Racing History Minute - October 6, 1955

When you read the report from my source (Greg Fielden's "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing") you would be confused if you read the finishing order before the actual report. In the finishing order, the 28th and last place finisher is credited with 200 laps, the official distance of the 100 mile race on the half-mile dirt track. However, first place finisher is credited with 199 laps, one lap short of the scheduled distance. All of this took place at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina.

When qualifying was over, Bob Welborn in his own Chevrolet, won the pole with a speedof 58.037 mph. Tim Flock would start his Mercury Outboards Chrysler second with Joe Eubanks in a Chevy third, Jim Massey in the Hubert Westmoreland Chevy fourth and Jack Smith in yet another Chevy starting fifth.

The story of the race is Jim Reed in a "homemade Chevy", who came south from Peekskill, NY to run NASCAR Grand National. Tim Flock had been leading in his Carl Kiekhaefer "big bucks" Chrysler for most of the race but as the laps were drawing to a close, Reed caught the flying Flock and took over the point. The checkered flag waved abovve the number 7 Chevy and Reed pulled up in front of the stands to celebrate the win. Almost immediately, Kiekhaefer protested Reed's win. In Kiekhaefer's mind there was no way an upstart driver in a "junk" Chevy was going to beat his star driver in the immaculate Chrysler. Sure enough, when NASCAR finished its inspection, the Reed Chevy was determined to have "illegal" heads, or, as NASCAR stated in its official explanation, "non-stock heads".

This was the third time in NASCAR's Grand National History that a winner had been disqualified. Remember, it happened in the very first race. Second time it happened, it was Tim Flock who was disqualified. This time Flock benefitted. When the checkers waved, Flock was actually one lap behind Reed so the winner of the 200 lap event only completed 199 laps. There were 8,000 fans in attendance for the race that saw only one caution flag which allowed the average race speed to come in at 57.942 mph, just slightly slower than the pole winning speed. No mention is made of whether that speed was determined by 200 or 199 laps.

Top Five finishers were:

1. Tim Flock, Mercury Outboards Chrysler, winning $1,100.00

2. Junior Johnson, Bob Welborn Chevrolet, winning $700.00 (2 laps down)

3. Bob Welborn, Welborn Chevrolet, winning $475.00 (2 laps down)

4. Jim Massey, Westmoreland Chevrolet, winning $365.00 (2 laps down)

5. Buck Baker, DePaolo Ford, winning $310.00 (2 laps down)

Sixth through tenth were Jimmy Thompson, Bill Widenhouse, Jack Smith, Jimmie Lewallen, and Lee Petty. Dink Widenhouse would finish 11th, Jim Paschal 22nd,

Fonty Flock 25th, and Gwyn Staley 27th. Reed is shown as disqualified and credited with NO laps and received NO money.

SIDEBAR ON GREENVILLE-PICKENS: The actual first live telecast of flag-to-flag coverage of a race was NOT the 1979 Daytona 500 as some would ask you to believe but was, instead, a 1971 event from Greenville-Pickens shown on ABC. Bobby Isaac won that event.

Also, Greenville-Pickens was the track where so many of the stars of NASCAR's Late Model Sportsman Division gained their experience. Last time I was up there, the names of the track champions over the years were painted on the wall around the track. An impressive list of NASCAR stars to say the least. I hope that wall is still there and still contains those names. Would be worth a trip back just to see if the names are still there.

Greenville-Pickens is often used as a "test track" for today's Cup drivers. You never know when Jeff Gordon will be testing there, or Ryan Newman, or many others. It is a great half-mile asphalt track and is super fast.

PERSONAL NOTES: I attended several Grand National races there over the years. I never, however, raced there. My schedule was Columbia on Thursday, Savannah on Friday and Augusta on Saturday. When Augusta closed down, we went to Myrtle Beach Speedway because it was a short haul from Savannah. Often times I wish I had run at Greenville-Pickens at least once. It is certainly a track with a long and historic background.

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

That's a good story, Tim.

In 1986, when I lived in Spartanburg and we had Derrike Cope's little Winston Cup shop in Campobello, SC, we wanted to shake down one of the two Thunderbirds we'd had built at Mike Laughlin's shop in Simpsonville, SC before the Martinsville April 1986 Cup race.

Laughlin's brother suggested that the Blackwell brothers, who co-owned Greenville-Pickens Speedway (they bought it from the Builder and Bill France in 1955) might let us lease the track for some testing. I was also warned that Tom and Pete Blackwell could be ornery folks to deal with.

With great trepidation, I phoned Tom Blackwell to inquire about leasing his Greenville-Pickens Speedway. He made what turned out to be a great counter proposal that saved my budget a ton of money. If we would bring our Cup T-bird over on Saturday morning for testing and stay to run some laps for the crowd before the Saturday night weekly show, he'd let us use the track all day at no charge.

We accepted Tom Blackwell's counter offer and spent all day Saturday at Greenville-Pickens Speedway and then cut "hot laps" with Derrike's Cup car for the crowd before the Saturday night weekly show. For us and the Blackwells, who proved not as ornery as their reputation, it was a win-win deal. They got extra entertainment for their crowd and we tested at no charge.

We went to Martinsville the next weekend and qualified 17th with our rookie, ran in the top-5 most of the day and left with a 9th place finish in our first Cup outing thanks to the Blackwells of Greenville-Pickens Speedway.

I can still remember the exit off I-85 to that little track - "White Horse Road."

Tom Blackwell of Greenville-Pickens Speedway passed in 2010. I found his obituary as printed below:

Thomas Blackwell

Thomas Lee "Tom" Blackwell, 81, passed away in Greenville on Wednesday, April 7, 2010.

Born in Kings Mountain, NC on October 31, 1928, Tom was the son of the late William Ernest and Exie Lewis Smith Blackwell. He and his wife, Joanne Prince Blackwell, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on December 10, 2009.

Tom was a longtime co-owner and operator of the Greenville-Pickens Speedway - the second-oldest NASCAR racetrack still running weekly races. He and his late brother, Pete Blackwell, bought the half-mile oval dirt track in 1955 from the local Garrison family and NASCAR cofounder, Bill France, Sr. "Tom has been a close friend of the France family through the years, and all of us at NASCAR are deeply saddened by his passing," said Brian France, NASCAR chairman and chief executive officer. "You can't write the history of NASCAR without including the contributions Tom and his family have made to this sport."

Tom and Pete, along with their late brother Lewis, expanded the racetrack property over the years. Tom and Pete promoted Nascar Grand National Racing at Greenville-Pickens through 1971. All of the legendary drivers in stock car racing of that era competed in those races. Among the GPS track champions who eventually moved on to the national stage were David Pearson, Ralph Earnhardt, Butch Lindley, and Robert Pressley. Under the leadership of Tom and Pete, the Greenville-Pickens Speedway was the host of the first ever live start-to-finish televised NASCAR race, broadcast on ABC's Wild World of Sports on April 10, 1971.

The Speedway also hosted an annual Shrine race that over the years raised over $1 million for the Shriners Hospital for Children, and was named for Pete after his passing. This past Fall, Tom was honored by NASCAR by being chosen to serve on the nominating committee to select the first inductees into the Nascar Hall of Fame.
"Tom embodied what this sport is all about," said Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications. "Tom was one of a kind and will be dearly missed."

In 1964, Tom, Pete, and Lewis created the Upper South Carolina State Fair, which eventually became the second largest fair in South Carolina. The track and fairgrounds were sold to Kevin Whitaker in 2003, but Tom continued to be deeply involved in their management. He was also an unforgettable presence in the pit area for more than 50 years.

For many years, Tom also owned the Blackwell Music Company, which distributed jukeboxes, pinball machines and eventually video games around South and North Carolina. Together with his brother Pete, Tom promoted concerts and other events throughout the upstate in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's including performances by Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, and Louis Armstrong, and closed circuit boxing that included Foreman vs. Ali and Frazier vs. Foreman.

Tom was predeceased by his four brothers, Arthur H. "Pete" Blackwell, William Lewis Blackwell, Charles E. "Charlie" Blackwell, Wilfred F. "Worm" Blackwell and his sister Peggy Blackwell Tannery, who died less than 24 hours earlier. He is survived by his wife Joanne, sons Mark Blackwell of Los Angeles, CA, and Dr. Keith Blackwell of Waban, MA, Keith's wife Dr. Sandra Burchett Blackwell and their children Kim Burchett of Brooklyn, NY, and Ellen Pope, currently living in Baghdad, Iraq.

He was a member of Overbrook Baptist Church and the Hejaz Shrine temple.

The Funeral Service will be held Sunday at 4:30 pm in the Chapel of Thomas McAfee Funeral Home, Downtown, with visitation following until 7:30 pm. A private burial will be held on Monday.

Memorials may be made to the Shriners Hospital for Children, 950 West Faris Rd., Greenville, SC 29605; Overbrook Baptist Church, 1705 East North Street, Greenville, SC 29615; or The American Cancer Society , 154 Milestone Way, Greenville, SC 29615.

The family is deeply appreciative of Tom's friends and family for their love, generosity, and support during this time of loss.

Published in The Greenville News from April10 to April11,2010

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenvilleonline/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=141642457#fbLoggedOut

tim thanks for these minutes i wonder were the heads on that chevy were homemade if so they were pretty good i would say lol

The Blackwell brothers were always very, very kind to me. I don't think I ever paid to get into a race up there after 1973. If they had a "tough" reputation,I never knew from where it came. Thanks for sharing the infomation Dave.

Yes, sir, I would say those home made heads were pretty good too.

Race preview from The Index Journal of Greenwood SC.

News clipping with initial report of Jim Reed winning the race.

Based on the success of the inaugural GN race at G-P, looks like a 2nd GN race may have been hastily scheduled for a couple of weeks after the first one. Undaunted by his DQ, Jim Reed was expected to return. (Though it looks the the Greenwood paper didn't get the memo that Reed had been disqualified.)

However, I can't find any record that this race was held - a GN or a convertible race. I searched newspapers on both sides of October 22, 1955 and haven't found anything more about this proposed race.

Chase,

There was no Convertible circuit in 1955. However, it is possible that the Oct. 22 race was rained out or a Short Track Division race.

I now believe it to have been a MARC race vs. a NASCAR one as alluded to in the October 14 article. Though NASCAR hadn't yet bought and re-formed its convertible division, MARC did have one. John Marcum's convertibles and hard top sedans raced together at Greenville-Pickens - a format NASCAR later copied with its "sweepstakes" races.

The race was originally scheduled for October 22. A rain-out at Sharon PA, however, pushed Greenville-Pickens race back to October 29.

From October 18th Greenwood paper.

From October 24 paper

From October 28 paper