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1970 Daytona 500 Winner


satterwhite78

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Pete Hamilton's #40 Petty Enterprises Plymouth Superbird

Started racing in the Northeast in 1962 and finally winning the NASCAR National Sportsman division in 1967. In 68 he entered the Grand National Division (Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup) and was the series Rookie of the Year recipient. In the 69 season Pete won 12 of 26 races in the Grand American (Busch/Nationwide) Series and took the series' Championship.

Shortly before the start of the 1970 season Pete signed on to drive for Petty Enterprises two car team. The first race being the Daytona 500, Pete qualified 9th. Ford and Dodge swapped the lead throughout the race with David Pearson's Mercury leading the most laps, 82

With 18 laps to go and Pearson leading, Richard Brooks's #32 Superbird spins out from a blown engine. Pearson pitted taking on two tires with Hamilton doing the same. Petty, who blown his engine in the early stages of the race and was in Hamilton's Pit, calls Pete in the next lap around to take on two more tires. Pearson takes charge with the drop of the Green flag and with nine laps to go, Hamilton's four tires hold for the pass of Pearson's Mercury and on for the Checkered Flag.

Of the 15 races for PE, Hamilton racked up 3 victories, 9 top 5's and 11 top 10's. Of the 3 wins, Pete was the first to win Talledega twice in one season ( Dale Earnhardt was next in 1999). Due to a neck injury suffered early on in his racing career, Pete retired from NASCAR's top series.

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No Diecast, just the Revell Plymouth Superbird. The Hemi quite possibly from the Revell Plymouth Barracuda while the engine bay and roll cage courtesy of Evergreen plastic and whatever other parts from the proverbial plastic salvage yard. The #40 was actually built about 3 to 4 years ago.. At the moment I don't have any shots of the under carriage but it has the stock K member and rear axle and the wheels actual roll. I used the Monogram solid tires since they matched the 1/24scale along with PPP rims. I believe that I had to wrap the PPP rims with a thin strip of flat plastic stock because the tires were bigger that the rims to make them actually fit. The front spoiler was scratch built and two black decal blocks used for the vents. Fred Cady decals with most of the contingencies from other sources and clear coated with Future. The helmet was something I found in the scrap part box and thought it would look cool hanging from the roll cage instead of glued to the dash or roof. All in all it was a fun build and one of the first that I went into detail under the hood

Chuck

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Fantastic looking build!! , being that I'm from Petty country I hear alot of things especially when you know folks that have worked for Petty Enterprises, but insiders say that Pete was actually fired because the boss felt threatened and didn't want the employee being greater than the employer, just hear say mind you ??? anyway NICE job!!

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