On Wednesday, February 11, 2009, the Living Legends of Auto Racing, held its 17th annual awards banquet at the Plaza Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach. There were over 500 guests representing a who’s who in the world of auto racing. They visited with friends, many of whom hadn’t seen each other since the previous banquet and for some its been years since they have gotten together.
Those honored this year for their contributions in racing were as follows: Allison Family Achievement Award: Ray Fox Engineering, Dedicated Service Award: James Hylton, Distinguished Driver: Bobby Allison, Pioneer of Racing: Jack Ingram, Racing Woman of the Year: Flossie Johnson, Russ Moyer Media Award: Larry McReynolds, Saturday Night Hero: Brice “Spider“ Stultz, and Tribute to the Early Days: Judy Jones. Ray Fox presented his President’s Award posthumously to good friend and Living Legends Board Member Don Ruhff, the award was accepted by wife Mary Ruhff and sons Billy & Jon. Presenters included: Bobby & Donnie Allison, Buz McKim, Johnny Allen, Eddie Roche, Darrell Waltrip, Steve Byrnes, Jack Anderson and Juanita “Lightnin” Epton. Buz McKim did a great job of emceeing this year. A special thank you to Trish Yunick and Wade Caldwell for all their hard work in setting up the big screen and taping the banquet again for us this year. DVD’s will be available for purchase to preserve your memories of the event.
During the program we auctioned off an autographed bottle of Junior Johnson’s Moonshine, donated by Joe McGovern, which was bought by Raymond & Violet Parks, a beautiful portrait of Bobby & Donny Allison, donated by Talladega Hall of Fame Artist David LeFevers, bought by Larry McReynolds,
4 day race package donated by Robert Jay Carlston, bought by Darrell Waltrip, silver helmet autographed and donated by Darrell Waltrip,who by the way worked the room tirelessly (and as he said “it was a tough crowd”) to help auction off all of our items during the dinner. DW’s helmet was bought by David Hill, Chairman of Fox Sports. Finally, our autographed Bell helmet, which had about 100 signatures of racing legends from the past and present. This has become a yearly tradition. Special thanks to Steve Thomas at Bell Racing, who has donated a helmet to us every year. The highest bidder for the helmet this year was Lynda and Richard Petty, who announced that they will be donating the helmet to the new NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.
The evening was ended by the drawing of the 50/50, which Ruby Duch collected all evening. It was won by Tommy Gooch, who generously donated it back to the Living Legends.
Submitted by: Paulette Mandala
