Racing History Minute Times Two, plus some, April 28, 1957

A little background is in order before we get into this History Minute Times Two.

Almost from the beginning of NASCAR's Strickly Stock Division racing, manufacturers were aware that fans became attracted to the cars on the track looking just like the cars they drove and the cars on the track winning races gave neighborhood bragging rights to car owners. If you owned a Chevy and Chevy won the latest race, you were on top until the next race. By mid 1955, factories were openly involved in not only promoting racing wins, but also in an all out battle to produce engines with more power, more speed. By 1957, Chevrolet had a team manager who placed Hugh Babb (recently profiled in a Forum Post here) in charge of drivers Buck Baker, Speedy Thompson, Rex White, Jack Smith, and Frankie Schneider.

Ford asked Peter DePaolo, winner of the 1925 Indy 500 to take charge of the blue oval efforts. DePaolo asked Buddy Shuman, also a retired driver, to head up the Ford teams but Shuman died in a hotel fire in Hickory, NC, on November 10, 1956. This led DePaolo to ask John Holman to head up the teams. All of us here know where that went.

Ray Nichels headed the Pontiac efforts and Bill Stroupe would field the Mercury teams. Oldsmobile had Lee Petty operating a two car team with Ralph Earnhardt as the other driver, although the Petty team was more of an independent effort. Ronnie Householder headed the one car Plymouth team. (In 1964 Ronnie would really become famous to we Mopar fans. He told me a story once about qualifying for the 1964 Daytona 500 that always makes me chuckle).

Detroit (short for manufacturers) was interested only in selling the cars. Although Detroit knew that "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" was a reality, they had very little, if any, interest in NASCAR itself. NASCAR was merely a means to an end. Each team had publicity agents by the hundreds who took literally license, liberal license, to make their brand look really good. The "truth-stretching" became so bad, NASCAR made a rule in 1957 requiring "truth in advertising". (Imagine that).

In 1957, traffic deaths on the highways were at record levels. The American Automobile Association was convinced that was the direct result of the constant barrage of advertisement about high performance car. NASCAR, aware of its existence depending upon favorable press, adopted a new rule which forbade manufacturers from advertising race results and threatened to withhold manuafacturer points from violators. NASCAR outlawed fuel-injection and superchargers which had been allowed.

Come May 19, 1957, at Martinsville, VA for the 500 lap race and Billy Myers' Mercury was involved in an accident which sent it through the fence into a crowd of spectators, believed to be the result of NASCAR's failure to put out a caution flag in spite of rain falling on the track. An 8 year old boy, Alvin Helsabeck, was gravely injuredand four other spectatorshospitalized for treatmentof various injuries. Although it is reported that these fans were in a restricted area where they should not have been allowed, and had, in fact, been removed from that area previously but returned, that accident made headlines around the world. The Press, usually unaware and uninterested in the sport, took this accident to the maximum negative exposure for auto racing.

With all the adverse publicity, the manufactures bailed as if from a disabled aircraft. Big Bill France issued a statement, most of which is available in Greg Fielden's "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing First Volume" and which is quite well written. He basically told the factories they needed to be involved in the sport but if they chose not to, it was their loss. Typical Big Bill. If anyone is interested in the entire comments and doesn't have access to Greg's book, I'll post those comments in another post. Just let me know.

Ok, now were are on to the date, April 28, 1957. So why did I entitle this Minutes "Times Two"? Because there were TWO Grand National Races on this date in 1957. One was on the .333 mile dirt track in Greensboro,NC, and the other was on the half mile asphalt track in Portland, Oregon.

In Greensboro, Buck Baker started on the pole and led the first 35 laps. Paul Goldsmith, in a Ford, took over and led the next 100 laps before yeilding to Baker. On lap 173, it was Goldsmith back in front where he would stay until lap 250 which completed the race.

Top Five Finishers were:

1. Paul Goldsmith, Smokey Yunick Ford, winning $700.00

2. Jack Smith, Hugh Babb Chevrolet, winning $525.00

3. Buck Back, Hugh Babb Chevrolet, winning $400.00

4. Ralph Moody, DePaolo Ford, winning $430.00

5. Fireball Roberts, DePaolo Ford, winning $270.00

Sixth through tenth were Lee Petty, Johnny Allen, LD. Austin, Clarence DeZaila, and Ralph Earnhardt.

Jim Paschal was 12th, Tiny Lund 13th, Speedy Thompson 14th, Billy Myers 17th, Brownie King 18th, and Marvin Panch 19th and final finisher.

Moving on out west to Oregon, Art Watts started his Ford on the pole of the 50 mile race and was never headed. It was his first Grand National win in his 11th start. The race was caution free and took just over 45 minutes to complete.

Top Five finishers were:

1. Art Watts, AlSchmidhamer Ford, winning $940.00

2. Eddie Pagan, Pagan Ford, winning $635.00

3. George Seegar, Oscar Maples Inc. Ford, winning $480.00

4. Chuck Meekins, James Rush Chevrolet, winning $340.00

5. Jack D. McCoy, Ford, winning $270.00

Sixth through tenth were Bob Keefe, Parnelli Jones, Dick Getty, Jack Oldenhage and Lloyd Dane. Ed Negre finished 14th and would later come east to run the Grand National events with some limited success.

We all know that the factories played games with NASCAR for a number of years (remember the boycotts by Chrysler in 1965 and Ford in 1966) and continue to play games today although NASCAR appears to control all the "marbles" these days. Not so sure what wins on Sunday still sells on Monday, but for an old fan such as I, there is always the memory of driving my Plymouth down the main drag after The King had won a race. Those days will never come again but the memories are great.

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

Some tremendous racers in both of those fields. Eddie Pagan in the Oregon race later opened Hutcherson-Pagan in Charlotte, the chassis builder and parts supplier in partnership with Dick Hutcherson. My one-time business partner bought his speed boat which was docked on Lake Wylie.

I had never heard until your post, Tim, about NASCAR banning the manufacturers from advertising race results. Sounds like the policy of Consumer Reports Magazine, except they don't beg for sponsor advertising and expenditures like NASCAR.

Thanks for another highly informative history lesson.

I need to put a little clarity to Tim's story. The accident at Martinsville involving daddy was due to NASCAR's failure to throw a caution flag when it began to rain. Daddy and "Tiger Tom" were racing for the lead and tangled on the wet track. The Helasbeck boy actually lived about five miles from us. They were standing in a restricted area and had been moved at least once but returned. The boy did NOT die but sustained a serious nead injury and never fully recovered. Ironically later in life, I had to drive past his house on a daily basis to go to work. Many times he would be sitting on the front porch playing a trumpet. I thought about that wreck every time i drove past. Shamefully the press, as they often still do, distorted on neglected some of the facts in the intrest of the "news".

Thanks for the real story, Randy.

BTW, Eddie Pagan would qualify on the pole for the 1958 Southern 500 at Darlington, then prove that Darlington's steel ARMCO guard rail was no match for a NASCAR stock car.

First, Dave, thanks for posting that video. I actually saw that in person.

Secondly, Randy, I sincerely apologize if my post caused you any distress in the way it was written. To those who may read the post now and then read Randy's post, I have gone back and edited the original post to accurately present the accident at Martinsville which was referenced. Randy, I sincerely thank you for adding that clarifying information.

When I started these History Minutes, I was hoping that, using information from Greg Fielden's books, newspaper clippings I have, old racing magazines and newspapers and my personal memories, I would present information that would cause others to post their memories or information. That has been the case, thanks to Dave Fulton, Randy Myers, Chase (toomuchcountry) and others.

I have gone back to the Fielden book an re-examined the story for today. Fielden did say that the 8 year old "was gravely injured" and then went on to talk about four injured spectators being taken to the hospital. Information referencing the death IS TOTALLY MY FAULT IN MISINTERPRETING WHAT I READ. I deeply apologize to Randy Myers, Greg Feilden, and anyone else who may have been misled by my post.

No distress. Just wanted it to be clear that the boy did not die. Plus the fact that as I said, the press could have done a better job. I appreciate the hard work you put into helping keep the history alive. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Randy. I appreciate your understanding and support. Always!

For Goldsmith's win at Greensboro, the Daytona Beach Morning Journal applied the Sgt. Joe Friday model - Just the facts ma'am. To be factual though, they simply ran the AP wire copy (as did the Spartanburg Herald Journal).

But the Daytona Beach paper also noted Curtis Turner won the convertible race in Norfolk, VA run the same day as the 2 GN races. The win was Curtis' 3rd consecutive CV victory in a row - a streak that would grow to 4 in a row at Langhorne. And from April 13 through May 25, Curtis won 8 out of 10 convertible races. Remarkable.

As for Watts, it was not only his 1st GN win but his ONLY GN victory in a career of 19 starts. After skunking around several sports pages from April 29, I've concluded NASCAR apparently didn't credential media for the Portland race.

Newsprint must have been very expensive in those days judging by the "inches" these stories got. Thinking back, racing never got much press here in Columbia until The State and The Columbia Record hired such folks as Joe Whitlock and Jim Hunter, both of whom I came to know pretty well. They gave us good coverage. In the present day, we had Jim McLaurin until The State untimely put him out to pasture. McLaurin was excellent.

Here's a shot of April 28, 1957 Portland Cup winner, Art Watts at the Portland Speedway 4 years later, in 1961. The late driver was inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2009.

Photo posted on Stock Car Reunion web site.

In 2000, Portland Speedway made the decision to tear up its asphalt surface and return to its original mid-1920s clay.

Watts didn't make his first Cup start until age 36 in 1954 and only started 19 total Cup races. He made one trip east in 1954, qualifying 19th and finishing 21st in the 1954 Southern 500 at Darlington driving a Hudson Hornet.

In 1957, Watts sat on the pole for all five Cup races he entered, three of which were at Portland.

His last Cup race came at age 45 in 1963 at Riverside.

Best I can figure, the Portland oval is now a ghost track, closing for good in 2002, unable to deal with various restrictions.

A few notes about Portland:

* Hershel McGriff and Greg Biffle both got their starts at Portland Speedway.

* I sponsored a winning Winston West car at Portland Speedway in 1984 when Derrike Cope won in his George Jefferson / 7-Eleven Ford.

* Jefferson also owned and built a winning Portland Speedway Winston West car for his brother, Harry Jefferson in 1976. Female driver, Janet Guthrie made her only NASCAR Winston West career start in that race, starting and finishing 14th.

* Cope went on to win a 2nd Portland Speedway Winston West race in 1988 in a Chevy.

* I found an extraordinarily high number of Google News Archive national stories reporting fatalaties at the Portland track in all types of events through the years.

Nice work on the photo. I searched a few pages of Google Images and had zero hits.

Thanks, Chase.

Here's a 1963 photo of Art Watts at Portland posted at the site www.DONHALLRACING.com :

TREMENDOUS sponsors!

Gas Furnished by Louis 605 Tavern - hahaha

And I've heard of G.I. Joe's store.

They used to sponsor some of the Portland races.

CART 1985

And 1997 but with a different beer

Ralph Earnhardt in the Petty Engineering #188 Olds battles Tiny Lund in his #55 Pontiac. Dick Beaty trails them in his #34 Ford. And judging by the hair, ears, posture, pants leg not quite over his boot, and focus on the Petty team car, I'm thinking that may be 19 year-old Richard Petty in the foreground. - Getty

Goldsmith takes the white flag en route to his win. - Getty

Bump