Bunkie Blackburn

Infobox NASCAR driver
Name = James Ronald Blackburn
Birthdate = birth date|1936|4|22
Died = death date and age|2006|2|28|1936|4|22
Birthplace = flagiocn|USA Fayetteville, North Carolina
Best_Cup_Pos = 26th - 1962 (Grand National)
Cup_Top_Tens = 14
First_Cup_Race = 1960 Southern States Fairgrounds (Charlotte)
Last_Cup_Race = 1970 Carolina 500 Rockingham
Awards = Inducted in the Pure Darlington Record Club (1964)
Years_In_Cup = 8
Total_Cup_Races = 71

James Ronald "Bunkie" Blackburn (April 22, 1936 - February 28, 2006) was a NASCAR racecar driver.

Career

Blackburn's father owned and operated the Fayetteville, North Carolina racetrack.

He later competed at historic Nashville Speedway USA against many future legendary drivers.

In 1967 he was part of a three driver crew that set a world speed record of 174 mph in a Smokey Yunkick Z-28 Camaro at the Bonneville Salt Flats in a USAC/FIA event.

NASCAR career

Bunkie won the 1968 Daytona 300 Busch Series (then Late Model) race from the pole.

He had 14-Top 10 and 4-Top 5 finishes in Grand National (now NEXTEL Cup). He drove Cup racecars from the late 1950s to the early 1970s for Smokey Yunick and Petty Enterprises.

He almost won the 1961 Dixie 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in relief for Junior Johnson. He took Johnson's car to the lead with 5 laps to go after Fireball Roberts ran out of gas. Bunkie also ran out of gas on the final lap to hand the victory to David Pearson.

He retired after a racing injury.

External links

* [http://www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=blackbu01 Driver's stats from racing-reference.info]
* [http://www.nascar.com/2006/news/headlines/cup/03/03/bc.car.obit.blackburn.ap/index.html Obituary at nascar.com]