As a high school senior in Richmond, VA on May 15, 1966, our RR member and poster "Tiger" Tom Pistone gave me and my buddies one of our most cherished NASCAR memories. On that 1966 spring Sunday in Richmond, driving his powder blue #59 1964 Ford Galaxie, Tiger Tom blistered theold dirt 1/2-mile Richmond Fairgrounds layout with a record, all-timeNASCAR Grand National pole qualifying speed of 70.978 mph - a record that stands to this very day and will never be broken. Only 3 more dirt races were run on the Richmond track before it was paved for the September 1968 GN race and nobody ever again approached Tiger Tom's 1 lap speed record on the dirt.
1966 was an unusual year in NASCAR. Ford factory boss, Jacques Passino led a Ford factory boycott of NASCAR in retaliation for NASCAR not approving the FORD overhead cam engine, but allowing a return of the Chrysler hemis. For a short while, Bill France allowed Ford to run two 4-barrel carburetors on it's 427, to my knowledge the only time NASCAR allowed this configuration.
For the 1966 Richmond 250 Tom had that engine setup in his Ford and he, along with Elmo Langley in another 1964 Ford, both earned top-5 starting positions, Elmo in 3rd place, besting the Chrysler hemis of Petty and Pearson, along with the rest of the 30 car starting field. James Hylton managed to put his '65 Dodge between Tom and Elmo in qualifying.
When all was said and done, Tom posteda 15th place finish that day, exiting on lap151 with engine failure and earning a whopping $150, same purse as earned by 14th place finisher Larry Manning, last car to fall out of the race on lap 175 of 250.
The final finish order that day shows 1st to David Pearson in his Cotton Owens Dodge by two laps oversecond place Richard Petty in his Petty Enterprises Plymouth, with third to JT Putney in his independent Chevy.
To this day I feel priviliged to tell folks that I saw Tiger Tom Pistone set a NASCAR track record that will never be broken on a track that I dearly loved. Thanks for the memories, Tom. You deserve more recognition for your accomplishments. Regardless of how many years may pass, nobody will ever best what you did at Paul Sawyer's Richmond dirt track in that #59 Galaxie on May 15, 1966! For those of you who never saw a NASCAR Grand National stock car kick up a roostertail of dirt as it slid sideways, you are part of the underprivileged NASCAR generation.
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
