Back in the mid 1960s, I spent two years stationed on a U.S. Navy ship homeported out of Little Creek, Virginia, which is a suburg of Norfolk. During the height on the Viet Nam War, there really were signs there that said "Dogs and Sailors Keep Off the Grass". After the Kent State event, we were instructed not to leave base in uniform. At the time, I had no idea that had been a track in Norfolk, although I was a frequent visitor to Langley Field just up the road. But, today's Minute takes us to Norfolk Speedway a .4 mile dirt tack where a 100 mile/250 lap event would take place on July 24, 1957. For the record, I was in elementary school then!
Twenty-three entries lined up for the green flag with Bill Amick starting his Ford on the pole. Jack Smith would start second, Tiny Lund third, Fireball Roberts fourth, and Marvin Panch fifth. Amick's pole winning speed was 56.338 mph.
My resource does not contain lap leader breakdown, nor much of anything else such as caution flags or attendance. It does indicate that 14 of the 23 starters were running at the finish and all those not finishing were eliminated by car problems of one kind or another with no indication of crashes by anyone. Even so, the average speed for the race was 47.987 mph.
Buck Baker would earn his sixth win of the year and increased his lead in the points to 472 points over second place. This win was also Buck's 32nd overall GrandNational win. It should also be noted that pole winner, Bill Amick, parked his Ford on lap 29 with distributors problems.
It is also noted in the write up in Greg Fielden's "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing" that "Tiny Lund, hard charger" was once again bitten by bad luck I have mentioned before that I got to know Tiny well when he raced for Lyle Stetzler out of a shop here in Columbia and he was the proverbial one that "if he didn't have bad luck, he would have no luck at all". That situation followed Tiny, for reasons I'll never understand, thoughout his career, nothwithstanding the Hollywood scripted Daytona 500win in 1963. Tiny, in my opinion, always deserved much more than he ever received.
Top five finishers were:
1. Buck Baker, Baker Chevrolet, winning $900.00
2. Joe Weatherly, Holman-Moody Ford, winning $575.00
3. Jim Paschal, Frank Hayworth Mercury, winning $375.00
4. Billy Myers, Myers Mercury, winning $280.00
5. Jack Smith,, Smith Chevrolet, winning $245.00
Sixth through tenth were Tiny Lund, Gwyn Staley, Lee Petty, Speedy Thompson, and Whitey Norman. Bill Champion would finish 15th, Marvin Panch 16th,, Johnny Allen 19th, Darel Dieringer 20th and Fireball Roberts 21st. As already stated, pole winner, Bill Amick fell out on lap 29 and finished in 23rd and last place.
I haven't been back to Norfolk/Little Creek since I left there in 1968. I know it's changed a great deal, as has our country and has racing. But tonight, July 24th, NASCAR will have a touring division, The Camping World Truck Series, running on dirt again. While I am hoping and expected a great show tonight, I'm sure I'll be thinking a lot about Tiny Lund power sliding on dirt. Tiny and Junior Johnson had to be the best there ever was at that. I can still see Tiny throwing his car into a slide going into turn one at The Historic Columbia Speedway and hanging it out all the way around one and two and hitting the back straight at full speed. He would do the same thing in turns three and four. And Junior Johnson? He would one hand steer his car in awesome power slides as he had his left hand holding onto the roof, I assume to keep from sliding over in the seat, or maybe he was worried about the roof blowing off. I just don't expect to see that at Eldora tonight, but I do expect some good racing.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
