Racing History Minute - July 29, 1955

Getting on to the end of summer and I think we either are, or are about to, be in the "dog days of summer". But this morning we are going to take a trip back in time to July 29, 1955, and go to a track known as Altamont-Schnedtady Fairgrounds Speedway located in Altamont, NY. This was a half-mile dirt track, as were many tracks in those days, and would host a 100 mile/200 lap race. At least that was the intended distance when the green flag fell.

Tim Flock qualified his Mercury Outboards Chrysler on the pole with Buck Baker in another Chrysler to his right. Don Oldenburg driving a Buick Convertible would start third and Bob Welborn in a Chevrolet fourth. Starting fifth was Jim Paschal in the Helzafire Oldsmobile.

Buck Baker stromed from third into the lead on lap one and would stay there only 8 laps before his engine blew, parking him for the day. Junior Johnson took over when Baker had his bad luck and would lead until lap 62 when Jim Paschal in that Helzafire Olds moved out front. On lap 90, it was Johnson back out front and he was building a lead over second place Paschal which would soon be a full lap.

On lap 177, Don Oldenburg put his Buick convertible through the fence and destroyed the guard rail. Although he was not injured, NASCAR ruled the guard rail irrepairable and decided to call the event at the 177 mark. Most of the 5,936 paying fans were no happy about being "cheated" out of 23 laps of racing, but NASCAR surely was thinking of the tragedy in LeMans where 82 people lost their life to a runaway race car. The incident in France had politicians already considering action against auto racing and NASCAR chose not to take a chance on any adverse publicity from one of its events.

Top five finishers were:

1. Junior Johnson, B&L Motors Oldsmobile, winning $900.00

2. Jim Paschal, Helzafire Oldsmobile, winning $600.00

3. Lee Petty, Petty Engineering Chrysler, winning $525.00

4. Jimmie Lewallen, Ernest Woods Oldsmobile, winning $335.00

5. Gene Simpson, Buick, winning $200.00

Sixth through tenth were Blackie Pitt, Russ Truelove, Bob Welborn, Charles Dyer and Don Oldenburg. Tim Flock came home 11th, Jim Reed 23rd, and Buck Baker was credited with 25th and the final position.

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

Might be a good time to see if I can better ID the date of this picture. I found it some time ago as part of an article about NY GN races at HubGarage.com .

The caption says "circa 1968". GN cars only raced at Altamont-Schenectady Fairgrounds twice - 1951 and 1955. GN did race at Albany-Saratoga in 1970-1971 (though it was in nearby Malta - go figure), and King won them both. The 5 cities are all within about 20-30 miles or so of each other. I suppose Schenectady Plymouth could have advertised at either track. But with GN NOT running at either of these 2 tracks in 66, 67, or 68, I confused by when this could be. Richard has a Firestone patch on his uni. Not sure when he switched (or NASCAR overall) to Goodyear. But by 70-71, he certainly had made the switch.

MIGHT have been at Fonda NY where Richard won in 1968 - and Fonda is about 30 miles from Schenectady.

I'm wondering if this was some sort of non-GN promotional "match race" or other event where The King raced with the local guys. Any insights?

Different trophy, but the Plymouth dealer had a big presence at Fonda, as evidenced in this clip:

Hey, I've seen that trophy before! A couple of years ago during my visit to the Petty museum.

Looks like he has a vertical stripe on his uni - and I can't see the Firestone patch. With those 2 differences plus the trophy, I'm now thinking the 1st pic may have been from his July 13, 1967 Fonda win.

Somewhere along the way, we'll get back to Tim's Racing Minute about the 1955 Altamont-Schenectady Junior Johnson win. haha

Race preview from July 29, 1955 Albany Enterprise

Race report from August 5, 1955 Albany Enterprise