A Billy Biscoe (rusty racer) Feel Good Story
Articles
Tuesday June 7 2011, 3:33 PM

Well, to make a long story short, I came home and got an old BGS program and looked up the winners from the 1978 season. Paul Radford's name came up several times along with Philip Smith, Billy Middleton, Melvin Swisher, Jerry Cook, Don Smith, Johny Johnson and Al Hill. First on my list was Radford since he won several times that year and after a couple of other calls, I kinda hit a dead end.  I was telling my story to a friend who just happened to have all the issues of Hank Schoolfield's "SouthernMotoRacing" papers.  A bit of quick research turned up the winner.  Even had a photo of the winner and his trophy.  Turns out, the trophy in the photo is not the tarnished silver bowl but the "track" trophy.  We did a bit more checking to make sure we were dealing with the correct trophy and race winner of the 1978 "Rose City 200", that was the only Pocono Raceway Qualifying Event held at BGS in "78".

This past Saturday night, I made one of my infrequent trips to the "Madhouse" but before I left home, I cleaned the tarnish from the silver bowl, wrapped it in newspaper and placed it in a bag and delivered it to it's rightful owner. I found Don Smith, who beat Jerry Cook to the checkered flag, sitting in the stands and explained to him what I had. He had no knowledge of the "other" trophy that was provided by Pocono Raceway to all the winners of "qualifiers" for their big Modified races.  I guess we'll never know why Don never received the trophy or how it wound up at a "tag" sale in Burlington.  We do know that after 33 years, it has found it's way home to it's rightful owner.  Thanks to ol "rustyracer", the circle is now complete.

   / 2
You May Also Like