Allison Funeral Is Today; Racing Team to Skip Pocono

When the cars line up Sunday to race at Pocono International Raceway, the black No. 28 Ford Thunderbird will be conspicuous in its absence.

Stock car driver Davey Allison will be buried today in his hometown of Hueytown, Ala., after he died Tuesday from injuries sustained in the crash of a helicopter he was trying to land at Talladega Superspeedway. Team owner Robert Yates said Wednesday that he would not enter Allison’s car in the Miller Genuine Draft 500 at Pocono with another driver.

“When we go to a race, we go to win,” Yates said, choking back tears. “We don’t think we can win this race.

“This team has something missing right now, and I want us all to take the time to mourn that loss. We need time to grieve.”

The Yates team has spent the past two days working somewhat listlessly in the garage at Charlotte, N.C..

Bobby Allison, who has lost both his sons, Davey and Clifford, in less than a year, said that he was taking time away from his own team and driver Jimmy Spencer. The Charlotte-based Bobby Allison Motorsports team was to go to Davey Allison’s funeral en masse today and then make its way to Pocono to prepare Spencer’s ride for qualifying for Sunday’s race.

In Birmingham, Ala., Red Farmer, a former driver who was a passenger in Allison’s helicopter when it crashed, said his “natural instincts from race cars” probably saved his life because he braced himself just before the crash.

Allison couldn’t do that, Farmer said, because “he was still holding onto the controls trying to fly.”

Farmer suffered several broken bones and was released from the hospital Wednesday.

Allison’s flight instructor, Glen Wenzel of Mount Airy, N.C., said inexperience could have played a part in the crash, based on reports that Allison had only 60-65 hours of flight time. At least 55 of those were needed to get a license, which Allison did in 1992.