Racing History Minute - August 12, 1951

In current news, Detroit, Michigan is a bankrupt city. Decay and decline are obvious even to the causal observer. A few years ago, back in the days when I did allow the airlines to abuse me before I gave up flying completely, I flew into the Detroit airport and then drove a rental car over to Dearborn to spend a week at Ford Headquarters. Yep, me, a Mopar guy, spending a week in the Ford Towers. Long story but not to be share here. What we are going to share here is an event on this date in 1951 when Detroit WAS Motor City and a 250 mile race was set for the one-mile, flat, dirt track there. There would be 15 makes of cars represented in the 59 car starting field and most of Detroit auto brass would attend the event along with 16,352 race fans. It was to be a day of stock car racing in the city from whence the stock cars originated.

Marshall Teague, in the FABULOUS Hudson Hornet, drew first blood in the war of the auto makes as he qualified on the pole with an average 69.131 mph for the two lap qualifying run. Tim Flock put his Oldsmobile on the outside front row and Gober Sosebee in a Cadillac locked up third place starting position. Fonty Flock put an Oldsmobile in fourth and Tommy Thompson started a Chrysler in fifth. Sprinkled through the field were makes such as Nash, Mercury, Ford, Plymouth, Pontiac, Dodge, Studebaker, Packard, and a Henry J. Detroit was ready to see some racing!

Marshall Teague led lap one then Fonty Flock took over until lap 24. Tommy Thompson pulled his Chrysler in front for two laps, 25-26, then it was Flock again for a lap, then Thompson. The torrid battle between Thompson and Fonty Flock went on until lap 96 when Gober Sosebee stormed into the lead in his Cadillac. Gober would lead two laps before Fonty Flock once again moved out front. On lap 131 it was Curtis Turner taking the point he would hold until lap 212. The persistent Tommy Thompson moved past Turner to lead laps 213 to 215 and then it was Turner again.

With 25 miles to run, Turner and Thompson slammed into each other after an absolutely unbelieveable fender banging duel lap after lap. They hit each other hard and spun into the guard rail. Joe Eubanks went around the two frustrated drivers as they tried to get their cars back in action. Thompson got restarted and set about "burning up the track" in an effort to get back to the front. Turner was trying, but the crash destroyed his radiator and he soon had to park his steaming Oldsmobile. Meanwhile, back in the race, Joe Eubanks was motoring along at a steady and safe pace, not knowing he was leading the race, as Thompson was rapidlly gaining on the Eubanks Olds. With 18 laps to go, Thompson stormed around the clueless Eubanks to retake the lead for the final time and take the checkered flag. There were 14 lead changes in the race, a record number of leaders at that time.

Several cars were eliminated in wrecks, at least two of which were spectacular. On lap 130, there were 10 cars involved in a wreck that totally flattened the car of Fonty Flock, who, at the time, was leading. Others involved in that accident included Billy Myers, Jack Smith and Bill Holland. Later in the event, Lee Petty would flip his Plymouth, but would get the car back on four wheels and journey on to a 13th place finish.

Thus ended the race before the American Auto Brass with the Chrysler Corporation boys given bragging rights, for a time, as it was their make winning the race. I am imagining the fans leaving that race in awe of what they had seen. It had to be a race to remember for a long time.

Top ten finishers were:

1. Tommy Thompson, Thompson Chrysler, winning $5,000.00

2. Joe Eubanks, Oates Motor Company Oldsmobile, winning $2,000.00

3. Johnny Mantz, Mantz Nash Ambassador,, winning $1,000.00

4. Red Byron, Daytona Racing Ford, winning $600.00

5. Paul Newkirk, Nash Ambassador, winning $500.00

6. Jack Goodwin, Plymouth, winning $400.00

7. Lloyd Moore, Julian Buesink Oldsmobile, winning $300.00

8. Ewell Weddle, Ford, winning $200.00

9. Curtis Turner, Eanes Motor Company Oldsmobile, winning $100.00

10. Erick Erickson, Packer Pontiac, winning $100.00

Other familiar names and their finishing positions include Lee Petty 13th, Bob Myers 15th, Jim Paschal 16th, Tim Flock 17th, Bob Flock 19th, Iggy Katona 22nd, Bobby Myers 25th, and Marshall Teague 33rd. Fonty Flock is credited with 35th, Jack Smith 37th, Billy Myers 38th, Gober Sosebee 42nd, Bill Blair 47th, Frank Mundy 50th, Jim Rathmann 52nd, Hershel McGriff 54th, and Dick Rathman 55th. Herb Thomas was credited with 57th.

