Racing History Minute - May 17, 1959

There was, once upon a time, a one mile paved track located in Trenton, NJ, where the Grand National (now Cup) cars competed on May 17, 1959, in a 150 lap/150 mile race.As unusual as it seemed to be for the NASCAR boys to compete outside the Southeastern, U.S., there were other things about this particular race that are worth more than a footnote in history.

Bob Burdick, 22 years old and competing in his very first Grand National Race, grabbed the pole in his Dad, Roy's T-Bird that had been previously piloted by Johnny Beauchamp. First time Grand National Starter, Pedro Rodriguez, a famous Mexican Road Racer, was in the thick of the battle for a top five position although he never led. Further, there was a young man from Chicago, starting his 14th Grand National Race who would capture the victory in a Thunderbird!

Cotton Owens started his Pontiac to the outside of rookie Burdick, and when the green flag waved, Cotton put his experience and Pontiac power to work to take the lead immediately. He would lead the first 95 laps with Tiger Tom Pistone right on his rear bumper or trying to pass. Owens made his pit stop on lap 95 and Tiger took the lead in the T-Bird and made fuel mileage pay off going to lap 102 when he had to stop. Jim Reed took over the lead, but once back on the track, Pistone would not be denied. Tiger went back in front on lap 108 and would lead until the end, finishing 11.8 seconds ahead of runner up Cotton Owens.

The only crash of the day was a "wall thump" by Richard Petty on lap 97, which put him out of the race. Only 18 cars started the event with 11 running at the finish, although 11th place was 47 laps behind the winner.

Top five finishers were:

1. Tiger Tom Pistone, Rupert Safely Belts T-Bird, winning $1,450.00

2. Cotton Owens, W. H. Watson Pontiac, winning $750.00

3. Lee Petty, Petty Engineering Plymouth, winning $575.00

4. Jim Reed, Reed Chevrolet, winning $375.00

5. Tommy Irwin, Irwin T-Bird, winning $350.00

Sixth through tenth, in order, were, Pedro Rodriguez, Ben Benz, Dominic Persicketti, Ernie Gesell and Tiny Benson. How many of those names do you recognize?

Remaining finishers, in order, were Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, Charlie Creger, L.D. Austin, Bob Burdick, Reds Kagle, Al White and Elmo Langley.

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.

Thanks, Tim. The big modified races at Trenton were broadcast live and we always listened back in Richmond because so many of our local guys ran well in those events.

I know virtually nothing about Pedro Rodriquez and would like to learn more.

Tim mentioned Pedro Rodriguez. About 50 years before NASCAR tried to market racing to Mexicans by trying to convince them Columbia's Juan Pablo Montoya is "Latino" or "Hispanic", a true Mexican driver made his debut start.

Source: Reading Eagle

Interesting about Pedro being in a stock car race that far back. I remember him being in the 1971 Cup race at Ontario and tangling with BP. Shame he died later that year in a sports car race at Germany.

Wire copy as published in the Reading Eagle

Also, NASCAR's competitors and fans learned of sad news on Sunday, May 17, 1959. Late Saturday evening, May 16, Bob Flock passed away in Atlanta. Amazing how young he was.

Source: Daytona Beach Morning Journal

In the same May 18 issue of the Daytona Beach Morning Journal in which the passing of Bob Flock was announced, the paper ran this neat photo of Fireball Roberts loving life on the beach. I wish we had a better copy of this fantastic pic vs. this scanned, low resolution, archival version. Who could ever believe less than 2 weeks later that he'd even up battling for his life.

As always, you come through with some truly remarkable clippings, Chase.

Terrific clips, Chase. Thanks.

Tiger Bump