(Fox News) – A replica of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster from the classic
1985 comedy film “Vacation” was auctioned this past weekend for $100,100.

The wood-paneled green machine crossed the block at the Barrett-Jackson
Palm Beach event.

It’s based on a 1981 Ford LTD rather than a 1979 Country Squire, like the
movie car was, but is an otherwise convincing recreation that includes
Wagon Queen badging and offensive graffiti on the rear fender.

The price paid was pretty remarkable, considering a car purported to be one
of the five that were built for the film received a high bid of just $35,000 at a
2013 Mecum Auctions event. That car’s authenticity was not confirmed, but
one that was definitely used in the making of the movie is on display at the
Historic Auto Attractions museum in Roscoe, Ill., which might make for a
good destination for the owner of the Barrett-Jackson car.

ED DANAHUE

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947)

Mike Joy (left), Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon.

(Fox News) – Fox Sports NASCAR analyst Darrell Waltrip has announced that
he will retire at the end of the network’s broadcast season.

Waltrip was a member of the Fox Sports NASCAR team when it first went on
the air in 2001, when he helped call the Daytona 500 that was won by his
brother Michael, but is mostly remembered for the last-lap accident that
took the life of Dale Earnhardt.

Fox Sports CEO & executive producer Eric Shanks said “Darrell has been
the heart and soul of the Fox NASCAR booth since day one, so it’s incredibly bittersweet to know this is his final season.”

Waltrip, a 3-time series champion, said he has been talking about the decision
with his family for several months.

Darrell Waltrip (far right) with #17 Tide Chevrolet Monte Carlo & Race Team along with transporter.

(Fox News) – A World War II veteran’s musty old Bentley that was left sitting
in a garage for three decades sold for $600,000 this week, much more than
was expected. But the amount paid may have been more of a tribute to the
owner than the car.

To be sure, the 1936 Bentley 4 1/2 Litre Vanden Plas Tourer is rare. It’s just
1 of 6 like it made, and the only one left with its original body. No one really
cared much about that when retired Royal Air Force navigator and pilot
Charles Blackham purchased it from its original owner in 1952, fixed it up
and turned it into his daily driver.

Blackham had been a member of the squadron that bombed Hitler’s “Eagles
Nest” retreat in April 1945, and he later made food drops in Europe after the
fall of the Nazi regime.

He used the Bentley until 1988 when it became too much trouble to keep it
running, and parked it in the garage at his home near Manchester, where
it sat rotting away until his death in January at age 96.

Blackham, center, and members of his squadron in WWII.
(H&H Classics)

On this day in 1959, Lee Petty defeats Johnny Beauchamp in a photo finish at
the just-opened Daytona International Speedway in Florida to win the first-ever Daytona 500. The race was so close that Beauchamp was initially named the
winner by William France, the owner of the track and head of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). However, Petty, who was
driving a hardtop Oldsmobile 88, challenged the results and three days later,
with the assistance of news photographs, he was officially named the champ.

There was speculation that France declared Beauchamp the winner in order to intentionally stir up controversy and generate publicity for his new race track.

Today, the 200-lap, 500-mile Daytona 500 is one of auto racing’s premiere
events and the first race of the NASCAR season. France, a gas station owner
and racing promoter, officially co-founded NASCAR in Daytona Beach in
1948.

Lee Arnold Petty (March 14, 1914 – April 5, 2000)

Johnny Beauchamp
(March 23, 1923 – April 17, 1981)

   
William Henry Getty France (September 26, 1909 – June 7, 1992)

Lee Petty’s 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.