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

A memory posted on WaterWinterWonderland.com:

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com/autoracing.aspx?id=1757&Ty...

NASCAR ran two races at the Fairgrounds in 1951 and 1952. The city of Detroit celebrated its 250th anniversary by teaming up with NASCAR to promote the 1951 race, which was won by Tommy Thompson, of Louisville, Kentucky, in a 1951 Chrysler New Yorker. There was a lot of speculation leading up to the event that the track would not survive a 250 mile race. NASCAR wasnt worried, though,having staged at least 100 dirt-track races since 1949. Thompson qualified third for the race.

The great Marshall Teague qualified on the pole in his Hudson Hornet, but was disqualified and later reinstated in a big rules controversy over his new dual-carburetor setup. Teague rocketed away at the start but was challenged early by Sosebee and Tim Flock while the experienced Thompson watched and waited from his vantage point just behind the action. Teague had mechanical problems almost at once, letting Flock and Sosebee through before dropping out. Thompson and Flock then dueled for lap after lap, but Flock was victimized in a massive pile-up that took him out as well as damaging the Plymouth fastback of Lee Petty in a roll over.

Petty finished the race without a windshield in his well-smashed car. Curtis Turner, the fun-loving and controversial NASCAR legend, then took his turn in the fight for the lead with Thompson. Their fender-to fender duel went on for over a hundred laps until Turner tried Thompson on the outside out of turn two. They came together and both crashed into the outside wall at the head of the backstretch.

Both got going again, but Turners radiator was badly damaged. He chased Thompson for a lap or two in a cloud of steam before giving up. Thompson then took his battle-scarred New Yorker Hemi to the finish. On the last lap crew chief Bill Cantrell held up the pit board chalked with a large dollar sign.

Lee Petty's crumpled and windshield-less Plymouth that he somehow managed to drive to a 13th place finish.

Race program cover

And a quick video clip of Lee driving his Plymouth Crush.

Race report from Spartanburg paper .

Thompson takes the checkers as Lee Petty's battered car rides just ahead of him.

And a winning day creates lots of smiles.

Found a few more photos from the race including the parade lap and a couple of accidents.

Bill Holland

Walt Flanders in his one and only GN start.

Action during the race (Ed Benedict in the 118)

Being a native of the Great Lake State I've seen the rise and fall of Detroit and I'll tell ya, it's been a long slow illness starting around the big oil embargo's of the early 1970's. Detroit was rich with cars and money up until about 1970 when bigger became better but, bigger was also more costly to operate and then, the big OPEC oil embargo kicked off and having a big giant Chrysler New Yorker suddenly became a burden. However, the car companies couldn't see the storm on the horizon, the couldn't see the risk, they were too busy making money to pay any attention to the oil crisis and boy did it ever come to bite them in rear end later on. Detroit just kept pumping big cars out all the way to 1980 before they realized that the Japanese auto makers were producing smaller, more efficient cars and their sales and popularity were increasing. Nope, Detroit was still hung over and on their backs. In the 1980's Detroit starting experimenting with smaller cars but the quality of craftsmanship had slipped, the UAW was bleeding the automakers dry, quality assurance had their hands tied with worker rights. Many auto plant and parts factories employees had become lazy and careless and the quality and reliability of U.S. autos had fallen to an all-time low. Bad management and lack of vision kept the engineers immobile. Still, the foreign cars were out performing in reliability in so many ways; Honda and Toyota were simply a better bang for the consumer's buck. After some miserable attempts to build smaller, more efficient cars, Detroit lagged way behind and sales started to dip. Oh, there were many loyal American's to the U.S. auto makers, but more and more consumers were spending their money overseas. By the 1990's Detroit finally started to wake up but the damage was done, foreign auto sales were out selling U.S. auto sales in many areas, and the quality of U.S. autos was still subpar. It wasn't until about 1997 that Ford engineers started producing some good solid reliable engines; the quality improved, the body styles were more aerodynamic, the interior less bulky and more user friendly. However, bad politics and UAW policies were still dragging Detroit down the path of destruction. Union leaders demanded more money thus further increasing the cost to build better cars. The Motor City will never be the thriving industrial powerhouse it once was, the global market has taken root. Detroit needs to reinvent itself before it can ever start to rebuild, if they don't foreign businesses are going to go in and buy up all the cheap land for sale and create a new Detroit, one that no longer relies on the automobile to employ the masses, the auto parts suppliers that use to employ tens of thousands are all but disappearing. Detroit is a dead city, much like the tobacco farms of the south, the land is for sale and CHEAP! It's a perfect storm for a takeover, lets hope it's American ingenuity that prevails and rebuild before some other foreign investorseizesthe opportunity.

