his research and development
projects
> deep in the bowels of the massive structure. According the Stock Car
Racing
> Encyclopedia, Yunick had 61 starts as a car owner scoring eight career
> victories. He won more than 50 times as a crew chief, chief mechanic or
> engine builder. He scored 49 victories working with Herb Thomas. He was
in
> the first group of 20 men inducted into the prestigious International
> Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990. Yunick's family will announce funeral
> service information later today.
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