Today I blogged about NASCAR's final GN event at The Big Left Turn - Langhorne Speedway. The race was a Sweepstakes GN/convertible combo event.
https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2015/09/september-15-1957-gwyn-lassos-langhorne.html
Paul Goldsmith won the pole in Smokey Yunick's #3 Ford convertible. Fireball Roberts qualified second in his hard-top sedan. Glen Wood and Lee Petty made up the second row. Bob Welborn rounded out the top 5 starters. The rest of the 48-car field was set with the quickest ragtops starting in the inside, odd-numbered positions and the sedans filling the outside, even-numbered slots.
Fans witnessed a great back and forth battle between Goldsmith and Fireball during the first third of the race. Each led a handful of laps before being passed.
Fireball was finally able to shake Goldsmith as the race neared the 100 lap mark. Two additional challengers then made their way to Roberts' bumper. First, Bill Amick of Portland, Oregon got by Roberts to lead 19 laps. Like Goldsmith, Amick's time up front was short-lived. Roberts re-took the lead, and Amick later lost an engine near the 200-lap mark.
After Fireball led for a 63-lap stint, he began having steering issues. Multi-time NASCAR Short Track Division champ Jim Reed went out front for 44 laps as Roberts fell further behind. Then Reed developed engines issues of his own, and he fell out of the race after only 220 laps.
As the race cleared the two-thirds mark, Gwyn Staley arrived. Staley was driving a Chevrolet convertible for owner Julian Petty and started the race deep in the field in 25th. He led the remaining 85 laps to take the win by a half-second or so ahead of unknown Whitey Norman. Though close at the time for the fans and drivers, a post-race scoring recheck revealed Norman was actually two laps down to Staley.
Johnny Allen came home third. The little bit of remaining drama involved the fourth and fifth place finishers. With four laps to go, Buck Baker eased by Rex White into fourth place. On the last lap, however, Baker's Chevy ran out of gas. He coasted helplessly to the finish, and White was able to pass the fading Baker to reclaim fourth.
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Gwyn Staley | '57 Chevrolet |
| 2 | Whitey Norman | '57 Ford |
| 3 | Johnny Allen | '57 Plymouth |
| 4 | Rex White | '57 Chevrolet |
| 5 | Buck Baker | '57 Chevrolet |
| 6 | Dave Terrell | '57 Chevrolet |
| 7 | Joe Weatherly | '57 Ford |
| 8 | Ken Marriott | '57 Plymouth |
| 9 | Tommie Elliott | '57 Ford |
| 10 | Darel Dieringer | '56 Ford |
| 11 | Frankie Schneider | '57 Chevrolet |
| 12 | Bob Welborn | '57 Chevrolet |
| 13 | Larry Frank | '56 Chevrolet |
| 14 | Lee Petty | '57 Oldsmobile |
| 15 | Pee Wee Jones | '57 Ford |
| 16 | Roger Baldwin | '56 Ford |
| 17 | Fireball Roberts | '57 Ford |
| 18 | Ted Chamberlain | '56 Chevrolet |
| 19 | Don Gray | '56 Chevrolet |
| 20 | Bill Benson | '56 Mercury |
| 21 | Art Binkley | '56 Plymouth |
| 22 | Bill Champion | '56 Ford |
| 23 | Possum Jones | '57 Chevrolet |
| 24 | Jim Reed | '57 Ford |
| 25 | L.D. Austin | '56 Chevrolet |
| 26 | Emanuel Zervakis | '57 Chevrolet |
| 27 | Huck Spaulding | '56 Dodge |
| 28 | Harvey Eakin | '56 Ford |
| 29 | Bill Amick | '57 Ford |
| 30 | Neil Castles | '56 Ford |
| 31 | Speedy Thompson | '57 Chevrolet |
| 32 | Tiny Lund | '57 Pontiac |
| 33 | Paul Goldsmith | '57 Ford |
| 34 | Marvin Panch | '57 Ford |
| 35 | Elton Hildreth | '56 Mercury |
| 36 | Glen Wood | '57 Ford |
| 37 | Dick Klank | '56 Ford |
| 38 | Jack Smith | '57 Chevrolet |
| 39 | Jerry Benjamin | '56 Ford |
| 40 | George Bumgardner | '57 Ford |
| 41 | Ken Rush | '56 Mercury |
| 42 | Al White | '56 Ford |
| 43 | Chuck Hansen | '57 Chevrolet |
| 44 | Jim Paschal | '57 Ford |
| 45 | Dutch Hoag | '55 Pontiac |
| 46 | Bobby Abel | '56 Chevrolet |
| 47 | Shep Langdon | '56 Chevrolet |
| 48 | Brownie King | '57 Chevrolet |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 09/15/20 10:14:17AM
