Racing History Minute - October 13, 1953

Martinsville, Virginia will soon host the 7th race of The Chase for 2013. On this date, in 1953, a half-mile dirt track there, now the current paved half-mile, held a 200 lap/100 mile race as the 36th Grand National Race of the 1953 season.

Fonty Flock put his Frank Christain Hudson on the pole at a speed of 58.986 mph. My source does not include any further starting positions. My source does provide the information that Buck Baker took the lead on the first lap and would stay there until lap 127 when a wheel bearing failed in the Hudson and put Baker out of the race. It was at that time that Jim Paschal, a veteran of 60 previous Grand National races and always a strong challenger, but never a winner, took over to lead the rest of the way.

Paschal averaged 56.013 mph in the win before 8,500 fans. Dick Rathmann had split with car owner Walt Chapman and Russ Hepler was assigned the Rathmann car. However, the Chapman team elected not to run Martinsville, opting for an "outlaw" event in New Castle, PA where Hepler won.

Top five finishers were:

1. Jim Paschal, Big Bear Dodge, winning $1,000.00

2. Lee Petty, Petty Engineering Dodge. winning $700.00

3. Bill Blair, Blair Olds 88, winning $450.00 (1 lap down)

4. Fonty Flock, Frank Christain Hudson, winning $350.00 (1 lap down)

5. Carl Burris, Plymouth, winning $200.00 (6 laps down).

Remaining finishers were:

6. Emory Lewis

7.Bob Welborn

8. Bill Morgan

9. Clyde Minter

10.Bill Odell

11.Bob Walden

12. Jimmie Lewallen

13. Bob Sampson

14. Johnny Patterson

15.Fred Dove

16. Bud Harless

17. George Osborne

18. Gifford Wood

19. Parks Surrat

20. Buck Baker

21. Arden Mounts

22. Eldon Hildreth

23. Joe Eubanks

24. Curtis Turner

25. Ralph Dutton

26. Herb Thomas

Previously, in these History Minutes, I have listed only the names of finishers I recognized, omitting many names that have historic significance to others. I appreciate Dave Fulton pointing that out with yesterday's Minute. I have decided, going forward, that I will list all finishers in every race in an effort to give exposure to some of those guys who ran only five or ten races in their careers but who may have a special place in the memory of others. This should be interesting in an on-going basis.

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

That's a lot of work, Tim, to list all the finishers, but when I look up the names of the drivers I don't know there seem to be many interestiing stories... and sometimes no info at all. Other times I see a driver down in the results who didn't run many "big time" races, but who I watched at the weekly tracks. Thanks for all your efforts with these History Minutes.

5th place finisher, Carl Burris of Leaksville, NC (now part of Eden) is the kind of driver I'm talking about. He only ran 10 Cup/GN races and two Convertible events in his career, but I watched him every Friday night at Richmond's Southside Speedway battle our local modified stars and who knows how many races he won at Bowman-Gray Stadium in his career. Hugh Overcash can probably tell us, though!

Photo posted on Andy Towler's Carl Burris Memoriam page

In July 1959, Carl posted one of his biggest victories, when he beat the best NASCAR Modified Division drivers in the country on the 1-mile Trenton Speedway:

July 26, 1959
100-Mile NASCAR National Championship
Sportsman-Modified Stock Cars
2nd Annual Triple Header
NASCAR Sanctioned
Winner - Carl Burris

Carl Burris (NC)

Ray Hendrick (VA)

Reds Kagle (MD)

Al Tasnady (NJ)

Irv Taylor (NY)

Axel Anderson (NY)

Nick Dadian (NJ)

Ed ? (?)

Bob Rossell (NJ)

Jackie McLaughlin (NJ)

And here's an interesting Carl Burris finish from Ultimate Racing History. Carl was credited with a second place finish on the 2.5-mile Daytona oval on February 13, 1960 in the 250-mile NASCAR Modified-Sportsman race, although he was relieved by Marvin Panch on lap 60. Not a bad relief backup!

NASCARModified-Sportsman Race
Daytona International Speedway ,Daytona Beach,FL
February 13, 1960
100laps on 2.5 mile paved oval;250 miles

Notes: There was a 37-car accident on the first lap. 24 cars were unable to continue.
Marvin Panch relieved Carl Burris on lap 60. Time of race: 02:08:38
Average Speed: 116.612 MPH
Pole Speed: 62.505 seconds
Attendance: 25,000

Not sure this photo is from Martinsville - but it is from 1953 when Paschal drove the #80 Dodge for George Hutchens.

As Tim pointed out above, the Martinsville 1953 win was the first for Jim Paschal in GN competition. His final GN win would come in 1967 at Montgomery, Alabama, where he wheled his 1967 Friedkin Enterprises Plymouth crewed by Bill Ellis to victory over the Plymouth of former teammate, Richard Petty.

On August 14, 1970, I was one of the fortunate to watch Jim Paschal drive his Red, White & Blue Huggins AMC Javelin to victory over RR member, Joe Dean Huss of Roanoke Rapids, NC in the Casey 200 NASCAR Grand American Series race on the dirt half-mile of the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.

Race results from Ultimate racing History

Casey 200

NASCAR Grand American race
North Carolina State Fairgrounds, Raleigh, NC
August 14, 1970
200 laps on 0.5 mile dirt oval; 100 miles

Fin St Driver # Owner Car Laps Money Status Laps Led
1 Jim Paschal 1970 AMC Javelin 200 running
2 Joe Dean Huss 1969 Chevrolet Camaro
3 Richard Childress 1968 Chevrolet Camaro
4 Buck Baker 1969 Pontiac Firebird
5 Jim Vaughan 1969 Chevrolet Camaro
1 Tiny Lund 1970 Chevrolet Camaro

Time of race: 01:34:10
Average Speed: 63.717 MPH
Pole Speed: 26.32 seconds

I'm curious if I've found a discrepancy with Fielden's books - and the various websites that have borrowed from his info to build their content. This morning, I could not find a race recap article in the various archived newspapers I searched. But the search was odd anyway because I was looking at Wednesday, October 14, 1953 newspapers for events that happened on October 13th. Oct 13 was a Tuesday - a day that seemed odd to me for a race at Martinsville.

Then I found a copy of the program cover at Motor Racing Programme Covers indicating a GN race was held at Martinsville on October 18. That date was a Sunday - which makes more sense as a race date.

I also found a reference to Paschal's win in a 100-mile event on OCTOBER 18 at visitmartinsville.com:

http://www.visitmartinsville.com/Motorsports.html

I haven't found an article in October 19, 1953 papers yet either to confirm my hunch. But Oct 18 does seem to make more sense as a race date than Oct 13.

Another piece of trivia tied to Paschal's win: His victory in car number 80 is the ONLY ONE for that number in the history of NASCAR's GN / Cup series.

Thanks for correcting that error on date Chase. I went back and checked, and the date listed in my source is the 13th. I thought, with this failing vision of mine, I may have missed the date. It is not often there is an error in what Greg put together. I can only imagine the effort he expended to put those records together. I appreciate the assistance.