Picton, Ontario's 60 - year old David Strachan had a long awaited dream come true. Darlington International Raceway hosted the first Darlington Historic Racing Festival on Labour Day weekend, the former date of the famous Southern 500. With four classes of sprint cars, Indy cars, modifieds and stock cars, the car count was over 120 cars.
Strachan, with his 1962 Ford Galaxie Holman Moody replica, ran with stock cars which ranged from the 50's to 70's and 80's NASCAR Cup Dodges, Chevys and Fords with big engines and 12" racing slick tires. By the end of the weekend, by virtue of being the only driver to run the 30 degree banked top groove, Strachan dominated the last session with the quickest laps of the weekend of all the classes with a 39.2 second lap time, at 137 mph average speed on the 1.5 mile egg shaped speedway.
After setting the Galaxie up in his garage he said the car "felt perfect", Strachan made no adjustments all weekend. He said running the top groove was a really neat sensation and despite being much faster also felt much safer than the low and center grooves. Luckily, the only "Darlington Stripe" was a tiny little mark on the rear bumper from Strachan lightly kissing the wall on one or two of his fast laps.
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