Three wins at two truly old-school tracks. One of them was prime turf for Schaefer. With Beltsville being about 30 miles from Baltimore, it's more "Natty Boh" country.
Oh, how I loved that beautiful Beltsville half-mile in the "Land of Pleasant Living!" National Beer with its one-eyed Natty Boh symbol was pretty iconic around Richmond when I grew up, what with them being the primary sponsor of both the Baltimore Orioles and Baltimore Colts - shilled by Chuck Thompson - in the early days of television.
To date, the greatest race I have ever witnessed occurred 46 years ago, on June 15th, 1966 when Tiny Lund broadslid his Ford on the asphalt lap after lap on the outside for the win, with James Hylton on the inside. What a night under the lights that was. It would be one of Tiny's two career Grand National wins.
That night was also the first time anyone ever saw the #2 Bobby Allison /J.D. Bracken Chevelle, so new the door and roof numbers were adhesive tape. Although it experienced problems thta night at Beltsville, it went on to earn several victories in the next several days on the 1966 Northern Tour with its ligt weight and small 327 engine.
Richard started on the pole that night in his solid blue #43 Plymouth with David Pearson on the outside of the front row in the Cotton Owens #6 Dodge. David dropped his driveshaft when the green flew and had to make repairs. Richard took a tremendous lead on the field, then blew up.
By then we were pulling for the ugly, unpainted little Chevelle of Allison, but it turned out that Tiny Lund and James Hylton would put on one of the greatest side-by-side duels I've ever witnessed on a racetrack!
What memories of that wonderful ghost track at Beltsville and the best race I ever saw!
1966 Beltsville 200
NASCAR Grand National race number 26 of 49 June 15, 1966 at Beltsville Speedway, Beltsville, MD 200 laps on a .500 mile paved track (100.0 miles)
Time of race: 1:21:44 Average Speed: 73.409 mph Pole Speed: 80.25 mph Margin of Victory: 2 feet
Fin St # Driver Sponsor / Owner Car Laps Money Status Led 1 7 55 Tiny Lund Lyle Stelter '64 Ford 200 1,000 running 129 2 6 48 James Hylton Econo Wash (Bud Hartje) '65 Dodge 200 600 running 0 3 16 92 Hank Thomas W.S. Jenkins '64 Ford 195 400 running 0 4 12 4 John Sears L.G. DeWitt '64 Ford 195 300 running 0 5 14 97 G.C. Spencer Henley Gray '66 Ford 193 275 running 0 6 20 93 Blackie Watt Harry Neal '64 Ford 192 240 running 0 7 11 06 Johnny Wynn John McCarthy '64 Mercury 192 200 running 0 8 22 86 Neil Castles Buck Baker '65 Dodge 192 175 running 0 9 18 74 Don Israel Gene Black '64 Ford 188 150 running 0 10 23 9 Roy Tyner Truett Rodgers '66 Chevrolet 186 140 running 0 11 31 83 Worth McMillion Allen McMillion '65 Pontiac 185 130 running 0 12 10 73 Buddy Baker Joan Petre '64 Ford 184 120 running 0 13 24 5 Edgar Wallen Edgard Wallen '64 Chevrolet 179 110 running 0 14 19 70 J.D. McDuffie J.D. McDuffie '64 Ford 178 100 running 0 15 4 2 Bobby Allison J.D. Bracken '65 Chevrolet 174 100 differential 0 16 5 64 Elmo Langley Elmo Langley / Henry Woodfield '64 Ford 173 100 running 0 17 13 02 Doug Cooper Bob Cooper '65 Plymouth 167 100 differential 0 18 17 20 Clyde Lynn Clyde Lynn '64 Ford 148 100 differential 0 19 28 57 Lionel Johnson Clay Eastridge '64 Ford 120 100 ignition 0 20 15 03 Gil Hearne Ed Ackerman '64 Ford 90 100 vibration 0 21 1 43 Richard Petty Petty Enterprises '66 Plymouth 71 100 engine 71 22 8 90 Sonny Hutchins Junie Donlavey '64 Ford 54 100 differential 0 23 29 75 Gene Black Gene Black '64 Ford 53 steering 0 24 25 53 Jimmy Helms David Warren '64 Ford 49 oil pressure 0 25 26 95 Henley Gray Gene Cline '64 Ford 42 differential 0 26 9 87 Buck Baker Buck Baker '66 Oldsmobile 38 differential 0 27 2 6 David Pearson Cotton Owens '66 Dodge 33 differential 0 28 21 72 Bill Champion Bill Champion '64 Ford 31 oil leak 0 29 3 59 Tom Pistone Tom Pistone '64 Ford 21 clutch 0 30 30 58 Joe Holder '64 Dodge 2 oil pressure 0 31 27 34 Wendell Scott Wendell Scott '65 Ford 2 engine 0
Islip was definitely prime Schaefer country and in fact home of the Schaefer 100 All-Star Racing League Modified Classic, a certified "Schaefer Circle of Sports" presentation!
And don't forget the National Boh 200 at Beltsville, one of the trackshighest paying LMS events. The first was Sept. 3,1971 with Harry Gant winning over Eddie Royster and Reds Kagle.
