NASCAR Engine Builder
Fox built Fireball Roberts' engine for the 1955 race on the Daytona Beach Road Course. He started building the engine at 8:00 pm the night before the race and got done at 4:00am. Roberts car qualified fourth and led every lap of the 160 lap event, winning by 1 minute and 14 seconds ahead of Tim Flock. Flock was the only other driver left on the lead lap on the 4-mile (6.4 km) circuit. NASCAR disqualified the car 24 hours after the event, for the sanctioning body found the pushrods to be 30⁄100 of an inch (8 mm) too short. Mechanic Red Vogt had ground the pushrods even, which was an illegal modification. Flock was awarded the victory. It was the last NASCAR race to be taken away from the winner. Subsequent rules violations have resulted in fines and point loses.
Carl Kiekhaefer hired Fox and Herb Thomas in 1956. Fox said "He hired us because we were the only ones who could outrun his cars." Kiekhaefer's cars won 22 of the first 26 races, with drivers Thomas, Buck Baker, Tim Flock, and Speedy Thompson. Fox was named the Mechanic of the Year. Fox opened his own engine shop after the season.
Car owner John Masoni approached Fox in 1960 to build a car for the 1960 Daytona 500, which would be driven by Junior Johnson. Fox built the car in seven days. The car was about 22 mph (35 km/h) slower than the Pontiac racecars in the car in practice. While they were trying to figure out how to increase their speed, a Cotton Owens' faster Pontiacs racecar passed him. Johnson noticed that when he was able to keep up with Owens' car if he followed closely behind in its slipstream. Johnson followed the Pontiac racecars in the race, pitting when they did. At the end, Bobby Johns had the only Pontiac which was competing for the win. Johnson followed Jack Smith's lapped Pontiac until Johns caught the duo and passed Johnson for the lead with 30 laps left in the race. Johns led the race until his rear window fell out with 10 laps remaining. Johns recovered to finish second, 23 seconds behind Johnson. The practice of "drafting" has become a common tactic among NASCAR drivers on high speed tracks. Rookie David Pearson won three races that season in a Ray Fox-prepared Pontiac.
Read more about this topic: Ray Fox
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