A Racing History Minute-April 16, 1961

I admit that the 50s and 60s were about my favorite time in racing. Something about that era and those who competed, not to mention the awesome cars, always draws me back to that period when looking for a History Minute, and today is no exception.

Today we will go back to a .625 mile track in North Wilkesboro, NC, which is no longer on the circuit but was, at one time, one of the most popular tracks for fans and competitors. Today, we will talk about the 250 mile race on that paved track on April 16, 1961.

Junior Johnson, no surprise, huh, qaulified on the pole. Rex White started to his outside. Junior took off like a rocket on the green flag and led the first 62 laps before his transmission went out. Junior's departure left Fred Lorenzen to lead. Freddy was cruising along with a comfortable lead when, on Lap 123 a rocker arm broke on the Holman-Moody Ford and Lorenzen was out of the race. As Fred parked his Ford, Rex White took over the lead in his Chevrolet. On lap 241, a hard-charging (was he ever a pacer?) Curtis Turner ran down Rex and took over the lead in the Wood Brothers Ford. The rear end in the Ford began to burn out and with 104 laps to go, Rex White blew past the ailing Ford and back into the lead which he would hold the rest of the way to win the 14th race of the season by two laps. Rex, the defending Grand National Champion, padded his point lead.

This event was the first Gwyn Staley Memorial 400 at the beautiful little track located in the Brushy Mountain foothills. At the time of the race, the track had seats for just over 12,000 fans which sold out and, with 12,500 folks in attendance, it was truly "standing room only". In fact, in a day when there was no television coverage, radio coverage only in selected Southeastern Markets, and hit and miss newspaper coverage, the press was there in such force that it is noted in Greg Fielden's commentary that the press sat "cramped in a make-do press box".

Top five finishers were:

1. Rex White, Chevrolet, winning $2,455.00

2. Tommy Irwin, Chevrolet, winning $1,175.00

3. Richard Petty, Plymouth, winning $900.00

4. Fireball Roberts, Pontiac, winning $575.00

5. Johnny Allen, Chevrolet, winning $575.00

Other finishers of note were Buddy Baker 7th, Fred Harb 8th, Reb Wickersham 10th, Curtic Crider 12th, Curtis Turner 14th, Wendell Scott 15th, Ned Jarrett 24th and Buck Baker 25th and final position. Also worth noting is Paul Lewis, the man responsible for inspiring Jeff Gilder to found RacersReunion, finished 25th after falling out of the race on the 100th lap when a rocker arm broke on his Chevrolet.

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future

Thanks, Tim.

I note that Tommy Irwin of Keysville, Virginia finished 2nd. Tommy is a driver I know absolutely nothing about, although Keysville is just up the road from the South Boston Speedway. His record shows 2 pole positions in his brief career, as well as a couple of convertible divsion starts. I even see him listed in one start driving a car owned by Rex White.

Anybody remember Tommy who can share some information on another one of my home area drivers from back in the day?

By the way, tiny Keysville, Virginia has produced some other racing notables. Emanuel "Golden Greek" Zervakis' two GN/Cup wins came in cars owned by Keysville resident, Monroe Shook.

And we are still fortunate to be blessed today with the presence of one of racing's truly nice fellows - former Charlote PR head and current President & GM of Atlanta Motor Speedway - Ed Clark, who was born in Keysville in 1954.

Ed's mom was a Keysville and Farmville, Virginia school teacher.

Must be something in the water in tiny Keysville, population 832, that leads folks to stock car racing!

I should have checked RR member, Perry Allen Wood's "Declarations of Stock Car Independents" before I asked about Tommy Irwin. There is a chapter devoted to him in Perry's book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ypr_kpYZNSoC&pg=PA30&lpg=P...

Perry's chapter clears up quite a lot, including mistakes on the Racing Reference site regarding Tommy Irwin. The Keysville connection comes from Tommy building a car at Monroe Shook's shop in Keysville. Burton & Robinson Concrete Construction of Fairfax, Virginia, who'd later sponsor Ned Jarrett and Jimmy Pardue owned the car that Tommy took down to Inman, SC.

If TooMuchCountry (Chase) and Legend (Tim) haven't read Perry's chapter on Tommy, it is a must for them, since Lee Petty invited Tommy to leave his car at the Pettys and work on it there. He became great friends of Lee and Richard.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ypr_kpYZNSoC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=tommy+irwin+nascar&source=bl&ots=diA3BGI4r0&sig=pqnOittQSzuqZyJRBbgGoDHsVBU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TahtUf7IIYWB0AHz9oGoDA&ved=0CHoQ6AEwDQ#v=onepage&q=tommy%20irwin%20nascar&f=false

Thanks, Perry

A couple of reports from the print journalists. Apparently they didn't use Twitter back in the day.

From the Sumter Daily Item :

And from the Spartanburg Herald-Journal :

And I see from your clips that my Richmond racing hero won that Sunday at Moyock, NC's Dog Track Speedway over two superb Maryland drivers, even if Associated Press did spell Rapid Ray's last name incorrectly.

Wednesday, April 16 is another anniversary of Rex White's win at North Wilkesboro in 1961. Thought I'd bring back Tim Leeming's post from a year ago by adding a photo I found this evening on Getty Images. Rex White and crew chief Louis Clements in 'victory lane'.

Great addition Chase. Thanks for making all these posts so much better.

As Tim mentioned a year ago, this was the first NASCAR Grand National race that North Wilkesboro track promoter, Enoch Staley named in memory of his brother Gwyn .

Motor Racing Programme Covers

Gwyn Staley lost his life three years earlier in March 1958 on the first turn of the first lap of a NASCAR Convertible race at the Virginia State Fairgrounds half-mile dirt layout in Richmond. To date, Staley is the only fatality in any division of racing in the various configurations of the Richmond venue dating to its opening 68 years ago in 1946.

Staley's convertible Chevy was owned by Julian Petty. With the loss of Bobby Myers at Darlington in Lee Petty's Olds about 6 months earlier, my hunch is the two Petty brothers didn't want to do a lot of talking about the dark side of racing.

Ed Sanseverino has this T. Taylor Warren picture [ in his collection ] & tagged as 1961. Rex won both Wilkesboro races in 1961, and I'm unsure which race Ed's pic is from. Perhaps Ed or others can help determine if this photo is from April's GS400 race.

Rex White builted a car for Monroe Shooks, and lived in Keysville while he builded the car--

The Golden Greek drove it--

Thanks--Harlow Reynolds--Lynchburg,Va,--21