1/64th NASCAR Models by Lou Colyer!!

Lee Roy Yarbrough's 1965 Chevrolet

Quote from Lou:
"This car was made on the strength of several best guesses. It was based on a three-picture sequence from Tom Kirkland and David Thompson's DARLINGTON INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY 1950-1967 which chronicles Cale Yarborough's famous 1965 vault over Darlington's back stretch guard rails. Closely following Sam McQuagg's spinning #24 Ford was Lee Roy Yarborough in Ray Fox's white #3 Chevrolet. Lee Roy's Chevy would eventually hit McQuagg's Ford and retire a short time later with a differential problem. Kirkland's spectacular black and white photos offered little fine detail about the car. I decided to use orange for the numbers and racing stripe because Lee Roy's #98 fastback Ford in 1969 used orange numbers. I chose a collection of period contingency decals for the front fender. Unable to decipher the identity of the rear fender sponsor, I reasoned that if David Pearson's 1966 Championship Dodge Charger could be sponsored by the Southeastern Dodge Dealers, then Lee Roy's 1965 Chevy could just as well be sponsored by what I assumed was the fictitious Southeastern Chevy Dealers.

About two years later I found and bought a copy of Volume Three of Greg Fielden's FORTY YEARS OF STOCK CAR RACING which covers the 1965 season. On page 13 is a much better picture of Lee Roy's #3 ride with a more detailed side view. From the accompanying text I learned that this was a Ray Fox built race car. Had I originally known that, I would have used red for the numbers and racing stripe, a scheme Ray used on Junior Johnson's 1963 Chevrolet. This new picture also revealed, to my delight, that Lee Roy's Chevy actually was sponsored by the Southeastern Chevy Dealers.

This particular 1965 Chevrolet was one of several Chevrolets that Bill France desperately hoped would provide competition against the dominance Ford cars enjoyed during the year's Chrysler (Plymouth and Dodge) boycott. Sadly, without factory support, they were never competitive. Their failure to successfully challenge the factory Fords led Bill France to meet with USAC's Henry Banks to work out differences and adopt a set of similar rules for their stock car racing divisions which allowed Chrysler's hemi powered cars back into competition in a limited basis."

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