With apologies to Tim Leeming who does a great job typing a narrative daily for a featured race. I'm simply going to supplement the one he has posted for today with a clipping or two about a hallmark race: the inaugural Volunteer 500 at Bristol, the first Grand National race at the Bristol half-mile.
Source: Daytona Beach Morning Journal
From Jerry Bushmire collection - Jim Paschal & Marvin Porter
And a good article from Mike Hembree at Speed.com.
http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cup-smith-allen-teamed-to-win-bristol-inaugural/
How about a few more pictures from July 30, 1961?
And the winner(s)
No apologies required Chase. You're the man!
Great aerial photo, Chase of the football field in the infield. I've read about the 1961 pre-season NFL exhibition game in the Bristol infield between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins, but have never seen a photo showing the field.
At my first Bristol race, the 1967 Southeastern 500, Grand Marshal / Honorary Starter Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts threw footballs into the stands riding in the convertible pace car.
Mike Hembree's article seems to have vanished from Speed.com's site. Mike now writes for USA Today. Wonder if that has anything to do with it. Nah, too easy. Right? Either way, I found a copy of it where someone posted it to their blog.
CUP: Smith, Allen Teamed To Win Bristol Inaugural
Fifty years ago, Bristol Motor Speedway was quite a different place.
Fifty years ago, Johnny Allen won the first race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but then again he didn't.
A trophy owned by Allen, now 76, certifies that he was the first driver to take the checkered flag in the track's long history, and that's more to the point.
The speedway's first race was held in the white-hot heat of the Tennessee midsummer, July 30, 1961. The track, then known as Bristol International Speedway, was barely recognizable compared to the giant it has become, a huge 160,000-seat coliseum that will host its 101st Cup race Sunday.
Bristol opened with bare concrete grandstands seating 18,000, an asphalt racing surface, a dirt infield and a metal guard rail circling the outside of the track.
The first race was a big event in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, but drivers knew when they showed up that the heat and humidity would have a big impact on the day's almost-four-hour run.
Nowhere was the damaging effect of the heat felt more than in the cockpit of Jack Smith's No. 46 Pontiac, which started 12th in the race but had the lead by lap 151. The floorboard was blistering hot very early in the race, leading Smith, a bulldog of a man who was one of the toughest drivers ever to sit in a race car, to ponder exiting the vehicle before the race had reached its halfway point. He remembered in an interview many years later that the circumstances, his right foot was taking most of the force of the heat, meant that he couldnt possibly finish the race.
Fortunately for Smith, Allen, one of his closest friends on the circuit, had dropped out of the race earlier in the day. Oddly, heat, but of a very different sort, had sidelined Allens Chevrolet 106 laps into the race.
"I burned the rear end up on the car and came in the pits," said Allen Thursday. "They jacked the car up and pulled the rear end out and were going to put another one in and get me back out because it was so early in the race. The gas man got a little anxious and went ahead and started fueling the car before they were finished. He spilled gas on the hot rear-end grease and started a fire in the pits."
That ended the day for Allens original entry, and he was watching the race from the infield when one of Smiths crewmen approached him about filling in for Smith who, by that time, was seriously overheating inside his car.
"I had driven some for Jack before and had done some work for him, so he trusted me," Allen said.
Allen quickly agreed. Smith dropped into the pits with a three-lap lead on lap 292, and the driver change was made in seconds. Allen returned to the track still in first place and stayed there the rest of the day.
He finished two laps in front of second-place Fireball Roberts.
It was an unusual victory lane, as both Smith and Allen celebrated. More importantly for Allen, who was trying to keep his own racing operation afloat, it was a big payday. Smith won $3,025 and gave Allen a healthy share of the first-place prize.
"They paid off at the track after the race in those days, and Jack said, 'Let's go pick up our money.'" Allen said. "I don't remember how much it was, but I really needed the money at the time. I appreciated the opportunity.
"Sometimes in those days when a driver needed a relief driver early in the race and they had a good car, they would get back in the car late to finish the race, but Jack elected to leave me in and share the glory. It was a memorable day."
It was Allens first visit to a Cup victory lane. A year later, he scored a win of his own, finishing first in a race in Winston-Salem, N.C. It was his only Cup victory.
Allen, born in Greenville, S.C., now lives in Florida. Smith, who raced out of Spartanburg, SC and who won 21 races in a Cup career that began with NASCAR's first season (1949) and ended in 1964, died in 2001.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Chase, you are simply amazing! I have had the pleasure to being with Johnny at Hillsboro the past two years and this past February in Daytona. His soft spoken stories are truly a time capsule of memories of the days we all treasure. Keep up the amazing work!!!
Bristol announcer Barney Hall introduces 1967 Southeastern 500 Grand Marshal, Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts. Photo in the Barney Hall book Tales from the Trackside as furnished by Motorsports Images & Archives.