From: https://web.archive.org/web/20080105113739/www.uaw-chrysler.com/images/news/motorcity250.html

This article references Thompson's daughter giving the winning trophy to the Chrysler Museum. The museum closed to the public at the end of 2012. I wonder what will happen to the trophy now. ( http://wpchryslermuseum.org )

Hemi power won NASCAR's Motor City 250

DETROIT The first Hemi-powered Chrysler racing victory came in the company s own backyard on Aug. 12, 1951, at the NASCAR Motor City 250.

Howard W. Tommy Thompson, driving a new 1951 Chrysler New Yorker powered by the 331-cubic-inch Firepower V8, won a wild, late-race duel with the legendary Curtis Turner. The two smashed into each other, damaging Turners Olds 88. Turner tried to take his steaming car to the end, but he had to give up, finishing ninth after leading 92 laps.

Thompson led 58 laps on the one-mile dirt track near Woodward Avenue and Eight Mile Road in Detroit, finishing 37 seconds ahead of Joe Eubanks. The third-place finisher was six laps behind in a race where the average speed was just 57.5 mph.

Thompsons crew chief was Wild Bill Cantrell, the famous unlimited hydroplane pilot and winner of the 1949 APBA Gold Cup. Thompson, who won $5,000, made just three pit stops for fuel and tires in the four-hour, 20-minute race and never lifted the hood on the reliable Chrysler.

The event was held on the Michigan State Fairgrounds horse racing track to commemorate the citys 250th anniversary (the day in 1701 that the French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landed at Detroit).

It was a golden opportunity for NASCAR co-founder Bill France to put on his stock car extravaganza in front of the automobile industry, and the idea worked like a charm. Many auto industry executives got their first look at this new form of racing as more than 16,000 fans who were packed into the fairgrounds stands cheered for 15 different makes of cars.

In 2006, at a car show held on the grounds of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, Mich., Tommy Thompsons daughter donated the Motor City 250 winners trophy that her father had won to the museum. At the presentation, she and Museum Manager Barry Dressel stood next to a 1951 Chrysler Saratoga Hemi.

That car was painted like one that Bill Sterling had raced in 1951's grueling 1,900-mile La Carrera Panamericana, known in the U.S. as the Mexican Road Race. Sterling won the stock class and finished third overall behind a Ferrari.

That race was one of the last long-distance events run over public highways and had been organized to celebrate the completion of the Mexican section of the Pan-American Highway, a massive road project desinged to link the Americas. It was run in multiple stages over a six-day period in November and traversed the length of Mexico. Cars came from all over the world to compete, and the event was particularly attractive to U.S. car manufacturers as a durability showcase for their cars.

When the marathon finally ended, Sterling was just over 12 minutes behind the Ferrari 212 piloted by Formula One World Champion Alberto Ascari and 20 minues behind the winning Ferrari team car, driven by Piero Taruffi and Le Mans winner Luigi Chinetti.

PHOTO: Richard Kavanaugh Tommy Thompson's daughter presents the driver's 1951 Motor City 250 trophy to Walter P. Chrysler Museum Manager Barry Dressel as they stand next to a 1951 Chrysler Saratoga like the one that Bill Sterling drove in that year's Mexican Road Race.

Sterling led five other Chrysler to the finish, including a Hemi Saratoga driven by Indy 500 star Tony Bettenhausen.

Earlier that same year, in February, Mechanix Illustrated magazine's car tester, Tom McCahill, had taken a new Chrysler New Yorker V8 to the sands of Daytona Beach where he won the NASCAR Speed Week trophy as the fastest stock American car.

