adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

News

Darlington honors the late Cale Yarborough at his hometown track where he won five Southern 500s

Published

 on

 

DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Cale Yarborough used to sneak under the fence as a child at Darlington Raceway, planning for the day when he would dominate at the hometown track known as “Too Tough To Tame.”

Yarborough, the Hall of Fame driver who died at age 84 this past New Year’s Eve, soon enough left his mark with a then-record five Southern 500s and a frightening flip over the outside wall in Turn 3 as a young racer in 1965.

“He got out of the car and walked away,” Yarborough’s wife of 62 years, Betty Jo, said this week. “He didn’t say a word about it.”

Yarborough’s NASCAR career will be remembered this weekend at the event he loved more than the others when the Cup Series closes its regular season with the Southern 500.

Yarborough’s name is over the Cup Series garage at the egg-shaped oval that’s stood about 20 minutes from where he grew up in Timmonsville.

Track organizers found Yarborough’s Oldsmobile Cutlass from 1978 that he drove for Junior Johnson on the way to his third straight Cup Series championship, the first to ever accomplish that.

The race car, found in Oklahoma, will be on display this weekend at the track’s Fan Fest area, then will be driven by Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett — who won three times at Darlington, but never the crown jewel Southern 500 — behind the pace car kickoff of Sunday night’s race.

“It’s going to be really special to see Daddy’s car on the track again,” said Yarborough’s daughter, Julie.

NASCAR broadcaster NBC will have a remembrance of Yarborough’s stellar career and the car will remain on display at Darlington’s Stock Car Museum just outside the track for a while, Darlington president Josh Harris said.

Yarborough’s career

Yarborough began racing in the early 1960s and finished with 83 NASCAR victories, tied with Jimmie Johnson for sixth all-time.

Yarborough won his first Southern 500 for the Wood Brothers in 1968, then followed with Darlington wins in 1973, 1974, 1978 and 1982 for a mark that stood until Jeff Gordon won his sixth Southern 500 in 2007.

Yarborough retired as a full-time driver in 1988, but remained a team owner for another decade after that.

Jeff Hammond, a FOX NASCAR broadcaster, was a two-time championship crew chief for Darrell Waltrip who worked on Yarborough’s car in the late 1970s.

Yarborough was a talented driver who put his all into the racing. But when it was time to go home, Yarborough headed the family farm a short drive away.

Some of Hammond’s most cherished times with Yarborough came when the crew wrapped up Saturday’s work and got a free Sunday — the Southern 500 was run on Labor Day from 1950 to 1983 — to spend on Yarborough’s farm dove hunting or talking.

“If we couldn’t put on a show and go to Victory Lane, you felt like you let him down,” Hammond said. “He wanted to come here and go home and see Betty Jo and his family with a big smile on his face because he did his job here and that was win.”

Yarborough’s legacy

Yarborough’s toughness on and off the track was never in doubt. That was on display at the 1979 Daytona 500 when he fought with the Allison brothers, Donnie and Bobby.

The incident was shown by CBS TV and was a fascinating sidelight to Richard Petty’s Daytona win that day. But when it was over, Yarborough might be seen the next race or two joking with the Allisons.

“Back then, racers like Cale did not hold on to grudges like we might see today,” Hammond said.

Bubba Wallace remembers racing for Petty’s team and listening to the King and his longtime crew chief Dale Inman share stories of Yarborough and other pioneers during NASCAR’s founding years.

“It’s pretty special to hear and see how much the sport has evolved and changed,” Wallace said. “From scheduling, to fans, to whatever it is, it’s definitely nice to take a trip down memory lane.”

___

AP NASCAR:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

News

Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

Published

 on

BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

Published

 on

VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

Published

 on

The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending