Racing History Minute - June 28, 1975

TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
7 years ago
4,073 posts

Today's post again take us to Nashville Speedway at the fairgrounds for the June 28, 1975 Spirit of 76 200.

Race preview extracted from the June 28 edition of The Tennessean:

L.D. Ottinger has this uneasy feeling he’s being followed. Throughout the racing season, every time the Newport, Tenn. driver glanced in his rear-view mirror, somebody has been on his bumper.

Ottinger, as leader of the national Late Model Sportsman point race, just seems to naturally attract a crowd. And tonight’s Spirit of 76 200-lapper at Nashville Speedway likely won’t be any different.

A collection of the country’s top LMS drivers will be chasing the scrappy little toehead around every turn of the challenging five-eighths-mile oval. The Late Model Sportsman national point race will get underway at 8 p.m., preceded by a 50-Iap Tennessee Speed Sport limited sportsman race at 7.

The 200-lap race has attracted the finest LMS drivers around, in and out of the point race. Ottinger leads with a total of 4,301, followed by Tiny Lund (4,083), Morgan Shepard (3,766), Butch Lindley (3,410), Harry Gant (2,206), Jack Ingram (1,944), Joe Thurman (1,814), and Ray Hendrix (1,696). (TMC: Yes "Hendrix" per the paper vs. Hendrick or even Hendricks.)

Neil Bonnett, Huntsville, Ala. driver who has set and re-set the five-eighths-mile track record in recent weeks, remains uncertain as a driver in the race. The 28-year-old Bonnett, whose identical 20.40 laps in last Saturday’s qualifying stand as the current record, drives a Bobby Allison-prepared Chevrolet. Allison is racing the car tonight in Maryland, and Bonnett said he was not sure whether he would be able to return it to Nashville in time for the race. An alternative may be a second car, identical to the one driven by Allison, which was being prepared this week.

Yesterday Bonnett expressed hope that he would get to drive here but remained uncertain. Another top driver is Alton Jones of Pleasant Grove, Ala. He won the last 200-lapper here, the May 31 Falls City 200. Jones’ win was protested by Ottinger, who charged that his wheels were too large under NASCAR specifications for his model car. NASCAR officials settled the protest in Jones’ favor.

Waltrip, another 28-year-old who has made his mark on the Grand National Circuit in the past three years, will be attempting to bring a run of ill luck to a halt. In last week’s two 100-lap races, Waltrip blew an engine in qualifying which took him out of one race, then encountered car trouble while leading the second at the halfway point and was forced to drop out.

In the Falls City 200, Waltrip had qualified and was running a practice lap when he lost control on the fourth turn and struck the wall, wrecking the back end of his car and taking himself out of the race.

The winner of tonight’s race will pocket $2,250, second place $1,150 and third $1,000, in addition to the national points.

Race report from June 29 edition of The Tennessean:

Harry Gant of Taylorsville, N.C., outran an impressive field of big-name Late Model Sportsman drivers last night at Nashville Speedway to capture the Spirit of 76 200 lap feature race.

Only one driver, Butch Lindley of Greenville, S.C., finished in the same lap as Gant, and he almost one-half lap behind. Finishing third, one lap down, was defending national point champion Jack Ingram of Asheville, N.C., with track-record holder Neil Bonnett of Hueytown, Ala., fourth.

Gant, starting in the number three pole position with a qualifying time of 20.53 outran other top-name drivers such as Darrell Waltrip, L.D. Ottinger, and Alton Jones. Pole sitter Lindley, who had led all qualifiers with a 20.43, just .03 seconds off Bonnett’s track record set last week, had led the race until the 84th lap when Ingram took over.

Lindley presented with his trophy for winning the pole.

 1975 Nashville Spirit of 76 Lindley pole tmc.png

The race settled down to a three-car affair between Ingram, Gant and Lindley, in that order, until the 130th lap. It was at that point that Gant nudged in front for the first time, then suddenly exploded ahead to open up almost a half-lap lead.

Gant lost the big lead when a caution flag on the 165th lap allowed Ingram and Lindley to tailgate again. When the green flag fell again, however, Gant quickly sped back out to a comfortable lead which he held to the finish.

Waltrip, 28-year-old Grand National driver from Franklin, Tenn., continued to encounter the bad luck that has plagued him here in recent weeks. Waltrip, winningest driver on the five-eighths-mile track with 50 victories, failed to finish his fourth straight race.

