1. George Rice "Joie" Chitwood was an American stuntman, racing driver and businessman.
29 Facts About Joie Chitwood
1. 2.
Joie Chitwood is best known as a daredevil in the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show.
3.
Joie Chitwood was orphaned as a 14-year-old and he ended school after eighth grade.
4.
Joie Chitwood lived in Topeka, Kansas during the Dust Bowl-era, and was seeking employment during the Great Depression.
5.
Joie Chitwood's main job was a shoe shiner; he worked as a candy butcher for a burlesque show to earn additional income.
6.
Joie Chitwood started learning a trade by helping at a welding shop.
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Joie Chitwood started his racing career in 1934 at a dirt track in Winfield, Kansas.
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Joie Chitwood switched back to the CSRA and won its title in 1942, winning 14 consecutive CSRA features that season.
9.
Between 1940 and 1950, Joie Chitwood raced in the Indianapolis 500 seven times, finishing fifth on three occasions.
10.
Joie Chitwood was the first man ever to wear a safety belt, beginning at the 1941 Indianapolis 500.
11.
Joie Chitwood took the belt out of his dirt car because he liked how he was jostled around less, and could keep his foot on the throttle easier.
12.
Joie Chitwood won six major sprint car races in 1946.
13.
Joie Chitwood participated in one World Drivers' Championship race at Indianapolis.
14.
Joie Chitwood finished in fifth place, scoring one World Drivers' Championship point.
15.
In 1942, stuntman Lucky Teter died, and Joie Chitwood took over the show after being asked by Teter's widow to sell the equipment.
16.
Joie Chitwood was unable to find a buyer during World War II.
17.
Joie Chitwood performed a ramp-to-ramp jump, using a car that devised by Teter.
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Joie Chitwood's show was so popular that in January 1967, their performance at the Islip Speedway in New York was broadcast on ABC television's Wide World of Sports.
19.
The Joie Chitwood show toured the US from 1945 until 1998.
20.
Joie Chitwood's show was featured during season 3 of CHiPs in an episode entitled "Thrill Show".
21.
In 1983 Joie Chitwood's show was featured in the movie Smokey and the Bandit Part 3, where Sheriff Justice ends up the star of the show during his pursuit of The Bandit.
22.
Joie Chitwood's show was credited by Evel Knievel as being his inspiration to become a daredevil when his show appeared in his home town of Butte, Montana.
23.
In 2010, his grandson Joie Chitwood III became president of Daytona Speedway.
24.
Joie Chitwood was frequently hired by Hollywood film studios to either do stunt driving for films or to act as auto-stunt coordinator.
25.
Joie Chitwood was one of the stunt drivers in the Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck 1950 film about auto racing, To Please a Lady.
26.
Joie Chitwood died on January 3,1988, in Tampa Bay, Florida.
27.
Joie Chitwood was named the President of the 100 Mile An Hour Club at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1967.
28.
Joie Chitwood was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1993.
29.
Joie Chitwood was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2010.