(By Greg Engle)
Posted: Thursday,January 29th, 2009
(By Reid Spencer, Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
There are parts of the CMT documentary “The Ride of Their Lives” that are difficult for Bobby and Judy Allison to watch.
“Scenes of Davey and Clifford and stuff like that,” Bobby Allison said. “That part was emotional for us and emotional for me personally, but at the same time, I thought it was so well done, so rewarding and so complimentary to mine and the family’s input.”
Bobby and Judy Allison lost their sons, Davey and Clifford Allison, within a year of each other. On Aug. 13, 1992, Clifford died in a crash during Busch Series practice at Michigan International Speedway. Davey died July 13, 1993, a day after a helicopter accident at Talladega Superspeedway.
A violent crash at Pocono robbed Bobby Allison of what could have been one of his most compelling memories–his victory in the 1988 Daytona 500, with Davey behind him in second place. On June 19, 1988, Allison spun in Pocono’s Tunnel Turn on the first lap of the Miller High Life 500. Jocko Maggiacomo’s No. 63 Chevrolet slammed into the driver’s side door of Allison’s No. 12 Buick.
Allison survived the horrific wreck that ended his career, but his memory of that season did not.
“I still do not remember 1988,” Allison said. “That had to be the most incredible event in any professional competitor’s life–to be 50 years old and win the Super Bowl (of stock car racing) and have the best young man in racing second to you and that be your son Davey. That would have to be incredible to be able to call up that memory, but I do not remember any of that.”
If Allison has any quibble with “The Ride of Their Lives,” which will be released on DVD next month, it’s with the suggestion that there was antagonism between him and NASCAR pioneer Wendell Scott, the only black driver to win a race in what is now the Sprint Cup Series.
“I feel that I was more of a friend to Wendell Scott than the DVD seemed to portray,” Allison said. “I really don’t think that we really had any kind of problem along the way. He was a guy that was struggling, and I was a guy that was struggling.
“But other than that one little sidestep, I thought the entire thing was very complimentary toward me and the family and Judy and the kids.”
Narrated by Kevin Costner, the documentary features legends who built NASCAR racing from a regional sport indigenous to the Southeast to the major national enterprise of today. Featured prominently are Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Tim Richmond, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, as well as Allison and Scott.
Produced by Jim Jorden and Rory Karpf (formerly of NFL Films and now working under the umbrella of NASCAR Media Group), “The Ride of Their Lives” DVD is scheduled for release Feb. 10, five days before the Daytona 500 kicks off the 2009 Sprint Cup season.
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