Reason to celebrate
By GODWIN KELLY
Motorsports Editor

Way back when, two of Daytona Beach's most celebrated sports figures, Ray Fox and Marvin Panch, would collect their families and enjoy a dual birthday bash.

The kids would run through the playground area at Welch Park, and their fathers would do some bench racing (swapping race stories) around a picnic table.

"We've done this (birthday party) for many years," said Fox, surrounded by well-wishers Saturday.

By 1960, when the black-and-white photo left was taken, Fox had enjoyed one his greatest career achievements. Panch's had yet to arrive.

Earlier in 1960, Fox was approached by John Masoni, the owner of the Daytona Beach Kennel Club, with an 11th-hour request to field a car in the second annual Daytona 500.

Fox secured a 1959 Chevrolet and within a week, got it up to NASCAR specs and hired a young driver named Junior Johnson to wheel the stock car in the 200-lap battle.

Of course, this all looked like a recipe for disaster. Instead, Fox and Johnson scored the upset when the rear window of Bobby Johns' Pontiac, prepped by Smokey Yunick, popped out late in the race.

SHINING MOMENT

Just a year later, Panch had his shining moment.

Some of the guys who worked for Yunick asked the boss if they could prep a '60 Pontiac for Panch to run in the 1961 Daytona 500.

Yunick, who was giving most of his attention to the No. 22 Pontiac driven by Fireball Roberts, agreed to the deal.

Roberts started on the pole while Panch was fourth on the 58-car grid. It came as no surprise that Roberts ruled the day, leading 170 laps in the black-and-gold machine.

2008 Birthday Celebration at Living Legends of Auto Racing Museum

On Lap 188, Roberts pulled his car off the 2.5-mile tri-oval and headed to the garage with an engine malfunction.

That left Panch, driving an outdated stock car, to carry the Yunick banner to victory. Panch led 13 laps, including the final trip around the course. He beat Joe Weatherly by 16 seconds to the checkered flag.

According to the record book, Fox and Panch made two Cup starts as crew chief and driver -- at Atlanta and Darlington in 1961.

"We sat on the pole at Atlanta," Panch said. "We broke an axle, but we still finished sixth. He was a great mechanic."

Panch made the majority of his starts that season for Yunick and Fox, who were NASCAR rivals with race shops less than a mile apart in Daytona Beach.

HOT TEMPER

What does Panch remember most about driving for Fox? Fast cars and . . .

"He was hot-tempered," Panch laughed. "But he had good, fast engines."

Fox admits he was temperamental during his many years of competition. During a typical outburst, he yelled at his shop rats and tossed wrenches through windows and doors.

He even had a fistfight with an employee, Olin Hopes, that started in the parking lot of Fox Engineering and ended up in a garage bay.

Ray Fox Jr. and another employee watched in amusement as the two men exchanged blow after blow.

In the Ray Fox biography, Hopes remembers Ray Jr. shouting, "Hit him for me, Olin! Hit him for me!"

Fox turned 92, and has mellowed quite a bit. Panch is 82, and still enjoys life to the fullest.