Waltrip’s troubles began when he came out of a pit stop on the 31st lap, having gone in in seventh place. As he made his exit, however, a pit crew member failed to get his gas tank cap back on. Waltrip was black flagged by director Bill Donoho for the next several laps but refused to come in. The Waltrip car consequently was not scored from laps 44-58. When Waltrip finally did stop and discovered he was 14 laps down, he declined to re-enter the race.

An estimated crowd of 11,000 turned out for the national championship point race.

1975 Nashville Spirit of 76 Gant.JPG

1 Harry Gant 
2  Butch Lindley 
3  Jack Ingram
4  Neil Bonnett
5  L.D.Ottinger 
6  Flookie Buford 
7  Alton Jones 
8  Tiny Lund 
9  Morgan Shepherd 
10  Doris Vaughn 
11  A.C York 
12  Bill King 
13  Jim Berry 
14  James Climer 
15  Jerry Sisco 
16  Wayne Cower 
17  Gary Myers 
18  P.B.Crowell III 
19  Ray Skillman 
20  John Brown 
21  Don Guignard 
22  Bob Burcham 
23  Darrell Waltrip 
24  Clarence Kissinger 
25  Mark Crofford 
26  Jimmy Means 
27  Don Anthony 
28  Chet Williams 




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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

updated by @tmc-chase: 01/18/20 05:20:38AM
TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
7 years ago
4,073 posts

One of Waltrip's crewmen was left to defend the driver's decision to ignore the black flag or otherwise explain why he didn't acknowledge it. From June 30 The Tennessean:

Race driver Darrell Waltrip didn’t think the black flag that suddenly appeared on the 31st lap of the 200-lap Spirit of 76 race Saturday night at Nashville Speedway could possibly be intended for his car, so he didn’t stop.

It took race director Don Donoho 27 laps of furious flagging to finally convince the 28-year-old Franklin, Tenn., driver that it was indeed his car being ordered to pit. Waltrip then came in, only to discover to his dismay that his car had not been scored from the 35th lap, and that he was consequently 23 laps behind the rest of the field.

Although he had been running seventh at the time, he was for all practical purposes out of the race. Donoho said after the race that he didn’t believe Waltrip could have failed to see the black flag and that he apparently merely ignored it.

“I don’t understand how a Grand National driver could fail to see the black flag and tell that it was for him,” said Donoho. “I have been flagging for 14 years and never had a driver fail to heed a black flag before.” Donoho said that after the fourth lap run under the black flag he instructed Waltrip’s scorer to credit him with no more laps.

Waltrip, who will race in Friday’s Firecracker 400 in Daytona Beach, Fla., was not available for comment last night. Pit crew member Lonnie Hazlewood said though that Waltrip was not ignoring the black flag. “He honestly didn’t know it was for him,” he said. “As soon as he realized it, he immediately pitted. And you should have heard what he had to say when he was told that his laps hadn’t been counting.” Hazlewood said he wouldn’t repeat Waltrip’s response, “because you couldn’t use it in the paper anyhow.”

The trouble began when Waltrip made a routine pit stop on the 31st lap to get wedges put in the car according to Hazlewood. While he was pitted, one member of the pit crew began to fill the gas tank. Waltrip, not realizing he was being re-fueled, pulled away from the pits as soon as the wedging was finished. He also pulled away from his gas cap. “The man putting the gas in was left holding the cap in his hand,” said Hazlewood.  “And Darrell was back on the track without realizing that the cap had even been taken off.”

Inspector Wendell Warf, learning of the absent gas cap, instructed Donoho to black flag Waltrip indicating an automotive deficiency requiring a pit stop.

“Darrell said he saw the flag but thought it was meant for L.D. Ottinger, who was running right beside him,” said Hazlewood. “His car was running so good that he didn’t see how the black flag could be for him.” Waltrip declined to reenter the race after he learned he was behind 23 laps. "There really wasn't any use to," said Hazlewood. “There was no way he could finish even halfway in the field. There was no use in running just to be running or something.”

“The car was running really good,” said Hazlewood. “I think we had a good chance to win if it hadn’t been for the flag foul-up.”




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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
Dave Fulton
@dave-fulton
7 years ago
9,137 posts

"You can call me Ray..."




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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
7 years ago
4,073 posts

naturallightnormcrosby1.jpg




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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.