Old school IROC racing was awesome. Sure, by the time the thing had petered out the series was a shell of its former self, but if you want to argue with the 1984 Talladega IROC race field you have rocks in your head. Dale Earnhardt, Danny Ongias, Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell, and Tom Sneva and a bunch of others were all a part of this field. Derek Bell was not a part of it for long but we’ll get to that in a minute.
This video shows a wreck that happened very early on in the race and you are going to hear Ken Squire and Chris Economaki call the race. Just those two names alone are worth the price of admission into this video but we wanted to set the scene. The mix of dedicated circle track racers and competitors from various other disciplines of motorsport is the coolest part of this thing. It is also the part of the program that caused Derek Bell to eat wall at 175mph on the first lap. Neil Bonnet got into Bell but that’s likely because he was operating his race car with the impression that the guy in front of him would react like any NASCAR to the traffic pack.
Bonnet was setting up to make a move on the inside and being one of the best stock car drivers of his day, we think that Bell checked up and stuff got real in a hurry.The fact that Bonnet’s car literally flew and he drove it back to the pits with no windshield. Like a boss!
The best part of the video comes when Ned Jarrett interviews Bell after the crash. Bell is incredulous and furious at the same time. When he angrily points out to Jarrett that he had just smacked the wall at 175mph it is hard not to laugh. He tells Jarrett that the other drivers need to get their brains checked.
This is awesome and racing needs it back!
Yeah, whatever ! Bell was running mid track, when high, and came back down again which is when he got hit. He was, in short, all over the track as if he were the only guy on it. He’d make a good Chevy team driver though. Whinning about his losses and blaming others…