Daytona Countdown: '61

Panch takes checkered flag; JFK establishes Peace Corps

Driving a year-old Pontiac for Smokey Yunick, Marvin Panch beat Joe Weatherly by 16 seconds in the third Daytona 500 on Feb. 16, 1961.

NASCAR ACCELERATION •   Know Your NASCAR •   Get your Daytona tickets •   2004 Daytona 500 highlights •   Get TrackPass for 2005 ALSO IN 1961 •   President Dwight Eisenhower announced that the United States had severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Jan. 3)  •   John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet during two days in Vienna. They talk about nuclear tests, disarmament and Germany (June 4)   •   Iraqi president Abdul Karim Kassem announces plan to annex Kuwait (June 25)  •   At Fenway Park, the first All-Star Game tie in MLB history occurs when the game is stopped in the ninth inning due to rain (July 25)   •   1961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first "upside-down" year - i. e., one that looked the same upside down - since 1881, and the last until 6009  Courtesy: Wikipedia

With his $21,050 winner's check, Panch could have bought a new house (average 1961 price of $17,200) and would have had enough left over to put a brand-new 1961 Pontiac Ventura in the driveway. The Ventura's top speed was 124 mph, just 31 miles an hour off the pole speed of 155.709 mph, thanks to a V8 engine that produced 380 horsepower. Of course, the '61 Ventura only got 11.8 miles per gallon, but with gas prices averaging 31 cents a gallon, who cared?

Panch, an Oakland, Calif., native, had a better season than the 1961 Oakland Raiders, who went 2-12 under a pair of head coaches and lost their first two games by a combined score of 99-0.

On the radio, Connie Francis was wondering Where The Boys Are. That song was No. 9 on the Cash Box charts in February, as Lawrence Welk's Calcutta owed the top spot. If Panch had driven from Oakland to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where the boys were on spring break in February of 1961, the 3,108-mile trip would have taken 62 hours at highway speeds -- or 20 hours and 46 minutes at Panch's race-winning speed of 149.601 mph.

Panch's win came one day after 18 members of the U.S. Figure Skating team were killed in a plane crash in Belgium and two days after the element Lawrencium was discovered by scientists in Berkeley, Calif. President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in March, while residents of Washington, D.C., were given the right to vote in presidential elections later that month.

Panch became the last Daytona 500 winner before manned spaceflight, as Russian Yuri Gagarin was sent into space on April 12. Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5. Twenty days later, President Kennedy announced plans to send men to the moon by the end of the decade.

A 23-year-old by the name of Bobby Allison made his Daytona 500 debut that day, finishing 31st in the No. 40 Chevrolet in the 58-car field. His son, Davey, would be born nine days later.

Current drivers born in 1961:
• Ward Burton (Oct. 25)
• Rich Bickle (May 13)

→ Click here for more Daytona Countdown.