In spite of the rough and sticky condition of the sand, and what he called a "stiff 25-mile quartering wind," McCahill managed to average 100.13 mph in his two-way run.

Even though it had to propel a heavy car (McCahill's New Yorker weighed 4,250 pounds) with barn-door aerodynamics, the Hemi engine gave the big Chrysler excellent performance. The engine produced 180 hp, impressive in those days.

Finally (I think), here is a link to a blog entry posted back in 2010 on The JalopyJournal.com site about the "Motor City Melee".

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=10143

Sorry for going off in another direction with Tim's story, just touched nerve.

I thought comments were on point Jim. Lots of history and passion for the area. Its amazing the episodic history varying parts of this nation have gone through. Some go through good times, pause, reinvent, and return as something else. Some have a heyday, plateau, regress, and don't return. Will be interesting to see how Detroit's future unfolds as it'll have broader effect on the rest of the nation.

Tim, your opening really caught my eye:

In current news, Detroit, Michigan is a bankrupt city. Decay and decline are obvious even to the causal observer. A few years ago, back in the days when I did allow the airlines to abuse me before I gave up flying completely, I flew into the Detroit airport and then drove a rental car over to Dearborn to spend a week at Ford Headquarters. Yep, me, a Mopar guy, spending a week in the Ford Towers.

In Spring 1983, when I was managing the Wrangler Jeans NASCAR program with Dale Earnhardt, I was invited up to Ford HQ by Mickey Matus in the Ford Marketing office. Dale wanted to bail from his Ford Bud Moore ride and go with Junior Johnson in 1984... of course, he ended up returning to Richard Childress.

The drive in from the Detroit airport in Romulus, Michigan (where we also flew in commercial for M.I.S. races) was the most depressing ride of my life. I was put up at a brand new Westin Hotel next to the just completed Cobo Hall complex overlooking the river. All I saw on both sides of the road for mile upon mile were abandoned factory buildings with the windows broken out. I thought it must have looked something like that in Berlin when the Nazis surrendered in 1945.

I went to a fabulous dinner at a little French restaurant with Edsel Ford and the next day lunched with he and Ford's new racing chief, Michael Kranefuss atop the Westin in a revolving restaurant. It was at that lunch that Kranefuss declared Dale Earnhardt was not a championship caliber driver and Ford wasn't interested in keeping him in a factory Ford ride. Kranefuss further stated that Earnhardt's 1980 Championship was a fluke, never to be repeated. Then, he and Edsel tried to sell Wrangler a sponsorship package on Roush vehicles in all forms of racing except Winston Cup. I declined on the spot.

Funny thing... they then pitched Southland Corporation (7-Eleven Stores) on the same deal, with support of Kyle Petty in a Winston Cup Ford thrown in. &-Eleven bought the deal hook, line and sinker. Ironically, I wound up working that program for the next 2 1/2 racing seasons. But, I lost all respect for Michael Kranefuss the first time I met him. He and Jeremy Mayfield deserved each other.

Daddy standing beside what is left of the little Plymouth after the "Motor City Mess".

Here's more video (film) of the 1951 Motor City 250 NASCAR Grand National race on Detroit's 1-mile Michigan State Fairgrounds dirt track. You'll see the start and watch winner Tommy Thompson of Louisville, Kentucky literally knock Curtis Turner out of the lead in a side-by-side battle. Tommy is also shown in victory lane with Bill France.

Quite a bit of footage (albeit in small snippets) exists of this race, but I think the most interesting piece of footage for me would be this short clip, purely because of its source. It comes from the British Pathe, who were the leading newsreel provider in England at the time of this race. In other words, thanks to the Detroit 250th anniversary celebrations that went along with this event, this race was shown on British newsreels.

The British Pathe, incidentally, has its whole collection of 90,000 (!) newsreel films (from 1896 to the 1970s) online on Youtube and on their own website, and from the searching I've done as far as I can tell this event, and the Langhorne National Open from the same year as this, are the only NASCAR sanctioned events that they have in their collection, and the latter was undoubtedly only shown due to the infamous 60-second wreck which occurred in it. They do however, have footage of a USAC stock-car event from Trenton in 1957, as well as some footage from a couple of pre-war events at Langhorne, and a lot of other racing-related footage.