Enoch Arden Mounts (July 9, 1917 – March 4, 2003) was an American
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series:
*National-level stock car series:
**NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...
driver from
Gilbert Gilbert may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
*Gilbert (surname), including a list of people
Places Australia
* Gilbert River (Queensland)
* Gilbert River (South ...
,
Mingo County, West Virginia
Mingo County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,568. Its county seat and largest city is Williamson. Created in 1895, Mingo is West Virginia's newest county, named for the historic Iroq ...
. His primary vehicle was the #18 self-owned
Pontiac Pontiac may refer to:
*Pontiac (automobile), a car brand
*Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief
Places and jurisdictions Canada
*Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality
** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...
machine;
although he would occasionally drive a
Hudson
Hudson may refer to:
People
* Hudson (given name)
* Hudson (surname)
* Henry Hudson, English explorer
* Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back
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vehicle on the race track.
Career
He raced in the NASCAR Grand National Series from
1953
Events
January
* January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
* January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo.
* January 14
** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...
to
1956
Events
January
* January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.
* January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...
.
Like
J.D. McDuffie
John Delphus McDuffie Jr. (December 5, 1938 – August 11, 1991) was an American racing driver. He competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series from 1963 to 1991, collecting 106 top-10 finishes during his career, despite never finishing on the lead ...
,
Alan Kulwicki
Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and the "Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional ...
, and
Joe Nemechek
Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963) is an American professional stock car racing driver who last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 24 Toyota Supra for Sam Hunt Racing. Nemechek has made the second mos ...
, Mounts was an "independent" race car driver who would never receive manufacturer's support or the support of blockbuster sponsors.
Arden would earn six finishes in the top ten from the 37 races that he would compete in NASCAR.
The
1954 Grand National season would see Mounts record his best championship finish at 21st place in the standings.
During his career, Mounts would earn $2,505 in race winnings ($ when adjusted for inflation) and race 4489 laps - the equivalent of .
Only the 1953 and 1956 NASCAR Cup Series seasons would see him finish better than he started in the races.
Mounts would end up losing nearly one position on average from start to finish during his entire career.
His appearance at the
1955 Southern 500
The 1955 Southern 500, the sixth running of the event, was a NASCAR Grand National Series event. The event was held on September 5, 1955, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. This race spanned 500 miles on a paved oval track. An ...
, where he would crash into
Don Duckworth
Donald Duckworth is a retired NASCAR Grand National Series driver from Gray Court, South Carolina, US.
Career
Duckworth made his sole Cup Series appearance at the 1955 Southern 500 under the ''Woodruff Motors'' sponsorship livery while driving a ...
's stalled vehicle, would be captured on highlight films for generations.
While
Bill Champion managed to avoid Duckworth by swerving past the vehicle rapidly, Arden Mounts managed to see the stalled vehicle too late and crashed into him in a very hard manner.
The proper usage of
seat belt
A seat belt (also known as a safety belt, or spelled seatbelt) is a vehicle safety device designed to secure the driver or a passenger of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result during a collision or a sudden stop. A seat belt reduc ...
s on the stock car automobiles would save the lives of both Mounts and Duckworth.
The types of racing tracks that best favored Arden was the dirt tracks where he finished an average of 18th place; intermediate tracks were very much a disadvantage to Mounts, where a finish of 42nd place was the career average for him.
Death
Mounts would die while being a patient at
St. Mary's Hospital, a medical center in
Huntington,
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mounts, Arden
1917 births
2003 deaths
NASCAR drivers
People from Gilbert, West Virginia
Racing drivers from West Virginia