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16/04/2022 2:35 pm
William Clyde Elliott (born October 8, 1955), also known as Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, Million Dollar Bill, or Wild Bill is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He competes full time in the Camping World Superstar Racing Experience. He won the 1988 Winston Cup Championship and garnered 44 wins in that series, including two Daytona 500 victories in 1985 and 1987, three Southern 500 victories in 1985, 1988, and 1994, one Winston 500 victory in 1985, one Brickyard 400 victory in 2002, one "The Winston All-Star Race" (non-points race) win in 1986, and a record four consecutive wins at Michigan International Speedway between 1985 and 1986.
In 1983, Elliott won his first Winston Cup race in the final race of the season — the Winston Western 500 at Riverside. Elliott also finished second four times including the Daytona 500 on his way to a third-place finish in the championship point standings that season. He gained full sponsorship from Coors in 1984 to the tune of $400,000 and won three races – the Michigan 400, the Miller High Life 500, and the American 500. He also collected four poles and finished third in the final points standings for the second time.
The 1985 season was undoubtedly the best season of Bill Elliott's career. He scored 11 wins and 11 poles out of 28 races and also won the first Winston Million[10] in the Southern 500 at Darlington. This would give him the nickname "Million Dollar Bill" and "Awesome Bill From Dawsonville". The only major of the four he did not win was the Coca-Cola 600 (a driver needed only to win a "small slam" of the four majors to win the bonus; Elliott, since he retired in 2013, would not finish a Career Grand Slam. However, Elliott had won twice at Charlotte Motor Speedway and had finished runner up in the Coca-Cola 600 twice). This allowed him to become the second NASCAR driver to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, following Cale Yarborough after his win in the 1977 Daytona 500. Elliott finished second in the championship point standings by 101 points, losing the Winston Cup Championship to Darrell Waltrip after a string of poor finishes in the last quarter of the season.
While not a NASCAR fan, I did attend a few races in the mid 1980s and was impressed with Elliott in his Ford Thunderbird Coors car.
This Starter of France model is the only NASCAR model that I still own. I traded away several others. It represents the 1984 markings from the end of that season.
It was hand built from the resin kit at the time and has aged very will.
16/04/2022 7:34 pm
I used to have a lot of those Starter kits, but when cheap but reasonably accurate diecasts started showing up at the big box stores (not to mention the Quarzo models), I sold them off. I think a number of the masters found their way into the Spark range but none of the mid-1980s cars (yet). Many of the late 1990s and early 2000 stockers were released by Revell and I still have a bunch of those, but in a need for space I'm selling off the also-rans.
David Green and David Green reacted