Racing History Minute - July 21, 1956

On this date, 2013, the Nationwide Series will be running at Chicagoland Speedway, a big, paved, fast track with the latest in raceway fashions. On this date in 1956, 25 race cars lined up on the half-mile paved track in Chicago known as Soldier Field. You can't think of that facility without thinking of Tiger Tom Pistone and Fred Lorenzen. Both were entered in the 1956 event. The race was 200 laps/100 miles on the paved track.

Billy Myers would start on the pole in a Mercury with Herb Thomas starting in position two in a Chevrolet. Fireball Roberts would start third and Ralph Moody fourth, both in Pete DePaulo Fords. Tiger Tom Pistone would start sixth in a Chevrolet.

Brake issues are always a problem on a flat track with tight turns as was Soldier Field. That issue sidelined pole winner Myers after 140 of the 200 laps. Herb Thomas crashed on lap 189 when his brakes failed. A total of seven cars went "behind the wall" due to brake problems.

Meanwhile, back on the track, Fireball Roberts was working his way around and through puddles on the track as the race was plagued with off and on rain showers. At the checkered flag, it was Fireball taking the victory over Jim Paschal. Ralph Moodywould finish third. That was Ford first, Mercury second, Ford third which made the folks from Dearborn ecstatic as the Carl Kiehaefer Mopar teams had been dominating the circuit most of the season. Although Kiehaefer cars took positions four through six, the win had eluded the stern car owner not only that day, but for the fifth consecutive race. Kiehaefer was not the kind of competitor who took losing very well. It would not be long before he disappeared from the NASCAR scene but he would continue to fight for supremacy during the 1956 season and would prevail with the Championship, but that is another story.

Top five finishers were:

1. Fireball Robert, Depaulo Ford, winning $850.00

2. Jim Paschal, C U Later Alligator Mercury, winning $625.00

3. Ralph Moody, DePaulo Ford, winning $450.00

4. Speedy Thompson, Kiehaefer Dodge, winning $350.00

5. Frank Mundy, Kiehaefer Dodge, winning $310.00

Sixth through tenth were Buck Baker, Bill Champion, Paul Goldsmith, Joy Fair and Lee Petty. Billy Myers was credited with 17th position after the loss of his brakes. Herb Thomas received 18th place money although also out of the race due to brake issues. Fred Lorenzen listed as 20th, also out with brake problems. Brake issues relegated Tiger Tom Pistone to a 22nd place finish out of the twenty-five starters.

So, if you watch the Nationwide event from Chicagoland today, remember that, once upon a time, the pioneers of this sport fought it out on a half-mile tight oval for the 33rd race of the 1956 season. Were it not for what these pioneers gave, there would be no Chicagoland.

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

Runner up Jim Paschal must have liked cars with nicknames. "C U Later Alligator" Gotta love it!

Thanks, Tim.

Interesting that Roberts won the one and only Grand National race at Soldier Field. Because after all, the words Fireball and Chicago normally have a completely different meaning.

A pic of Tiger Tom racing Fred Lorenzen at Soldier Field - though not from the 1956 GN race.

Source: RR's John Potts - better known as IndyBigJohn at Jalopy Journal's Hokey Arse Message Board

Here is a story John Potts wrote for  Frontstretch.com back in 2008 about Andy Granatelli's famed promotional skills at Soldier Field back in the 50s and 60s.

Driven To The Past : The Infamous Fake Accident

Okay, I got forced into this one by one of Ren Jonsins trivia questions this week

It was Wednesdays question about the pro football teams stadium where Tom Pistone, Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, and Glen Wood won NASCAR races. The answer, of course, was Soldier Field, now home of the Chicago Bears, so technically that is correct. However, Da Bears didnt start playing their season schedule at Soldier Field until 1971, and the last nationally-sanctioned stock car race there was a USAC event won by Norm Nelson on August 12, 1967.

The track was listed as a half mile, but I suspect it was closer to a 3/8ths. Tommy Thompson (not our writer, the driver from Louisville in NASCARs early days) once told me it was a big three-eighths. Looking at the accompanying photograph, it was well off the football field. If I remember correctly from my high school days, a true measured quarter-mile (1320 feet) running track would just touch the corners of the end zones, or be very, very close. That photo also shows that they had crowds which would have made any promoters mouth waterremember, the place held 100,000 in those days.

For the record, Pistone (1956), Turner (1956), and Wood (1957) won convertible races. The only Grand National race was won by Fireball in 1956. Oh yeah, Fred Lorenzen won a MARC (the forerunner of ARCA ) race there in 1958. AAA stocks and midgets, later sanctioned by USAC , also ran on that track.

For proof that they ran as late as 1967, Im including a photo of Norm Nelson (1), Sal Tovella (4), and Don White (2) taken at Soldier Field. I dont know which race it was, but Tovella and White are obviously driving Dodge Chargers from 1966 or 1967. Dont know who is in the Dodge Coronet on the outside of Nelson, but in those days, judging from the color it could have been Al Unser.

Oh well, back to the story

Andy Granatelli and his Hurricane Racing Association ran regular weekly events at Soldier Field up into the 60s, and thats where the infamous fake accident story comes in. Its well chronicled in Andys book, They Call Me Mr. 500, which I read many years ago but I dont have it on hand anymore. Were working from memory here.

This was a promotional stunt which, I think, doubled the size of their crowd for the next week. It was all staged, of course, part of Andys outside the box thinking. He even paid an extra $50 if a driver rolled one over.

On this particular night, the alleged accident occurred right in front of the crowd (obviously, the late Bob Harmon also learned from Andy Granatelli). The ambulance rolls onto the track, the driver is extricated from the vehicle, placed on a gurney, and then put in the ambulance, presumably for transport to the nearest hospital. However, the attendant doesnt secure the rear doors to the ambulance, and when it pulls away from the scene, the gurney rolls out and starts rolling down the track by itself.

Meanwhile, the field has been given the green flag in anticipation of the ambulance being off the track by the next lap, and they come roaring out of the turn to see this gurney rolling down the straightaway in front of them. Cars swerve to the left and right, barely missing the gurney. My memory is a little hazy from that pointeither the ambulance crew retrieved it, or somebody ran over it.

The drivers were in on the caper, of course, and by the time the gurney rolled out of the ambulance, there was a mannequin on it instead of the driver. Im not sure how many heart attacks there were in the crowd before they managed to explain what had really happened, but I am sure that no promoter since Andy Granatelli has had the cojones to try that since then.

Ive personally tried to talk a bunch of them into doing it.

No takers. Not even Bob Harmon.

While the Grand National cars were in Chicago, NASCAR's convertible series raced at Lincoln Speedway in New Oxford PA. Pops Turner won the race with partner-in-crime Little Joe Weatherly finishing second. Bob Welborn, Jimmy Lewallen, and Don Oldenberg rounded out the top 5.

The next day - July 22, 1956 - a new dirt track debuted in Jacksonville, NC, near Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. The track later hosted 1 convertible and 2 GN races:

http://www.racing-reference.info/tracks/Jacksonville_Speedway

Turner and Weatherly were scheduled to race in the opening event as the "show" drivers but were unable to get all the way from PA to Jax NC. But a few other up-and-comers did race including Glen Wood, Ned Jarrett and Dink Widenhouse. I can't tell that anyone made the quick overnight trip from Chicago to race in the track's debut event.

Nice clips.

lol. what an interesting story about the "staged" gurney accident...loved the idea...

Ad for race and brief race report from Chicago Tribune

A fiery bump