Racing History Minute - June 4, 1966

Today we will return to The Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a place we discussed sometime back as being the original "hot bed" of stock car racing. Spartanburg was, in the 50s and 60s, what Mooresville, NC is today for stock car racers. On this date, in 1966., race number 23 of the 1966 season was staged on the half mile dirt track where so many pioneers of the sport had started a career.

Twenty-two cars arrived to qualify for the 100 mile/200 lap race. When qualifying was concluded, David Pearson, a Spartanburg native, driving a Cotton Owens Dodge (another Spartanburg native) was on the pole. Tiny Lund would start second , Tiger Tom Pistone third and J.T. Putney fourth. On the drop of the green, it was all Tiny Lund in his Ford. In fact, Tiny would lead the first 160 laps with little challenge after David Pearson, who was running a close second on lap 62 when his Dodge developed engine problems. Tiger Tom then took up the chase and was in the mix for the win until just past half way when his Ford overheated and he had to park it. J.T. Putney also ran a strong race with the lead pack but wrecked his Chevy on 89 and was out of the event.

For most of the race, the lead "pack" consisted of five to six cars which included Lund, Pearson, Putney, Pistone, Neil Castles, and a 36 year old Elmo Langley driving a 1964 Ford which was originally used in the movie "Red Line 7000" made in 1964. Elmo was right there in second place on lap 160 when Tiny Lund's Ford destroyed the differential and was smoking its way around the track slower and slower until Tiny finally pulled out of the event on lap 170. Elmo now had a four lap lead over second place with 40 laps to go. I can't help but wonder what noises Elmo may have imagined he was hearing as this was his 141st start without a win and with only a couple "close chances" at a win. Elmo didn't visibly slow down, but you can imagine that he was extra careful negotiating the traffic and the track for those last forty laps.

Top five finishers were:

1. Elmo Langley, Langley-Woodfield Ford, winning $1,000.00

2. Neil Castles, Buck Baker Dodge, winning $600.00

3. Doug Cooper, Bob Cooper Plymouth, winning $400.00

4. Joel Davis, Harold Mays Plymouth, winning $300.00

5. J.D. McDuffie, McDuffie Ford, winning $275.00

Sixth through tenth were Blackie Watt, Henley Gray, Tiny Lund (out of the race on lap 170)Sonny Lamphear and Max Ledbetter. Tiger Tom Pistone was 12th, John Sears 13th, and J.T. Putney 14th. Sixteenth went to David Pearson, with Wendell Scott 18th. Buddy Baker was 20th and Clyde Lynn 21st. Only 22 cars started the event with only 8 running at the end. Second place was four laps behind the winner, and 7th place was 18 laps down. Take note of the top finishers here and think of how many names you can truly recognize. Also take note of some of the names missing from this line up and wonder what happened to those guys who didn't show for this race. I thought it was a most interesting run down.

As always, my sincere thanks to Greg Fielden and his "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing" for the backgroun information I use for these History Minutes. All fans should be very appreciative of the hard work Greg did to put together those historic volumes.

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

From Spartanburg Herald Journal

And in this day-of-race, promotional article in the Spartanburg Herald Journal , we find some really neat trivia such as:

• Pearson's Dodge was a former show car
• Cotton Owens bought the show car with the intent his son would drive it
• Tiger Tom and Tiny Lund were permitted to run twin carburetors on their Fords. Someone help me - was this a concession made to Ford by NASCAR to keep them in the fold? Chrysler sat out much of 1965 but then returned later in the season and returned to winning ways in 1966. Didn't Ford then threaten to pull out in 66? If so, maybe the decision to allow dual carbs was a peace offering by Bill France.
• Henley Gray raced a Ford driven by Ned Jarrett a week or so earlier in the World 600.

A great day for independents. Chase.. regarding the twin 4bbls... this was during the time period of the Ford factory boycott and for a short period of time Bill France allowed the Independents to use two 4bbl carburetors on their Ford 427s while Jacques Passino stayed home with the factory Fords and pouted over the over the Ford SOHC engine. Just two weeks before on May 15 at Richmond, Tom Pistone set the all-time Richmond dirt track qualifying record and Elmo had qualified third with that carburetor setup.

Chase, I note that Frank Vehorn had replaced Jim Foster (who had been Sports Editor) writing racing at the Spartanburg paper. Jim had accepted a job as Racing PR Director for the Dodge Division and would later be hired by Bill France and serve roles as President of Daytona Speedway and Vice Presidet, Marketing & Communications for NASCAR.

Vehorn went on to Greensboro with Landmark Communications, before finally settling for many years in Norfolk with another Landmark publication the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. For my money, I'd rank Frank in the top-5 racing writers I've ever read or dealt with.

The Spartanburg connection with Daytona remained strong through the years. When Bud Moore put our family up in his lake house oin Lake Bowen outside Spartanburg while we house hunted in 1986, we scheduled our arrival around the week always blocked out by Bud for Jim Foster to come up and use it from Daytona.

"another lane of traffic has been added to the infield to impede the movement of cars"

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Bump