Half Way – “The Beginning of the End”

Half Way The Beginning of the End

I have had a lot of fun posting the race results of the Grand Touring / Grand American races over the last couple of years and realized that we were about half way through the span of time occupied by this series. An article I have that led up to the next race to report and an article Dave Fulton posted not long ago got me to thinking. Yeah I know, dangerous right? Anyway I thought I would share the results.

At the end of the 1970 Grand American Challenge Series season NASCAR released the following story:

By the numbers reported here you would think the series was in good shape but signs of trouble were starting to appear as early as June. The following article was posted on RR Grand American page by Dave Fulton.

Just a few short weeks later right before the Paul Revere 250 the following article appeared in the Daytona Beach Evening News.

Both of these articles record how hard it was financially just getting a team to the track much less being competitive.

As history records the 1970 season went on to have a total of 35 races but the predictions of a 40 race schedule for 1971 fell way short. Phil Homers ad campaign was too little too late. Many tracks that had held Grand Touring events in 1968 and1969 did not invite them back in 1970 but they were able to replace them with different venues. It got worse as there were only 11 Grand American races in 1971 plus 6 combination races. These combination races were really Grand National short track events that allowed the GA cars to run. Grand American drivers did collect GA points based on there finishing position but if a Grand National car won there was no first in class award for the GA cars. If a Grand American car won there was no GN winner for that event. All six of these combination races were held after the July 4th Paul Revere 250 at Daytona with only the Bama 200 at Talladega being a GA race. The 1972 season only consisted of 4 races plus one FIA sanctioned SCCA race at Daytona that allowed Grand American cars to run and collect points called the Midnight Challenge Cup. Even with the warning signs already up who would have thought that when the Grand American cars left Daytona in July of 1971 there would only be 5 more stand alone Grand American events.

Many opinions have been given as to why the Grand American Challenge Series faded into history. Instead of just listing the ones I have heard it occurred to me it might spark some memories and conversation from our Racers Reunion members. So, what do you think? Give us you thoughts.

great report Dennis. I really enjoyed it...

Great post Dennis Thanks some time when you get time i would like to talk to you about Charlie Blanton

Good article, enjoyed the series at Augusta GA and Columbia SC

Great report Dennis !! The Grand National East Series went down the same path in 1972-73.

Well, Dennis, as I've mentioned before, I made it to 3 GT/GA races - two on dirt, one on pavement at 3 different tracks in 3 different years. They were all very enjoyable to me.

In 1968 I made the Richmond dirt event won by Donnie Allison in the Mustang. We were fascinated with the Austin-Cooper from Tidewater, Va. that would run under all the pony cars in the turns, then be passed back on the straights.

My second GA race - the only on pavement - was at South Boston in 1969 when Pete Hamilton drove that blazing fast red Gene White Camaro with the 180 degree headers and sound like no other to the win over my racing hero Ray Hendrick of Richmond, making a rare start outside the modified and Late Model Sportsman ranks - I'm sure, to help the promoter fill the stands at the track where he was the all-time winner. I'd love to know whose car Ray drove that night.

Lastly, after moving to Wilson, NC 4th of July week 1970 to go to work for the Wrangler Jeans folks, I made it over to the Raleigh Fairgrounds to catch Jim Paschal in that red/white/blue Huggins Javelin take a win on dirt, in the next to last NASCAR series race run on dirt at Raleigh. Richard Petty would win the final, a Cup event later in the year. It had rained hard before that race and the place was a mud hole. I thought it would never dry. I had seen a couple of Late Model Sportsman shows at Raleigh with Haskel Willingham and Farmer John Matthews, but this was the only touring series race I ever saw there.

All the GT/GA races I saw gave the fans more than their money's worth and provided good racing.

Jack,

NASCAR must have liked what they saw in the combination races they ran in 1971 as you had the same cars but all in one division as Grand National East.

Dennis, in the last article your father states that the Ford engines couldn't compete with the Chevys and AMCs - were they running the BOSS 302 or the Windsor type 302? I thought the BOSS Mustangs were doing quite well in Trans-Am?

Robert, They ran both the wedge and the Boss 302 engines. The small block Chevy had tons of torque up off the corners, especially the Trico engine, where the Ford motor came on a little higher in the RPM range. Had to keep the breath in them as dad used to say. The biggest problem was the cost and availability of quality parts. The Chevy guys could order any high performance part right out of a catalog from a dealership. Reid got most of his engine parts from Bud Moore since without factory help that was one of the few places to get them. And the fact that he had known Red Myler and Bud for a long time. If you remember Bud was having a lot of engine failures at the time, so dad did too. Valve train failures were one of the most frequent. Bud eventually figured it out but the GA series was history by then. Because of this they had to be on the conservative side with their engines. Plus they always ran legal. The one time they tried gain an advantage was at Bowman-Gray. I can't remember if it was one of Reid's cars or Jack's but, tired of being beat off the corner he showed up with an aluminum flywheel. The first thing the officials did was check the flywheels.