Obituary
General
Benny Parsons' "24"
BENNY PARSONS' "24" The 1976 24 Hours of Daytona was chock full of talent with names like Peter Gregg, Al Holbert, Hurley Haywood (not teamed with Gregg), Alex Job, Gilles Villeneuve, David and Larry Pearson, Richard Childress and a few British ...
Published: Jan 20, 2007, 4:38 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
BENNY PARSONS' "24"
The 1976 24 Hours of Daytona was chock full of talent with names like Peter Gregg, Al Holbert, Hurley Haywood (not teamed with Gregg), Alex Job, Gilles Villeneuve, David and Larry Pearson, Richard Childress and a few British chaps among who were Tom Walkinshaw, Brian Redman, John Fitzpatrick and David Hobbs.
Benny Parsons.
Photo by Greg Gage.
Fitzpatrick, Gregg and Redman would drive their No. 59 BMW 3.5 CSL to a 14-lap victory over Holbert and Claude Ballot-Lena's Porsche 911 Carrera RSR.
With six cars, manufacturer Porsche dominated the top-10 finishers. Corvette and Ferrari each contributed one car. The aforementioned first-place-finishing BMW had two sister cars, one of which bookended the group with its 10th-place finish.
Driving that factory-entered No. 24 BMW 3.5 CSL were Hobbs and 1973 Winston (now Nextel) Cup champion and 1975 Daytona 500 winner Benny Parsons.
At the time it wasn't unusual for a team to use only two drivers -- 26 of 72 teams had only two drivers that year.
"It was a time when men were men; pretty doggone tired men when that race was over," Parsons chuckled while recalling the race for me a few years ago.
"We had the BMW factory behind us and one of our teammates was Peter Gregg, who had won the 24 the year before. BMW made it clear they didn't just want to beat Porsche, but stomp 'em and were pulling out all the stops with the three cars they had there. They wanted a one, two, three.
"I don't know, somewhere around dark-thirty, we were one, two, three, with Gregg and them in front, Tom Walkinshaw and Fitzpatrick in second and me and David in third. Later on, we lost an hour-and-a-half in the pits and a ton of laps when our transmission went out.
(Note: with Walkinshaw sidelined on the course with a broken distributor that only he was allowed to fix, in the early-morning hours Fitzpatrick was moved over to the No. 59 BMW when Gregg became ill.)
"There was a lot of controversy in that race when they stopped it in the morning, after the sun had been up, and rolled back the clock after water got into a bunch of fuel tanks. Back then you could fill your gas cans at the track's gas station or have a truck come by and fill 'em up. We had ours filled on pit road and the truck got water in it somehow. It was a mess.
"Anyway, when everything was said and done, BMW had its win and David and I came in tenth."
"I came out of it realizing it was a challenge I wasn't going to do again. I was so doggone tired that there was times I thought toothpicks couldn't have kept my eyes open. But, I'd get in that car and forget all about being tired. Racin's racin', man.
"Of all that went on, there's one thing I really remember about that race.
"I've seen the sun rise a few times in my life for a lot of reasons," Parsons said with a sly grin.
"But that was one time when for sure it felt really, really good. It was a long night and I'll never, ever forget the feeling I had when I felt that sun in my face that morning. Man, it felt so good. Made me feel great to be alive, I'll tell you."
In about 10 days, when this year's Rolex 24 sun comes up, I'll be thinking of you, Benny.
-- DC Williams, Written Exclusively for Motorsport.com
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article NZ V8: Powerbuilt Racing Taupo Friday notes
Next article NZ V8: Powerbuilt Racing Team Saturday notes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
David Hobbs
Jochen Mass named 2015 Rolex 24 Grand Marshal
IMSA
IMSA
Jochen Mass named 2015 Rolex 24 Grand Marshal
Daniel Ricciardo: A star is born, and not a moment too soon
Formula 1
Formula 1
Canadian GP
Daniel Ricciardo: A star is born, and not a moment too soon
1974 Indy 500: a year of change
IndyCar
IndyCar
1974 Indy 500: a year of change
More from
Williams
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
Formula 1
Formula 1
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
James Vowles explains request for review of F1 cost cap
Latest news
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez wins sprint to seize points lead, Jorge Martin crashes
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
19 min
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez wins sprint to seize points lead, Jorge Martin crashes
NASCAR Truck Series championship down to two with two to go
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck 2 h
NASCAR Truck Series championship down to two with two to go
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
4 h
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 Can-Am drivers
General
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 Can-Am drivers
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe