A Father's Day Story........of sorts.

It all began sixty one years ago today just a few miles up the road from me.in a little place called Charlotte NC kicking the whole thing off with what will probably be the only "Luxury Car" era in stock car racing with the powerful Cadillac, Lincoln and Hudson entries setting the pace.

Another first could be argued with the introduction of the "Rocket 88" Oldsmobile, one of, if not the very first, "Muscle Car", that put a luxury styled big V-8 in a smaller and lighter Oldsmobile coupe body.


By now you've probably guessed that I'm talking about the very first race for Nascar's top division, today's "whoever wrote the biggest check" Cup that started out with the unassuming moniker, "Strickly Stock Division".

That first race was on dirt and won by Glen Dunnaway, the father of a friend of mine, who followed quite ably in his dad's tire tracks, named Harold Dunnaway, who outran all those big powerful new cars in a lowly little two year old Ford coupe.

Now if you look up the results of that first race you may wonder why Jim Roper is named the winner driving a Lincoln. Well, it seems that Glen's borrowed ride for that race happened to be one of Hubert Westmoreland's "business" coupes (althought NOT a Business Coupe model, there is a difference) and his business was liquid corn refreshment, so to speak, and its transportation.

When the post race inspection was over it seems that the "wedges" in the Ford's rear springs, so helpful in handling the extra weight of its usual "cargo", turned out to be a no-no in the new division because it also helped the handling when the car was "empty". Remember, it was called Strictly Stock for a reason.

Well, it wound up in court but after all the dust settled, both figuratively and literally, the division survived all the controversy and even prospered and turned out to be somewhat of a success. Kind of like King Kong being a monkey with a small pituatary gland problem.

Since I haven't been able to build a copy of Harold's dad's car, just no model of a '47 Ford "business" Coupe out there, which, in this case, was really an "Opera Coupe", I'll have to post this shot of a diecast "Rocket 88" to commemorate Father's Day "Southern Style" and mark the beginning of the France Dynasty that began with a bunch of "car guys" and a dream.




updated by @jerry-sims: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Great story, neat photo!

Could this be what you were looking for?

Not even close. The cars were STOCK! Or at least stock appearing and not this new "let's rewrite history with these show pieces" style of forty coats of hand rubbed laquer "re-creations" that are showing up way to often these days.I know that I may be stepping on some toes here but I was there and saw all the heart that was invested in those cars back then and no amount of today's "spare no expense dirt latemodel with what's left of a hacked up vintage body draped over it" can approach the wonderment of the spit and bailing wire back yard creations I watched being raced on the Carolina clay of my youth.I know I may get kicked off here for having such a narrow and biased view of what is my favorite sport, and has been since I first was blessed to much on a red dirt sprinkled Stewart Sandwiches hot dog washed down by a Coke with that film of clay and calcium chloride on top. I just think that the memories of these creative people who did so much with just junkyard parts and determination deserve better.I didn't say I couldn't find a picture, I said I couldn't find the model to use. This is what the car looked like. Notice the fancy "yea, I'm a whiskey runner, what of it" standard black paint job and the very striking and professional race car graphics rendered by a roll of 3M masking tape? Now that is real Vintage stock car racing!If I have to go then so be it but I thought you'd like to see what that first winner really looked like before I go. BTW, I know Kim Haynes and consider him a friend but his background is mostly in Mustang restoration and he goes just a little overboard in making in look neat and proper. Very neccesary on the Mustangs but a little over the top on some of the old stock cars